Organizing Notion After Evernote Migration: 4 Simple Steps

Table of Contents

• The Mental Shift: Notion Setup for Former Evernote Users
• Step 1: Processing the “Import Dump” (Tactical Guide)
• Step 2: How to Replace Evernote Tags in Notion
• Step 3: Best Notion Templates for Knowledge Management
• Step 4: Maintaining the System (Avoiding the mess again)
• Conclusion

The Mental Shift: Notion Setup for Former Evernote Users

You hit the “Import” button. You waited. And now, you’re staring at it.

For thousands of former Evernote users, the immediate visceral reaction to the “Evernote Import” page isn’t relief—it’s dread. Instead of a clean slate, you face a scrolling, undifferentiated mass of content. Meeting notes from three years ago sit adjacent to archived recipes; random web clippings are mixed in with vital project PDFs. It looks like someone took a filing cabinet and dumped it upside down on the floor.

If you feel paralyzed, you aren’t alone. The migration feels messy because of a fundamental architectural clash. Evernote is a Digital Filing Cabinet, designed for rigid storage where things live in one specific place. Notion is Digital LEGO, designed for infinite construction where things live wherever you build a view for them.

The “easy import” button technically transfers your data, but it fails to translate your organizational intent. It leaves you with thousands of unstructured files in a single folder.

This is your roadmap out of that folder. Organizing Notion after Evernote migration requires a mental shift from “moving files” to “building systems.” Instead of manually sorting 10,000 notes, we are going to use a Triage Methodology and 2025-era AI features to turn that chaos into a functional Operating System.

Before moving a single note, you need to stop thinking like an actuary and start thinking like an architect. The habits that kept you organized in Evernote are exactly what will make Notion feel broken.

Notebooks vs. Databases

In Evernote, a “Notebook” is a static container. It holds notes in a linear list. If you wanted to see a note in the “Marketing” notebook, you had to go to that specific notebook.

In Notion, “Databases” are dynamic engines. They don’t just hold content; they display it based on context. This is the “Aha!” moment for most displaced power users: Stop creating a page for every “Notebook.”

Instead, you need to create a Master Database (often called a “Second Brain” or “Knowledge Hub”). In this system, the context of a note is defined by its properties, not its location.

The Comparison:

Why this matters:
Imagine an article titled “The Future of AI in HR.”

• In Evernote: You have to decide—does this go in the HR Notebook or the Tech Trends Notebook? You might duplicate it to put it in both.
• In Notion: It lives in one Master Database. You tag it with “Topic: AI” and “Project: Talent Strategy.” Now, that single note appears simultaneously in your “Technology Dashboard” and your “HR Project Hub” without ever being duplicated.

The “Inbox” Concept

Here is the most critical rule of your migration: Do not organize inside the Import folder.

Treat the Import folder strictly as a “Cold Storage” archive. If you try to fix the formatting and tags of 5,000 notes inside that folder, you will burn out in a week.

Unlike Evernote, which often forced a default notebook on you, Notion requires you to build a designated “Inbox”. This is a specific database view or page where new ideas land before they are processed. Your goal is to move items from the Import folder to your new system intentionally, leaving the junk behind.

Step 1: Processing the “Import Dump” (Tactical Guide)

You have 5,000+ notes. You do not need to process all of them. In fact, trying to do so is the primary cause of migration failure.

The Triage Method (Archive vs. Active)

For the vast majority of knowledge workers, your library follows the 15/30/55 Rule:

• 15% Active: Projects you are working on right now (last 30 days).
• 30% Reference: Templates, core research, and evergreen data you look up monthly.
• 55% Cold Storage: Old meeting notes, finished projects, and “someday” clippings.

The Strategy:
Create a new page called “Archive [Year]” and drag the bulk of your import folder there. Yes, just move it. Your focus must be on moving only the Active Projects to your new workspace to maintain momentum.

Pro Tip: You do not need to organize the Cold Storage. Notion’s search is powerful enough to find that invoice from 2019 without it being in a specific folder. Use Cmd/Ctrl + P (or check our Notion Shortcuts Guide for advanced queries) to retrieve old content from the archive rather than browsing through nested folders.

Using Notion AI to Clean Up

Back in 2022, you had to manually read every note to know what to do with it. In 2025, we have leverage.

Summarization for Decision Making
If you have folders full of clipped articles or long PDFs, use Notion AI to generate summaries. Select a batch of notes and ask AI to “Summarize in one sentence.” This allows you to rapidly scan a list and decide: Is this still relevant? If the summary sounds outdated, delete or archive it immediately.

Extraction for Actionability
Old meeting notes are notoriously messy. When you transfer “Active” meeting notes to your new system, use Notion AI to automatically extract Action Items, Owners, and Deadlines. This transforms static text into actionable database properties, turning a dead record of a meeting into a live task list.

