This blog will introduce four writing and organization apps you need to hear about. I hope you’ll have at least two of these apps on your computer by the end of this entry!

Notion
Notion absolutely tops the list for me. It leans more toward organization and note-taking than writing, but it can do it all honestly. You can find templates for every stage of the writing process through their open-source template database, which any Notion member can contribute to. These include pages for thesis planning, note-taking, creating reading lists, and timelines. While you can keep your Notion academic, you can integrate it with other organizational functions like to-do lists, movie logs, habit trackers, etc. It’s available for use in your browser, as a desktop app, and on your phone. If I had to trade every other app on my phone for one, Notion would be my pick. 

[Image Description: A Notion data set of class notes categorized by course, week taken, and quarter written. A checkbox next to each mark whether they’ve been reviewed or not.]

Obsidian
I see Obsidian as Notion’s stripped-down little sibling. Its biggest pro is its design. Notion has plenty of opportunity for cute customizations, finicky formatting, and other distractions, while Obsidian, with its pure black background, looks more like something you would code on. Similarly, while its hotkeys take a bit to get used to, it highlights a few features that Notion doesn’t. The first is its ability to link pages to one another. (This is possible in Notion, but it's not so integral.) On Obsidian, this makes it easy to track interconnected ideas and move between them while working on a larger project. And when you link the pages, something even cooler happens. You can open Obsidian’s graph feature and see all of the pages you’ve linked as a series of connected points. As you create more entries and link more pages, this becomes a web you can use to visualize your writing or research. It’s like a mind map that’s generated automatically for you. I haven’t seen anything that can replicate Obsidian’s web as effectively. 

[Image Description: A central blue dot linked by a series of blue lines to other dots. Each of these dots represents a page of notes referencing one of the other linked pages.]

Scrivener 
Scrivener immediately loses points for not being free, but it’s still handy for its writing metrics and organizational tools. It’s built for working on larger projects, so you can split your writing into chapters, plot points, or any other categorization you want. You can set word count goals, and Scrivener will report back to you as you go. Once you’ve written your sections, you can rearrange them and view them together in “Scrivening mod.” I’ll let you all do the exploring as this one has a lot of features, but some of those include corkboards, timelines, and brainstorming, and it can export those in the professional format of your choice. Again, these are all things you can do in Notion, but it’s not intuitive or straightforward. 

[Image Description: A page filled with blocks of writing separated by a line of dashes. The dashes represent the fact that these two sections have been placed next to one another but can be rearranged to the writer’s liking. To the left is a list of sections that can be used to rearrange said sections. To the right are notes.]

Grammarly
Grammarly speaks for itself. It’s a Google extension that checks everything you type in a Google browser – emails, papers, direct messages. It’s incredibly helpful for large document edits. I’d only caution academics to be careful around field-specific vocabulary and grammar. Creative writers should be mindful of intentional language play and figurative language. If you accept edits carelessly, Grammarly can mangle a perfect point. Still, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. The mistakes that Grammarly caught for me were heinous, so please take the opportunity to avoid those.

That’s all from me. Pick one, try it out, and happy writing!