How to organise Apple Notes

If you're an Apple Notes user, one of the main questions you'll need to think about when organising your notes is how best to organise your notes and whether to use Notebooks or Tags.

Notebooks - Think of these as the big categories. Or just think of them as actual notebooks i.e. you have one notebook for work, one for home, one for studying.

Tags - These are the topics that could be used within any note across notebooks. e.g. #howto #receipt #inspiration. Remember you can apply multiple tags but a note can only live in one notebook at a time.

0:00 - Introduction
0:52 - Folders
4:59 - Tags
7:10 - Smart folders
8:26 - Sorting folders
9:25 - Pin your notes
9:47 - Outro

Enjoy my productivity training videos and learn more about how to be more organised and get more done in less time.

[juanantonio]

Thank you Paul. You are the first to have made it simple to understand the foundation or beginning of using notes. I just couldn't pick up what everyone else was talking about. Senior moment maybe. Anyway thank you

[BojanKnezevic]

after aobut 2h of youtube browsing, finally, a video that shows how to keep notes in advanced way

[skeche]

Glad i've stumbled across your channel Paul, your explanation is clear succinct and easy to understand.

[clintcarter]

Super helpful!! Thank you so much for providing such valuable, clear content.

[Bazzo]

First video I've watched of yours and love the clear and informative style. Have immediately subscribed.

[creamosmx]

Quite useful video, specially the way you titled your journal entries. It's interesting how you can benefit on the organization decisions of another person. Thanks.

[UrsulaJStLouis]

Great info. Glad I found you. Thank you!

[tomthumb]

Cheers Paul, after 12 years of throwing various creative ideas into notes, you’ve finally shown me the way to turn these ideas into reality. I just subscribed too, keep up the great content 👏🏻🇬🇧

[howwonderful]

Thank you so very much for giving me the exact help I needed!!!! I have been going crazy trying to find apps & wasting time finding nothing useful. You explained everything so clearly and I was able to follow along. And now I finally have my notes organized thanks to you!!!! You are an amazing instructor & I am so appreciative😊😊😊

[clarencepayne]

Paul - Excellent video. Very helpful. Thank you.

[jimgrant]

Paul - Excellent video.

Here are some additional organizational ideas. You’re welcome to enhance them and incorporate them into another video.

Folder Organization / Structure - It seems that Notes users, particularly beginners, seem to fall into the organization / structure of their folders by evolution, rather than by design. Here are some options for how a user might organize his/her folders:
Topics (Art, Entertainment, Family, Food, Investing, Medical, Politics, etc.)
Life Roles (Son, spouse, father, businessman, teacher, chef. Etc.)
Tiago Forte’s PARA Method (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archive)
Days of the Week (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)

Tags - I think of tags as “meta” data. That is, they are information “about” a Note and not the part of the “content” of the Note itself. As with folders, there are a variety of ways a user can organize his/her tags. Here are some examples:
Type of Note (Article, instructions, invoice, map, receipt, etc.)
Status (Planned, Active, Completed, etc.)
Locations (San Diego, Home, Farm, Ohio, etc.)
Sources (Email, boss, teacher, Internet, etc.)
Retentions (DeleteAfter2023Q2, DeleteAfter2023Q3, DeleteAfter2023312023, etc.)

Smart folders - There are many options for specifying criteria for Notes selected by a Smart Folder. One I use almost everyday is “Edited in the last 3 Days”.

[PatikornHomswad]

Thanks for the great advice. The lectures are short and understandable.

[RevoNo.]

A fantastic video. Put it in use today and interested to see how it works. Very heplful. Thank you

[rudyelizondo]

Great vid, I’ve got my folders etc pretty well organized now

[callmeNeno]

You're making me a Apple stock apps enthousiast ~~

[paryhappytour]

Thank you for the formation. It is really nice and easy to understand 😊

[IndigenousPeacemaker]

Thank you for all your tips for organizing Notes--very helpful.

[Abdullah-zlub]

Personally I don’t have a lot of notes but I find using spotlight is much easier than folders and smart folders or tags. I did change my system when I saw your paperless video long time ago but I went back to not writing much notes. 😊

[ny]

Love it! Didn't know what "pin" meant and how to use! Thank you

[singhsaurabh]

Thanks for making things understandable in an easy way…