[HN Gopher] My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a...
___________________________________________________________________
My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt
file (2020)
Author : simonebrunozzi
Score : 439 points
Date : 2021-12-23 12:26 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (jeffhuang.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (jeffhuang.com)
| blueboo wrote:
| My kingdom for a fast, one-page, multiplatform notes app that
| could accomplish this
| chapium wrote:
| OneNote, DokuWiki, and org-mode. Each multiplatform and one
| page (as long as you don't go about creating multiple pages.)
| blueboo wrote:
| Ah. Also needed: offline editing and instant-on. Even Apple's
| Notes is too slow from launch to editing.
| ISL wrote:
| Google Docs?
| lotsofcows wrote:
| An app? You just need DropBox and a text editor. Both are
| pretty ubiquitous.
|
| I used to find myself moving between random terminals so used
| curl webdav instead of DropBox.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| I find it difficult to have one app/file/mode that is my todo,
| journal, calendar, reminder everything. I function better with
| multiple apps/tools that do all these things well, each of them
| doing just one thing at a time.
| rav wrote:
| My productivity app is a Git repository (that happens to be a
| GitLab wiki git repository at $WORK as well) with my "priority
| queue" text file and the following bash function. The contents of
| the text file are similar to what Jeff Huang describes in the
| blog post (but MUCH less organized). Since it's in version
| control, I can freely delete old content that's no longer
| relevant for my day-to-day, and then I frequently use git log -p
| to search for old text in the file if it becomes relevant. The
| bash command also pushes and pulls automatically, so it can be
| used across my devices. plan-edit() {
| cd ~/wiki && git diff --exit-code && vim
| Rav-priority-queue.txt && ! git diff --quiet Rav-
| priority-queue.txt && git commit -qm 'Update Rav-
| priority-queue.txt' Rav-priority-queue.txt && git
| pull -q --rebase && git push -q }
| dotancohen wrote:
| Why rebase? I would imaging that preserving history would be a
| feature. An important feature at that.
| rav wrote:
| As dahart mentions in a sibling comment, the todo-list
| doesn't operate with branching - all edits are performed by
| one person according to the real-time circumstances. Any Git
| history divergence is a matter of technical accident and not
| an expression of feature branching/merging.
| dahart wrote:
| That rebase doesn't lose any history, it's just flattening
| the commit sequence coming from multiple computers. This is a
| good normal/default workflow for personal repos.
| dotancohen wrote:
| I see, thanks.
| _dain_ wrote:
| I have something similar, a folder full of text files that gets
| automatically committed to a git repo. Each file is a note or
| todo list item. When I want to review or search through things
| I do `cat *.txt | less` or similar. When I finish an item I
| just delete the file and commit. That keeps it tidy while also
| keeping an archive of old items if I need it (in practice I
| rarely do).
| wenc wrote:
| I still use Google Docs but I take notes in Markdown in VS Code.
| The advantage of Markdown is I can create lists of lists of lists
| that VS code will indent correctly. (emacs does that too but
| that's another story). Checkboxes in list items is another nice
| touch.
|
| But what have been most compelling of Markdown is that I can
| create flow diagrams with Mermaid syntax and type math like
| LaTeX. Not to mention insert code snippets. It all works.
|
| And Markdown is portable too. Couple it with rclone for
| replication to the cloud and I'm golden.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| If anyone want to do this but with markdown, Typora has a very
| nice GUI app for this. You can get headings, checkboxes and
| tables, and so on.
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| This was one of the few text-based philosophies that helped me
| settle with a "mostly" plain-text lifestyle.
|
| It is not about the tools that gives you all the features but the
| freedom to be free of tools and just pick up the raw things right
| away anywhere, anytime, even if it requires more learning in the
| beginning.
|
| After a while, the habits, the processes just become muscle
| memory. One may indeed use a tool on the top when one is
| comfortable with how the plain text is organized.
| TAKEMYMONEY wrote:
| > Email: Email is obviously a part of my workflow...flag Red if
| it's something I need to deal with, flag Orange if....
|
| So, it's _not_ just a single .txt file. It 's an email app, a
| calendar app, and Org Mode with more steps and no features?
| PragmaticPulp wrote:
| The key to this solution isn't really the .txt file or the
| formatting.
|
| It's the ritual. Any productivity system can be made to work once
| it becomes a habit and therefore your default action.
|
| I think .txt files or Org mode are attractive to devs because
| they feel like something we'd be doing anyway during our day. the
| same system will work with a paper journal or even a fresh piece
| of paper every morning if, and only if, it can be integrated into
| your natural daily workflow as an automatic habit. I personally
| found that paper is better for me because I get to it before
| unlocking my computer and being confronted with work and
| communications and notifications that compete with it. However, I
| have a lot of peers who couldn't hang on to a paper journal or
| TODO list during the day if they tried, so digital formats win.
|
| The real key is to make it a habit and learn to stick with it.
| kamaal wrote:
| This, several times this.
|
| My favorite system for knowledge management is Google Docs(due
| to obvious advantages- online drive, WYSIWYG etc), and for
| metadata/task-management tasks(GTD, working things out, mind
| maps, todo lists, solving software problems) is a plain cheap
| notebook and a pen.
|
| If you study GTD the hardest aspects of GTD are sticking to
| routine, and it's very easy to fall off the GTD routine. Its
| hard to do weekly reviews, its hard to create next tasks etc
| etc.
|
| Once you establish a cycle that works, its magic.
| q1w2 wrote:
| I was using Google Docs until one day an inspector demanded
| my PERSONAL Google account credentials because they were
| inspecting the company I worked for - for something I wasn't
| even involved in.
|
| They got a court order, contacted Google, and did a Google
| Takeout of literally all of my data.
|
| Now I use markdown doc on a remotely encrypted share via
| WinSCP.
| quaintdev wrote:
| Until Google suspends account for no reason.
| dotancohen wrote:
| This comment was downvoted when I got here, but it's very
| very relevant. Thank the creator that I've never been
| locked out of an account, but I've seen it happen enough
| times to be terrified of putting critical infrastructure on
| a single provider.
|
| GP should be diligent to download his spreadsheets
| periodically.
| kamaal wrote:
| Most work related knowledge should go on work place
| infrastructure online document store, at the same time
| its a total waste of time to re invent a clone of stack
| overflow. Any general knowledge information I'd want to
| look up, is already available on the internet. Work
| information, tribal knowledge- should never go on a
| personal Google Drive.
|
| At the same time my notebook information is a mix of
| personal things, work things and lots of other notes,
| scribblings, and free form information(mind maps,
| doodling, random writing), I need this just because
| creating a meta-data knowledge graph, list in the brain
| is just too much work, stressful and its like a offline
| store for your brain's functions.
|
| Software tools don't work well for this kind of
| information input and putting it in either GDrive would
| not be good. Hence the notebook and pen.
|
| Another big thing I've noticed is the personal
| productivity system is a catalyst that helps you do work,
| its not your main work itself. There is little incentive
| in storing what time you went to gym ten years back.
| Information/Feature pollution is a bug not a feature.
|
| Unfortunately, Org-mode in emacs, like anything in emacs
| is a full time project in itself, a huge time sink that
| has little return on time investment. Use a tool to make
| your life better. Don't spend time wandering in sub goals
| trying to make the tool, that makes your life better. The
| former gives results, the latter is just a long play time
| sink, where you will forever make the tool better, you
| will never arrive at making your life better.
