How do you keep track?

I was talking about writing (anyone know a way to stop me?) with a school teacher the other day, and he asked how I kept track of what I was doing, especially as I might be researching one book, writing another and putting together a proposal for a third all at the same time.

Writers have many different ways of keeping stuff organized, from the traditional big notebooks to high tech databases. I use a compromise between the two - a high tech notebook, namely Microsoft's OneNote software. For me this has proved ideal. You can use as much structure as you want in terms of different tabs and sections... but then you can just pour bits and pieces onto a page wherever you want it. Text notes, pictures, web links - all slapped on as you would in a paper notebook, but with the advantage that notes are searchable, pictures can be pasted back elsewhere and weblinks are live. I also embed copies of documents, up to and including full manuscripts, so everything is kept in one place. Oh and checklists - it does great checklists.

It might not work for everyone, but for me it has been absolutely brilliant. You can find out more at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com - worth taking a look.