WorkFlowy (or How I Organize Everything)

Being organized is crucial to doing a PhD.

One of the main ways I get and stay organized is by using WorkFlowy. WorkFlowy is a simple (perhaps startlingly simple) webapp that can function as to-do list, planning software, and outliner.

I've tried tons of to-do apps for desktop and mobile, but I've found I always revert to post-its and a todo.txt. WorkFlowy is the first service I've found that has changed that. It's pretty similar to a text file, but easier to navigate.

How I use WorkFlowy

To-do list

For my to-do list, I have one list for each week and then one list inside that for each day. It's easy to move stuff from day to day. When I finish items, I check them off.

When I'm finished with a week, I move it to a completed list at the bottom of my WorkFlowy. Since I mark off items as I finish them instead of deleting them, this gives me a quick way to look through and see what I've accomplished in the past week. This is helpful for self-assessment and for preparing for meetings with committee members.

You can also get WorkFlowy to send you a daily email with summaries of your changes.

WorkFlowy settings

Organizing papers

I tend toward being an excessive outliner. I outline my papers or sections of papers down to the paragraph or even sentence level before I write them. Some people prefer the edit-and-edit-again route, but I've found that outlining works better for me, personally.

In the preliminary stages of a paper, I use WorkFlowy for my outlines.

I have one list for each paper I have planned. Inside each list, I include things like a summary of the paper, research questions, hypotheses, possible data sources, variables, literature citations, possible cases to analyze, and a to-do list of things I need to remember to do.

Other features

Sharing

WorkFlowy lists can also be shared and used for collaboration. Free accounts can share through links that are accessible to anyone using the link. This link feature can either allow other people to edit the list or only view it. Paid accounts can also share privately to email addresses, with login required to view or edit.

Backup

Paid accounts can have automatic backup to Dropbox. Any user can export manually as text at any time.


Full disclosure: I don't work for WorkFlowy. I'm not receiving anything monetary for this post; nor am I receiving anything at all other than some extra WorkFlowy items if you sign up using my referral link. And I've referred enough people at this point that I don't even really need those. I just like to use the link to see how many people decide to try the service based on my opinions. (Also, you get more items if you use the link, as well.) I wrote this post for the same reason I write all my blog posts: to document what I've been up to and hopefully help someone along the way.