Evernote Grid Paper



The moment I discovered Ryder Carroll’s Bullet Journal, I fell in love.

Grid

The Evernote App enables users store anything they could easily forget. Evernote is the excellent free tool that enable people organize their lives well and also pursue their goals without forgetting anything. The first useful application of Evernote is allowing its users create a project to do list. Evernote connects with the productivity tools you already use, so you can work your way. Learn more → Document scanning. Back up important documents to all your devices, and keep the information—not the clutter. Learn more → Web Clipper. Save web pages (without the ads) and mark them up with arrows, highlights, and text to.

Elegant and inspiring, the Bujo simply integrates appointments, activities, ideas, and goals. It eases the crush of to-dos that never get done. The index organizes daily, monthly and long-term lists, sketches, collections of ideas – whatever information you want to memorialize – in one handy location.

I loved the system. But paper has never really worked for me. I struggled to find the right notebook and pens that wouldn’t smear or bleed. Bujo Pinterest boards distracted me, I clicked through literally hundreds of images each more elaborate than the last. I wasted reams of grid paper trying to find the perfect layout.

Paper

In the end, my Bujo typically sat unopened on my desk while I tapped away at my computer, using Evernote to organize novel and freelance ideas, clip articles from websites, record business-related information, organize images, presentations, recipes, and more.

I didn’t make the connection until someone in a minimalist Bullet Journal Facebook group posted an article from a website that is now under construction. I wish I could share the link and credit my inspiration; this is the best I can do.

In any case, here’s how I’ve spun those ideas into a system that I not only enjoy but use every day, a system that has made me more productive and offers endless inspiration.

The Concept

I’m going to explain this backwards. I started with a single note – a combined Daily/Weekly Log. But my Evernote Bullet Journal lives in a “stack”, or a collection of notebooks that has evolved over time. (Learn more about notebooks and stacks here.) I keep my Daily, Monthly, and Future Logs and Habit Tracker in a notebook called *Bujo Daily (the asterisk moves the notebook to the top of the stack).

Bujo Archive, Bujo Collections, Bujo Ideas, and Bujo Templates complete my Bullet Journal stack. I use the “Top List” view so that I can see and easily access all the notes in my notebook while I’m working.

Here’s how the notes and notebooks break down:

Daily/Weekly Log

I used the Evernote table tool and onyxandindigo.com design to create this hybrid log. The two column table has 15 rows (I combine Saturday/Sunday). On my Mac, Evernote limits table creation to six rows, but it’s simple to add rows – just Control+click inside a cell.

My Daily note has a little more structure than a standard Bujo. That’s not because I’m a structured person, it’s because I’m lazy. Rapid logging in a traditional Bullet Journal requires using symbols, which takes some extra effort on a keyboard. My gratitude list numbers automatically, as do the check boxes in my schedule section. And it seemed easier to create a bulleted list of “Reflections” than to figure out how to create an eye (exploration), or type an exclamation point (inspiration) or asterisk (priority).

Like I said, lazy.

Index & Collections

The standard Bullet Journal Index page helps you find information in your notebook. You simply write down a topic – or Collection – and record the page numbers related to that topic. Even though Evernote doesn’t have numbered pages, it does have one spectacular feature you can use to create your Index and Collections: Copy Note Link.

The note link includes the note title (how awesome is that?), so it’s just a matter of copying and pasting.

Because Evernote has an endless number of pages, I felt an Index could become unwieldy, so instead, I set up a numbered Table of Contents. It’s included in my primary notes, it connects virtually every note in my Bujo, and it looks like this:

Monthly/Future Logs

Have I mentioned how much I love the Evernote table tool? My monthly log is an 8 column, 8 row numbered table. I use it to list birthdays, holidays, special events, important deadlines or appointments:

It took me a while to create a Future Log, and I’m still tinkering. I think of it as my “big picture” space to record major project deadlines and prepare for travel and other milestone events. Copy Note Link keeps this space connected to my project Collections:

Evernote needs one more feature, in my humble opinion, to make it the perfect Bujo space: a way to link notebooks and stacks. You can create a note with the same title as its notebook and copy that link to your Index – the note opens inside the notebook or experiment with adding saved search links.

Templates

When I started with Evernote, I copied and pasted entire the previous notes to start a new week or month. This involved a great deal of deleting and a little swearing. Then I stumbled across Uncovering Templates, the Hidden Gem of Evernote. Now I move the completed note to my archive notebook and copy a blank note to my Bujo Daily notebook:

So that’s how I Bujo, Evernote style. This is still a work in progress. I welcome questions and comments – leave a note here or find me on Facebook. I’d also love to know how you’re using Evernote as a Bullet Journal.

Join GamesBeat Summit 2021 this April 28-29. Register for a free or VIP pass today.

Evernote and Moleskine go together like fixies and pour-over-coffee. Like PBR and waxed mustaches. Like burritos and skinny jeans.

So I’m guessing that techie hipsters everywhere will get excited about the new Evernote-optimized notebook that Moleskine just announced.

(Also in Evernote news today: The company announced Evernote Business, a version of the note-stashing and -searching tool for small and medium-sized companies.)

A page-capture function in the latest version of Evernote for the iPhone and iPad helps straighten out the photos you snare of each page, correcting for distortions and erasing shadows. Also, you can use stickers to tag each page. Evernote will recognize these stickers and apply corresponding tags to the new note.

It even has cute little pink Skitch arrow stickers.

Moleskine chief executive Arrigo Berni told us about his company’s partnership with Evernote — its first with a software company.

“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to live a digital life,'” Berni said. “Well, maybe a some people. But most people live in both the analog and digital worlds.

“We are bridging paper and digital.”

The integration works partly thanks to the tiny dots that make up the horizontal rules. (A graph-paper version is also available.) The Evernote software recognizes those dots and uses them to correct the page’s alignment in software.

Note that you don’t need these pricey notebooks to do this kind of trick. Inexpensive document-scanning apps for both Android and iOS also do alignment-correction for pages you photograph and even sync with Evernote and other cloud-based storage services. And those apps will work with any rectangular piece of paper, whereas Evernote’s app only does its magic with these special Moleskines.

Evernote Grid Paper

The stickers, however, are an unusual touch.

The partnership came about, Berni said, partly because people who downloaded Moleskine’s iOS app requested Evernote integration. Also, Index Ventures, which invested in Moleskine in late 2010 and holds 15 percent of the company, suggested a partnership and made introductions to the Evernote executive team.

Moleskine’s Evernote Smart Notebooks will cost $25 for a pocket, 3.5-inch x 5-inch version and $30 for a larger, 5-inch by 8.25-inch version, and should be available starting October 1. Both come with a three-month subscription to Evernote Premium. Moleskine is taking orders on its site now.

Gallery: Gallery

Evernote grid paper templateGrid

Evernote Grid Paper Free

VentureBeat

Evernote Grid Paper Download

VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative technology and transact.Our site delivers essential information on data technologies and strategies to guide you as you lead your organizations. We invite you to become a member of our community, to access:
  • up-to-date information on the subjects of interest to you
  • our newsletters
  • gated thought-leader content and discounted access to our prized events, such as Transform 2021: Learn More
  • networking features, and more

Evernote Grid Paper

Become a member