Workflow: Daily Research Routine
Overview
The daily cadence that keeps the research moving. Takes 20–30 min for planning + processing; rest is focused work.
⏰ Morning Routine (20 min)
1. Open Obsidian → [[00 - Home]] (2 min)
→ Check upcoming deadlines
→ Review active tasks from [[90 - GTD/91 Tasks/TASKS-Active]]
2. Process Inbox (10 min)
→ Process ALL notes in 10 - Inbox/Fleeting-Notes/
→ Each note: decide → Literature Note / Permanent Note / Delete
→ Inbox must be zero before starting deep work
3. Set Today's MITs (3 min)
→ Open [[00 - Meta/Templates/Template-Daily-Review]] via QuickAdd
→ Choose 1–3 Most Important Tasks
→ Write them at the top of today's note
4. Check AI Use Log (5 min)
→ Log any AI interactions from yesterday not yet recorded
→ [[50 - Areas/51 Research/AI-Use-Log]]
📚 Paper Processing Routine (per paper, 45–90 min)
Follow the MIT Student Method fully:
Step 1 — SCAN (5 min)
Read: Abstract, Introduction, Conclusion, Figures
Decision: Worth full read? (Y/N)
If N → flag #exclude in Zotero, done
Step 2 — READ (20–40 min)
Read full paper with Cornell notes open
Left column: Write questions and key terms as you read
Right column: Notes in YOUR OWN words (never copy-paste)
Step 3 — DRCA (10–15 min)
Deconstruct: What is the paper's argument structure?
Reconstruct: Restate in your own conceptual vocabulary
Critical: What would falsify this? What did they miss?
Advance: What permanent note does this generate?
Step 4 — CREATE (10–15 min)
Create Literature Note from template
→ [[00 - Meta/Templates/Template-Literature-Note-Paper]]
Create 0–3 Permanent Notes from insights
→ [[00 - Meta/Templates/Template-Permanent-Note]]
Step 5 — CONNECT (5 min)
Link all new notes to relevant MOCs
Update [[80 - MOC/81 Topic-Maps/MOC-Literature-Review]] table
Update Zotero: add #puma-include tag, verify DOI
Step 6 — AI CHECK (optional, 5–10 min)
If needed: Use RCOIF prompt to get Claude's analysis
→ Compare with your own notes (don't replace them)
→ Log interaction in [[50 - Areas/51 Research/AI-Use-Log]]
💻 Code Development Session (per session, 60–120 min)
Step 1 — Review spec (5 min)
Open relevant spec: [[40 - Projects/PUMA/41.6 Specs/]]
Review BDD scenarios for today's component
Step 2 — Write tests first (15 min) [BDD/TDD]
Write failing tests in tests/ directory
Tests must match BDD scenarios
Step 3 — Implement (30–60 min)
Use Claude Code or Cursor AI for scaffolding
Review ALL generated code line by line
Ensure you can explain every function
Step 4 — Verify (15 min)
Run tests: all must pass
Verify seed=42, temperature=0 in all Ollama calls
Check reproducibility constraint satisfied
Step 5 — Commit (5 min)
Git commit with descriptive message
Update [[90 - GTD/91 Tasks/TASKS-Active]] → check done
Log any AI assistance in [[50 - Areas/51 Research/AI-Use-Log]]
🌙 Evening Close (10 min)
1. Complete today's review note
→ Record MITs completed
→ Record one thing learned
→ Set tomorrow's priority
2. Process any remaining fleeting notes
→ 10 - Inbox must be empty
3. Git commit vault
→ Obsidian Git: Ctrl+Shift+G → commit
→ Message: "daily: [date] — [main achievement]"
🔗 Related Notes
Daily-Review-Template | Template-Daily-Review PN-MIT-Student-Method
id: WF-New-Paper-Processing title: “Workflow: New Paper → Vault” type: workflow tags: [workflow, paper, literature, zotero, processing] created: 2026-03-01
Workflow: New Paper → Vault
Quick reference for processing a new paper from discovery to permanent note.
5-Step Pipeline
DISCOVER
Found via: Perplexity / Semantic Scholar / Connected Papers / SLR search
↓
CAPTURE (2 min)
Add to Zotero (browser extension or DOI import)
Tag: #puma-pending
Download PDF to Zotero library
↓
SCREEN (5 min)
Read abstract + skim introduction + conclusion
Decision: Include / Exclude?
If Include: Tag #puma-include | If Exclude: Tag #puma-exclude + reason
Record in [[50 - Areas/51 Research/SLR-PRISMA/PRISMA-Log]]
↓
PROCESS (45–90 min) [see WF-Daily-Research-Routine]
Create Literature Note from template
Cornell notes + DRCA
0–3 Permanent Notes
↓
CONNECT (5 min)
Add to [[80 - MOC/81 Topic-Maps/MOC-Literature-Review]] table
Link to relevant Permanent Notes and MOCs
Update [[80 - MOC/82 Index/Master-Index]]
id: WF-Experiment-Run title: “Workflow: Running a PUMA Experiment” type: workflow tags: [workflow, experiment, benchmark, reproducibility, puma] created: 2026-03-01
Workflow: Running a PUMA Experiment
Step-by-step protocol for each experimental condition in PUMA.
Pre-Run (30 min, first time only)
# 1. Verify environment
python --version # must be 3.11.x
ollama --version
ollama list # verify models present
# 2. Verify reproducibility baseline
python src/verify_reproducibility.py
# Must output: "✅ Reproducibility check PASSED"
# 3. Record environment snapshot
pip freeze > results/env_snapshot_$(date +%Y%m%d).txtRun Checklist
- Open Experiment Note template: Template-Experiment-Note
- Fill all metadata (model, strategy, dataset, seed, temperature, hardware)
- Paste exact prompt template used
- Start CodeCarbon tracker in code before any inference
- Run:
python src/run_benchmark.py --model [model] --strategy [strategy] --seed 42 - Wait for completion (estimated time: X min on 16GB CPU)
- Verify: results JSON saved to
results/ - Verify: carbon report saved to
results/carbon/
Post-Run (20 min)
# Run analysis script
python src/analysis/compute_metrics.py --results results/[experiment_file].json
# Outputs: F1-macro, per-class F1, Wilcoxon vs baseline, effect size r
# Review outputs
cat results/[experiment]_metrics.json- Record metrics in Experiment Note
- Run Wilcoxon test: record W, p-value, effect r
- Record carbon: emissions_gco2 from CodeCarbon report
- Analyse top-3 failure cases
- Git commit:
git tag run-[experiment-id]-$(date +%Y%m%d) - Update PR-PUMA-Ch4-Results with new data point