Step 3: Learn Evernote to Get 30% More Done

To recap – you’ve learned about step 1 and step 2 in the path to GTD® success. You’ve read the book and you’ve chosen (and stuck with) your GTD app to act as your external trusted system outside your brain.

I’ve also shared why Evernote is my chosen GTD app, and expressed why I firmly believe it’s the best app for GTD. From here on, this “Guide to Mastering GTD” assumes you’ve chosen Evernote as your GTD app. If you haven’t, the steps that follow still apply in concept, but adapt them to your chosen tool.

With that understanding, let’s move on to step #3 in mastering GTD.

Success Factor #3. Develop Your Evernote Expertise

GTD is an all-encompassing, comprehensive practice. And by using Evernote for GTD, you’re centralizing your practice in a single platform. This means that for GTD success, you MUST work effectively in the app.

You’ll only succeed with GTD in Evernote if you understand everything Evernote can do. It impacts your entire GTD practice. If you’re slow and clunky in Evernote, the volume will overwhelm you, you won’t find what you’re looking for, and most important – you’ll never trust your system.

As a reminder, trusting your system is key to GTD:

“The methods I present here are all based on three key objectives: (1) capturing all the things that might need to get done or have usefulness for you—now, later, someday, big, little, or in between—in a logical and trusted system outside your head and off your mind;...” – David Allen, Getting Things Done.

On the flip side, Evernote mastery translates to time savings (I observe I’m around 40% more efficient than the average Evernote user), confidence and trust in your GTD system.

Whether it’s moments of big impact, or the ability to shave micro-seconds off of actions you take inside Evernote every day, your GTD efficiency comes down to your skillset with the platform. The more fluent you are, the more Evernote becomes a fine-tuned machine that empowers your GTD practice – not hinders it. 

Wouldn’t you like to navigate with ease and manage your GTD practice as efficiently as possible? 

Are you confident in the mechanics of how Evernote supports capturing, clarifying, organizing, and finding everything you need quickly and efficiently?

If you aren’t a “Hell yes!” to that last question, you need to improve your Evernote skills.

Most people don’t invest the time to learn the platform. Instead, they get charmed by marketing hype or buzz about the new and upcoming app that’s taking the productivity world by storm. And, they leap platforms. And their productivity dies. 

The truth is, digital productivity is a formula: Software Skills + Workflows = Productivity. As it relates to GTD in Evernote, the formula looks like this:

Evernote Skills + GTD Workflow = GTD Productivity

You have to have both the skills, and the workflow, to achieve productivity. 

Let’s look at an example. Processing is a key habit in a successful GTD practice (more on this in step 5). You’ll do it – A LOT (no matter what tool you chose). If you’re an Evernote newbie, you’ll likely process as you see in the first video vs, how I process as shown in the second video.

The workflow is the same in both videos. The only difference between the two is how I apply Evernote expert skills to the workflow. It’s clear which is more efficient. Imagine how this adds up over time.

WARNING: Weak Evernote skills will derail your GTD practice.

Your skills improve efficiency everywhere including:

• Each step in GTD’s 5 Steps of Mastering Workflow:

  1. In capture

  2. In clarifying

  3. In organizing

  4. In reflecting

  5. In engaging

• In navigation around Evernote

• In search/retrieving/finding

You must be an Evernote ninja for this to work. When you hit ninja-status, you’ll master GTD success factor #3 – most never do, and their GTD practice suffers. You can’t skip a success factor!

Think you already know Evernote?

The other challenge with Evernote is that the approachability and ease of getting started with the app often masks the power of the tool.

Most people succeed in getting started with Evernote and they never move beyond the basics. But they should.

It’s a bit like this quote from Maya Angelou:

Mastery of Evernote will unveil better ways to do things. And when you know better, you’ll do better. For example:

• How many ways can you think of to create a new note in Evernote? Evernote experts can list (at least) 10 ways. Imagine the power this knowledge can have on your capture process.

• Do you know what note links are? They’ll transform your use of Evernote and are essential to creating navigational efficiency and recall between related ideas inside Evernote. Imagine how this will empower you to organize your projects and tasks inside Evernote.

• Are key commands part of your every-day Evernote experience? Using key commands to execute common tasks such as navigating around Evernote, or creating note links, quickly adds up to boatloads of saved time.

• Do you refine your searches in Evernote to better target what you’re looking for? My knowledge on how to do this is key to effortlessly retrieving what I seek from my library of 30,000+ notes. The confidence, trust, and time-savings all impact my GTD practice.

The number one reason people leave Evernote for another tool is their lack of detailed understanding of its features. Don’t fall into this trap. You’ll spend weeks – even months or years – poking around other apps instead of actually practicing GTD. You’ll waste so much time.

Instead, devote the time to learn your GTD app. When you do, you’ll be 30% faster with GTD – just like me.

I can even tell you exactly how long it will take: 11 hours.

With 11 hours of proper training, you’ll become an Evernote expert. I know because I’ve created the course and see my customers’ results (the course is included in an Academy Membership). It’s the most comprehensive Evernote skills training course on the planet. The course is based on my years of private Evernote consulting where my 11-hour package was what it took to transfer my Evernote expertise to my client.

11 hours to learn a tool that will increase your productivity forever? Sounds like a smart use of time and dollars to me.

Mastering Success Factor #3:

Invest in learning the features of Evernote. GTD’s an all-encompassing methodology impacting everything you decide to get out of your brain and keep. Your efficiency with the tool will impact everything you do in your GTD practice.

If Evernote’s not your GTD app, the concept’s still the same. Invest in the fluency of your chosen app and your GTD practice will soar.

Now that you’ve established which app you will use as your GTD trusted system and committed to learning it, you’re ready to configure the app to manage your GTD practice. Known as your “GTD workflow” it’s productivity success step #4.