My Current Evernote Setup with Notes, Tasks & Calendar

Newsletter housekeeping: The current version for desktop and Mac is 10.86.4 and you can get it from the download page. This version includes the new task page and some bug fixes.

I've been wanting this type of setup for years but Evernote has not really had the functionality, until now.

With the rapid updates over the last few weeks, we've now got much more powerful full-screen tasks, more ways to view the calendar and of course notes are there as they always have been.

With my old system, one thing that I found a little irritating was having a very small slide-out area for tasks when tasks, for me, were just as important as notes.

With the latest updates things are much better. One thing I would love though is a pop out task window so I can view all my tasks on a separate monitor. I’ve had to create a little workaround, which is doing the job just fine.

Right now, this is my Evernote setup.

On the left monitor is the Windows app and this is where I deal with notes, searching and finding things, writing and organising.

On the right monitor is the web version of Evernote which is open in my browser on the full-screen tasks page. It sits there as a pinned tab along with my project management and invoicing software.

This means I can always see my tasks all the time and I don't need to navigate away from notes and then reopen them.

With Evernotes Real Time Sync, changes to tasks or changes to notes are synced seriously quickly so both the web and the desktop app are always in sync.

This little system is working well with my tasks are always available on the second monitor.

This is how I have my task page laid out.

I use the ‘Today’ tab as default with No Due Date, Future and Next 7 Days collapsed so that I can focus on Today and Tomorrow.

If I need to check my calendar I use the little eye icon next to the calendar link in the sidebar.

Clicking this opens up the calendar view as a pop up on top of the tasks page.

I can see what's happening today without having to close my task window.

Future Improvements

I'd love to see both the calendar and task pages evolve into really powerful productivity areas and over time I think they will.

Here's my current list of what I'd love to see:

• Tags in tasks so we can create our own custom priorities/projects complete with filtering options.

• Multi-select for tasks so I can bulk move them to another day.

• Drag and drop tasks from today to tomorrow.

• Natural language input like “Take the bins out tomorrow at 8pm” becomes a task.

• Mini calendar in the pop-up calendar view to make it easier to find dates.

• Ability to create/edit/delete Google & Outlook calendar events.

So, this is my setup right now and it’s working well. Let me know what your setup is like in the comments.

Have a great weekend

All the best

Jon