Ask HN: Do you keep a developer diary?

Nothing shared like this. But I have kept daily logs, first as text file. Currently I do this using quiver (a multi-noteobok editor). I create a notebook called worklog and each day I put in a short list of planned actvities and then I copy/paste a lot of details below as I move through the day. Code snippets, log snippets, bits of conversation. Along with my own notes of what I tried and observed.

Currently, I'm sort of split between three tools. Omnifocus (a GTD manager) for tracking all the tasks, quiver for notes through the day, and then I use [emergent task planner], a paper based task planner for the days tasks. As much as omnifocus/gtd helps me track things, I found using paper to block out each hour of the workday ahead of time really helps me focus. If I find myself losing focus, I can refer to that and (usually) get myself back on track.

I researched basically all the solutions (wikis, tiddlywiki, evernote etc etc), but they all had some limitation either in offline access, shareability, portability, openness or something else.

What finally made it into a working solution is writing plain markdown files, one per day, automatically synced to bitbucket via tiny bash scripts that initiate a new file for the day (aliased to 'j' for minimal hurdle to start writing), opens them in an editor, and committs to the repo after closing the editor.

It is available here: https://github.com/samuell/mdnote

The nice thing with markdown, if you make a level-1 header for each new file, is that you can concatenate the file into a long file, and run pandoc -i allnotes.md -o allnotes.epub, and get a formatted and searchable notebook for offline use, when you want to read it, with the Level-1 headings denoting chapters - so, one chapter per day!

(I have a script for this too of course: https://github.com/samuell/mdnote/blob/master/as_epub.sh).

I do this with my blog. Not with every decision, but often enough that I have referred back to it occasionally.

Share the wealth! :)

It can also be useful to keep a diary of your work experience. Not the proprietary information, but the assignments, personal interactions, politics.

Something that is yours and walks out the door with you, every day.

When the system or someone starts to screw you, such a record can be useful and actually viewed with some validity. Better yet, can be meeting minutes and internal communications that document the situation.

There's a reason Comey is known for writing memos about problematic situations.

I use Trello Yes I know it's not for diaries. I have one column/month. And specific columns for special projects/issues. When a note doesn't fit in a project it goes to the current month column.

You can create checklists. You can share anything from your mobile with trello so I keep track of everything I read.