How to organize 'research ideas'

[carlyhylton]

You have an inspired moment...

''THAT would be a good research question!''

How do you organize your ideas?

Do you have a notebook? .doc file? Is there an app for that? Somewhere online?

I'm curious

[thinking]

I type it in a memo on my blackberry.

[neuropsych76]

I type it in a memo on my blackberry.

I normally just open a new text message on my phone and save it in my drafts

[lewin]

I also use a blackberry memo, and I have a folder on my work USB key called "study ideas" where I have word documents for ideas that are more fleshed out (e.g., full study designs or ideas for DV's but no data yet).

[che psyra psyra]

Same, memo on my phone!

[HyacinthMacaw]

I use Evernote for these kinds of things. The phone app syncs with my laptop and vice versa. I find it is a good bookmarking tool on Google Chrome as well.

Google Docs and Dropbox also allow me to store my papers and notes in the cloud and to view them on my phone. Between Evernote, Google Docs, and my Dropbox folder, I feel certain that even if I were to accidentally deep-fry my laptop, my documents would still be safe. Take care!

[lewin]

I feel certain that even if I were to accidentally deep-fry my laptop, my documents would still be safe. Take care!

Good lord I am paranoid about this. I'm wandering off topic here, but my files and data are: (1) on a USB key (2) on my laptop (3) on an external harddrive (4) on my office computer and (5) on a cloud backup. These synchronize/backup nightly.

.... now that I type that all out, it seems a little paranoid. But 1-3 are all in my apartment so if there were a fire I'd have to rely on 4 and 5. And a loss of these data would be catastrophic: > 7 years of work.

ETA: They're encrypted everywhere too. Even one lost copy would be a disaster with my institutional review board.

Edited December 22, 2011 by lewin00