NTNerd

Basically just copy-paste the citation form of all sources I ever read into the Master Biblio document. It works better when you are more consistent about it ........ ?
As for the master reading notes, I guess it's more like a master thought-notes. It's where my impressions of reading materials go when they don't belong in any current writing project. In other words, if I am reading something to find a citation to include in something I am actively writing, I inevitably find other interesting material in the manuscript that is not useful for my present projects, so I will take those extraneous quotes or my reactions/impressions and put them in the master notes document along with title, author and page.

Mmmm. You raise some good points that I must consider, as my tower of papyri (hah! get it?!) begins to loom magnificently overhead........

In my opinion, this is the time to overhaul PhD programs in the field. Even before the pandemic few of us were getting tenure-track jobs. Nowadays--and I suspect this won't change much in the next five years, if ever completely revert to pre-pandemic times--basically no one is getting a job. telkanuru is right on both accounts. Top programs are not dealing with reality, at least the reality facing nearly all PhD grads, no matter program ranking. These programs exist in institutions with excess. And I can't really blame those departments. If I was faculty at UVA I would be happy to continue on the way things have been for decades, regardless of whether tenure-track jobs have trickled to nearly zero. I would also be happy, as all R1 departments are right now, to train my doctoral students for jobs that don't exist and to continue enforcing the idea that a PhD in religion/et sim. is only meant--only really matters--if it prepares you for those jobs that no longer exist. 

I also have a few "master" notes/bibliography documents: e.g. I have a master secondary sources bibliography for my dissertation (word document) and also use Endnote online, which is split up into different research groups. I other documents for ancient sources: e.g. what editions I follow, citation methods (for authors like Galen this is essential), etc. Other documents record phenomena of potential interest down the road (I work in papyrology, so e.g. I have a document recording sigla of interest in papyri I encounter).
I must say in response to jujubea that I am not envious of all that physical paper-collecting! I tried something similar for a few years and ended up with more than was feasible to manage. Not only that, but I made more mistakes--juggling multiple books side by side, attempting to keep them flat with multiple weights(!). I much prefer scanning everything, reading and annotating on my ipad with ipencil (which automatically saves and takes the place of the pdf on my computer) and then doing my juggling electronically. I have 4 monitors, so that helps as well, but I find myself making less mistakes and checking references far faster. Plus, you can OCR documents/books after scanned and then search text for keywords, which is a great benefit for those many books without (good) indices.
cheers

Re: timing and time organization:
For my first year or two I just swam as hard as I could as long as I could and didn't really take any time or days off until I collapsed. I could handle about a year of that and should have stopped then. Now, I make sure I have one full day off from all responsibilities every week. It changes according to the timing of each term's teaching and studying responsibilities. I feel this is enough for me, and sometimes even find myself working on schoolwork anyway because I am interested. But the point is you have at least one day every week where you are "allowed" to feel no pressure to do anything other than what you want to do, including being a lazy ass and sleeping all day. It is fun when this single day happens in the middle of the week, because everything is less busy out and about. 
For splitting coursework/research interests, I figure out how long coursework is going to take each week, and I figure out which time of day and timing works best for me to complete my coursework (this actually took me over a year to figure out). For example, certain types of work I do better in the evening; certain types of work I do better in the morning. I prefer to knock out a single course's coursework for the week in one chunk of time if I can, but you may be the type who likes to work on something a little bit every day, it really depends on you. In my program, it is more common to let your research suffer in order to do well in classes, since your performance in them makes an impact on the faculty. I am able to let my adviser(s) know I have x-amount of a course load and my writing/research will increase/decrease accordingly that term. I never get any flak for it. 
I like to have a combination of structure and flexibility, so after establishing class hours, office hours, etc., I schedule one or two multi-hour blocks each week that are solely for working on my own research, and then I schedule half the amount of time needed for homework, and then set aside several more hours that is for "academic work" generally that I can fill in however I want, whether that's more homework, more research, etc. 
As for keeping up languages, I have heard of people doing things like setting a goal of x-number of articles per week or month dealing directly with, or in, the target language. As for the ancient, find something that interests you whether or not it's related to your current research that you will want to look at regardless of whether it's required of you. Fight off the feelings of guilt that you are spending time on something that isn't your research; remind yourself you are spending time investing in yourself with this valuable skill. It is OK and actually helpful to reread the same things, don't feel guilty for this either.
As to other organization:
I only recently finally stopped wrestling with the fact that I have a very, very strong preference for reading things in hard copy, and I am more attentive, read more quickly, and am able to find quotes more quickly in hard copy. For that reason, just this summer I have begun switching out to an old-school hard copy filing method with file folders and all! I'll let you know how it goes. That said, I keep a running "master" bibliography of what I read and that is invaluable. I also recently began keeping a "master" reading-notes document on the computer that I seriously wish I started earlier. 
However you do it, I recommend you have all your types of things in single places, even if across types-of-things those places or systems are different. My "master" reading notes document is an example; before that, my reading notes for everything were in different places and different formats both online and off, making it very difficult to find them two years later. 
Good luck! 

