If you're like most people, the words "desk research" probably don’t bring a smile to your face. You know the drill: endless tabs, half-baked reports, and a general feeling of, “What am I even looking for here?” Desk research can feel like a time-sucking, brain-numbing task. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
In this post, I’m going to break down some practical tips for doing desk research that will save you time, reduce stress, and help you actually get useful insights—without the headache. Let’s dive in!
1. Know What You’re Actually Looking For
The biggest problem with desk research? Most of us go in without a clear idea of what we’re trying to find. Before you open 50 tabs or pull 10 reports, take five minutes to get clear on your goal. Ask yourself:
- What specific question do I want to answer?
- Is there a metric or number I need?
- Are there any sources that I trust and could start with?
Knowing exactly what you’re looking for is half the battle. If you can nail down what success looks like for your research, you’ll save yourself a lot of aimless scrolling.
2. Start with What You Already Have
Before you start from scratch, look at what information is already available within your company. Many teams have internal reports, customer data, or even Slack channels full of valuable info. These might not answer all your questions, but they’re a great place to start.
Not only does this save you time, but it also helps you avoid duplication—trust me, there’s nothing worse than spending hours finding a report your teammate could have sent you in five minutes.
3. Google with a Purpose (Or Use a Tool That Helps You Search Smarter)
Google is amazing for desk research, but only if you know how to use it. Instead of just searching broad terms, try specific phrases that relate to what you need. For example, if you’re researching trends in remote work for a presentation, you might search for:
- “2023 remote work trends report”
- “current data on remote work benefits”
- “latest remote work statistics for companies”
Using quotes around exact phrases also helps narrow your results down to more specific content, rather than general articles that don’t really get into the data.
Or, if you’re looking for a faster way to gather info, Wobby’s research assistant can search through sources for you, gathering the best data automatically. This can cut your time searching down by a ton—letting you get straight to the insights.
4. Take Advantage of Free Tools
There are a ton of free tools out there that can supercharge your desk research. Here are a few solid ones:
- Google Scholar: For any academic or research-based topics.
- Statista: It’s free to a point, and it has great stats on almost any industry.
- Google Trends: Good for tracking how popular a topic is over time.
- PubMed: If you’re in healthcare or science, this is a goldmine for research papers.
Of course, Wobby also has a chat-based tool that helps you analyze and organize what you find, so everything you gather is right there in one place. Whether you use free tools or something like this, the goal is to save time on repetitive searching.
5. Don’t Drown in Data—Filter It
One big trap in desk research is trying to consume all the information. Instead, learn to filter as you go. Here’s a trick: create a checklist of what you need and check each piece of content against that list. If it doesn’t give you something useful or directly answer a question, move on.
This keeps you from wasting time on sources that don’t really add value. Not everything you come across needs to end up in your report!
6. Make Notes That You’ll Actually Understand Later
Another common desk research struggle is capturing information in a way that’s useful later. It’s one thing to grab a bunch of links and data points; it’s another to make sense of them when you’re writing your final report or presenting to your team.
A quick fix: create a simple doc where you paste links, stats, or quotes and add a one-sentence summary for each one. That way, when you come back to it, you’ll know exactly what each piece of information is and why you saved it.
7. Pull It All Together in One Place
When you’re done collecting info, it’s time to bring it all together. Some people like using Google Docs, but tools like Wobby can really streamline this process. For example, with Wobby, you can pull in info from different sources, organize it, and interpret it all in one document—no more shuffling through different folders or docs. It’s a huge time-saver if you’re juggling lots of sources and want everything easily accessible.
8. Know When to Stop
Desk research is one of those things where it’s easy to feel like you’ll never be “done.” There’s always more data to gather, more reports to read. But at some point, you need to wrap things up. A good rule of thumb? Once you’ve found the same insights or data points repeated in multiple sources, you’re probably at a good stopping point.
Final Thoughts
Desk research doesn’t have to be painful. With a clear goal, a few useful tools, and a solid strategy, you can get the info you need quickly without feeling overwhelmed.
Give these tips a try the next time you’re staring down a research task, and see if they make your process smoother. Or, if you’re ready to speed things up even more, check out Wobby to help you organize and analyze all that data in one place. Who knows, maybe desk research will actually become kind of fun.
Happy researching!
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