Category Archives: Projects

Essential software for academic work on Mac: 2021 update

Posted on June 12, 2021 by Aleh Cherp

It’s been seven years since I listed 25 apps essential for academic work on Mac. This list has proven to be very popular and relatively stable, but over the years I dropped or significantly reduced using 13 of these applications and … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Bibliographies, Collaboration, Files, Graphics, Notes, Presentations, Projects, Tasks, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Setting up Notion for Academic collaboration

Posted on April 19, 2021 by Jessica Jewell

We’ve recently introduced Notion for collaboration within our research group. Notion is knowledge management system where you can develop and store content in pages, organized in a series of relational databases. To leverage Notion’s full capacity, it’s crucial to set … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Projects, Tasks, Workflows | Tagged | 6 Comments

TaskPaper 3

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Aleh Cherp

I have recently completed a large grant proposal and several research manuscripts. Such sticky projects involve hundreds of details that need to be remembered: “reformat table 3”, “find the page number in reference 76”, “ask someone to rework figure 5”, “read an article … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, Tasks, Workflows | Tagged | 13 Comments

What software do I really need for academic work on Mac?

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Aleh Cherp

A reader has just challenged me to re-think the software I use for academic work on Mac. Well, there are over 250 items in my Applications folder, but how many do I need to remain productive? So imagine that I have a completely new Mac with no … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Bibliographies, Email, Files, Graphics, Notes, Presentations, Projects, Tasks, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , , | 97 Comments

Mind-Mapping on Mac and iOS: MindNode and iCloud

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Jeff Pooley

For a few discrete tasks—short bursts of writing, for example, or annotating PDFs—it makes sense to loop iOS devices into a Mac-based workflow. Finally we can add mind-mapping to the list, now that MindNode syncs through iCloud. MindNode Pro, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Overcoming OmniFocus’ myopia: OmniOutliner and the yet-to-be-discovered academic planning software

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Aleh Cherp

One of the five things that should be kept out of OmniFocus are project plans. There are several good reasons for that. OmniFocus is designed to provide an unambiguous list of concrete things that both should and can be done … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Projects, Tasks, Time | Tagged , | 26 Comments

MailTags and OmniFocus Projects

Posted on September 19, 2012 by Aleh Cherp

MailTags is a great way to organize your Mail. It allows to tag each message with specific Keywords or assign it to one or several Projects as well as create reminders and notes associated with an email. The good news … Continue reading →

Posted in Email, Projects, Tags and folders | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Filing in a hurry: using message flags in Mail for ‘hot’ projects

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Aleh Cherp

I have recently started to use differently colored flags in Mail app. My past advice on email reflecting the GTD wisdom and the Inbox Zero principle was that an email message is either something which can be dealt with in less … Continue reading →

Posted in Email, Projects, Tags and folders | Tagged | 4 Comments

OmniOutliner

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Aleh Cherp

OmniOutliner is one of my favorite and most frequently used Mac apps. It is indispensable for preparing writing outlines, lectures, talks and project plans. There is plenty of other outlining software (often combined with mind-mapping), but none matches OmniOutliner in … Continue reading →

Posted in Presentations, Projects | Tagged | 16 Comments

Managing project files and good old file folders

Posted on August 8, 2011 by Aleh Cherp

We have just covered naming, storing and locating reference files such as academic articles. There are also completely different files, for example draft papers, project plans, budgets, reports, minutes and contracts. I  handle such ‘project files’ differently from reference files: … Continue reading →

Posted in Files, Projects | Tagged , | 2 Comments