| trevcanhuman wrote:
| For anyone wanting a FOSS alternative, cryptpad [0] exists.
|
| [0] https://cryptpad.fr/
| ant6n wrote:
| Or until the doc becomes so large and slow that u can't
| work with it anymore (perhaps around 50 pages if there are
| images?)
| kamaal wrote:
| How else would you store images if you did it on a text
| file? Links to your hard drive?
|
| Notice at some point you are just making a wiki. And of
| course now you have the added effort budget of
| maintaining the wiki on top of your regular work.
|
| I have seen random posts on the internet where people
| were _migrating_ their notes systems to org mode or
| markdown. If you ask me that 's too much meta work to do,
| in order to do your main work.
|
| The entire idea behind making a knowledge system, or a
| todo system is to help you do things. If you are doing
| whole project to set these things up, I wonder what the
| actual goal of this system even is.
| fipar wrote:
| Org mode can display images inline. They're obviously not
| stored on the file itself, but I keep everything under a
| single directory hierarchy and it works ok for my use
| cases.
|
| I migrated to org from Things some 12 years ago and since
| I started bare-bones (just todo entries, no special
| config) and grew as my needs arose, I never felt I had to
| invest lots of time in my setup.
|
| Agree that some people overdo things and the tools become
| projects on their own though.
| snarf21 wrote:
| Exactly, a "bad" process followed completely will always
| outperform a "good" process followed intermittently.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| One of my favorite quotes, is one [incorrectly, probably]
| attributed to Aristotle: We are what we
| repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
| awillimus wrote:
| Looks like the quote was from Will Durant, based on an
| Aristotle saying.
|
| >"Virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions,"
| Aristotle said. The writer Will Durant interpreted it thusly:
| "We are what we repeatedly do... therefore excellence is not
| an act, but a habit." https://dailystoic.com/we-are-what-we-
| repeatedly-do/
| q1w2 wrote:
| I think a more accurate translation of Aristotle's quote is
| simple, "virtues are actions, not words." It's more about
| actions speaking louder than words.
| matwood wrote:
| I used to have that quote posted on my bathroom mirror - now
| it's just ingrained. It applies to so many parts of life,
| whether it's exercise, productivity, starting a business or
| building relationships.
|
| Related is that motivation is fleeting and only leads to
| individual acts. Discipline on the other hand is what builds
| habits. It's what you do day and and day out that leads to
| success or failure.
| beaconstudios wrote:
| I think the "motivation" that people consider fleeting is
| actually inspiration (like when you have a new project idea
| and stay up overnight excitedly working on it).
|
| Discipline is important, but without motivation you will
| end up doubting why you are working so hard on something
| you don't care about. In my mind, motivation is continually
| reminding yourself of what outcomes you're working towards,
| so you don't lose sight of why you're working so hard.
|
| For example, motivating yourself to work out by thinking of
| that sporting hobby you'll be able to take up or thinking
| about how great you'll feel when you've reached your goal
| weight.
| elk9410 wrote:
| https://blogs.umb.edu/quoteunquote/2012/05/08/its-a-much-
| mor...
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| That makes sense. I don't really care who said it. It's a
| great thought.
|
| Another one that I like, and it isn't clear who said it
| first, is: Good judgment comes from
| experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.
| Chris2048 wrote:
| I'd still say it's correctly attributed b/c it was based on
| Aristotle's thoughts. One way or another, his words need to
| be translated because he didn't speak English.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| Professional artists are really interesting to listen to when
| they talk about their productivity routines. Since many of
| them work alone, they are more prone to not accomplishing
| anything.
|
| The successful ones have a repeatable process for balancing
| creativity with the time required to produce a work of art.
| They tend to have a daily practice of challenging / improving
| their skills. They setup a dedicated studio, and work at
| reducing disruptions and so on.
| Taylor_OD wrote:
| Inspiration often comes after starting any given creative
| process.
| egypturnash wrote:
| I am a professional artist and I have to disagree with
| this. Once creative work becomes the thing you spend a
| large part of your life doing, you _cannot_ rely on just
| sitting around waiting for inspiration.
|
| Creative workers regularly discuss the ways to get
| ourselves to work when we feel a total lack of
| inspiration for something with a looming deadline, as
| well as ways to create conditions where some kind of
| creative inspiration is more likely.
|
| There is also the fact that sometimes "inspiration" can
| lead to a _long_ process, I am _finally_ nearing the end
| of a multi-year process of grinding away at drawing a
| comic book that came from the simple idea of "what if I
| told a story from two sides, with the characters changing
| designs to ones that scream 'Good Guys' or 'Bad Guys'
| depending on which side we are currently following".
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| _> I am finally nearing the end of a multi-year process
| of grinding away at drawing a comic book that came from
| the simple idea of "what if I told a story from two
| sides, with the characters changing designs to ones that
| scream 'Good Guys' or 'Bad Guys' depending on which side
| we are currently following"._
|
| That sounds cool.
|
| Game of Thrones was like that. You just got a good hate
| on, for one of the characters, and they went and spoiled
| it, by telling their story.
|
| The Boltons were bad news, though. Even the author hated
| them.
| b3morales wrote:
| There's a pithy take on this that I like, usually
| attributed to William Faulkner:
|
| > I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it
| strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.
| COAGULOPATH wrote:
| Text files are uniquely good at creating habits.
|
| You can write them everywhere, read them everywhere, send them
| everywhere, effortlessly back them up and copy them. You
| absolutely own a text file on your computer. They're maximally
| cross-compatible (barring some quirks like UNIX/DOS
| linebreaks). Every computer and phone has a basic text
| processor.
|
| Compare with a dedicated tool like Evernote - I now have to
| worry about the installing it, maintaining it, having my
| workflow broken by a new update, the developers selling my data
| to China, etc.
| m-p-3 wrote:
| I'm quite familiar with the CommonMark syntax that I use it
| without really thinking, so I write down my plaintext notes
| that way, and if I need to "beautify" it before sending it to
| someone then most of the legwork is already done.
| matwood wrote:
| > However, I have a lot of peers who couldn't hang on to a
| paper journal or TODO list during the day if they tried
|
| A bit more meta is that the habit itself is primarily all I
| need. I journal, write things down, etc... and almost never
| look at them again. The habit of doing is all it takes for me
| to set my day on the right trajectory.
| joe8756438 wrote:
| Agree. I made this realization when at the end of every month I
| needed to submit my daily work log along with my client
| invoices I would cobble together notes scattered in different
| apps, conversations, notebooks, etc. I ended up building an app
| that would text myself (at the same time every day) a reminder
| to log what I had done for the day. After a while I didn't need
| the reminder, I would open up my phone a few minutes before the
| text would come through, jot down a few things and done.
|
| I ended up releasing the note-taking/reminder app as a
| subscription service [0], for reasons most obvious. Over time I
| wanted more from these notes...
|
| I wanted a way to separate notes of different clients --
| folders. I wanted a way to categorize all notes related to
| different topics of interest -- tags. I wanted an email to send
| me a summary of notes in a folder to submit my invoice or
| produce a weekend reading list -- email summaries. I wanted to
| do all my bookkeeping in my notes, and on..
|
| I ended up releasing the parser for the notes as an open source
| lib [1]. Which could add a nice layer on top of any plain-text
| note system running locally.
|
| 0. https://www.tatatap.com 1. https://github.com/tatatap-
| com/sowhat
| teitoklien wrote:
| This is such a nice platform, why dont you do a ShowHN for
| this ? It's super cool.
