The secret to making Evernote’s AI features work for you

 

February 23 2026 | Issue 84 | Link to this issue | Subscribe

Hi Reader –

If you've been following along, you know Evernote recently released v11 — and with it, three marquee AI features that are genuinely evolving how people use the app:

  • AI Assistant: Ask questions, get summaries, and generate content — all powered by your notes.

  • Semantic Search: Search by concept, not just keywords. Ask "what did I capture about my kitchen renovation?" and Evernote surfaces relevant notes even if those exact words don't appear in them.

  • AI Meeting Notes: Automatically transcribe, summarize, and extract action items from your meetings — directly into Evernote.

These features have generated a lot of excitement. And rightfully so.

But here's the thing: these tools — in particular AI Assistant and Semantic Search — are only powerful when you’ve got the right stuff stored in Evernote.

AI Assistant can't summarize what isn't there. Semantic Search can't surface notes you never created. The magic of v11 is real… but it runs on your data.

If you’re a longtime Evernote user, you’re sitting on a goldmine. And if you’re new to Evernote, you’ll want to learn all the ways to get your data into the tool so you can make use of it.

That's why, over the next several weeks, I'm devoting this newsletter to the foundation that makes all of it work: capture.

Wherever you're starting from, the path forward is the same. The more you capture in Evernote, the more these AI tools can do for you.

Why Capture Is the Most Important Productivity Habit

Capture is the first step in David Allen’s (author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity) five-stage framework for mastering workflow:

Capture → Clarify → Organize → Reflect → Engage

Allen's core idea is simple but powerful: your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. Every open loop you're trying to keep in your head — the task you can't forget, the idea you want to revisit, the article you meant to read — drains cognitive energy.

The moment you capture it in a trusted system, your brain is free to focus on what actually matters.

And, Evernote has always been one of the best capture tools on the market. This is a big reason people who drift away from it often come back.

It’s also made Evernote a popular app from which to manage the GTD methodology. (It’s my tool of choice for GTD!)

And now with v11, for the first time, capture isn’t the only way Evernote shines for workflow management. Now, the Organize, Reflect, and Engage stages of Allen's framework got a significant AI-powered upgrade – which is exciting.

But…it all starts with Capture.

Capture is Only Half the Equation

Most of us are already capturing constantly — screenshots to the camera roll, bookmarks in the browser, emails flagged for follow-up, notes in a phone app, documents saved to cloud storage. The information exists. It's just scattered across 10 different tools.

And when it's scattered, it can feel lost. You know you saved something somewhere — but finding it fast, in the moment you actually need it, is a different story.

This is where centralization changes everything. When Evernote is the single destination for your captures, you're not just saving information — you're building a searchable, interconnected knowledge base that gets more valuable over time. You’re building your second brain.

And that's exactly where v11's AI features become so powerful. AI Assistant and Semantic Search don't just work on one note. They work across your entire Evernote account. The more you've centralized in one place, the more context the AI has to work with, and the more useful its answers become.

Fewer tools also means fewer subscriptions and less time spent hunting through apps trying to remember where you put something. Centralization pays off in time, money, and mental energy — long before AI ever even enters the picture.

So as we work through this series, the goal isn't just to show you how to capture more (you’re already doing that).

It's to show you how to centralize all that information in Evernote to make it more useful and easier to retrieve. And, it sets you up to be dazzled by Evernote's AI features.

What's Coming in This Series

Evernote has more ways to get information into your account than most people realize. Over the weeks ahead, I’ll dive deeper into each of them. My plan is to insightfully orient you to the power of each of Evernote’s capture features, including:

  • Note Editor

  • Web Clipper

  • Email to Evernote

  • Evernote Helper

  • Import Attachments

  • Sync Folder

  • Scratch Pad

  • Lock Screen Widgets

  • Mobile Share

  • Mobile Camera

  • Desktop Scanners

  • …and more

Each newsletter will go deep into a different capture feature. I’ll orient you to the basics, sprinkle in little-known tips and power-user moves, and also highlight how each capture method connects to getting more out of AI Assistant and Semantic Search.

And, Academy members can expect links to deep dive trainings and expanded discussions on each feature inside the community.

Whether you're building your Evernote library and second brain from scratch or finally unlocking the AI potential of the Evernote database you've built over years — this series is for you.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you — If your information isn't stored in Evernote, where is it stored?

Hit reply. I read every response. And yours may just shape where this series goes.

Cheers to your productivity —

Stacey

Subscribe to auto-receive my next tip!

No fluff. Just practical, immediately actionable advice from someone who's been teaching Evernote mastery for over a decade. Sent every Monday, for free.

 
Stacey Harmon