Are you registered for a bunch of services and utilities that you get eStatements, or eBills for? I recently switch phone companies and elected to get a PDF bill each month sent to me via email (email is so much easier to track and organize than paper… urgh… I hate paper). Today I received my first statement from them via email and, I couldn’t have down what I’ve done in the past when I receive a PDF via email that I want to keep safe and download it, then add it to a new note in Evernote, but instead, I took what would have been a repeatable task and automated it.
Here’s how I now get my eStatements delivered directly to my Evernote inbox using Gmail.
1. Setup Evernote As a Forwarding Email
First, you need to set up your Gmail to be able to forward to your Evernote email address. It’s actually really easy to do and you only need to do this once, no matter how many eStatements you want to get into Evernote.
In Gmail, go to Mail Settings under the cog in the top right corner.
Then find the ‘Forwarding and POP/IMAP’ tab and click the ‘Add a forwarding address’ button.
Gmail will then ask you to enter the email address you want to forward things to. This is where you enter your Evernote email address. To find your Evernote email address, click on the ‘Current Monthly Usage’ bar inside Evernote. You’ll see a screen like the one below. Copy and paste (or type) the email address under ‘Email notes to’ into the box that appeared in Gmail, then hit Next.
Gmail will send an email to that email address to confirm you own it. Wait for it to appear in your Evernote Inbox and follow the instructions to validate.
2. Find the Email
Now that your Evernote email address is tied to your Gmail account, open your Gmail account and open your eStatement email. Then, click on ‘More’ at the top and then ‘Filter messages like these’.
Gmail will open an advanced search popup. Just click on ‘Create filter with this search’, you don’t need to change anything else on this screen.
3. Create the Filter
Now we getting to the good bit. On the filter setup screen, tick ‘Forward it to’ and then select your Evernote email address from the dropdown list. You can set up any other rules you want to at the same time, just as long as that forwarding option is ticked. You don’t have to tick the same options as I have, this is just my personal preference.
And that’s it! Now, the next time you receive an eStatement, it will also automatically appear in your Evernote Inbox. If you have other eStatements you’d like to send to Evernote, just repeat the above from Step 2.
Using Daniel Golds methods in his unofficial guide to getting things done with Evernote, I monitor my Evernote Inbox and something new turns up I tag and file it. For me, I tag it with ‘bill’ and ‘todo’ and then move it into the folder for bills of that type. You can also use saved searches to easily find any bills you have that need to be paid.
Have you setup a cool way to get things into Evernote automatically? Share your methods in the comments! If you’d like to know more about how to be productive with Evernote, I highly recommend Daniel Golds eBook. It puts the potential of Evernote at your fingertips.
