Make School Notes Quicker with Workflow and Drafts 4

I recently started using my iPad as my primary device for taking notes at school. It was lighter then my PC, and I could also use my Jot Script to hand write on it. I recently adapted a workflow for taking notes that I want to share with you, and this workflow allows me to tag and add a notebook to an Evernote notebook all automatically, along with assigning a title and date to the note, and saves a few minutes of every lesson.


The main apps in my workflow are:

Step 1 – Setting up the calendar

The first step is setting up your schedule in your calendar. Make sure you get the times right, and use repeating events. I advise you make a separate calendar for your school timetable with a different colour then your normal or private events.

Step 2 – Setting up the Workflow

This is the hardest step. Feel free to use my workflow which can be found here. Make sure you edit each ‘If’ field for your subject, and edit the tag and notebook variable for the tags and notebook you want your note to be assigned in. Make sure that the Upcoming event field is set for the correct calendar.

When you want to run the workflow, just drag down from the top of your iPad or iPhone and tap on ‘Lesson Title’. The workflow will run, and Drafts 4 will open with your lesson name and date in the 1st line, the notebook it will go in in the 2nd line, and the tags in the 3rd line. Start writing up your note on the fifth line, which is the start of the body of the note.

Step 3 – Drafts 4 actions

Once you have written up your note, you need to get it to Evernote. You can find the Drafts 4 action here. This action makes the first line of your draft the note title, the second line is what notebook the note will go in, and the 3rd will be the tags assigned to the note. The body of the note will start on the 5th. Feel free to use markdown, the action will support that.

So this workflow does the following things – automatically assign a title and a date to the note, and tag and give it a notebook according to your current lesson. This workflow saves you from having to switch to Evernote and manually tag and assign a notebook, which may take up time.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions feel free to email me at thenerdystudent@gmail.com, comment on this post or tweet me @GiacomoLaw!
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A small edit, I recently published it on the Workflow directory, so you can find it here. Remember, this still requires the Drafts action.

Feel free to comment below!

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