Did You Know: How to Create a Checklist in Evernote

Tips and Stories | 02 Aug 201102 Aug 11 | By Kasey Fleisher Hickey

206 comments

If you’ve been following our user stories, you may have noticed that a lot of people love to make checklists in Evernote. Whether for work, personal stuff, or both, you can find a reason to make a checklist in Evernote. If you haven’t made one already, we’re here to show you how to do it.

What kind of checklist should I make?

Creating a checklist that’s accessible from any device where you have Evernote installed allows you to get more done by helping you remember stuff you need to do at any moment. Here are some ideas for checklists that you might want to create:

To-do list: make one for work from your desk on a Monday morning and check it on your phone on a Wednesday.
Packing list: don’t forget your sunscreen, your bathing suit, or your phone charger.
Goals list: keep it with you, wherever you are.
Reading list: keep adding to it — when you’re at the bookstore with your phone, or at the airport with your tablet
Home repairs list: pull it up on your phone when you’re at Home Depot and grab everything you need.
Grocery list: add items you need and even share it with your spouse!
Where to eat list: explore where you live through food and check off restaurants as you try them. See our list.

Ok, how do I get started?

You can make a checklist using several versions of Evernote—Mac, Windows, Web, Android, and others soon—by clicking on the checkbox button in the note formatting bar (on your Android device, you can find the checkbox in the bar above your keyboard). To add items, just click on the checkbox button again and a new checkbox will appear in your note. On a Mac, you can can also create a check-list by going to Format > Insert To-Do. On your Windows PC, go to Format > To-Do > Insert Checkbox (or CTRL + SHIFT + C).

To check the box, just click inside of it. Double click to uncheck it.

Keep it all in sync

Above: checklist on Android

Whenever you update a note, Evernote automatically synchronizes the change to all versions you use, meaning that something you’ve checked off on your phone will also be checked off when you log into Evernote on the Web, or from your desktop, so you’ll never lose sight of what you’ve done or what needs to be done.

Search for your checkboxes in Evernote

To find notes containing one or more unchecked boxes, type in todo:false into the Evernote search box. To find all notes containing a checkbox, type in todo:*. [More about searching in Evernote]

Note Links – Associate Checkboxes with other Notes, or your Calendar

Want to associate your checklist with a calendar reminder? Now you can. You can create a Note Link by right-clicking on the note in a desktop version of Evernote and choosing the option Copy Note Link. Open your calendar and paste in the Note Link. Clicking on the link will open the note (in this case, your checklist). You can read more about Note Links and how they work in this blog post.

How do you use checklists? Tell us in the comments.

Learn more about Did You Know

Alejandro

It would also be nice to have the capability to create a to-do list for shopping or packing (sort of a template) where one could have the possibility to un-check the whole list once you are done with whatever you were doing so that the list is clear for you to use on your next trip or shopping expedition.
- Bill
  
  I am looking for the same functionality.
  - crystal
    
    me too! at this point its still easier to use paper to make a grocery list and stick it in my pocketbook and throw away when done than attempting to click and unclick a box and type everything in i like the idea of a permeant grocery list i can chi and unchk as i go that would make my life easier
  - Edgar
    
    I use ShoppingList app on iphone and ipad for groceres. Saves a list tht you can check/uncheck as needed. You can also add other checklists, but it’s mainly for groceries. Allows you to sync between shared users. Not sure if they have a desktop app.
- Hal
  
  Actually you can do this with templates – http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/26850-tip-evernote-templates-lets-share-some/
Flow

I have tried the check list option and it’s really simple to create them. But what i’m missing is the possibility to have tables as an note. I’ m wanted to create log files for fitness plans in a nice and easy way. Is there any possibility to do tables?
Philippe

Would be really nice to be have basic todo item attributes such as end date, prioritiy, category or label, … attched to check boxes. Even better would be to be alble to visualize all of it in one list of item that could be sorted out by end date or priority or category, status, people, …
The typical use case is meetings where actions are assigned and are entered in Evernote using chek boxes. At the end of day you see all what is on you plate, … and on other team members plate as well.
- Noro
  
