Sign inJoin
1
3 Comments

How do you organize your research?

by Neea

Whether you are in the process of learning about some new industry of niche, or are already an expert in some, where or how do you organize your data?

  • Do you use software to do this? If yes, can you name the tools you use?
  • How do you keep your data up to date?
  • Do you even write any of this down, i.e. do you feel trying to organize your data requires more effort than is worth to have it organized?
  • Are you generally happy with your strategy?

I am currently studying a specific industry that is still relatively new to me. But as I am accumulating information, it becomes harder and harder to keep it organized so I am relying on my memory here, sometimes saving stuff on various social media channels; knowing that it approach is ineffective. What are you all doing?

Neea's avatarNeea
on July 28, 2019
Say something nice to neea…
Post Comment
  1. 2

    Hi @Neaa.
    Try working with a mindmap. I using for every research mindmap app.
    The popular app for mindmap is mindmeister, xmind or mindnode (this last is my favorite tool for mindmap at the moment).

    maburzynski's avatar maburzynski
    ·
    7 years ago
    ·
    Reply
    1. 1

      Thanks for reminding me about mindmaps! I used to make some in school (this was a loooong time ago). I will try your recommendations.

      Neea's avatar Neea
      ·
      7 years ago
      ·
      Reply
  2. 1

    So since I'm not getting any action on this topic and I would really like to hear your thoughts, let me start by commenting myself -- stack overflow style -- what I have tried so far:

    1. "Word" Docs

    Pros: I can write about anything, one central place to gather notes, free
    Cons: Not flexible for e.g. storing images; have to copy paste a lot; difficult to organize

    1. Local file system

    Pros: Can collect multiple files, different files in original format, free w/ high capacity
    Cons: hard to annotate, hard to find previously discovered info later, not cross platform

    1. Github Wiki

    Pros: Can add hyperlinks, images; have multiple pages, format text etc.
    Cons: Slow to edit; just navigating to the the right place takes time, would not even try to do this on a phone

    1. Commit to memory

    Pros: extremely flexible, high capacity storage space, free forever LOL
    Cons: Impossible to recover accurate data, have to memorize things, cannot share with other people

    1. Random scattered notes everywhere
      (This is what I do now where I have little bit of info here and there and I have to remember where I saved everything so I can reference it later)

    Pros: flexible, easy, can save anything
    Cons: does not scale, cannot share, this is just a mess strategy.

    ---
    What else is out there?

    Neea's avatar Neea
    ·
    7 years ago
    ·
    Reply