|
| Edit: Just saw now, you've submitted this on showHN before,
| maybe tweak the timing for the post and the title for better
| results ?
| anonymouse008 wrote:
| This is quite a nice platform -- I was looking into the SMS
| space recently as well and thought a similar UI (using SMS to
| get notifications around) would work.
|
| I'm curious, do many people use the SMS note save feature? Or
| is many people the wrong unit of measure for an SMS service?
| (I've wondered if users would have a reversion to things like
| this as well...)
| joe8756438 wrote:
| SMS has been a surprising key to success. I think because
| messaging is such a routine, having the note-taking ability
| embedded creates more surface area between the note-taker
| and the thing that saves the notes. The named contact that
| shows up in your recent messages or the share menu listing
| recent contacts are areas you might trigger the impulse to
| save something.
| nonethewiser wrote:
| .txt is a factor. It makes input much faster than note taking
| apps and is much easier to search.
| oezi wrote:
| Definitely true, but sometimes the lack of sane tooling makes
| it harder to follow rituals. I used to use the same format as
| the OP in a text editor, but struggled with the daily grind of
| copying items around and carrying over todos from the last day.
| Paper is much better for this, but messy (even with scanning).
|
| In the end I wrote a small tool to assist with starting each
| day with a blank journal and all remaining items from the last
| day. Syntax is primarily markdown. Everything stays in a single
| text file.
|
| https://github.com/coezbek/rodo
| zerocount wrote:
| Yeah, I'm a pen and paper guy. Make a list of things to do each
| day and start at the top. If I don't finish the list, it's the
| beginning of the next day's list.
|
| For some reason, I prefer pens over pencils.
| ___q wrote:
| False dichotomy. The author mentions the use of tags and emails
| as a reason why this solution works better than others.
|
| If you read it, TFA is more than just a folksy phrase like
| "make it a habit."
| punkspider wrote:
| I really like this article. Thanks to reading it last year
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22276184) it validated the
| idea of using simple files.
|
| I used to try various productivity apps because I thought I
| needed something to help with reducing the "amount of willpower"
| I needed to keep a to do list.
|
| Ultimately I realized I had been using Sublime Text for years to
| take temporary notes in a very unorganized manner. Since April
| 2021 I'm happy with the todo lists/notes I keep in Sublime.
| anon2020dot00 wrote:
| Tangentially-related in terms of organization, something that
| I've been trying recently is using numbered folders to get
| organized.
|
| I'd create folders by month like "01 November", "02 December" and
| inside of those folders I'd create projects like "01 New
| Project", "02 Another Project".
|
| It functions like a To-Do list in that it reminds me to work on a
| particular project and when I'm done, I can move it to a _Done
| folder.
|
| For short-term reminders though, like with an upcoming meeting,
| I'd just write it down on my Boox Tablet on a weekly calendar
| template.
|
| For a what-done list, I'm not sure if there is real value with
| writing down everything I've done for the day. I think short-term
| memory is good enough and for longer time periods, there are
| usually emails or commits that can answer the question on what
| was done.
| vasco wrote:
| Mine is a notebook and a pen. Whatever isn't in the last 3 pages
| deserves to be forgotten and not done unless it reappears through
| another context in which case it gets re-added.
|
| Writing with a pen also has the advantage that working remotely,
| people do not wonder if you're sending slack messages or emails
| instead of paying attention because you're typing. My notebook
| also doesn't need any privacy features.
| criddell wrote:
| A commonly stated benefit of the text file is that it's
| searchable and easy to backup. If you only care about the last
| three pages, then searching isn't a problem and if you lose it
| you've only lost three pages of value. That's probably not a
| huge problem as well.
|
| For your last point about working remotely, I sometimes wonder
| if I spend a few hours working through some problem on paper,
| my chat avatar will go to inactive ("last seen 23 minutes ago")
| and people might think I've wandered off.
| kamaal wrote:
| >>A commonly stated benefit of the text file is that it's
| searchable and easy to backup.
|
| Not all data is same.
|
| Personal Knowledge Database is not the same as metadata
| things like todo lists, often todo lists don't need
| searching, back up etc.
|
| Also one must look at tools as things to achieve end goals,
| not as goals themselves. Data pollution is a thing, and
| having extra things isnt always good.
| Lhiw wrote:
| guerby wrote:
| Same for me at my previous work, kept a log in a txt file for
| about a decade.
|
| When I came back visiting my old colleagues one of their gift was
| my txt file printed on paper, it was a few centimeters thick :)
| denton-scratch wrote:
| /me retired.
|
| When I worked, my daily todo list would have been:
|
| * Spend another day working on Project X.
|
| Now it's all domestic tasks, which fall into two categories:
| tasks that have to be done urgently, and those I can do "when I
| feel like it".
|
| Guess what? My todo list now consists of one or two things I must
| do urgently, and getting on for a coupla hundred blue-sky tasks
| that'll _never_ be done.
|
| Task #1: weed the todo list (high priority)
|
| I've never been much good at time-management, as you can see.
| LegitShady wrote:
| if you remove the weed from your todo list maybe you'll get
| more done
| cookingoils wrote:
| I was just talking about this blog post with a friend yesterday.
| I'm curious to know the file size of the doc after 7 years.
| lazyjeff wrote:
| Author of the original article here. It's now year 9 with the
| current todo/done file I have now. And I'm on line 50473, with
| a file size of 2.3 MB.
| themodelplumber wrote:
| For sure. It actually reminded me of when I was first learning
| QuickBasic. Appending certain words to a hidden text file (I
| think via TSR?) on boot was how we would casually fill up the
| hard drives of the lab computers in our electronics class,
| driving the teacher back into his submarine CPO days and
| streams of curse words. Fortunately he took it in stride and
| got us back...
| WanderPanda wrote:
| I use the Mac Os notes app because the bullet points /
| hierarchical lists have the best ux I've seen yet.
| bengale wrote:
| I do something similar but with apple notes. Still simple but I
| get a bit of formatting and some checkboxes, tags and decent
| search. I can also create reminders that link back to highlighted
| parts of a note.
| athenot wrote:
| Same here. The best part is that I spend zero brain cycles in
| thinking where to file a note before I write it; pretty much
| every note is in a generic Notes folder.
|
| I have one exception: any 1:1 meeting with a person gets its
| own note and those go in a specific folder. One note per person
| and a bullet list under a date, with talking points. I also use
| this ahead of meetings; when I suddenly think of something I
| need to discuss with someone, I add it to their note. Then when
| I meet them, it's part of my agenda.
|
| It's also searcheable so if I need to refresh my memory about
| an older discussion, whether it took place and when, it's a few
| keywords away.
| criddell wrote:
| You can also add images, scan in documents with your phone or
| tablet camera, you can sketch with the Apple Pencil (on an
| iPad), and it does OCR on images you paste in so you can take a
| picture of a whiteboard and the text on it will be indexed.
|
| My big complaint is that there isn't a decent Windows client. I
| sometimes will use the web version, but it's maddening because
| some of the keystrokes for things like word left or word right
| (ctrl-arrow) don't work.
| jonbaer wrote:
| https://momentumdash.com
| johnmato wrote:
| I agree with this one; I only used a notepad to track my
| productivity and tasks for the day. It's so simple, and there's
| no complicated UI that you need to memorize.
