How to set goals for the year using Evernote

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

One of the important requirements for the successful fulfillment of the set goals is their constant contemplation. You should see and remember as often as possible what you want, why you want it and how things are going on the way to the goal. Below we offer a way to turn your beloved and painfully familiar Evernote into an assistant for achieving your goals.

So the first month of 2015 has come to an end. Of course, even before the New Year, you set some goals in your head for the next year. Some of this has already been forgotten, the other will never be remembered. It is not too late to take control of the execution of the plan.

This advice was posted in. The author of the technique is the well-known Michael Hyatt. He, like millions of people, uses Evernote as a “digital brain” for storing ideas, notes and the like, but there are reasons to use such a powerful and flexible tool as an assistant to achieve goals:

Evernote is what you already use. You don't need to download anything, learn how to use it, and so on.
Evernote is multiplatform and available everywhere. This allows you to always see your goals and remind yourself of them.
Evernote is simple and flexible. Many applications created specifically to achieve your goals, force you to act according to their logic, to play according to their rules. They are often overloaded with functions. Evernote, on the other hand, is flexible and lets you do it your way.

Step 1. Write down all the goals in one general note

Create a new note with the name “00. Goals 2015 ". Do not ask why there are two zeros at the beginning, it will become clear a little later.
Add the labels "2015" and "goals" to the note.
Enter the goals in the note line by line. Think well at this stage. We arrange goals in relation to each other so that it is meaningful and understandable. For example, personal goals come first, and work-related goals come second.
We number each goal ("01", "02", "03" and so on). Leading zeros will keep the order in the correct order, even if there are more than nine targets in the list.
Insert a checkbox in front of each target (⇧⌘T for OS X and Ctrl + Shift + C for Win).

Step 2. Create separate descriptive notes for each goal

Each goal becomes the title of a new note.
We sort the resulting list by name (this is what the numbers in the names are for).
For each target note, add labels "2015" and "goals".
Set a reminder for your target notes. If the goal is a habit, then we set a reminder from today. If achieving something, then the deadline.
Next, we create a description inside each note-goal, including the sections "Motivation", "Next action" (or "Next step" - as you understand better), "Progress" and, if there is a desire to keep notes along the way, the corresponding section at the end. The meaning of these sections is explained in the screenshot.

Step 3. Linking each target note to a shared list note

Right click on the note → "Copy the link to the note".

Go to the general note-list → select the target in the list → right click → “Link” → “Add” → paste the copied link.

We repeat the procedure for each goal and get a general note-list with the ability to instantly jump to each goal.

Step 4. Create a shortcut to targets

In the search field, create a query like "tag: 2015 tag: targets".

We save it under the name "Goals 2015" or another name you understand.

We click on the search field - the search history should appear, including "Saved queries" with our "Targets 2015".

Grab "Goals 2015" with the mouse and drag it to "Shortcuts" on the left side of the Evernote window.

Ready. Your goals are now always in front of your eyes. To access them, just click on the shortcut once.

We hope that this method will help you achieve what you want this year, and we invite you to share your own tricks on the "non-standard" use of Evernote and other popular services in the comments.