Introduction

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Rise in number of digital tools

Over the past few decades academic workflows have grown increasingly digital. Even if the crux of the work that you do is not digital in nature, the tools that you use to get it done are likely digital. The 101 innovations in scholarly communications project has been tracking the rise in new and digital modes of working in the research workflow which and is worth exploring if you are interested in seeing how these digital workflows play out for different disciplines and types of work.

With this proliferation of tools it can be hard keep track of work scattered across many tools. This workshop introduces a few flexible tools to be aware of when organising how you work. The focus is on project-based work but many tools can be used individually or with a group.

Common organising principles

A number of these tools are structured along specific expected workflows or approaches. Beyond todo lists, calendars, and the ability to assign tasks tools many tools also expect certain project structures.

While this workshop will not delve deeply into these structures it is worth being aware of them as an organising principles in some of the tools we discuss, particularly “Agile” softare development methodologies and the concept of the “KanBan board”.

Elements of a workflow

Everyone works differently but some broad strokes apply when talking about the needs of a project. However you work chances are you have deadlines, tasks, and outputs.

Alone or in a group, chances are you need:

• Task tracking
• File tracking (location and version)
• Project overviews
• Ways to communicate with others
• The ability to wrap up a project (via export or by transferring ownership)

Consider best practices when organising your work

• Plan how you will use the tools you adopt before you adopt them. Consider creating a mind map to step through all of the parts of your project.
• Make sure it’s possible to back up and export your information from any tool you choose to use.
• If working on a team, make sure you establish who is responsible for what part of the project; no tool will do this for you.
• Develop a consistent and useful file naming system.
• Use flexible and appropriate file formats.
• When using tags, keep it simple. Good tags might be:
  • todo, doing, done
  • do first, do next
  • task, event, deadline
• Set meaningful tasks
• Use templates when available

If you are looking for support with research data management, consider attending workshops in our Research Data Management series or schedule a consult.

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