Step 2: How to Replace Evernote Tags in Notion

Evernote’s tagging system was its superpower. Notion can replicate it, but you have to choose your complexity level.

Select Properties vs. Master Tag Database

Method A: The “Multi-select” Property (Simple)
For 90% of users, this is enough. Create a property in your database called “Tags” (Type: Multi-select).

• Best for: Status (To Do / Done), Type (Article / Meeting), or broad categories (Personal / Work).
• Pros: Fast, easy setup, no maintenance.
• Cons: You can’t nest them or add descriptions to the tags themselves.

Method B: The Global Tag Database (Advanced)
If you are a power user who misses Evernote’s nested tags, you need a separate database called “Tags.”

• How it works: Create a “Relation” property in your Master Database that links to your “Tags” database.
• The Payoff: You can click on the “Productivity” tag page and see every note, project, and task linked to it across your entire workspace.
• Recommendation: Start with Method A. Only migrate to Method B if you find the system unmanageable after 3–6 months. Over-engineering your tags on Day 1 is a trap.

Solving the “Orphaned Tags” Issue

Imports often break tags. They turn into useless text strings in titles (e.g., “Meeting Notes #ProjectAlpha”) or separate page links that don’t function as properties.

The Fix:

1. Create a Table view of your imported notes.
2. Filter for titles containing “#”.
3. Select all affected notes.
4. Use Notion’s “Edit Property” feature to batch-assign the correct Multi-select value to all of them at once.

Tooling Alert: If you have a library with 1,000+ complex tags, the native importer might struggle. Third-party tools like enex2notion often handle property mapping more intelligently, preserving your metadata better than the standard import button.

Step 3: Best Notion Templates for Knowledge Management

You don’t need to invent a system from scratch. Two major frameworks dominate the Notion landscape because they solve the “blank canvas” problem effectively.

Recommended Frameworks (PARA & Zettelkasten)

1. The PARA Method
Created by Tiago Forte, this is the gold standard for Evernote refugees. It provides just enough structure to replace Stacks without sacrificing Notion’s flexibility.

• Projects: Active goals with a deadline (e.g., “Website Redesign”).
• Areas: Ongoing responsibilities (e.g., “Health,” “Finances”).
• Resources: Topics of interest (e.g., “Coding,” “Cooking”).
• Archives: Inactive items.

2. Zettelkasten
This method is superior for researchers and writers who prioritize linking atomic ideas over hierarchical filing. It leverages Notion’s “Backlinks” feature to connect thoughts organically.

Building Your Own “Home Base”

Evernote gave you a “Home” screen. Notion gives you a blank page. You need to build a Dashboard to reduce visual overwhelm.

Your “Home” should not be a list of all your notes. It should be a cockpit.

• Pinned Databases: Links to your “Inbox” and “Current Projects.”
• Recent Notes: A “Linked View” of your Master Database filtered by “Last Edited Time” (Ascending).
• Today’s Tasks: A view of your tasks filtered by “Date is Today.”

This creates a central hub that surfaces active workstreams immediately. You stop searching for what to do and start doing it.

Step 4: Maintaining the System (Avoiding the mess again)

You’ve cleaned up the past. Now you need to protect the future.

The Web Clipper Alternative

Let’s be honest: Evernote’s Web Clipper was legendary. Notion’s native clipper has improved, but it often dumps content generically. If you clip a recipe, you want it tagged as “Recipe” and “To Cook,” not just dumped into a list.

The Solution: Use the “Save to Notion” browser extension (or its latest 2025 equivalents).

Why it wins:
It allows for Property Pre-population. You can create a form specifically for “Articles.” When you clip a page:

1. It automatically sets the “Status” property to “To Review.”
2. It sets the “Type” property to “Web Clip.”
3. It maps the URL to your “Source” property.

The Workflow:
Configure the extension to map inputs directly to your “Inbox” database. This ensures new captures are categorized immediately rather than piling up. You effectively bypass the “sorting” phase entirely.

Conclusion

Migration is a marathon, not a sprint. The 90-day timeline suggests spending the first weeks just on triage before you even think about finalizing your architecture.

The goal is not to replicate Evernote’s rigid structure. If you try to force Notion to act like a filing cabinet, you will hate it. The goal is to build a system optimized for action where content is retrieved by context (properties), not location (folders).

Organizing Notion after Evernote migration is your opportunity to audit your digital life. Leave the clutter in the archive. Take only what serves you.

Don’t let your knowledge gather dust. Download our “Migration Triage Checklist” or duplicate our recommended PARA starter template below to start organizing today.

Frequently Asked Questions