Not enough room in your tiny office for a cork board, let alone a PhD-sized cork board, to plan your writing and group random thoughts? Want a 'murder board' ala Castle, but don't have a bedroom window to reappropriate?
Fact: PhD candidates need at least 50 Beckett murderboard-sized windows. Image courtesy castlefans.org.
Don't despair! The solution is simple: use a virtual cork board.
Scrivener (a drafting tool I use to write my papers) has a built-in cork board view, where you can see what you've written as pinned up cards. Using the split-screen function (horizontal or vertical), you can also display your writing in one pane and random notes/ideas on cards in the other pane.
Scrivener (a drafting tool I use to write my papers) has a built-in cork board view, where you can see what you've written as pinned up cards. Using the split-screen function (horizontal or vertical), you can also display your writing in one pane and random notes/ideas on cards in the other pane.
My Scrivener set-up, with text blurred out because it's not ready to see the light of day! Image by author.
If you so wish, you can change the cork board background to any picture you want, and even change the look of the cards pinned on it! If, like myself, you get a nerdy satisfaction from pretty visuals, you too might see a jump in your productivity. It allows me to imagine myself in a virtual space with all the cork boards I could ever want/need, which then entices me to fill them with interesting and useful facts.
This may be a sign that I've been watching too much Castle... but hey! Productivity!
This may be a sign that I've been watching too much Castle... but hey! Productivity!
