Tag Archives: organize

Organize Tasks and Information

Published April 7, 2022 / by Latia Ward

Just as one should organize a physical office space, one should also organize the creation and use of digital information.

Office with desk and chair. There is a book case on the desk. Loose papers and bound papers are all over the book case and desk space. Papers appear haphazardly placed on the desk and other items such as a coffee mug, rulers, and small items fill all space on the cluttered desk.
BEFORE
Office with desk and chair. There is a book case on the desk. There are storage bins, a filing cabinet, and books neatly arranged on the book case.
AFTER

Before: “my formerly cluttered desk” by EvelynGiggles is marked with CC BY 2.0.

After: “totally organized office” by EvelynGiggles is marked with CC BY 2.0.

Multiple web-based tools exist for organizing tasks and information. As any efficient researcher knows, organizing information is just as important as gathering information. In this blog post, I provide an overview of resources for time management, collaboration, and research. Some resources are free, some resources are freemium, and some resources are fee-based. Inclusion in this blog post does not imply my endorsement. These resources are included for information purposes. Evaluate them to see which ones work for you.

Resources for Time Management

Both Outlook and iCloud have well-known calendar apps. However, there are others such as Any.do and OneCalendar. Any.do is a calendar that works with mobile devices and on the web. It integrates with Google Calendar, iCloud, Outlook, and more. OneCalendar is a calendar that works on mobile devices and on desktops that have Microsoft Windows 10 and 11 or a Mac operating system. Workflowy is an app that allows users to create a to-do list in outline form and then cross items off the list.

The Pomodoro Method as envisioned by Francesco Cirillo is a time-based plan in which people spend four sets of 25 minutes working. There is a break of 5 minutes after the first three 25 minute periods. After the fourth 25 minute period, they take a 15 minute break.

Any timer may be aligned with the Pomodoro timeframe or web-based (or app-based) timers may be used. Marinaratimer, Pomofocus, and TomatoTimer are three web-based timers that adhere to the Pomodoro Method.

Cold Turkey is an app that allows users to block apps, websites, and games on their computers for fixed periods of time.

Resources for Collaboration

When groups think about creating documents together, Google Docs and Microsoft Word often come to mind. However, there are other apps such as Zoho Writer. Microsoft, Google, and Zoho also offer web-based tools for creating presentation slides and spreadsheets. Also note Padlet which allows users to create boards of images and lists and share them with others. Petra Hillebrand has created a board entitled Padlet Apps and Plugins. RiseUp’s Pad allows users to create lists on the web and does not store IP addresses. Within Slack, users may create teams and send each other messages and documents through the platform.

Resources for Research

Reference Managers allow you to save webpages, documents, and more to a folder or other file and will automatically generate citations. Three popular reference managers include Zotero, Juris M, and EndNote. All of these reference managers allow users to add the bibliographic information of items manually or automatically through a browser extension or by typing in search terms. PowerNotes is a tool for highlighting information from websites and then automatically generating an outline.

Last year, I published a more detailed blog post on reference managers entitled #Organize Your #Research with Note-Taking Apps and Reference Managers. In that post, I included a link to my comparison chart of Evernote, OneNote, Mendeley, and Zotero.

Organizing both tasks and information is important. Keep track of the resources and methods that you use to organize your tasks and information. Again, review which resources and methods align with your work flow.

#Organize Your #Research with Note-Taking Apps and Reference Managers

Published January 5, 2021 / by Latia Ward
An open book on a table is surrounded by closed books.
“Open Book Policy” by Alex E. Proimos is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Whether one is writing a research paper, speech, studying for a class, compiling a list of articles and books for a book club, or creating a shared bibliography of resources, reference managers and note-taking applications (or apps) are useful in the research process. Before the research process became digital, a researcher may have used a note-card system for keeping track of references and their citations.1 Note-taking apps and reference managers help researchers organize research materials and references by topic, author, date, or other characteristics that a researcher may find important. With these digital resources, researchers can keep all of their digital research in one place. In this blog post, I provide an overview of two note-taking apps: OneNote and Evernote and two reference managers: Zotero and Mendeley. 

First, let’s begin with definitions. A note-taking application allows users to type or use a stylus to create notes that are born digital. These notes may be exported in various formats and into email. Also, a user may scan documents into the app. A reference manager allows for the automatic or manual importing of sources into the reference manager. There is an option to add the full-text, screenshot, etc. of a source. The reference manager will automatically generate a citation in a standard citation style for the reference, however, researchers may still need to edit the citation to make sure that it is formatted properly. Users may import and export the bibliographic information of these references in a variety of formats. 

Evernote and OneNote allow users to create notes, organize notes into notebooks, share notes and notebooks with others, and import a variety of file formats. Both Evernote and OneNote are web-based, however, they both have applications for smartphones and desktop computers. Users who want more information how to begin using Evernote may visit Evernote’s official YouTube channel for tutorials and review Evernotes help and learning webpages. Microsoft has provided a series of video tutorials on OneNote in addition to a short guide on how to create a notebook. OneNote and Evernote have a lot of features in common (notes, notebooks, and tags), however users who prefer to use a stylus to take notes may prefer OneNote.2

Reference managers such as Mendeley and Zotero allow researchers automatically to import items such as webpages, journal articles from databases, citations to books from WorldCat.org, and other sources. When the reference managers import an item, they obtain the bibliographic information from the item such as title, author name, date created, etc. and create a record for that item. Users may choose a citation style and export a citation for one item or an entire list of works cited. Zotero allows users automatically to insert citations  into Word, Google Docs, and Libre Office. Mendeley allows users automatically to insert citations  into Word.  Both Mendeley and Zotero allow users to add notes to items. While Mendeley has an app for smartphones, Zotero does not. However, Papership is an app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that researchers may use to connect to their Zotero or Mendeley accounts to import items into Zotero or Mendeley. Mendeley has help guides and a support center on its website and Zotero provides documentation with instructions on how to use its features. Researchers who are looking for a reference manager that is geared toward legal information, may use Jurism, which has a user interface which is similar to that of Zotero yet has additional features for citing legal information and foreign language materials.  In 2019, I created a LibGuide entitled Zotero for Legal References, in which I provide an overview of how to add a collection, style, and item to Zotero in addition to useful tips. The University of Colorado Boulder University Libraries has published a user-friendly chart of steps on how to install Zotero and Jurism in a LibGuide entitled Multilingual Reference Management. Boston University Law Libraries notes 3 Ways to Use Lexis & Westlaw with Zotero which is based on the Zotero Research Guide created by Jason Puckett at Georgia State University Library.

When researchers are taking notes, generating citations, or looking for a place to store digital copies of journal articles in an organized way, reference managers and note-taking apps can be of use. These resources allow for the organization of information and the automatic creation of reference lists. I have created a comparison chart of the features of Evernote, OneNote, Mendeley, and Zotero as well as Resources for Organizing Research.

Endnotes

  1. Gallaudet University provides an explanation of the Note Card System at its website.
  2. Griffin Sander has posted a video to YouTube comparing the features of OneNote and Evernote.