I like knowing when I started reading something and when I finished reading something. I should be able to figure it out from the title.įor example, I keep track of all of my reading in Evernote. That last part is important: since I am often doing searches in Evernote to find what I am looking for, I don’t want to have to go into the body of the note to figure out what the note is. I wanted the simplest possible title for identifying the note in a search result. I’ve seen people attempt to embed so much information into a note title that they become difficult to read and understand. Tip #2: Keep note titles as short and simple as possible In the subsequent tips, I’ll discuss each of these “rules” in more detail. Don’t worry about duplicate titles when other data makes the notes distinct.Use consistent titles for given note types.Don’t include information in a title that can be gotten from somewhere else in the note.Keep them as short and simple as possible.( I do tag and organize, but often for purposes other than just making the notes easy to find.) With that in mind, I think I had four requirements when I started thinking about my note titles. I don’t like spending a lot of time tagging and organizing notes, especially when I could find them just as quickly without the tagging and organization. This probably comes from my background developing software, in which requirements play a key role.Īs I’ve written about before, my key method for finding stuff in Evernote is by using its powerful search capabilities. I’m often urging people to figure out what you want to get out of something (like going paperless, for instance) before you consider how you will do it. Long-time readers will note a theme with me. This has been something of an organic process for me, but I’ve been able to discern some discrete “rules” I follow for titling my notes. As with most things, however, I try to establish and then follow a set of rules so that there is as much consistency in my note titles as there is in my note organization. Just like how you organize your notes, how you title them can vary widely by personal preference. I’ve seen a lot of discussion in the forums and other places on how people go about titling their notes in Evernote. Alton Blom emailed me to ask me how I got about titling my notes in Evernote and suggested it might be an interesting topic for a post–and I agree. This week’s topic was a reader suggestion.

Going paperless with evernote