| claviska wrote:
| I use a similar system, albeit organized through Bear for
| macOS/iOS. But organization aside, it's just text in a couple key
| "files" that I can quickly and easily update. They sync from my
| laptop to my phone so I can jot ideas down any time without
| effort and have confidence knowing they'll be there waiting for
| me when I need them.
|
| The problem I've found with many note taking apps is that it
| takes too long to simply write something down and find it later.
| Having simple "files" reduces friction and gets out of the way.
| Sometimes simpler is better.
| charcircuit wrote:
| A file isn't an application. Ultraedit is the productivity app.
| levmiseri wrote:
| For the fellow .txt filists -- I made a minimal online notepad
| https://kvak.io that makes it easier to access your notes
| anywhere. (With my wife we are also using it as an always-up-to-
| date shopping list).
| jiggunjer wrote:
| Is there a self hosted version. No offense :)
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| A simple no-frills note taking web app seems like it would be
| incredibly simple to make. Any professional web developer
| could probably make it in under an hour.
|
| It'd only need two pages. A list of notes, and a single page
| for editing notes. Perhaps a login page, but you could
| simplify further and just use HTTP Basic Auth. You wouldn't
| even need any JavaScript if you don't mind having to click a
| button to save your note instead of having it constantly
| updated as you type.
| satysin wrote:
| This is pretty similar how I work also. I use iA Writer but could
| be any text editor obviously. However I keep this for things that
| are 'active'. I also use Things as it is a simple todo list but
| has a few nice feature and can remind me of stuff unlike a text
| file :)
|
| I keep things very simple though. I never found modern
| "productivity apps" very helpful personally. They all require too
| much work to maintain like Notion, etc.
| marttt wrote:
| Ah, the OBTF or "One big text file" meme was making rounds 10-15
| years ago. I ditched mine out of curiosity for other systems --
| but I'm still surprised how well it actually worked. Calendar,
| links, drafts of stuff I wrote -- it was all there. I was kind of
| proud when, at one point, my file (brain.txt) reached 1 MB.
|
| I'll just share some of those old links for new kids on the OBTF
| block.
|
| Probably one of the discussion starters in 2005:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20060101001857/http://www.oreill...
|
| Which apparently got inspiration from this:
| https://craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt
|
| And was passionately discussed by the 43 Folders crowd:
| https://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-tex...
|
| Me, I essentially stole and fine-tuned the syntax exlained here:
| http://www.matthewcornell.org/blog/2005/8/21/my-big-arse-tex...
|
| OBTF vs Zettelkasten (from 2020):
| https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1508/zettelkasten-v...
|
| I've tried to set up a Zettelkasten many times, but in practice,
| loosely structured flat files, maybe utilizing the OS' file
| system (folders) and occasional ad-hoc hierarchies, still beats
| everything else for me.
| miki123211 wrote:
| I do something pretty similar.
|
| I have a big, append-only TXT file that I keep in Dropbox. Most
| of my notes and bookmarks go there. I sometimes add hashtags, I
| use #book for books that I might want to read in the future.
|
| If I have too many notes of some kind, I make a separate file for
| them, I'm considering moving my to read list to its own file, for
| example.
|
| I kept a separate file with a calendar until I switched to Mac
| OS, I use the built-in calendar app these days.
| fegu wrote:
| Me too. 20 years, actually. Mine was called todo.txt. It got
| unwieldy. I am now on todo2.txt.
| Tomte wrote:
| Has anyone found an iOS app that can do advanced searching in
| text files?
|
| Everything I've found from 1Writer to all those minimal txt apps
| just uses Apple's very very basic search UI.
|
| I'd need search through several files, and especially their
| contents, not just file names or titles, also regexp.
| rasengan0 wrote:
| Yay! Good to read validation after trying so many: wikis, org,
| TheBrain, Freemind, etc. It's like a return to the old .LOG in
| notepad trick.
|
| After a score, I'm came to the same conclusion as the article;
| plain text just works. I log in vim using ISO 8601 date stamped
| records in the log format of (priority - datetime stamp -
| keywords/tag - content) inspired by Randy Pausch
| https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0 others noticed too:
| https://github.com/nrr-deprecated/todo
|
| Sorting by date, priority or keyword keeps me on track and helps
| for quarterly summaries.
|
| A simple bash loop runs annually to give me a fresh 365 dashboard
| of days but inserts are a datetime stamp command - keywords
| autocompleted - then actual typing the meat of the task/content
|
| Because all text is in a single file, vim autocomplete saves
| typing as I use CamelCase for keywords; vim dict helps too.
|
| Caveat: For enjoyment, I still use fountain pens and paper for a
| running top 3 priority and scribbling offline. Backup interop is
| via TiddlyWiki for reference archive and sync with a plain text
| Zettelkasten (heavy on vim gf, Rg, FZF and jq for TiddlyWiki json
| export)
|
| Plain text is built to last.
| 4monthsaway wrote:
| I'd like to try a better version of using the default notes app
| on iphone. I keep attempting over the years to keep at it but end
| up never reviewing the notes. I have half the battle down...I use
| it for a crazy amount of ideas but yea, definitely need to adopt
| a more consistent routine. Interesting to see what others do like
| this article
| asimpletune wrote:
| My productivity app is basically this txt file, but with the
| vanilla apple notes app + a apple shortcut script that I write
| that generates the template for that week. It works really
| well.
| ehnto wrote:
| I have a one-liner bash alias that stores whatever I feed it into
| a file by todays date, alias "note"="echo $1 >>
| ~/.notes/`date+'%Y-%m-%d'`.note"
|
| So you end up with a folder of files formatted like this
| 2021-11-02.note.
|
| Then to view them I either just cat it, or jump in to a text
| editor. I have an alias to cat todays .note
| alias "notes"="cat ~/.notes/`date+'%Y-%m-%d'`.note"
|
| I have sometimes considered fleshing it out, but like other
| commenters have pointed out, it's the habit more than the tool
| that makes it useful. Simple is key.
| jll29 wrote:
| Thanks. Space between "date" and "+"?
| mFixman wrote:
| I create a new dated file every day and edit it on Vim.
|
| I think this is the ideal middle point: I can easily go back and
| see old information, but I also don't feel that I'm "wasting"
| important space if I feel like writing down more things in a
| particular day.
| fleddr wrote:
| At work I have a colleague that is basically a 10x software
| architect/engineer. You can throw anything at him and he masters
| it in record time. He's just in another league.
|
| He uses pen and paper for notes and todos. Nothing else.
|
| The other oddity is that he uses the internet read-only, except
| for email. Zero social media accounts, forums, no mobile apps
| other than the standard ones. He doesn't exist online.
|
| I admire him. There's no need for productivity suites or "life
| hacks" when you keep things simple, focus, and remove all
| distractions.
|
| Besides avoiding personal distractions, he's also my role model
| in avoiding work distractions. He commits to one or two projects
| and ignores everything else. He won't answer your email or chat
| and won't attend your meeting. He cuts through nonsense like a
| human laser.
| foobarian wrote:
| > He cuts through nonsense like a human laser.
|
| I love that metaphor!
| edf13 wrote:
| Mine used to be the same... however recently I send myself a
| daily "To Do" email
| kristianpaul wrote:
| I moved to mutt 10 years ago, no regret and its the first thing i
| look in the morning
| yakshaving_jgt wrote:
| I've been a happy mutt user for several years also but my
| understanding is that it is just an email client, so I'm now
| not sure how it fits into the context of a todo list. Are there
| more mutt features that I'm not aware of? Or do you mean you
| manage your productivity with an email inbox? I'm curious to
| hear what your workflow is like.
