5 time saving tips to archive research materials

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: January 22nd, 2007 | 6 Comments | Posted in: Business blogging, Personal branding, Research, Writing

As a leader in a professional services firm, if you are like me you are constantly researching and acquiring new information perhaps information that is relevant for a client, to help you with your marketing to attract more clients, to include in a presentation for a public speaking event or in a book or article you are writing.

But how do you keep all your research materials in order so that you can easily find them in the future, saving you time and avoiding the stress and frustration of misplacing important information?

Here are 5 things I do to effectively manage my research materials:

In the case of magazines, I scan the magazine within a month of receipt and then only keep the articles that will be relevant. The articles get filed in lever arch files relevant to their subject area – the remainder of the magazine goes into paper recycling
If the article is relevant for my client or business colleague I scan the article, create a PDF and send the article electronically to my client or business colleague – I then file the scanned document on my computer again under relevant categories and I retain a note in my email filing system of what I sent to my client or business colleague
If there is a an article which just has a couple of salient points I want to retain, I write a page on my blog with details of the idea or research - sometime I write a blog post on Biz Growth News; then I save the article in a relevant category on my blog. That’s one of the reasons I love my blog as it becomes a source of information not just for my clients and blog readers, but a wonderful content management system for information that I know I will want to refer to again – and remember you don’t need to publish all pages and you can password protect pages if you are using a tool such as WordPress
If I am researching for a book I am writing or a product I am creating, I have a small card index file and capture all the main sources of material I plan to use against that project
If the article is online, I keep a copy in Word format with a note of the url and then save it to the relevant folder on my hard drive – I prefer to do this as sometimes the url may change.

In professional services roles, we will build our personal brand if we are seen to be a centre of influence with access to a host of knowledge and research that we can make available to our clients.

What works for you when collecting and storing your research materials?

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http://www.tuneupyoureq.com Galba Bright

I like the idea of the extended use of the blog as a content management system for non-public uses.
http://www.sedonacommunications.com Harp Arora

Krishna, these are great ideas. I’ll add two more and a bonus:

1. For speaking engagements – when I come across an interesting fact or idea, I take a minute or two to immediately open a recent version of a presentation on Powerpoint , insert a slide or two with the new thought and my perspective on it, and a reference to where I’ve stored the full information. Then the next time I open up the file to create a new presentation, I have great new content waiting for me and it takes no time to flesh th ideas out. Keeps my content current and relevant.

2. For writing articles and blog posts – I create a new email to myself which I keep in my drafts folder. When I have new topic ideas or thoughts I open up the draft, dump in the info with a link or reference point if there is one, and carry on with whatever I’m doing. Of course, I quickly forget most of the ideas so when I open up the email draft later when I need it, I’m always surprised and delighted to find new and interesting ideas that I can follow up on fast.

Bonus thought – I finally caved and downloaded Google desktop. I can now find any obscure piece of information or terminology on my hard drive, whether it’s an email, Word doc, web page etc.. in seconds. http://desktop.google.com/

Saves me hours of searching a week. …Harp
Krishna De

Galba – yes using your blog as a content management system is one of the unexpected benefits I’ve come across.

Harp – thank you for your ideas too. I too leave articles in draft – I’ve so many
I probably have enough to write an article a day for the next 2 years – again I leave them in draft format on my blog so it’s easy to come back to them.

Great idea on presentations too – I hold index cards and also a file for future presentations to capture new ideas or key areas i want to include relevant to the organisation or event I am speaking to/at.

Thanks also for the thoughts on Google desktop – I’ve not download that yet as I just use the search facility on the PC – do you find it much easier and faster?

Thank you both for the comments and ideas.

Best wishes

Krishna
http://www.sedonacommunications.com Harp Arora

Krishna, Google Desktop is a lifesaver. Reduces my frustration quotient in a huge way, and is insanely more efficient and effective than regular search facilities that come with Windows, Outlook etc. Honestly, I don’t know how I could live without it now that I have it. …Harp
Krishna De

Harp – thanks so much – will add this on my list of to-do’s! Isn’t Google a wonderful example of a strong brand who has become indispensible. I wonder if that is one of their values and part of their business strategy?

One of my clients has hist been offered a senior role with them so if they decide to join Google I’ll have to ask if that’s one of the questions they ask of any project – how their users will find their product indispensable?
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