Using the Evernote AI Assistant for finding missing information from a list
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One of the most basic things we all do in Evernote is make lists. Everyone loves a list.
It could be a to-do list for work, a shopping list, a family/kids type of list... lists everywhere.
Something I’ve found myself doing many times is sitting and starring at a list trying to work out if I’ve missed something off it. Especially with my backpacking list, if I forget my stove I go hungry, or end up at a pub. I should forget my stove more often!
Recently I’ve been using the Evernote AI Assistant to help me put lists together so I don’t forget things.
Here’s a few examples of how I’ve used it.
Finding missing items from a packing list
I do a bit of backpacking and camping in the Spring and Summer and have quite an extensive packing list, but even with the list, I usually forget something.
I told the AI Assistant to look at the list and find missing items.
This was the prompt I used.
Take a look at this backpacking list and see what I might of missed. I’m going on a three day hike.
It did a pretty good job and found quite a few things that were missing.
The assistant told me to pack a compass, I have the OS Maps app on my phone but phones can die, so I really should take my compass with me.
It also mentioned ear plugs and an eye mask, which is something I usually pack, but it’s not on the list.
It came up with about twenty things. A lot of them weren’t relevant to me. I don’t need water purification tablets as there’s a pub or tea rooms every 100 feet in the UK so I’ll never have an issue with water.
It was useful. It did a bit of thinking for me and I’ve added a few items to the list.
I just need it to stop pouring with rain so I can head out.
Finding missing books from a reading list
I have a simple reading list. It’s a bunch of authors that I read on a regular basis with checkboxes of their books underneath their names.
A nice table of contents at the top that helps me jump down to an author as the list is quite long.
I have no idea if I have books missing from the list. I’d need to go through the author’s Wikipedia page checking the list against their bibliography, which would take a lot of time.
So, I asked the AI Assistant to find what books are missing.
Here’s the prompt.
The open note is a reading list where a heading is an author and the checkboxes are names of books.
Take a look at the Stephen King books in the note and then search the web to find any Stephen King books that are missing from the list.
I always over-explain things just so it knows exactly what I want. Hopefully less errors that way.
It did a good job.
I wasn’t missing much at all. I had all the novels on the list, but it did find a bunch of short stories I was missing, which I’ve now added.
So, not too bad, but it did take a bit of prompting.
The assistant was really good at finding items missing from my backpacking list.
It was OK at finding the books missing, but I did need to rewrite the prompt a couple of times as it was just giving me a list of all Stephen King books. Still took less time than Googling.
I also tried to get the assistant to look in my Music Collection notebook and find Genesis albums that were missing.
I used this prompt.
Take a look at this notebook @Music Collection
Its a collection of my music. Each note is a different album.
Look for all the Genesis albums in the notebook, these are the ones I own. Then search the web and tell me which albums are missing from my collection. Only give me the missing albums.
It didn’t do a great job. I tried a few different variations of the prompt and all it would give me was a list of all Genesis albums, so I’d have to do the organising myself.
I’ve mentioned this to Evernote as I think the AI should be able to do this.
Let me know if you’ve been using the assistant to help with lists. Leave me a comment below.
Have a great weekend
All the best
Jon






A couple of thought, Jon...
Now that you have a good packing list, turn it into a template so you can use it over-and-over.
And on the Genesis Album list, maybe try that exact same prompt directly with Chat GPT, Gemini, or something else. Especially with Chat GPT, it would be interesting to know how the public version compares to the Evernote version.
Vinnie