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2 years ago in Base Papers By Deepa S
How should I manage and organize my notes on dozens of base papers‑ I’m getting lost in PDFs and handwritten scraps.
I've read many important papers, but my notes are chaotic—different formats, locations, and levels of detail. I'm wasting time searching my own notes now. What's a systematic, sustainable note-taking workflow for a PhD?
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By Zimela Tokwe Answered 1 year ago
Chaotic notes are a major time sink. I recommend a centralized, searchable system. Use a reference manager like Zotero or Mendeley for PDFs and citations. For notes, I enforce a strict template per paper in a dedicated app like Obsidian, Notion, or even a well-structured Word doc. The template has: 1) Core problem addressed, 2) One-sentence contribution, 3) Key method/idea, 4) Strengths/Limitations (for my context), 5) Direct quotes (with page numbers), 6) Connections to 2-3 other papers. Use consistent tags (#theory, #method, #critique). This turns your notes into a query-able knowledge graph. Spend 30 minutes per paper on this; it saves hours later during writing.
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