Yep. This became all but necessary with everything being online right now. Because many are having to dedicate a whole screen to Zoom calls and screenshares, I think a second screen is a must. Aside from the current climate, any translation work is hugely helped by more screen realty.
This is the same reason I'm stuck on Word right now. I have a lot of free storage in OneDrive, and the autosyncing can be a life saver.
I'm toying with LaTeX/Overleaf and a couple others, but it's tricky to work with Semitic languages in any program that doesn't have easily accessible formatting.
I'm in ANE Studies/HB, so I right now I have 3 ancient languages that I'm trying to maintain/develop. In the Autumn I'll add Egyptian and a research language. My Greek may have to shrivel up at that point.
Thanks for your response! Really helpful.

I'm ABD from a university in the southeast and currently working as an instructor in Texas as I finish up my dissertation. My field is contemporary theology in the US: how evangelicals discuss theodicy and its implications on the environment and marginalized populations, part. people with disabilities.
Time management has always been a struggle of mine - I'm still shitty about keeping my eye on assignments due and prioritizing them. So, I went old school about two years ago and got one of those large paper monthly calendars you use to see on people's desks. It's now mounted on the wall in front of my desk so that I always see it while working. It lets me write in meetings, assignments, "Read 15 pages of X on the 15th, 10 on the 16th," etc. My close friend actually secured a whiteboard on wheels that they use instead, which I like as a probably more longterm solution but I live in a studio so space is precious.
I teach full-time now at a small college in Texas while I finish my dissertation. My actual teaching workload is probably 15 hours a week, with another 10-15 on preparation. The rest is advising some students and minor administrative duties that average less than 5 hours a week.
I've tried multiple word processors from Word, Google Docs, Open Office, etc but I always come back to Word for the same reasons that @sacklunch noted - it syncs well with OneDrive and Dropbox. I'll take this time to stress that you need a subscription to OneDrive, Dropbox, or some type of secure place. Computers fail and you don't want to lose your work. My wife kept her dissertation on her laptop, not backed up anywhere else, and sure enough her laptop crashed one evening and we could not get it to work again. We took it to a tech who advised us that the laptop was garbage now but he was able to salvage large parts of her dissertation and other documents so she could rebuild it. Lesson learned but it was an intense two weeks that seriously caused her to contemplate dropping out.
I reserve one full day a week for non-school time, usually Sunday (I also work as a supply priest so it's convenient) and then a half-day somewhere else in the week. If I have to give up on something it's the half-day but that hasn't happened in quite a while.
I use Zotero for references and cataloging my research. It was a mandatory workshop for my M* so I've just kept using it and don't have any experience with other software.
When I was pre-comp I dedicated myself to reading an article or chapter a week from my school's reading list in preparation for comps. Sometimes I could get two done in a week if it was short or more directly relevant to my research. My process was to quick skim the text to understand framework, let that simmer for a day or so, reconstruct from memory, and then using the text as a guide I filled in the holes and did a more thorough analysis.
I still don't like taking notes on PDFs so I print things out and write in the margins. If it's a lengthy file I'll use the Notes feature on Mac because I don't want to print out 100 pages for something that might have 15 pages that are relevant. Otherwise my notes are categorized somehow: pre-comp they were sorted to their relevant exam/class/etc., now its done by chapter in my dissertation.
I admittedly haven't really touched languages since passing my reading exams given the contemporary nature of my field and a focus on North America (spec. USA), I don't see that changing. I did exams in French and German, and one in Latin though I studied it in high school and college and have kept up with it some, but it's not relevant to my work.