  In my oppinion, this is the right way of little bit enhanced functionality of checkboxes. Just to keep it very simple (so not too much additional attributes, e.g. caregory seems to be somehow redundant to notebook) for adding anywhere in the note and some enhancements to retrieve it out of the several notes across notebooks.
Laolu

Can’t find the checkbox button on my iPad!
Catherine

Yes please on smart to-do/checklist feature! Online systems are barely useable because noone’s thinking of the complete checklist need experience.
-i want to easily create/add to and deletr one list
- i want to be reminded to do them (at a time and frequency i control)
- i want some/all in my calendar too
-i want to see just today’s to-do’s

I want more than just a way to track/manage my to do list. I want a system that actually encourages me to get things done!
June

I keep a master pantry/grocery list in another application where I can easily sort and filter. (e.g. I have columns set up for Need, Aisle, Item)

Once I have filtered the master list for items I need and then sort by aisle, I want to cut and paste the list into evernote to take on the go on my phone.

It’s frustrating to paste the list as text and then not be able to apply a bullet or checkbox as a “format” to the entire list in one swoop. It makes the entire experience frustrating.
- June
  
  Also, if you jump in and start typing a list and want to go back and apply checklist functionality as a format, you can’t. Again this adds to the frustration factor immediately. When I’m brainstorming, I brainstorm first and then go back and edit/format.
Lee H

I’m trying to go completely paperless. I currently use a spiral notepad to right down quick to-do’s and I scratch them out once they are done. I’ve started using the evernote to-do, but it would be nice for an item marked as completed to be automatically removed to a “completed” to-do list.
- lewis hooper
  
  Lee, you might check out checkvist (see my post below)online tool at http://www.checkvist.com (Note spelling)
  it automatically moves completed items so that you don’t see them on the list.
  Its an online service so you can use it with Evernote at least until evernote becomes a bit more functional in this area.
  Evernote is my goto tool for research, collecting data, writing etc, but checkvist is my guide for what I have to do next. It functions as a mini project management tool.
  In my workflow checkvist functions as a subset of evernote.
lewis hooper

The todo/checkbox feature of evernote just doesn’t work for me. Its far to cumbersome to lay out the tasks

I do have a workaround that works quite well for me.

I use Checkvist (note spelling) with evernote checkvist is found at http://www.checkvist.com to create an online daily chores list for myself and my son. Its actually a great tool for creating this type of list in a hierarchical manner with the ability to assign dates and status etc. For my son I clip the checkvist list into his evernote chores workbook. We sometimes have a “debate” over whether the chore was done properly but in the main it works quite well. Copying to evernote as a clipped page also gives us a history of what he has done over time, and is actually useful for him to see.
Mrthermister

Sorting Tasks: Here’s what I use for sorting and it only requires one piece of 3rd party software: Dolphin Text Editor Menu (Windows). Instead of using check boxes, I use the following: “() ” (without the parens of course) = left paren, right paren, space. Important note is no space between the parens. So an undone task looks like: () Task. A completed task looks like: (x) Task. Then I use Dolphin Text Editor Menu to sort the list in-place, and the incomplete items float to the top – Viola! A sorted task list.

You can use this method for other uses as well: date sorted – if you use dates in the format “yymmdd” (4 digit year is not needed), or other numeric text sorting as long as you use the format of “00″ or “000″ depending on how many list items you need such as 01, 02, 03…10, 11, etc. Then these will be alpha sorted correctly. I’m sure you could extend this to other ideas.

Another idea is to combine tasks with dates.. for instance
() 120326 Task1
(x) 120401 Task2
() 120501 Task3
(x) 120227 Task4

would sort to:
() 120326 Task1
() 120501 Task3
(x) 120227 Task4
(x) 120401 Task2

Viola! Not only task sorted, but date sorted as well. So using this method, you instantly add due-date sorted tasking to Evernote, just as long as you don’t use its checkboxes.
Hazpoco

I like evernote but I agreed with the shortcomings of the todo functionality (no true check lists, no on-the-fly marking as complete (edit mode?), no ability to reuse commonly bough items.

For me (usecase: shopping lists for myself shared with my family), I found Wunderlist to be superior to anything on the market. Springpad is great but its usefulness is for the same things that Evernote does well. ToDo is not one of them.

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