| mwattsun wrote:
| I've always kept a text file or spreadsheet of things to do,
| priorities, etc... My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and
| getting organized, it's remembering to look at my list. I tend to
| space out for days working on a problem and forget to look at my
| list.
|
| I've experienced a big productivity boost by using the desktop
| background of my 43" monitor as a whiteboard (blackboard
| actually). I have an jpg the size of my monitor that I jot things
| down on as text on the image. I can store meaningful small images
| the trigger my memory to do something. I've become so used to
| visually thinking about what I'm doing that I switched my text
| file todo list to markdown so I could store images in it.
|
| It's surprisingly quick to keep my large jpg open in paint and
| jot or paste things to it and then reset it as the desktop
| background. I learned later this is called a "vision board"
|
| Still, I'm so bad at spacing out that I need more than looking at
| my vision board monitor all day, so I use the Windows system
| scheduler to bring up a daily, weekly and monthly html file that
| reminds me to do things.
| jamil7 wrote:
| I do something similar for language learning, every new tab in
| Firefox shows a flashcard. If I'm in the middle of something I
| can ignore it but when my minds already wandering I tend to
| notice the word there, hopefully it helps.
| ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote:
| That's a cool system, how did you set it up?
| jamil7 wrote:
| There's a few Firefox extensions to do it, one of which
| "Flashcard New Tab" I was able to write a bit of javascript
| to paste into the console to bulk import a word list. It's
| a hack but it works for me. You might be able to find more
| complete solutions around.
| mwattsun wrote:
| I'm working on a simple flash card app for learning. People
| have decided to call those "wisdom cards" and I plan to have
| a folder of them for my app to bring up once in awhile.
|
| The coolest thing about vision board desktop background is
| that I save them every two weeks or so and start another. I
| now have a folder of two years of my thinking in visual form
| that's easy to review in just a few minutes. It may be that
| this works for me because I'm a visual person and others need
| to write it down and rewrite it down often to learn it.
| shnock wrote:
| What's the implementation? Hoping to do something similar for
| language learning
| a9h74j wrote:
| > My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting
| organized, it's remembering to look at my list.
|
| You need to put "Look at the list" on the list!
|
| That sounds facetious, but for GTD it makes some sense. "Do
| maintenance on GTD" as one periodically-important goal.
| jiggunjer wrote:
| I recall Windows has/had yellow "sticky notes" that could be
| used for that purpose.
| mwattsun wrote:
| It still does. They work ok but I came up with something
| better for myself.
|
| https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-sticky-
| notes/9nb...
| thmorriss wrote:
| That is a cool system, thanks for sharing.
| avgcorrection wrote:
| "A text file is my productivity app" is such clickbait. No one
| would bat an eye at someone using GTD with pen and paper. But
| using a digital pen and paper method is somehow noteworthy? (Well
| maybe, but I didn't want to click on a baity link...)
| [deleted]
| anon2020dot00 wrote:
| Interesting especially with the rise in popularity of
| productivity apps recently such as Obsidian, Roam, etc..
|
| A single .txt file can work as a to-do-list and a what-done list
| but it really isn't a knowledgebase like Obsidian or Roam. It is
| more comparable to a To Do List app like Microsoft To-Do or
| Amazing Marvin.
|
| It wouldn't work as a knowledgebase because a knowledgebase has
| copious amounts of text about a topic which wouldn't fit neatly
| in the by day subdivision.
|
| Although, I don't use Roam Research, I think the single .txt file
| approach also has similarities with the Roam style of using Daily
| Notes and Outlines.
|
| Roam Research is an outliner which emphasizes not using
| paragraphs of text but instead just using bullet points. His
| single .txt file approach is also using this outline and bullet-
| style approach and I think it is an underrated aspect of why his
| approach works.
|
| Using an outline and bullet points helps a lot, to quickly see
| the forest and the trees; I've only recently realized how
| powerful this approach is and so I think it's worth mentioning.
|
| On a personal note, I've operated for years without a to do list
| app and so I can easily imagine someone using a single .txt file
| and being way more productive with it. But I highly recommend
| anyone to try Microsoft To-Do or Amazing Marvin or the single
| .txt approach since I agree that it is better than going without.
| Forge36 wrote:
| Obsidian is an editor. It does a lot of things, and makes no
| effort to hide it's a markdown editor.
|
| The biggest advantage to me is splitting files, and indexing.
| I'm only using it on my phone. (Notepad++ makes this easy
| enough for me at work that i write everything out as separate
| files, downside being i don't use tags was often as I should
| for finding things later).
|
| The best system is one which can easily change. By making the
| backend plaintext files on the system, portability is preserved
| with no extra steps.
| kgeist wrote:
| I use a simple text file, too. It has four sections: "major",
| "minor", "done", and a section for random thoughts. Every
| evening, I copy the file (with remaining unfinished tasks) and
| give it a new name (for example, "December 23, 2021"). This way I
| also have a history of everything. It has worked well so far.
| egypturnash wrote:
| I am glad for this post because it spurred me to open up the
| paper journal I do my own work planning/tracking in for the first
| time in a month. I've been getting stuff done in that time but
| it's been unplanned and meandering and hasn't even felt like a
| vacation or anything. I took a moment to survey the precise
| remaining scope of a big project I'm nearing the end of and that
| felt really, really good to do.
|
| So thanks for posting this, Simone.
| 13324 wrote:
| For another approach of keeping a todo-list in a .txt file one
| may also look at the syntax of todotxt. I use Todotxt.net on
| Windows for several years now with nextcloud sync and SwifttoDo
| on iOS and am quite happy with it.
| wly_cdgr wrote:
| Same. A great example of satisficing in action
| iszomer wrote:
| I kept my password/credentials in a single .txt file on a
| truecrypt volume for a time, just to maintain the KISS principle.
| yosito wrote:
| I'm using an .md file that I sync with Nextcloud between all of
| my devices. I edit it with Obsidian on my laptops, and the
| Nextcloud Notes app on Android, which also has a nice widget that
| allows me to pin my todo.md on my homescreen and formats the
| markdown checklist appropriately.
|
| It's the most flexible system I've ever used. The only missing
| features for me are the ability to reorder items quickly on
| mobile and add reminders to a todo. But control over my own data
| beats both of those features.
| q1w2 wrote:
| I use Typora, and sync with WinSCP. same same - but different.
| jasode wrote:
| _> A text file is incredibly flexible, and at any point, I can
| quickly glance to see what I've done that day and what's left.
| When a task is completed, which is the most common default, I
| just leave it. [...] I use Ultraedit because I'm familiar with
| it_
|
| I've also been using a plain "todo.txt" for 20+ years and also
| use UltraEdit. So far, it's been better than alternatives such as
| Borland Sidekick, PalmPilot gadgets, Evernote.
|
| I agree with all the positives the author laid out but I also
| recognize there are serious limitations with my reliance on
| "todo.txt".
|
| - no "live" schedule of upcoming events because there's no
| runtime that turns the text file into active reminders and a
| countdown of when things are due. A lot of people have a "inner
| clock" in their head and don't need countdowns but my brain seems
| to to lack this. E.g. the author has example of _" 11:30am meet
| with student Enya"_ and when I write entries like that, the
| 11:30am time comes and goes because I got distracted.
