I did a few little different things with it but it’s best to spout out especially can. I initially thought that I wanted to make a separate database so this is what I did after importing my notes I made sure that it is in a separate database. The problem is that I realized that often times my notes belonged in a database instead of its own separate database. Instead, I added everything in my Evernote database to my personal database. Then I created a folder called “Evernote items to sort”. This signified I was still sorting those items and is kind of the to-do box of sorts. Then what I’ve been doing is I’ve been going inconsistently through that folder to then go through the subfolders that are my notebooks and deciding what can be kept and deleted and what should be saved and then once that’s determined it’s brought out of that folder into its own folder within the personal database. An example is the following: For example it might look like the following:
DevonThink Databases
- Personal
“Evernote Items to Sort”- Fitness
- Teaching
Then I changed it to the following after processing the fitness articles
- Personal
“Evernote Items to Sort”
Fitness - Work/School
To be quite frank, I’m rather inconsistent about my filing and really haven’t taken the time to do so lately. I think I have a lot going on housewives so it’s not really of my concentration and more so the thing to do if or when I have time.
I use three databases to separate my life a bit but also to not combine all into one. My three databases are Personal, Teaching, and Apps & Workflows. I’m torn on my usage of Teaching as honestly much of my stuff is in the cloud in Google Docs and such. Maybe periodically (monthly or more) I’ll copy stuff from Google Drive to this database. The Apps and Workflows one is about various apps I’m trying to learn or work with and workflows I’m trying out. Got the idea from @whilsong and it works quite well when I come across something. In fact, I’ll probably send this convo to that database as a good info for DevonThink.
As for your questions:
- Do I want to write notes in DT or is it a final archival place?
- If I write in Drafts or Byword, how can I drop it in DT, but still make edits in the actual document, and have it regularly updated.
- Looking for a workaround for email to Devonthink to replace that Evernote one.
- The database is in a local folder on the mac as recommended by everyone, my sync occurs at Box, wondering if I should switch that to Dropbox, iCloud, or my own Synology and assessing what are the pros/cons of each
The notes stuff I’m torn on. I have scraps in Drafts, some notes in DT, other notes (minimally) in Ulysses, and other notes written out in hard form. Ideally, these written notes would be scanned and filed away but I don’t yet have a good scanner though it’s on my wishlist.
As for my own writing, I write a good amount in Ulysses though am thinking of switching over to something else given it’s in its own format. Looking at other text editors that I can store stuff on my computer or the cloud but is in plain text or rich text. I discussed this with people in this thread and have some options to try when I get the chance and l,eaning towards iA Writer 5.
The email stuff I don’t know where to go on. Ideally I’d like a copy of all my emails automatically synced to DevonThink though I too need to do some digging. Something on my wishlist to work on but on the back burner currently. It would be nice to get this working to make quick search and long term storage of email available in DevonThink instead of just the email client or cloud.
As for the syncing, I too should look into this though mine is currently with iCloud. When I get a Synology for security purposes I’ll heavily favor that given some privacy concerns and awareness.