Steven Robbins here.

Welcome to the Get It Done Guys quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Jane writes in.

I'm a grad student.

I do a lot of online research.

How do I keep track of all the links and material I find when researching?

Pasting it into one massive word processing document doesn't seem like the best

idea, and my internet bookmarks are out of control. Jane, I feel you. The information revolution

is wonderful, isn't it? I have so much information. I'm soaking in it. We need a tool. A tool to collect

facts and links and notes. One tool. Yes, one tool to rule them all,

one tool to find them, one tool to bring them all, organize and bind them. First, we'll identify

our needs, and then specific tools.

You need a free-form bucket.

You'll need to put the info you collect into a general-purpose information-holding tool,

something where you can have notes, pictures, web links, bookmarks, fine arts,

incriminating information about your political opponents, et cetera.

A database won't do because databases only store stuff where you know the kind of stuff

and what it's like in advance.

It's also a pain to set up and use a database.

But what will work is a tool that lets you put everything into one document.

That way, as you find relevant stuff, you can just toss it into the document for future

reference.

...