|
| - not editable by others. Sometimes, important people in my life
| remind me I need to do X,Y,Z but I often don't get around to the
| tedious data entry of adding it to to the text so it gets
| overlooked.
|
| The issues above are solved better by a cloud or smartphone app
| but I'd miss the instant access speed and flexibility of the text
| file. That's why I'm working on some tools to create a runtime
| that converts my "todo.txt" into something that pings me on my
| smartphone and gives me a better live dashboard for activities.
| lazyjeff wrote:
| Author of the posted article here. You raise fair points.
|
| For live scheduling, I generally have my meetings clumped
| together so I just go to the next meeting or take a break when
| one is over. If it's a sporadic meeting day, there's still the
| calendar on my phone as a backup alarm in case I forget. So far
| I've missed maybe a handful of meetings over the past 14 years,
| so it hasn't really been an issue.
|
| People can schedule on my calendar the regular way, but I don't
| like them editing or even viewing my todo/done file because I
| make a lot of quick personal notes that I'm not ready for
| others to read, like my thoughts about someone's talk or paper.
| silasdb wrote:
| I'm a heavy user of todotxt. For me, the greatest thing about
| keeping everything in a txt file is that it is very easy to build
| your own extensions with a combination of sh, awk, grep, etc.
|
| For calendars, the problem is a bit more problematic, though.
| Yes, there are things like calendar[1] and remind[2], but nobody
| seems to use them nowadays and in the mobile world there is no
| app to process them. Do you know of any existing solutions for
| calendars that work like todotxt?
|
| [1] https://man.netbsd.org/calendar.1
|
| [2] https://linux.die.net/man/1/remind
| michaeljohansen wrote:
| Are you me? I've been keeping a txt file for the last 12 years
| too.
|
| Synced in Dropbox, only available on my laptops (on purpose),
| only ever opened with Sublime Text, and using my own syntax
| highlighting, keywords and autocompletions. A new block of text
| for every day. Nothing is ever deleted. Consistent writing style,
| lots of checkboxes, and an onthology of tags to categorise
| everything.
|
| File size at time of writing: 3.5 MB.
| pmontra wrote:
| I have a txt file open in emacs since 2012 formatted like
| YYYY-MM-DD Project 1. Daily notes. N.M hours
| TODO Project 2. Notes
|
| I use it to track what I'll have to invoice at the end of the
| month and why (some customers just pay others want to know what
| they are paying for) and to plan for the future.
|
| Plus a number of discarded A4 papers with a clean rear side
| filled with short term todo lists. Occasionally they become not
| so short term v_v
|
| I'm using Emacs so I should learn Org mode but that simple file
| bought me so far so I'm unsure what Org mode will actually gain
| to me.
| macintux wrote:
| My experience introducing myself to Orgmode over the last
| couple of years has been that I can add new features/syntax as
| I need them, or not. I don't care whether my one big notes file
| can be processed by any tooling other than Emacs itself, and
| Emacs seems to be forgiving of whatever I do with it.
|
| All I really needed to get started was to understand the
| equivalent syntax to the basic features Markdown would offer.
| vp8989 wrote:
| I have been doing this for about 3 or 4 years too. I wouldn't say
| it necessarily makes you "productive" unless you work in a very
| isolated fashion.
|
| By whittling it down to the bare essentials you at least know if
| you are unproductive it's not because you are faffing around with
| the tracking of your own tasks.
| TimLeland wrote:
| Hopefully he has a backup
| pkrumins wrote:
| Checkmate org mode people.
| _dain_ wrote:
| > Prerequisite: A calendar. The one outside tool I use is an
| online calendar, and I put everything on this calendar, even
| things that aren't actually for a fixed time like "make a coffee
| table at the workshop" or "figure out how to recruit new PhD
| students" -- I'll schedule them on a date when I want to think
| about it. That way all my future plans and schedule are together,
| and not a bunch of lists I have to keep track of.
|
| On this topic, what calendar software do people use? I'm a very
| disorganized person, never used calendars to keep track of my
| life. Maybe I'll try it out. I'd like something independent from
| Google/Microsoft/$BIGTECH.
| 7thaccount wrote:
| This made me laugh, as I've done the same thing for years. I just
| keep a "to do" text file open and put new things into it and move
| things into the completed section when done. I don't have time
| for the JIRA method as it is overly complicated and I work on a
| lot of solo projects these days, so the additional features
| aren't useful. My boss just wants a weekly status update (email
| with a few bullet points), so nobody would care anyway. I'd say
| it is super effective for me.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| For solo projects, I still prefer a tracker, but I use Taiga.
| It's very basic, but that's all I need. I don't want to create
| a list of fields that I have to fill out on every ticket. Most
| of my tickets don't even have a description, just a title.
| slk500 wrote:
| You should try org-mode
| tarkin2 wrote:
| Psychologically, the most important part of txt files, and lists
| in particular, is writing `* DONE Whatever the task was` when
| it's finished. Even if you end up deleting the line later on, it
| still feels great and helps you continue with more items.
| mbg721 wrote:
| I do a paper version of this; there's a particular type of box
| I draw to highlight a task among all the other notes and
| doodles, and when it's done, I color it in.
| kache_ wrote:
| Based & redpilled
| NorSoulx wrote:
| Since 2012 I've been keeping task files to document all the stuff
| I work on. Most are job related. This comes in handy when I need
| to re-visit something I've worked on previously, sometimes going
| several years back in time. The task files are plain text files
| which are quick to create and update, and I use Sublime Text or
| VIM to edit. I do both development and operational related tasks,
| and can work on many tasks during a day. The trick is documenting
| in the task files right away before the details are wiped from my
| memory. When looking things up, I usually search by file name, or
| content, or both. Having documented a task previously can save
| time when returning to a similar task at a later date.
|
| I use a naming format for the task file, including the date and a
| short task description, e.g:
|
| task.2021.12.23.short.task.description.txt
|
| Number of task files created since 2012:
|
| Task files: 18231 Total size: 350 MB
|
| For each day I also create a worklog of the tasks I've been
| working on that day (including minutes spent). Since 2012 I've
| registered 2540 daily worklog files:
|
| ls -l task.????.??.??.worklog.txt |wc -l 2540
|
| The worklog files are also used to estimate time necessary to
| complete similar or recurring tasks.
| notRobot wrote:
| (2020)
| giancarlostoro wrote:
| I use Sublime Text like anyone would pastebin or a simple
| clipboard manager, but it is slightly more curated and I dont
| need to save anything. I also sometimes write my schedule / tasks
| on it but not as often.
| raldi wrote:
| How are finished tasks marked?
| dang wrote:
| One past thread:
|
| _My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single
| .txt file_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22276184 - Feb
| 2020 (402 comments)
| rappatic wrote:
| The author makes some points about the benefits of doing this,
| but I really think he's making things more difficult for himself.
| Even a basic note-taking app would provide a much larger number
| of features and be equally easy to use. It's quirky idea but it's
| really not that practical.
| tajd wrote:
| Sometimes its good to remember that the best method is the one
| that you actually use - the author clearly uses their method!
| You could also argue that reducing your number of dependencies
| to a calendar and a note file is actually quite practical. It
| depends on your perspective.
| superkuh wrote:
| Nope. A note-taking application would not work for 12 years.
| And it certainly wouldn't work for the 20+ years I've been
| using a single .txt file. The longevity and ease of longevity
| of simple plain text is the major benefit.
