Alright, so let me start by saying that I am not a naturally organized person. In grad school you have to be organized or you die. It's really that simple. So, naturally, I realized I needed a system of organization; I didn't want to die. I didn't want just any system though, I wanted a robust, efficient system that could archive my knowledge forever, and be accessible from anywhere using any device. The first decision: making the switch to digital notes. I made the switch to digital note taking because:
|
Creating a workflow My workflow consists of four main tasks:
|
The workflow
Evernote is the bread and butter of my workflow. It organizes and indexes all of material, including PDFs, audio recordings and web clippings. It's my second brain. I chose Evernote because of it's cloud syncing abilities and powerful search tools. It can recognize any type of writing, including handwriting and scanned documents. | Zotero is my reference manager. What organization apps like Evernote and One Note lack are robust reference managers. With Zotero, I can simply drag & drop my PDFs and auto-generate citations in any format. Zotero has the ability to create folders and tag articles as well, so you can stay organized. | Zotero and Evernote each have handy Firefox extensions. The Evernote extension allows you to save entire web pages, while the Zotero one I use to auto-generate and index citations of peer-reviewed articles. Also Firefox is awesome because it is open source. | LectureNotes is my note taking app of choice for lectures. I can import PDFs of my lectures and take notes while I record audio of the lecture. It also has one-click exporting to Evernote, which is super handy. |
Zotfile is an integral part of my workflow. It's an add-on for Zotero that aids in automation. It auto-imports PDFs into Zotero and allows you to specify a folder for which you can one-click export PDFs. When this is used with a cloud service such as Dropbox, you can access your referenced PDFs anywhere. | Dropbox allows further automation in my workflow. By setting the ZotFile location folder to a Dropbox folder, I can effectively use any device with Dropbox to import PDFs automatically into Evernote, thanks in part to Hazel and a simple AppleScrip (see below).. | Hazel is a niffy little app that allows you to set rules and conditions on specific folders. So for example, if you wanted to automatically index a file to a specific folder based on the name of the file, then Hazel could do that. It can also be set to execute a script anytime a file is imported into a folder, which is what I have done. | I use Preview to annotate and take notes directly on my PDFs. I originally liked the app Skim (OSX), but it's drawback was that in order for my annotations to save, I had to re-export the PDF. With preview I don't have to export, I can simply save, and my annotations will be visible across any PDF reader, including within Evernote. |
Getting Zotero to talk to Evernote
The trickiest part of my workflow was getting Zotero to integrate with Evernote. As I hint at above, I use a combination of Zotfile, Dropbox, Hazel and an AppleScript to get the two apps to work together, with one-click.
Here is how I do it:
Here is how I do it:
- Install ZotFile, Dropbox, Hazel (or any app that allows you to set a folder action).
- Set the ZotFile location setting to a dropbox folder. E.g. I have a folder in Dropbox called "Zotero" that I point to.
- Set Hazel to the following settings.
- Now edit the AppleScript using the following script. E.g. I have my script set to import any files in my Zotero Dropbox folder to a notebook in Evernote called "Zotero Import" as well as tag the file "^journal". You can edit the script as you see fit.
- To get the script to run, you simply right-click on any parent item in Zotero > manage attachments > rename. It looks like this.
My tagging system in Evernote
Evernote allows you to organize by stacks and notebooks (think folder and sub-folder) as well as by tags. Tags can be really powerful. Early on you will want to come up with an organization system that makes sense to you.
For me, I have a stack called "University of Arizona" that then has a notebook for each of my classes. I also have a pretty organized tagging system:
! denotes the university from which the information pertains
* denotes the class to which the information pertains (e.g. paleoclimate)
. denotes the section of the class for which the information pertains (e.g. "reading" = class reading; ".lecture" = class lecture)
^ denotes the medium of information (e.g. ^journal = source from peer-reviewed journal)
# denotes the subject to which the information pertains (e.g. #oceanacidification = ocean acidification)
Here are what my tags look like.
For me, I have a stack called "University of Arizona" that then has a notebook for each of my classes. I also have a pretty organized tagging system:
! denotes the university from which the information pertains
* denotes the class to which the information pertains (e.g. paleoclimate)
. denotes the section of the class for which the information pertains (e.g. "reading" = class reading; ".lecture" = class lecture)
^ denotes the medium of information (e.g. ^journal = source from peer-reviewed journal)
# denotes the subject to which the information pertains (e.g. #oceanacidification = ocean acidification)
Here are what my tags look like.
An example of my workflow
Here is an example of my workflow to give you a better idea of how it functions.
Let's say I am reading this article in the journal Nature Climate Change.
A. I need to get the PDF into Zotero so I can generate a citation for my thesis. I can do this in two ways:
Let's say I am reading this article in the journal Nature Climate Change.
A. I need to get the PDF into Zotero so I can generate a citation for my thesis. I can do this in two ways:
- Use the Zotero Firefox extension and simply click the "Save to Zotero" button. This will save the PDF of the article into whatever collection (folder) I have open in Zotero, and automatically generate the citation (see here). At the same time, Zotfile moves the PDF into the dropbox folder, activating the AppleScript, which then imports the PDF into Evernote.
- I could manually download the PDF, and then drag the PDF into Zotero. I will then have to right-click on the PDF to generate the citation. To the export using Zotfile, I have to click on the parent item of the PDF > manage attachments > rename, and then the file will export to the Dropbox folder, executing the AppleScript via Hazel, which then imports the PDF into Evernote. Using this method (#2) is more redundant and inifiiceint.
Future Improvements
The biggest inefficiency in my workflow right now is when I import into Evernote from Zotero. I have to manually move the imports into the correct notebook and then add tags myself. However, I have found an app that can potentially solve this. It is called Paperless, and it is essentially a script that can scan any document and match conditions you set, then import and tag that file. Check it out here.
Copying the notelink (from Evernote) to Zotero is the only missing piece of the puzzle that I do not know how to solve. I know the method to do this will be via AppleScript, but I do not know how to call up the most recent document in Zotero and paste to it. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.
In the future I would love to move to an all open source workflow. However, Evernote and its cross-platform apps, as well as the web-clipper and OCR search feature make it the current cream of the crop. But last night I stumbled upon an app by the name of Paperworks that looks promising. It is still relatively early on in its development, but it looks pretty and offers encryption. Read about why it was created on Reddit and checkout the homepage for it too.
Copying the notelink (from Evernote) to Zotero is the only missing piece of the puzzle that I do not know how to solve. I know the method to do this will be via AppleScript, but I do not know how to call up the most recent document in Zotero and paste to it. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.
In the future I would love to move to an all open source workflow. However, Evernote and its cross-platform apps, as well as the web-clipper and OCR search feature make it the current cream of the crop. But last night I stumbled upon an app by the name of Paperworks that looks promising. It is still relatively early on in its development, but it looks pretty and offers encryption. Read about why it was created on Reddit and checkout the homepage for it too.