Amplenote
Combines a todo, note taking system and calendar in one.
What I like about it is that I use a timeblocking system for time management.
So being able to write notes, create tasks inside those notes and then schedule those tasks or at least have them available to me when I reviewing my day is really invaluable at least to me.
Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
81–90 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#82My first manager at my first job, many years ago, gave me the very useful advice to "write down any task you spend more than fifteen minutes on". It doesn't have to be long, just enough to trigger your memory, or capture the relevant details.
This has consistently been incredibly useful; for my own recall, for quarterly and annual performance review time (easy to scan through and capture my "significant accomplishments") as well as every. single. time. a colleague asks "do you remember X years ago when we ...?"
I tend to break it down by month, with a bullet-point list of tasks. I've migrated from plain text files, to a wiki, to I don't remember what tool my employer at the time provided, to currently OneNote, with a Notebook for "work-tracking" and a page per month. I don't love OneNote, but it is automatically backed up in our corporate environment.
I like the idea of switching to VSCode, as I do most of my work in that, but need to figure out the best way to back it up.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#83My first manager at my first job, many years ago, gave me the very useful advice to "write down any task you spend more than fifteen minutes on". It doesn't have to be long, just enough to trigger your memory, or capture the relevant details. This has consistently been incredibly useful; for my own recall, for quarterly and annual performance review time (easy to scan through and capture my "significant accomplishmen…
I currently write all of my notes in markdown in vim (that's where I do most my work as well). I backup my notes using syncthing but I think any generic file sync would work fine (dropbox, google drive, etc.)
I also try to do document most tasks I work on. I need to because my memory is poor and I would not have much to say in my daily standups.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#84I currently use markdown and vim to document work and my thoughts. For general todos, I have one big file that has each day as a new header. Kinda like this:
## 2021-09-17
- personal
- [ ] walk dog
- work
- [ ] catch up on email
## 2021-09-16
- personal
- [x] meal planning
- work
- [x] fix bug
- [x] recreate locally
- [x] write tests
- [x] submit PR
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#85I have an org-mode file open in Emacs pretty much all the time that I can write stuff down in. Emacs used to have a reputation for being bloated and resource intensive but it's one of the lightest tools that I use these days and I just have it sat there in the background.
I keep hearing things about emacs org mode that sounds awesome but I am afraid how much of a time-sink it would be to switch from my current process. I currently write all of my notes in markdown and in vim.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#86I use a 5 subject notebook and write notes down in that throughout the day, during meetings etc. From that I will usually, once or twice a week, take the things that are important and put them into my Apple Notes (used to use OneNote). I do this for a few reasons. 1. Taking notes on a computer during meetings is disrespectful IMO. Every time I see people do it, 80% of the time they are checking email, checking a site…
I agree with points 2 and 3, but I think it's easy for people to be attentive and take notes during the meeting, especially if they are part of the discussion. My handwriting is too illegible for me to consider this option. I only resort to handwritten notes on my ipad if there isn't enough space for me to pull out my laptop.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#87I use a 5 subject notebook and write notes down in that throughout the day, during meetings etc. From that I will usually, once or twice a week, take the things that are important and put them into my Apple Notes (used to use OneNote). I do this for a few reasons. 1. Taking notes on a computer during meetings is disrespectful IMO. Every time I see people do it, 80% of the time they are checking email, checking a site…
I agree with points 2 and 3, but I think it's easy for people to be attentive and take notes during the meeting, especially if they are part of the discussion. My handwriting is too illegible for me to consider this option. I only resort to handwritten notes on my ipad if there isn't enough space for me to pull out my laptop.
I get it and respect that some people can do it respectfully. I have seen some people do it respectfully and still participate etc, it just sadly isn't the norm. It also can be distracting as you are trying to present and you hear 10 people typing away on their keyboard when you know chances are none of them are taking notes. Again, definitely my own pet peeve but I have heard many others say the same.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#88I've written few years ago text based application created in AngularJS to keep all my notes. It was inspired by builtin MacOS app. I'm trying to keep all my notes there. Before I've had this app, I've used topic based files with extension NOTES like javascript.NOTES etc. The application is running on my shared hosting, the code is Open Source but yesterday I wanted to add new feature (global full text search) and I have a problem to run the application locally, a lot of things has changed since it was created. I've spent few hours updating all dependencies including WebPack. After done it doesn't work 100% correctly. I also have on my TODO list to create mobile version, so I can read and take notes while on my phone.
The code is on GitHub: https://github.com/jcubic/notes
The app is simple on left there are notes, in the middle there is simple text and on the right are navigation into sections, that are created using special markers. This type of makers I always use in source code and text files as separators.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with points 2 and 3, but I think it's easy for people to be attentive and take notes during the meeting, especially if they are part of the discussion. My handwriting is too illegible for me to consider this option. I only resort to handwritten notes on my ipad if there isn't enough space for me to pull out my laptop.
I get it and respect that some people can do it respectfully. I have seen some people do it respectfully and still participate etc, it just sadly isn't the norm. It also can be distracting as you are trying to present and you hear 10 people typing away on their keyboard when you know chances are none of them are taking notes. Again, definitely my own pet peeve but I have heard many others say the same.
I agree, I think most of my meetings there is a designated scribe/chair and they speak out loud when they are documenting the important details. It's kinda useless to have a second to second transcription of the whole meeting.
Re: Ask HN: How do you take notes throughout your work day?
#90I keep notion digital garden for each mini project i undertake, and also a general "dump all stuff here" workbook there.