Although I’ve already written about the way I capture ideas using Drafts and Evernote, I thought it was worth repeating since these techniques were buried in another entry. I literally use this method multiple times a day. Using Drafts, I’ve efficiently captured hundreds of ideas, blog thoughts,and lyrics. As you’ll see below, I also use Drafts to start entries in Day One., ------------------------------------------Capturing Ideas in Evernote using DraftsEvernote extends its great power by linking to many other applications. I’ve found capturing snippets of text into Evernote is even easier than the method I described a few years ago using plaintext.I use Drafts on my iphone and iPad to capture / brain dump just about everything. Drafts is an essential program on my iPhone. Drafts allows me to capture without thinking about what app I need to open. Once the text is captured, Drafts routes the information wherever I choose. I wrote about one way I use Drafts to capture and process meeting notes. When I want to capture an idea, I merely open Drafts and type or dictate my idea into the app. When I’m done, I route the information to Evernote using the following custom action:
The action automatically derives a title from the first line of the text and appends the date and time. Furthermore, it files the note in my “Ideas” Notebook in Evernote and tags the note with the keyword “Ideas."The note ends up in Evernote looking like this:
When I get to Evernote, I append further information in the note as needed. I use IdeaX in the header so when I search for a list of my ideas, they are not mixed together with information I’ve gathered from other sources. If I search for a keyword(s), I not only see my ideas, but all the information I’ve gathered in Evernote—very useful.Capturing Blog Ideas, Lyric Ideas, Quotes, and other Snippets in Evernote using DraftsI use a similar scripts in Drafts to capture a whole host of other information on the go. Each class of information is filed into it’s own Notebook in Evernote. For example, here is the action I use to capture information for my blog:
Using Drafts for entries in Day One.Although I love Day One, I was not entering information often enough. Action URLs are a powerful feature of Drafts. Action URLs-open other applications, then perform functions. In order to increase my capture rate, I decided to make an Action URL that transfers text from Drafts to Day One.Here is how simple it is…..
I have configured Day One on my Mac and iOS devices to sync. I also enabled the #hashtag feature in Day One. Hashtags are translated into keywords in Day One.Since enabling this script, I find myself capturing both personal and professional snippets each day. Give it a try!By incorporating Evernote, I’ve greatly simplified many of my capture processes. I highly recommend giving Evernote Premium a whirl and trying out a few of these workflows on your own. You won’t be disapointed.
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Jeff Taekman