Why your Evernote searches feel too slow
I noticed something was off the other day when I typed in a simple word I knew I had tagged months ago. It should have been instant. Instead Evernote spun for several seconds and then showed me a wall of unrelated notes. That sinking feeling when you realize your tags are basically useless is the same feeling I get when Zapier decides to silently shut off a working Zap with that tiny yellow exclamation mark. Things just stop lining up. For me the main issue was that I had been wild with my tags. I had tags like “tax,” “taxes,” “2023 taxes,” “2023 tax docs,” and at some point “tax receipts.” Not only do I not remember which notes had which variation, but Evernote now has to sift through them all every time I search.
I tried scrolling through my left sidebar to find the right tag manually, but even that was clunky. The little tag tree wasn’t expanding consistently. Half the time the hierarchy would display, other times everything collapsed back to default. Honestly it felt like someone was moving the furniture while I was still sitting in the room 😛
How nested tags silently break your workflow
When I first discovered Evernote allowed nested tags, it felt like game changing organization. I built out this lovely three level system: Work at the top, then Clients, then each client had sub tags like Contracts or Assets. For about a week it looked perfect. Then, without warning, one update reset all the collapsible groups back to expanded. Every time I tried to quickly drag a new note onto a sub tag, I had to scroll through a mess of expanded trees. It slowed me down enough that I started throwing everything into the parent tag instead. Maybe this was fine for a while, but weeks later that parent tag was overflowing. The very system that was supposed to keep search fast actually buried things deeper.
And here’s the worst part. Searching within a parent tag doesn’t always pull in the children tags. You’d think it would cascade down logically, but sometimes it doesn’t. Which forces you to either search multiple tags manually or rebuild your structure altogether. The exact opposite of what I wanted happening.
Why fewer tags beat fancy hierarchies
So the thing I learned the very hard way is that fewer tags make everything faster. Not just in the technical sense, but in my own brain too. I eventually stopped naming tags with extra words like “2023 receipts.” Instead, I made a single “receipts” tag and then relied on Evernote’s already decent search by date filters whenever I needed the year. The computer can handle the dates faster than me inventing tag names on the fly.
Let me give you an example of how it played out. Before, if I wanted my note on car payment proof, I would guess whether I used “finance,” “car docs,” or “loans2023.” Now, I just use “finance” consistently as my one tag, and if I specifically need this year, I use the created-in filter. Search results went from several wide spreads of half right notes to exactly the one I wanted in about two seconds. Huge difference.
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ sometimes it feels boring to limit creativity with tags, but honestly when you’re sitting with ten tabs open and need to find that single scanned check fast, boring is better.
The reset setting that ruins searches
Here’s one of those sneaky things nobody tells you. At least twice in the past year, my Evernote desktop client silently reset a default setting regarding how tags are sorted in the left navigation. Once it went from alphabetical back to most recently used, which explains why I suddenly could not find “projects” where it should have been. Another time it reshuffled into some “smart ordering” mode. The result both times was me wasting way too much time searching visually for tags because the list felt unfamiliar overnight.
My quick fix was to immediately go into Preferences and force it back to alphabetical order. But it makes me paranoid because I know it could flip again if another update does its thing. This is the type of detail that can kill search speed, not because you changed your habits, but because the software reinterpreted them without your consent. That subtle shift is honestly worse than a hard error message. At least with an error you know what broke.
Using saved searches instead of more tags
After burning out on too many tags, I started experimenting with Evernote’s saved searches. It works like this. You perform a search exactly the way you want (for example all notes tagged “finance” within the last year). Then you save it, and it becomes like a shortcut. No more typing that same query or adding new tags for each year. It shows up in the sidebar and takes one click.
This change made my tag system leaner. Instead of creating endless child tags like “tax2022,” “tax2023,” I just saved a search for “tag:tax created:2023” and another for “tag:tax created:2022.” Cleaner, faster, less to remember. And the best part, when the visual tag list goes haywire after an update, my saved searches stay where I pinned them.
If I’m being brutally honest, this is one of those things that felt like cheating at first, but now I barely touch the main tag list. Saved searches become their own kind of navigation system inside Evernote.
When Evernote mobile ignores tag logic
On desktop I can make tags feel almost tamed, but open Evernote on mobile and it’s a different world. Half the time the nested structure collapses completely, leaving me with a flat list of hundreds of tags. If I happen to forget the exact naming, scrolling that list feels like punishment. I sometimes have to think about which prefix letter I started it with, which completely defeats the original idea of tagging.
I once sat in my car waiting in a parking lot and trying to open a specific note tagged for reimbursements. On desktop it comes up in two seconds. On the phone, I had to pull up search, type the tag manually, then sort through a clump of notes that didn’t properly display the date filter. By the time I finally found it, ten minutes had passed. That was the day I promised myself never to overcomplicate tags again. You really notice these moments when you are away from your desk.
My current tag cleanup routine
Here’s how I keep my system under control now. About once a month, I open the tag management screen and scan for duplicates that look obviously redundant. I delete or merge them. If a tag only has one or two notes under it, I ask myself if it is worth keeping. Usually not. I then pick a small handful of anchors like “work,” “finance,” “personal,” and let those handle the majority of my organization. Everything else gets found with keywords or date filters.
Sometimes I also export a quick table in a note showing my top tags and how many notes fall underneath each. It functions like a dashboard. Example:
Tag name Approx number of notes
work around 70
finance about 40
personal around 25
taxes about 15
Seeing it laid out like that makes me ruthlessly clear out random experimental tags. Once cleaned, I notice searches return much faster and the stress of not remembering my own naming system fades a bit. It’s not perfect, but nothing in my workflows seems to stay perfect for very long anyway 🙂
Why your brain matters more than features
At the end of the day Evernote gives you more tools than you need. Nested tags, saved searches, stacks, and notebooks. What makes the biggest difference for speed is honestly just deciding what you personally can remember and repeating the same pattern. A tag system that looks sophisticated for two weeks but breaks in practice is not worth keeping. The workflow should feel natural in the middle of a messy day when you are juggling tabs, coffee cups, and whoever just pinged you on Slack. Because if it does not work then, it never really worked at all.