Since tha HN post a while ago, I have been using a simple event log (did file) with some did.sh and todo.sh scripts:
It is MVP.
Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
21–29 of 29 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#22Some people really like emacs org-mode for this purpose. http://orgmode.org/
Yup, my entire life is driven into org. Project schedules get driven in with specific tasks, the daily agenda view shows me what I’ve committed to, clock in/clock out, and biweekly reports for payment. I keep varying degrees of notes as I work through the tasks. The whole thing is kept on Dropbox with a my-org-config.el so that I can use the same functionality on my various computers.
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#23I keep logs using Windows Notepad. I keep track of the time, what I’m working on and, at the end of the day, a note that says “Next:..” so I’ll be able to pick right up where I left off. I have a program to add up the hours for me. Once I became a consultant, I started keeping a log for each client.
Just press F5 in Notepad to insert the current date and time.
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#24I keep logs using Windows Notepad. I keep track of the time, what I’m working on and, at the end of the day, a note that says “Next:..” so I’ll be able to pick right up where I left off. I have a program to add up the hours for me. Once I became a consultant, I started keeping a log for each client.
Just press F5 in Notepad to insert the current date and time.
Yeah, I know. I think the cat showed me that when it walked on the keyboard. :-)
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#25I have never heard of any such practice before.
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#26For personal learning: I use a personal wiki and update it ASAP whenever I learn something new, be it via a meeting, reference, news story, link. A collage of references. I use pmwiki but the wiki always-editable concept is more important than the software.
For meeting that are more formal/have deliverables, these are always minuted and shared. It's surprising walking away from a meeting with a seemingly clear conclusion the interpretation others can have several weeks later unless this is done. Stay on one page, literally. This could range from a photo of the agenda and notes made with highlights, to typed, depending on what's allowed/information security policy.
For notebook, I have a bull clip with loose paper which may include blank paper, templates, etc. When something's not needed, I shred it.
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#27I have never heard of any such practice before.
Seriously? I've kept daily logs (on and off) since around 2002 when I first discovered John Carmack's .plan files.
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#28At work, I use JIRA and labels to track most stuff for my team.
At home, I still prefer to use a notebook to write things down. If I upgrade my phone, have a harddrive failure, or lose a service, I do not have to worry about losing my notes.
Re: Ask HN: Do you keep work logs, and if so, how do you use them?
#29I took the idea of rapid logging from Bullet Journaling, and keep a plaintext rapid log in nvAlt. I use Keyboard Maestro macros to generate daily templates that I log under, one plaintext file per month. A KM macro also seeds the month file with a bullet key.
The two basic sections per day are "Agenda" and "Journal."
Agenda has planned meetings noted, things I bring in from tracking (OmniFocus or JIRA depending on external visibility), and things that carried over from the prior day (marked with a leading ~ so I know I've been carrying them). I indent notes beneath them.
Journal has anything that opportunistically comes up, including ad hoc meetings or new adds, notes and tasks not directly relevant to something in Agenda.
At the end of each day (or beginning of next because I'm rarely perfect about this) I'll copy unresolved tasks from the previous day to Agenda of the next, then mark it with trailing ~ once moved. Moving to a tracker is considered resolution, so ideally I either finish the task or track it within the same day.
Finally there's a Highlights section where I cherry-pick stuff to later put in a weekly status report. All together, you get something like:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
2018-11-05 -- Monday
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Highlights:
- Met with Bob, etc. re: proceeding with Widget tests
-! Learned something surprising from Carol
Agenda:
o 1-2pm Git and Onboarding w/ Alice
o 2-3pm Widget Tests
- https://docs.google.com/notarealdoc
- Requirements vs. Tests?
x Reach out to Ted re: followup
*~ Schedule meeting w/ Bob
c 3-4pm Yak Shaving
- Cancelled, moved to Wednesday
> Goal I brought in from tracking
~x Task I copied from yesterday
x Write status report
Journal:
o Watercooler discussion with Carol
- Some salient thing I didn't already know
-! Surprising or urgent note