How to Take Notes on your Research

I wish I had a really great system that I loved . . . but not so much

I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while because taking notes for the books I’m writing has become the bane of my existence. No joke.

Way back in the day when I was in grad school, it was standard to use index cards to do research, taking notes on a single card for each topic. When I felt good about my dissertation research, for example, I had hundreds (thousands?) of individual notecards and there’s something appealing about that. I could shuffle them around physically, moving them into topics (chapters) and then arrange them in a logical way to prove my argument. It was tangible and, again, physical and I think my brain liked that. I could “see” my argument laid out on the floor, a large table, or even taped to a wall.

But now? In recent years, I’ve moved to taking notes digitally, but I’ve yet to find a system I’m really satisfied with. For years I used Roam Research, a pricey tool that links notes, and I thought I’d love it. I don’t—even though I have all the research I’ve done so far on a book lodged into it at the moment.

I’ve also been trying Obsidian (free) in the last month, using it to store all my research for a journal article I’ll be submitting later this month. It’s similar to Roam but also not. And I’m also not a huge fan.

I’ve even tried taking notes in Zotero, which is where I store my project’s bibliographies. That was totally unworkable because that’s not what Zotero is meant to do.

I think my brain is still in that “note card/index card” stage but also, I think brains do cement information better when things are written out longhand, which helps to explain why I’ve taken tons of notes digitally and yet, I can’t seem to remember any of that information. (Here’s the science that proves this.) This is a problem because how can I put those connections together when I can’t remember the information? In theory, Roam and Obsidian can both make those connections for me but it doesn’t seem to work for me the way I want it to—maybe I’m not linking things correctly when I’m taking the notes originally? I am used to just taking notes and then making those “links” later by shuffling cards around.

So what’s next for me? Go back to index cards? Persevere with the digital note-taking? Keep searching for a “better” note taking tool? Like trying Notion?

I’m not sure yet. If you have a system you love, I’d like to hear more about it.