Evernote does a (relatively) good job creating a service and creating software, but I have always felt that the company could do a better job helping people put things into Evernote. For example, did you know there is an Evernote templates feature?
OK, before you call me on it, that’s not entirely accurate. There is no real template functionality in Evernote, but you can use some existing features to fake it, and the company has started to take baby steps towards providing templates that users can apply.
Evernote templates are something I touched on back in 2015. You can right-click on any note and choose Copy to Notebook… to make a copy. The ability to copy notes to another notebook lets you have one central Template notebook as a repository, and then create new entries in any place that you choose.
If you want just to keep duplicating a note in the same notebook, you can right-click and choose Duplicate Note.
Annual Planning Templates
Many people like to do yearly planning in Evernote. I’ve done it myself in the past.
For the past few years, Evernote has provided yearly planning templates that you can use to do your weekly, daily, monthly, or yearly planning. Here is the 2018 edition.
Just click open up linked to in the article, click Save to Evernote, and the template will be saved to your Evernote account. You can then place it wherever you’d like.
Evernote Templates Collection
Evernote has created a little library of pre-built templates that you can use.
They’re linked to on the Help & Learning site here.
For example, being a bit of a productivity nerd, I like this Eisenhower Matrix one.
Here’s a collection of business templates created by Barbara Fuller over at Simplify Days.
Create Your Own Template Library
Having a template library is a great and fast way to re-use notes and not have to re-create the wheel. It’s also an excellent way to make sure things are standardized, especially if you are working with others.
Here’s a blog post that digs into templates more, and here is a how-to guide.
If you have templates that you love, feel free to share a link down in the comments too.