| cableshaft wrote:
| But what about an application wrapper around plain text
| files, like Obsidian or a Markdown editor? You get some
| benefits while the files are also saved in plain-text format.
| superkuh wrote:
| What benefits? My notes are now full of someone elses
| arbitrary mark-up I get to see with my eyes? That's just
| clutter. I doubt those programs have existed for more than
| a handful of years and I doubt they'll exist longer than
| that into the future.
| dotancohen wrote:
| I had exactly that line of thought for decades. My notes
| files go back to 1999.
|
| That's why I'm so happy with org-mode. Seriously give it
| a try. It's syntax is not far from what I was using on my
| own - though it seems that I independently invented
| Mardown - just that it uses a * for headings rather than
| # (which I choose because of C comments). Org-mode has
| been around since around the turn of the century I think.
| And I'm happy to open the org-mode files in VIM and edit
| them there if need be.
| dgreensp wrote:
| A text file is not difficult and impractical. "Number of
| features" is not what makes a tool practical.
| lelanthran wrote:
| > The author makes some points about the benefits of doing
| this, but I really think he's making things more difficult for
| himself. Even a basic note-taking app would provide a much
| larger number of features and be equally easy to use.
|
| Yeah, and probably online-only. Or, if offline-use is allowed,
| probably use as much memory as his system has free...
|
| And, of course, every 2 years it would stop being supported, be
| sold to another company, turned into online-only and contain
| non-stop ads, and he'd maybe switch to a new app.
|
| And relearn how to take notes again.
|
| > It's quirky idea but it's really not that practical.
|
| Seems pretty practical to me:
|
| 1. Easy and flexible searching.
|
| 2. Very quick to add notes to (Double-clicking on a .txt file
| takes maybe 250ms to open in Vim).
|
| 3. Versioning, if you want it (add it to your repo).
|
| 4. Online-editing if he wants that (host it on a WebDAV
| server).
|
| 5. Viewable (and likely editable) on every single device he
| owns, even his TV if its hosted somewhere.
|
| Downsides:
|
| 1. No Ads.
|
| 2. Not forced into learning a new workflow every few years.
|
| 3. Doesn't cost anything.
|
| (Admittedly, the downside is only a downside for those in the
| business of trrr to replace the text file)..
| egypturnash wrote:
| It's been working for him for _twelve years_. I think that 's
| pretty practical.
|
| App require maintenance and are out of your control; right now
| a chunk of my personal process is a mess because some stuff
| depended on Evernote. Which was _great_ for about a decade
| until it got a complete rewrite as an Electron app, and now it
| 's super slow and keeps adding new "friendly" stuff that gets
| in between me and my notes. I haven't found a replacement
| that's not full of its own problems and it's impossible to
| downgrade to the old, perfectly functional native apps on the
| iThings (and eventually an OS update will break all the apps),
| it's _incredibly frustrating_. The parts of my process that
| depend on writing stuff down in a paper journal, meanwhile,
| continue to work exactly the same.
| justsomeuser wrote:
| Same here, native Evernote has worked fine for me, but the
| Electron version adds too much latency, and the
| writing/reading of notes feels different in a worse way.
|
| Apple Notes will let you import directly from an Evernote
| export, but it is missing some features (no note links, no
| quick search/jump, hard to navigate nested folders as notes
| are hidden by default, no export).
| K_REY_C wrote:
| Just sharing this tool, logseq [1], that I learned about a couple
| of weeks ago. It traffics in plain text files and does
| graphically what an org-mode might do after a lot of work.
|
| I figure more people should be aware of this open source tool I
| hope improves and becomes more robust.
|
| [1]: https://logseq.com/
| sivakon wrote:
| I actually used it continuously for six months. Once the data
| and the size of the graph increases, it gets very slow, even
| text editing gets unresponsive. The features are good, but it
| will get slow and taking notes feel sluggish
| bootcat wrote:
| even after getting so many apps, the old school ways are still
| awesome - mine are paper, - cards, - text file using vscode
| da-x wrote:
| I can see why a simple text file is working for many people.
|
| Anything that requires you to wait for a program to start, a
| window to appear, or a webpage to load is very detrimental to the
| mental mode of note taking because thoughts change even on the
| slightest of latency. It should be as immediate as picking up a
| notebook from the table that has a pen attached to it.
| lambic wrote:
| Yeah this is important for me. My work day is organised with
| Jira tickets, and we all know how klunky the Jira interface can
| be, so I installed one of the Jira cli clients[1] and it's
| invaluable. I can do all my ticket management from the terminal
| just as if I was working with text files. Editing or commenting
| on a ticket opens it in vim for me.
|
| I have a few scripts on top of the client to make things even
| easier like _sprint_ to see tickets in the current sprint, _jv_
| to view a ticket, _take_ to grab a ticket, _transition_ to
| transition a ticket and _slackscrum_ to push the tickets I 've
| worked on today to slack for my scrum update.
|
| [1] https://github.com/go-jira/jira
| da-x wrote:
| Thanks! I'll try this (I also suffer from Web-JIRA latency
| fatique).
| Crontab wrote:
| This kind of reminds me of the "One Big Text File" thing that was
| a popular subject a while ago[1][2]. I haven't attempted it, but
| if I did, it would probably be a "One Big Markdown File".
| [1]https://www.williamhern.com/living-in-a-single-text-file.html
| [2]http://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-
| file
| civilized wrote:
| Hey there!! I've been doing "One Big Markdown File" for about
| three years and I can _highly_ recommend it [1]. Do it in a
| highly responsive text editor with Markdown highlighting, like
| Sublime. You get the simplicity and responsiveness that keeps
| you writing at the speed of thought, and the highlighting
| provides a perfect balance of "just enough structure to keep
| you sane" while "minimizing formatting distractions".
|
| I have so, so much to say about how to make this approach work.
| Please AMA if you have any interest in this.
|
| [1] OK, full disclosure, my main file does sometimes spawn
| child Markdown files for particular projects. I don't apologize
| for this! A lot of the challenge around sustaining a _useful_
| to-do list over multiple months and years is managing the cruft
| of your thought. If the document gets too crufty or weedy, it
| becomes an impediment to thought rather than an aid, and you
| will let it languish. I have a pretty detailed system for
| mitigating this risk. Spawning child documents for the weedy
| stuff + "link" to the child in the main is an important
| technique here.
|
| (Once we start talking about links you might imagine we could
| use a wiki, but the most important property of the system is to
| stay lightweight and at-the-speed-of-thought - I use it to
| capture requirements during meetings, for example.)
| dgreensp wrote:
| I think the real insight here is the calendar: it sounds like new
| tasks go straight onto the calendar, and that's how a to-do
| backlog is avoided! Interesting.
| coliveira wrote:
| I do the same, every day I add a heading with date to my txt
| file, which is always open. Then I write topics of the day. It
| works more as a way to remember what I was working and what is
| missing.
| oftenwrong wrote:
| This reminds me a bit of The Erlang Ticket System, a "Minimal
| Viable Program", that Joe Armstrong described on his blog:
|
| https://joearms.github.io/published/2014-06-25-minimal-viabl...
| designium wrote:
| I do that too in txt. I tried DayOne, AI writer, etc. but the
| simple text editor is perfect. Also, I don't want to be relying
| on someone else to save and backup my info. I know where my txt
| is and how I am backing it up. It's portable.
