Organising through OneNote

Does anyone have any tips on using OneNote to keep themselves on track? I have tried and failed over the years to get the best from the platform (not always helped by our ICT teams aversion to risk which means that some of the functions may not be available).

I have set myself notebooks with pages, and from time to time send emails over to store in OneNote…but I feel like I could be doing so much more.

I manage three small teams, each with a distinct function and struggle to keep on top of the breadth of work, especially when I have my won objectives to look at.

Is it a case of discipline and just using it until it becomes second nature? I would like to get away from my lifetime approach of using my inbox to manage work!

(standard OneNote that comes bundled with O365, but I am not allowed to download any third party add ons)

Thanks for any tips

In a word no (but want to follow this tread).

Have tried twice now to get to grips with it and set it up in different ways but just doesn’t seem to work for me.

I simply use some text files and notepad++ to track notes on my major projects, combined with emails and MS To Do my needs are covered. I’m sure OneNote could help but it always feels like a solution looking for a problem to me.

I manage several teams and workstreams and have also tried to make use of OneNote to assist with this but always found it ends up becoming more time consuming than simply making some notes in a notepad with a pen and keeping my mind sharp with what’s going on instead of relying too much on organisers.

If you try and have too complicated of a system, the second you don’t update it, you can no longer rely on it anyway.

Do you work in project management?

I always used OneNote as a notepad type thing – I used to set up pages and folders for key projects and meetings, and import all the meeting minutes, agendas papers etc into a page, and then annotate (either with a pen on a touchscreen, or by typing and drawing on a non-touchscreen) the papers etc. It meant that firstly I had easy searchable access to old notes on meetings etc (which as those of you in programme/project management know is essential when people have selective memories) and also meant that it was easier to stay awake and focussed in long boring meetings by taking notes).

I also use it for lectures/training courses now, so import the whole slide deck of whoever is presenting (or screen shot and paste if they dotn release the slides in advance) and annotate over the top of their slides, making them much more useful when I want to refer back.

It does take a bit of effort to get stuff into one note at times, and you need to do it in advance of a meeting etc, but it is really useful.

In pm here and obliged to use it. By and large I find the more complex features too clunky and time consuming. So I simply maintain a set of notebooks organised by high level concepts (Compliance, People, ProjectX etc) and then have specific pages within those that I use for content. I sort of like it now but it took time to get there…

At work I mostly use OneNote to temporary location for any stuff captured on screenshots, notes and such things. These are then processed and copied to be used somewhere else.

For personal use I have stored some bike details (seat post sizes etc), list for christmas presents, details on the house (paint codes etc) and long term shopping lists (bike parts mostly)

I have used it in the past and found it really useful, however, getting others to buy into it was problematic, I used to take notes in meetings and put actions in the notes, but I’d end up having to still ask colleagues to action the work via email, face to face as they would rarely read the shared notes…

Perversely Teams and working from home came along and I ended up back with a physical notebook as I found typing whilst on a Teams meeting to look a bit off, no idea why, and I haven’t gone back to OneNote.

I also use it like mmannerr above, bike settings are saved to a notebook along with instructions to undertake quick trail side fixes :-)

I use it as a note taking tool and like it a lot.
But for organising yourself, Teams has better functionality.

Thanks all,

I work in Children’s Social Services – look after soft things like comms/engagement/online but also the statutory function of participation (making sure children’s voices/wishes are considered). I also have responsibility for our accommodation estate, and find the variety sometimes difficult to keep track of.

I have Teams…but again, not sure our ICT have enabled the lot. Any tips for that?

I use paper notebooks, but like so many i start of neat and disciplined but a few pages in it’s just scribbles!

All the personality tests etc i have done over the years points to the fact that I am not a natural completer/finisher so I guess I will always find it difficult to keep properly organised.

I use it all the time. I like that I can pull meetings in from Outlook and then take notes, store relevant documents and  link it to MS todo so I have a single list of tasks that then link back to OneNote when I do them

I have 20-30 active projects at any one time. I rely on ON every day as a kind of scrapbook/aide memoire. I dump note, photos, screenshots, voicenotes, links (external and Sharepoint), and files onto each project page.

I’ve used it for years, I think it’s one of the best things MS ever created. What works for me may not work for you.

I have two workbooks, one personal and one for work. Personal has sections like “recipes,” work is divided up by department. I also have a ‘misc’ section which is a dumping ground for transient notes; it’s also the target for Quick Notes which I perpetually forget exists as a feature. Zero thought has gone into this structure, it’s just how it’s grown organically.

A couple of tips which perhaps aren’t immediately obvious:

You can (and should) store workbooks in OneDrive. This gives you near-instantaneous synchronisation between devices. Ever had, say, a URL on your phone which you want to open on a PC? Dump it into OneNote.

It’s completely freeform. Someone said before about using Notepad for note taking – you can drag & drop .txt files (indeed, any files) straight into OneNote.

Win-Shift-N opens OneNote. Win-N opens a Quick Note.

Within OneNote, Control-E is ‘search everywhere.’ Looking for something you saved somewhere years ago? ^E. (This is actually a universal shortcut, it works in many apps including Explorer and likely your web browser.)

chrismac
Full Member
I use it all the time. I like that I can pull meetings in from Outlook and then take notes, store relevant documents and link it to MS todo so I have a single list of tasks that then link back to OneNote when I do them

I’ve been messing with links to ToDo for a while but haven’t made it work effectively. Care to share how you’ve done this?

