If only my memory was perfect, I wouldn’t have to write anything down. But the curse of doing ample research is having to keep it all organized. To do this, I need to be able to take effective notes. But here I’m presented with an interesting challenge: how do I take notes and keep them all effectively organized and accessible?

Back in 5th grade, I did a research project on Stonehenge. I remember taking all my notes on 3×5 index cards and eventually organizing them by topic and then using the note cards to write my report. But 14 years later, I’ve graduated to a laptop computer. But how do I take notes electronically?

Here are three options I’ve brainstormed so far:

1. Take all my notes in one Word document, with each point, quote, paraphrase, etc. on its own bullet point. In the end, I have a bunch of bullet point lists arranged by topic. (This is the way I’ve taken notes in the past.)

2. Take all my notes on a single topic on a single Word document. I’d probably use bullet points to differentiate my thoughts on this topic.

3. Treat a Word document like a note card and only take one piece of information on a Word document.

Help! Anyone have any better ideas?