I’ve got several ideas for new research projects I want to pursue, but am feeling all over the map right now. I’m looking up a wide range of different topics, jotting notes in multiple notebooks and trying, of course, to fit this in amongst my other work such as course prep and admin stuff. I sometimes only have a few minutes a day to work on these projects and, inevitably, I return to my notes after spending the day doing something else and thinking “what was I going to do here?.” I’ve got scraps of paper in my laptop bag, notebooks full of scribbles in my on-campus office, post-it notes all over my home office and inter-library loan material in the car. It’s a mess! In short, I need to get a system to keep myself on track! It was so much simpler when I was writing my dissertation. I had one project, one work space and one goal. Even if I fell into a few days of procrastination I still knew where all my materials were, where I’d left off and what direction I was going in with the research/writing. I didn’t realize at the time what a luxury that was!
Anyhow, I have been thinking for a while about how I would like a piece of software to manage my random thoughts and jots. I have heard wonderful things about Scrivener, but it is only for Macs. I don’t have a Mac and I don’t want a Mac, but I really, really want Scrivener! If I end up with a Mac sometime in the near future it will be entirely because my desire for Scrivener has taken over. We’re not there yet though, and I’m holding out hope that I can find a comparable PC product. I’ve tried out Writer’s Café which seems like it might do the trick. I’ve also just downloaded Liquid Story Binder which also looks like it would be good. Liquid Story Binder appears to have a few more bells & whistles which may or may not be a good thing depending on the time it takes to learn how to use it.
Anyone have any other suggestions for a PC user who needs to get organized?