I have 5 notebooks: Projects, Responsibilities (BAU stuff and my objectives), Team, Useful (reference stuff) and Archive (closed projects etc). Within these I have sections for specific themes, groups or projects. Works for me 80% of the time, but isn’t quite second nature yet. This year!

I love OneNote, but feel like I could still improve my use! I’ve got 2 notebooks: personal, and Team. And I’m slowly finding I use ‘team’ the most (now that my team have bought into it).

The best bits are:

Project updates. We’ll have multiple projects on the go, each with smaller tasks that involve various other teams. So for each project, we’ll have a page with a list of tasks, deadlines and statuses, and everyone can just update the status on each task as and when they do a bit. Really really useful to stay up to date

Processes – we use lots of different systems so we keep a load of process instructions. I often re-write my teams notes to make them more coherent though, ha

The search function is absolutely invaluable – if you’re a dozy git like me, when your boss says ‘where are we up to with X’, and you don’t even remember what X is, never mind where we’re up to with it, you can do a quick Ctrl F to search for it, and discover that there was a meeting back in August where Karen said she was going to look into it.

Links – linking out to webpages or even files on the network drive is really handy.

What I’ve not quite got the hang of is a ‘to-do’ list – I still find that pen and paper suits me best for my day-to-day stuff.

I’ve been messing with links to ToDo for a while but haven’t made it work effectively. Care to share how you’ve done this?

ITs a bit flakey and seem to only work when you using the web version of all the apps. Im hoping as MS merge the web and app version it will become more robust

Thanks again, since reading the replies I have had a dig around and found the ‘apps’ section – a game changer! I have set my team up with a SharePoint and linked to a planner so we all see/assign tasks.

Thanks again, always worth talking about stuff here!

Consider also,

The tool should fit the task, not the other way around. You wouldn’t randomly pick up a screwdriver and wander around the house looking for things to screw / unscrew. Do you know what you’re trying to get out of it? Maybe there’s a better way of achieving what you want to do.

Cheers – the main thing was keeping track of various streams. Because of the way Teams was hurriedly deployed during pandemic we didn’t receive any guidance about how to get the best out of it (we were all just relieved to not have to use Skype any more!)

I have set up our objectives in the ‘planner’ section and it’s pretty much exactly what I didn’t know I wanted. It may be pretty simple, but already I feel like I have more control…

I don’t think some of the other bits are for me (I also like a pad and pen) but feel much better about work now than I did this morning when I returned bleary eyed to the office.

use it for everything at work

one notebook per project
first tab gets project management type data with different pages for e.g. personnel + contact details, kit details, timesheet codes, milestone details
next set of tabs are organised by milestone with various pages for various activities
other tabs hold various investigation details, or review notes, meeting notes

its the best thing MS office have come out with for many many years

BTW none of the above replaces a tracking tool like trello or jira or whatever flavour of kanban board or waterfall plan or agile-doohickey-of-the-day you’re being mandated to use.

It’s just a brain dumping ground that is easy to keep relatively well organised and has a decent search.

I tried using it once and used to dump graphs from Excel into it, but it just ground to a complete snails pace as it couldn’t cope with the graphs – probably storing them as MS Objects rather than JPGs etc.

Gave up and now just use Notepad ++ for everything and save screen shots as files elsewhere…

Use it all the time for minute taking. I’ve become pretty handy with it I’ve the years. Handwriting recognition in my surface with it it great – even though it does eat AAAA batteries.

Fairly sure MS are deprecating it soon.

I tried using it once and used to dump graphs from Excel into it, but it just ground to a complete snails pace as it couldn’t cope with the graphs – probably storing them as MS Objects rather than JPGs etc.

I screenshot them with Snipping Tool and then just copy and paste them into ON.

Fairly sure MS are deprecating it soon.

What makes you say that?

It’s not quite as clear cut as I’d thought. If you install the store app then that’s not going away, but the bundled with the os version is. Not sure about the office-integrated version. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-blog/making-it-easier-to-get-to-the-onenote-app-on-windows/ba-p/3642219

It’s mostly a dumping ground for me, one
main work notebook, section per customer, page per bit of work.

I just create pages as I go, eg if I’m drafting something or making a change I can just paste screenshots as I go. The search is pretty effective for finding it later.

We have a few shared ones for team info, customer configs, etc. I have a personal, non-work one too for DIY projects, bike jobs, holiday packing lists etc.

While you can use it as a task/project management tool I find other things easier. Key thing IMO if you do it in OneNote is using the tags and having regular manual review.

I just restarted using it personally. Its a good dumping ground for brain farts but, again, it feels like I could be getting more from it.

@hot_fiat looks like its the UWP version thats being dropped.

A OneNote app dropped from the Microsoft Store

The advice about storing in Onedrive is good. We support OneNote and one of the problems we have is the default save location is to the C: drive.

We keep changing it but it sometimes still defaults to C. So if anythng happens to the hard drive you may lose everything. Not nice telling someone years of work may be lost. :-(

one note or notes on a mac I find is just for notes, transitory information that is one up from textedit or notepad.

If you actually want to organise yourself to keep on track I have had good success with Asana which is web based and the free edition does enough.

Keeping others on track, there is not a system in the world to accomplish this.