Evernote tweeted this as a reaction to an idea by our friend and Evernote Certified Consultant Enrico Nahler. Enrico had used Filterize to build a dashboard that gives him instant access to all his most important notes. Clearly, Evernote was very impressed, calling it “one of the best hacks” they have ever seen using their product.

What is a dashboard?

In Evernote, a dashboard is a note that provides direct links to all your most important data. A dashboard shows you the information you need fast at a single glance and lets you access it with just one click.

A dashboard usually consists of 6 to 10 topics, so that they all fit on one screen. Each topic has a title and a table of contents that links to all the relevant notes for that topic. By using an appropriate search query, you can select precisely the notes that you would like to see.

Another example of a user dashboard

Enrico also retweeted this dashboard that was created using Filterize by the Twitter user skyewstout:

(Click on the image to see a larger version.)

Each of the 12 topics in the dashboard is neatly visualized using a (simulated) Post-It note with an appropriate hand-drawn icon. We particularly like the mixture of practical, professional topics such as “Projects” with personal topics like “Reflect”.

Lists that refresh automatically

Filterize is essential for creating effective dashboards, because it allows you to create tables of contents that refresh automatically. This means that the lists and links in the dashboard are guaranteed to be up-to-date, even when the notes that comprise them change. Without this feature, the dashboard contents would be static and not reflect the changes in the Evernote database such as new to-dos.

For example, to see all to-dos that are due in the next three days, you would instruct Filterize to create a list using the following search query:

reminderTime:day -reminderTime:day+3 -reminderDoneTime:*

• The first term selects all notes with a due date today or in the future.
• The second term excludes all notes from that set whose due date is more than three days away.
• The third term excludes all notes that have been marked as completed.

The list that Filterize creates will automatically refresh itself every time you access the dashboard.

Build your own dashboard in Evernote

If you are already a Filterize user, you can create your own dashboard now. See this post for more detailed information. If you are stuck for ideas for your dashboard, you can find some suggestions here.

If you are not using Filterize yet, you must first sign up for a Filterize account. Filterize is free for up to three self-refreshing TOCs; with a premium plan you can have as many as you like.

Filterize is a cloud service that acts as your personal Evernote assistant. Tell the software how you organize your notes or just let its Artificial Intelligence learn how to do it automatically. Filterize will then manage your notes in the background, eliminating repetitive tasks, avoiding errors and saving you time.