Hi Im in my third year of my Doc and have a full on full time career and am single dad with two young kids - ok, not looking for oohs and and ahs or sympathy, my choice to do doc and career etc - but time is critical for me. I've read with interest the comments and discussion about reading and/or writing at the same time, but would really like to have some idea of what and how people write their notes in the word doc. For my Masters, I read and wrote as I went, but this is a different level, you may only grab one small pearl from a lengthy journal, so do you write that and save it or do you do a running log of say chunks of your lit review. I've tried moleskins, note books, endnote etc, but like most I seem to forget what I write, can't find again what I wrote/read or get distracted by a citation and read something completely different from what Im researching, (sound familiar?)

I am happy to be referred to any good books (particularly in the Janet and John range - Ok Showing my age now) that cover this thorny and well discussed issue in simplistic and dare I say non-academic jargon - that I can do myself !! Thanks :-)

well , regarding reading and forgetting what u read or where u read !
This happens to me alot !
I use Copernic Desktop search , that can search through contents of files for the exact word ..
It has helped me .. It is available on net , will consume some space for its indexing though ...
About writing , I am writing mine after doing all the work and experimentation..
Only after that you are quiet sure about how you will present you work !
How do u manage with 2 kids ?
its difficult for me with only one :>

Hi Robbie

I know lots of people on this forum keep notes of things as they go along, I don't quite do that. I only keep notes on things as I'm writing a particular piece of work or chapter. So, like you in your Masters, I read and incorporate what I'm reading into that chapter - I can't see the point of reading just randomly. I read for a specific purpose. As I'm reading and writing, I write a big 'done' on the front page of the article, and a couple of phrases so that I know what it's about, methodology used etc. Then I file all the relevant articles together, in separate boxes. I also keep the pdf of articles so I can find them again later. Then when I need to go back to material, I can easily flick through a pile of articles, know what they're about and find the relevant one. Then I can also find it on my computer to find the exact bit I need. This is all quite manual and not sophisticated, but it works for me and I know where things are and what they're about. I'm also in third year.

Thank you both!! I'll have a dabble at both methods see how I get on. Noname despite everything I am lucky, it was my two little ones (well not so little now - 9 and 14) who told me to go and do the doc (thought we were suppose to be encouraging them!!!)
Regards

Rob