Me: sixth year PhD candidate, broadly ancient history, specialty papyrology (mostly Greek, lots of Coptic et al.), late ancient reading practices, scholars, Septuagint, ancient grammar, etc.
I have toyed around with various word processors, but always come back to Word. My school has a paid subscription for OneDrive, which syncs remarkably well with Word, autosaves, etc., which makes it an easy choice. 
Bibliography. This one is hard. I use Endnote online, mostly because my Uni has a paid subscription. I mostly use it to store and organize references related to my dissertation and books/articles I need/want to read at some point. But honestly, I didn't use any kind of software before my dissertation and I never found it to be a hassle. I suppose you could start using something like Endnote now, especially if it's free for you.
Resources I wish I would have known about. Hmm...A big one that comes to mind is to invest in the cheapest new ipad and ipencil (or similar stylus--the new base ipad supports ipencil now, used to be only the pro). I was one of those people who hated reading articles/books electronically. But I realized that with the pencil, it feels basically the same as the real thing. The biggest advantage for me reading this way is I can pull up the article/book on my laptop/desktop and see my notes/highlights. This helps immensely when you are returning to certain references over long spans of time (dissertation work). Another tech item is getting more than one monitor, but the benefits of this are largely contingent on the kind of work you do (or will do). For me, I spend lots of time looking at digital images of papyri alongside text documents; I have to do a lot of transcribing, etc., and with only one monitor you will make mistakes. I doubt you are/will be doing this kind of work, but the benefits are still there even if you are only looking at multiple (modern) text documents.
Language upkeep - good luck. How many languages? Dead and/or spoken? You will probably have to give up competency in some over time, increase competency in others. So it goes. 

I hope you're all doing well and that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe during this strange time!
I checked the thread and couldn't find much related to these topics, though I did find some useful information on other forums within Grad Cafe.
I'm always interested in systems and optimization. My systems have been haphazard up until now. I'm using some of the current stay-at-home time to prepare to hit the ground running next year. So, I thought I'd start a thread to hear from those of you who are further down the road.
Here are some questions to get the ball rolling:
What software do you use to write papers, theses, and dissertations? Why? How do you manage your time? How much of your energy goes toward teaching responsibilities (if you have them)? How much time off do you take during the week? How do you split up coursework and other research interests? How do you invest in languages (ancient and research) consistently? What do you use for reference management? Have you found any resources especially helpful that you wish you had known about when you started out as a student? Books, podcasts, etc. If it is relevant, mention your general research area and how far you are into your current program. And if you think of more questions, please add them! I'm sure more will occur to me as I hear from you all.
 

Accepted into Yale MAR (Comprehensive) with full tuition. Waitlisters rejoice, I'm going to Notre Dame.

Hi all - just heard back from UChicago. I got into the Islamic studies program! Chi-City here we come! Also got rejected from the Harvard MTS where my wife is currently, so that was pretty sad.
Good luck to everyone!
 
 

Rejoice, too, Harvard Mdiv waitlisters! I will be turning down Harvard for Notre Dame too.
Congrats to everyone receiving good news today, and to those with less positive news, hang in there!

Harvard only offered me 75% tuition. Good thing I accepted that full ride from ND because I'm not coughing up 30 grand for this.

Congrats to all those who were accepted to Harvard today!

Accepted into Harvard MTS (Religion, Literature, Culture track), but waitlisters rejoice, as I will be turning it down for Notre Dame. I do want to see what aid they would've offered me first, though.

Also accepted into Harvard's MTS Program (Comparative Religions)! Couldn't be more excited!!!! After being offered a full tuition scholarship and a 10k a year stipend from Wake Forest I'm very hopeful for some good financial aid from Harvard.

Update: I received my financial aid for HDS. 100% tuition! Bit surprised, but grateful. 

@pax et caritas I got into the Mdiv as well!! Congratulations Have you been notified of your financial aid package yet?
 

Just got an email from Harvard saying an update was available. I was accepted to their MDiv! In less bright news, Boston College canceled their admitted students day due to COVID-19. 

i called the admissions team at Uchicago for the Masters of Arts program to inquire about admissions, since decisions should have come out by now based on past years. looks like they are running late on decisions and will come out by March 23rd- 24th !

No idea...all speculation on my end. That said, if anyone on here wants to share the schools they are rejecting (or if they get accepted off a waitlist), it would be nice to get a sense of waitlist movement.

Hey all, I basically heard back from all of the schools I was most interested in attending, and am trying to decide between UPenn and Georgetown. I got offers elsewhere for the MA level, but due to financial difficulties I am most interested in going straight to a PhD. My interests are in Islamic studies, with a particular affinity for Islamic material culture and historiography. I was offered admission to UPenn for their Religious Studies PhD, and Georgetown for their Arabic and Islamic Studies PhD. Both offer similar levels of funding. I was wondering what general consensus is on the programs' reputations, quality, etc. Any advice helps, thanks!

congrats, @lumpengrad! post it on the results page and break up that sea of red

congrats, @lumpengrad! post it on the results page and break up that sea of red

Just received an acceptance to the phd at UChicago! I'm history of Christianity, and received an email to check the portal this evening. I was at a movie theater when I got the notification, and decided to wait until the movie was over to log in to the portal because I was expecting a rejection. I'm still in shock!