| xenodium wrote:
| For anyone who's into org mode, needing an iOS counterpart when
| away from keyword, I've built https://plainorg.com
| hackerbrother wrote:
| I do something similar, but use a Sqlite DB! I have some views
| set up to view today's to-do items, etc.
| hellelujah wrote:
| I'm moving from a single .txt file to vimwiki, which plays nice
| with calendar, diary and daily todo checklist.
| dpweb wrote:
| Highly recommend ClipX (with "Disklog" plugin), one of the few
| apps I've kept for years. All clipboards go to a text file which
| can be easily searched.
|
| When I need to save something I just Ctrl-C it. Its my code
| snippet manager I can instantly find something I wrote years ago.
| https://bluemars.org/clipx/
| philmcp wrote:
| My productivity app has been pen + A5 paper pad
|
| Advantages:
|
| - Instant availability (no need to load up an app)
|
| - Works offline
|
| - I can't access it when I'm not at work (feature, not a bug)
|
| - I can draw as well as write
|
| - It's satisfying to tick items off
| madphilosopher wrote:
| My choice is paper, too. For that, I really like the Pocketmod
| [0] system. I generate my own Pocketmod booklets using
| PostScript [1].
|
| [0] https://pocketmod.com/
|
| [1]
| https://gist.github.com/madphilosopher/c71dac84a096533d335bf...
| themodelplumber wrote:
| This is why I developed a system that works in both worlds,
| digital or paper. Also because if you know shorthand, it may
| even be faster and less distracting to jot than to type.
| Hoasi wrote:
| Text works well for managing one's schedule.
|
| Here is a simple system in Markdown that I've been using for some
| time: https://github.com/YJPL/personal-kanban.
| AreYouElite wrote:
| ORG-MODE ORG-MODE ORG-MODE Jeff, everything you do could be done
| with org-mode by using a key combination. it would also add a
| calender with an agenda and schedule and and and and the main
| thing: it's a text file just like what you are using. this is a
| nice how to (no relation to me) https://youtu.be/SzA2YODtgK4
| q1w2 wrote:
| I'm using a markdown big file. What features in org-mode are
| really worth making me look at it?
| themodelplumber wrote:
| Isn't org mode less portable though? My understanding was that
| you need an editor plus appropriate tooling for it to really
| shine, which to me is similar to saying "productivity software"
| and less like text editing.
| xenodium wrote:
| I'm working on making org more portable (at least bring parts
| to iOS), via https://plainorg.com and flathabits.com.
|
| Karl Voit is doing the hard work of rallying folks to promote
| org markup outside of Emacs and hopefully create a diverse
| ecosystem under the Orgdown proposal
| https://gitlab.com/publicvoit/orgdown
| dempedempe wrote:
| I have yet to try PlainOrg, but loved your app, Flathabits!
| xenodium wrote:
| Thank you. Nice to hear that!
| lytefm wrote:
| I wouldn't say that it's less portable than using your custom
| txt file file format.
|
| But sure, in order to really make it shine and you'll want to
| use Emacs and something like orgzly on the phone.
| kcartlidge wrote:
| Totally agree.
|
| I've got an almost 4,000 line file with the same kind of stuff
| for work, every day since 27th March 2019. It includes not just
| what I did, but also things like IDs for data in various
| environments so I can go straight back to what I was doing if
| needed.
|
| At the end of one day I add the entry for the next day (mine is
| Markdown and the latest is at the top) to remind me of things
| I've discovered that will be relevant, and I update the current
| day's entry as I go.
|
| I use Markdown because I use bullet lists almost exclusively
| (brief, with nested children for detail). It's also great for
| short code blocks.
|
| Having seen my file during remote stand-ups I now have several
| colleagues doing similar. There really is no need for anything
| fancier.
|
| But remember - frequent dated backups and if possible (and you're
| an employee) use networked drives so you are enrolled in
| corporate backups too.
| bm3719 wrote:
| I used a plain text file for about 5-6 years before finding org-
| mode in 2009. Of course, I technically still use a plain text
| file since that's what Org uses, just with some extra features
| that make organizing things specific to productivity easier.
|
| That said, I'm not sure I'd exclusively use a plain text file or
| even Org if I had to break my day down into as low as 15 minute
| chunks like this guy. I find the text-based approach to work best
| for longer-term planning/strategizing and just keeping yourself
| from forgetting stuff over the course of days. It also works
| better if you're already on your computer and using your text
| editor all day and/or SSH-ing into a box with the file. If I need
| to remember to make it to 4 meetings today at very specific
| times, something that pushes notifications and upcoming meeting
| warnings might accommodate that better.
|
| I've had meeting-heavy jobs, and split off the meeting management
| into Outlook (or similar) with good results. Useful info that
| flows out of meetings can still go into your notes to be
| organized later though. Then I make my GTD list "task-centric",
| meaning that it focuses on getting discrete activities started
| and completed, with less focus on times/dates. That requires some
| level of freedom to manage your own time though, so it's not for
| everyone.
| meribold wrote:
| Does anyone else take notes by sending messages to themselves on
| Signal or another messaging app? I've been doing that for years.
| Taking notes in dedicated note-taking apps always seems to
| involve more friction than sending myself a message. The note-
| taking apps I've tried also lacked polish compared to messaging
| apps.
|
| It's important to me that I can take notes on my phone because
| it's the thing I have on me most of the time (unlike a laptop or
| notebook). Sometimes a random thought pops up and will distract
| me until I write it down. On my laptop I can use the Signal
| desktop app to view, add, or search notes. Every note
| automatically gets a timestamp and is synced between my devices.
| Both taking and viewing notes works without an Internet
| connection.
|
| Notes can't be edited but more information can be added by
| replying to a note and the new information gets its own
| timestamp. Sometimes I also use emoji reactions as tags. Recently
| I've started to use groups in which I'm the only member as note
| categories (e.g. ideas, thoughts, journal, work).
| uglygoblin wrote:
| This is my favorite low effort note taking. I've been doing
| this with email for a long time and for work I message myself
| in Slack.
| denton-scratch wrote:
| > Does anyone else take notes by sending messages to themselves
| on Signal or another messaging app?
|
| Yes. I use email - text/plain, on Thunderbird. I save the
| unaddressed email in the local Drafts folder (doesn't depend on
| internet). If I need to edit, I can open it, edit it, and save
| it in-place (it replaces the original). I own a smartphone, but
| I don't carry it around.
|
| TBird has a tasklist, but it's pretty bad - a lot worse than a
| textfile.
| muktabh wrote:
| That is so relatable. I use Tomboy Notes instead of just plain
| text file as it is stuck on my desktop and keeps reminding me
| that downloading and trying out a new github project is something
| I can spend next 5 minutes on, but not the next hour doing.
|
| I also somehow feel that just listing down tasks on Tomboy in
| terms of achievable chunks helps my focus.
| rubyist5eva wrote:
| Same here, all I use is a single `notes.txt` file in my cloud
| storage using the notepad.exe .LOG feature that inserts the
| current timestamp in the file when you open it.
| a9h74j wrote:
| Since the post describes relying upon a single text file, and
| makes passing mention to the problem of email ...
|
| IIRC Jef Raskin's _The Humane Interface,_ which expounds in part
| on his Canon CAT features and philosophy, proposed [and /or
| "stole" w/o credit] integrated email within the editor hard-wired
| to a single file.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface
|
| https://archive.org/details/humaneinterfacen00rask
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