Warriors, How DO YOU stay organized with Research???

My tip is I outsource it to my husband

We both use Zotero which is a great tool

Thanks David. I will look at source forge.

Mind maps are interesting. Bizan's imindmap is gorgeous but expensive.

By far the best. I believe we will se more interactive (link rich) mind maps in the future of info products.

Outsourcing is indeed a good alternative, but when your just starting out you could just use notepad or word. A great tool (but a bit expensive) is market samurai, it does a great job and you'll be way faster done with the research.

I used google docs when I was starting out. It was free and it had everything I needed, a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, to do list, and much more. It made things really nice until I could afford some of the other options out here.

Hi Chris,

In regards to tools:

There's a free suite of cgi scripts called Extropia that you can install on your server and keep everything web based. You can use them for several things like prioritizing tasks, setting deadlines, calendars, brainstorming, keeping notes, address book, storing resources, keeping organized, etc. It is a cross between a directory and a search engine and you can easily post to it. I almost always am able to find what I am looking for in 10 seconds or less. I customized each script to my liking and also created new ones for keeping track of other projects. It is password protected and it has been a huge time saver for me. It does take some technical savvy to set up though.

I also recently installed free PHPBB forum script on my server just for my eyes only, for jotting down ideas, brainstorming and gathering resources. It is also web based and password protected. It seems to be working really well so far. Of course, the way it works is almost exactly how the Warrior Forum is set up to work and I can post and almost instantly find whatever I am looking for on PHPBB also. It is a forum just for ME tho. I set it up so nobody else can see my posts or join. (I set Extropia up that way also.) PHPBB does take a little bit of work to get it set up just how you want it. After that it's easy and almost effortless.

Another really cool solution I also just found for the PC (for those who are non-techy) that does really well for taking notes, storing research and prioritizing to do lists and setting deadlines so you remain organized is free software called Tolon NoteKeeper. The cool part is that you can store and group many folder trees and notes and images (and subfolders and subnotes) into a single file and group them however you want. Bottom line, everything is saved to one file and you only have to worry about saving and backing up that one file with this software. It's this one file that contains all the files you create. NoteKeeper makes it incredibly easy to organize and keep track of everything. Very cool how it's set up and it's incredibly simple to use. Of course, I personally prefer a web based solution over PC based software, but this Tolon NoteKeeper seems to work really well for the PC and I was very impressed with the quality of this freebie software. imo, definitely worth checking into if you're still just using notepad and saving files to various folders strewn all around on your computer and you want a better system that is easy to implement and quicker to find what you are looking for.

I haven't tried the mind map software yet, but I have heard a lot of good things about it and have put it on my "to do list" for things to try.

Mark

i am useing Notepad but hard to keep track

I use spreadsheets to keep track of my projects. I'm a huge list-maker, and I like how it's super easy to make and customise lists with Excel. I have one 'master' spreadsheet with details of my own domains (IP address, expiry date, monetisation methods etc), & other properties such as free blogs, and my overall goals and plans. Plus others listing the various sources I use to build backlinks, and the accounts I have with these. Then each site has its own collection of spreadsheets, the number depending on how deeply I'm going into that niche. For example, my main site, which is going to be huge, has spreadsheets for each subniche, to keep track of products I'm promoting as an affiliate in each section (as well as new merchants/products I might want to promote), my affiliate links and tracking IDs, the urls of articles I've written for the site and various directories, a record of backlinks I've built, a page for random brainstorming and that kind of thing. I also have a main spreadsheet for the site as a whole, which covers my general plans for the site, login details for accounts specific to that site (article directories, support blogs, bookmarking accounts, affiliate accounts etc) & other general stuff.

Then there are many more spreadsheets for keyword research, with data that I've imported from the Google tool & other tools I use, as well as downloads of keywords from my visitor stats. I also have text files with bits of code that I've used for modifying my sites that I want to keep track of for future re-use in other projects. And I write all my articles in Word (never directly into Wordpress/article directory interfaces). Then I have a folder in My Documents on my PC for business-related stuff, with folders for all of my sites, which in turn contain all these documents. It might sound confusing, but my system is very logical (to me anyway!)

Basically, my business totally depends on Excel

I use Google Documents for storing everything. Market Samurai for keeping track of research on topics.

I use spreadsheets for creating lists of all my important logins, client lists, etc.

I use documents for keeping track of notes I cut from websites, articles, and other sources during research.

I then sort everything into folders, to keep it easy to find.

The other huge advantage is I can ALWAYS find things, since it is just a simple search away, even if I misfiled it.

I use shared folders in Google to keep my ongoing projects shared with clients. (Just started doing this, works really well.)

I prefer using Google Docs, simply because it is everywhere I have internet access. Doesn't matter which laptop I have with me, or even if I'm sitting down briefly at a family member's PC, it is always at my fingertips.

For safety, I will on occasion go through the offline option to get a copy of everything moved to an external USB drive.

Find what tool/s work best for you. There are tons of tools out there but you need to only pick the best ones. For me, I only use two tools for management: 1. Producteev for my work schedule and tracking and 2. MS Excel to organize my files in blueprint format

What I also do is to list down my everyday tasks and make sure each task is done at the end of the day/due date.

Self-discipline is also another important factor to get organized.

As for me, Google Docs/Sheets and MS Word help a lot! I also outsource to have a helping hand in gathering info, research and storing vital info.

Hi Chris,

I could probably write a whole book on this topic but I will try to make it a bit shorter. Looking a couple of years back I was the most unorganized person you could possibly imagine. Only after multiple disasters I realised that the lack of structure might be one of my core problems. Over the past years I found different tools that helped me personally to stay organized and boost productivity.

1: Google Drive
Instead of having a million folders on a hard drive I now store all my documents / bills / notes in the cloud. Everything is perfectly structured and every document / file has it's very own place.
The strucutre might look as followed:
- Personal or Business
- if business: Project a / b
- if Project b: Bills / Content / Ideas / Whatever
- If Bill: by whom? - When?

And so on and so on.

Evernote:
When I do research or studying I take notes in evernote. Once everything is organised and well researched I lay it down in the right folder in my google drive.

Staying organized while working on a task:
We all know that feeling.. We have to finish an urgent task but literally everything is more interesting that the task in hand. On those days I found the Pomodoro technique very usefull. It's basically short time increments that force you to really really focus on the given task without any distractions such as your mobile / facebook / instagram. If you google it, you will find a detailed explanation on the benefits and how to apply it.

Getting all your projects / taks in one place:
Especially when you're involved in more than one project it's sometimes hard to keep on top of everything. One thing I found incredibly usefull is Podio. It allows you to interact with colleagues and you can keep all your taks (even for multiple projects) in one place. It's free - I highly reccommend taking a look at it.

I hope that helps! All the best
Thore

Not easy. But if you automate some of your processes using your tool's API that can save you THAT MUCH time!

I'm uing Google Spreadsheets to gather various types of information about domains and keywords using Serpstat's API, for example, after I switched from SEMrush's API which is too price these days.

I miss Lotus Agenda, but if you're looking for good way to organize data I can't think of a better program than Airtable.

Here's a link to an introductory video (not an affiliate link):

https://vimeo.com/album/4261221/video/174885512