Organizational App

[Siverhideo1985]

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Hey guys,

I need help from technology-savy med students like yourself - learning during residency is often on the go: a chalk talk here, a nice diagram there, a pdf sent from an attending - I want to organize all these using a single software. What I need is something where I can easily save pictures, pdfs and notes I take to a central (preferably in the cloud) storage and at time pf saving select a category and subcategories (i.e. Cardiology -> Heart Failure) to sort them by. I'd like to be able to have this software on my various apple products (pad, phone, mac).

Thanks for any tips!

 

[xeryus]

Try Evernote or MS One Note

 

[Bovary]

Try Evernote or MS One Note

I hear OneNote is better on PC than on macs. Is this still the case?

 

[DeucesHigh3]

Hey guys,

I need help from technology-savy med students like yourself - learning during residency is often on the go: a chalk talk here, a nice diagram there, a pdf sent from an attending - I want to organize all these using a single software. What I need is something where I can easily save pictures, pdfs and notes I take to a central (preferably in the cloud) storage and at time pf saving select a category and subcategories (i.e. Cardiology -> Heart Failure) to sort them by. I'd like to be able to have this software on my various apple products (pad, phone, mac).

Thanks for any tips!

If you're planning to be picture-and-PDF-heavy, I think OneNote is the way to go (and I'm not sure how the Mac and PC versions compare).

However, when reviewing and studying notes, I usually found myself using purely text (boiled down from our lecture notes). In that case, I recommend workflowy.com, which is the best outlining app/site/system I've ever encountered. OneNote limits you to three levels of nested notes/pages, but workflowy is basically infinite. It also supports tagging, strike-throughs for using it as a GTD solution (since I usually made to-do lists before an exam), is basically just a really cool way of having all of your med school notes in one lightweight but comprehensive searchable system. It's also where I keep track of the rest of my life in a higher nested Personal folder: restaurant lists, to-do lists, books to read, movies to see, lists of the next pen I want to try, and random things I know I'll need later but would feel silly using a formal OneNote page to document.

I attached an example so you can get an idea.

 

[chepchep]

I second Evernote - it has been a dream come true these past couple of years in organizing a LOT of information. You have essentially unlimited space (a monthly quota), sync across all devices, as well as good search function, which includes text in pictures. Great on all platforms in my experience!

 

[xeryus]

I hear OneNote is better on PC than on macs. Is this still the case?

Yes. This will likely be the case for the near future as it's a Microsoft product and has only recently come out on the Mac. However, the basic functionality is still good. If you're looking for a simple app to take notes, organize them in structured notebooks, and insert PDFs/pictures directly into the notes then it will probably still meet your needs.

If you're planning to be picture-and-PDF-heavy, I think OneNote is the way to go (and I'm not sure how the Mac and PC versions compare).

However, when reviewing and studying notes, I usually found myself using purely text (boiled down from our lecture notes). In that case, I recommend workflowy.com, which is the best outlining app/site/system I've ever encountered. OneNote limits you to three levels of nested notes/pages, but workflowy is basically infinite. It also supports tagging, strike-throughs for using it as a GTD solution (since I usually made to-do lists before an exam), is basically just a really cool way of having all of your med school notes in one lightweight but comprehensive searchable system. It's also where I keep track of the rest of my life in a higher nested Personal folder: restaurant lists, to-do lists, books to read, movies to see, lists of the next pen I want to try, and random things I know I'll need later but would feel silly using a formal OneNote page to document.

I attached an example so you can get an idea.
View attachment 191892

I've never heard of this, but it seems super useful for creating nested lists/outlines. The only downside is the 250 item limit per month for the free version.

I second Evernote - it has been a dream come true these past couple of years in organizing a LOT of information. You have essentially unlimited space (a monthly quota), sync across all devices, as well as good search function, which includes text in pictures. Great on all platforms in my experience!

Evernote is great. I mostly use it for organizing personal documents. There's also a companion smartphone app called Scannable that makes uploading documents a breeze.

 

[Siverhideo1985]

Thanks guys! I am will try Evernote...just from installing the app it seems to have all the functionality I would need. I'll let you know how it goes! Appreciate all the input.

 

[sithmoo]

Evernote +1
OneNote +1
Google Keep -1 (not enough structure and "labels" << hierarchical tags)

 

[DeucesHigh3]

Evernote +1
OneNote +1
Google Keep -1 (not enough structure and "labels" << hierarchical tags)

Google Keep +1, but not for notes per se. I keep stuff that I frequently reference in there, so that I'm only one tap away from things like log-ins, hospital door codes, common antibiotic dosages and trade names, and to-do lists.

 

[neusu]

I replied to the onenote thread to this effect, but I can't for the life of me figure out how these programs are useful.

Would anyone care to give a couple of brief examples of how it is more helpful to organize (e.g. where you put things and so on).

At the moment I keep a folder on my computer with different subfolders for topics wherein there are pdfs and so forth. It is synced with the cloud so all of the systems I use have the same information (pc, laptop, phone, tablet).