How do you take notes/keep track of concepts?
I am an aspiring undergrad researcher and recently started doing multiple research internships. I am really enjoying the experience, but I am also finding it quite overwhelming, especially when it comes to keeping track of concepts.
For context, I am currently working on two to three research projects in LLMs across different subdomains. Each project involves reading papers, identifying datasets, proposing ideas, and eventually running experiments. The challenge is that I tend to work on one project for a few days, then switch to another, and keep alternating like this.
When I come back to a previous project, I often feel like I have to spend a lot of time revising what I had done earlier before I can continue. This makes the process feel inefficient and not very scalable in the long run.
I feel like having a structured note taking system or workflow could help, but I am not sure what works best in a research setting.
How do you keep track of concepts, papers, and ideas across multiple projects without losing context? Are there specific tools, methods, or systems that have worked well for you?
This question is open to people from any field, not just CS, since I am interested in general research workflows as well.