Indispensable To-Do Lists With Evernote 1

Since the addition of reminders to the Evernote feature list, Evernote has immediately moved to the top of my favorite apps list. I had been searching for a more robust to-do list and calendar app to help me manage my upcoming time as Michigan Teacher of the Year. I had been unable to find a single app or service that would do everything that I wanted, until I got the Evernote blog post about reminders.

Beyond the science classroom applications, this has become my new workflow for personal/professional calendar to-do listing. I created a notebook stack in Evernote called “To-Do” and in it I made five notebooks, all related to my most pertinent day-to-day professional activities:

1. Long Term
2. Medium Term
3. Short Term
4. Blog Post Ideas
5. Email Replies

In each notebook, I put notes about things I want to accomplish in my professional life, and categorize them on a timely sense of urgency. In addition to things I want to accomplish in different terms of time, I also frequently am unable to reply to a lengthy email or fully flesh out a good blog post idea. So, I made two notebooks for those topics where I can add in a person’s email that I want to respond to thoughtfully, or create a note about a new blog post, perhaps with an inspirational picture or audio memo about either.

Then, I set a reminder for the note, and I’m done. In my reminder settings, I have set up to get an email and pop-up reminder. Now, each day I get a to-do list from my Evernote reminders, and it is categorized by need depending on the notebook from which the reminder note came. When the individual note is due, it will show up as a pop-up reminder on my mobile device where I have the Evernote app installed. I can easily click on a note from the email list, or follow the button on the pop-up reminder, and go into a note’s details when I’m ready to attend to that task.

Students could also adopt this practice, and any group at a school or in a department could create a shared stack or notebook to accomplish this to-do list workflow using Evernote reminders. In addition to the other great uses of Evernote in the classroom, I plan to introduce students to the process of using Evernote to help them stay organized with reminders. It could serve as their digital planner, a shared planner for class, or a personal to-do list for all your life activities.

So whether its a major goal like writing a book, or a short term goal like returning a phone call, I finally feel confident that I can get more done and be better organized with the use of reminders and Evernote. As the saying goes, “work smarter with Evernote,” seems much more possible now.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Gary G Abud Jr

Instructional Coach at Grosse Pointe Public Schools

Gary is an influential teacher leader with extensive experience educating students at the high school and university level. He is a regular conference presenter, education speaker, and leader of staff development for educators. His classroom practice embraces a collaborative environment centered on constructivist teaching, project-based learning, classroom branding, Modeling Instruction, standards-based grading, and mobile device technologies.

Latest posts by Gary G Abud Jr (see all)

• Being Michigan Teacher of the Year: Reflections On a Three-Year Ripple Effect in Teaching - May 16, 2016
• ASCC 13: How to Sell a Colony in 30 Days - August 25, 2015
• Michigan Students to See Shorter Standardized Tests in 2016 - August 21, 2015