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Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

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Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#91

Post by dmd »

whalesalad wrote: post #26

Very interested in this as well. I use Notion for more in depth notes but I also want a very low friction way to stream thoughts out of my mind and into an organized place. I built a prototype that does this. It’s got a UI very similar to twitter but organized by day. Special hash tags on a messages at the end of one day appear front and center on the next day so you can get cached in on what you were doing. I gave u…

> need a lapel mic

I saw the Myle [0] at CES 3 years ago, but it ended up never shipping - they took ~$150k in orders but never fulfilled any, sadly. It was a great idea, though.

[0] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/myle-tap-wearable-thought...

Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#92

Post by Ghjklov »

tomlockwood wrote: post #80

https://github.com/tomlockwood/dn I made this, which some people seem to like. Notes sorted by day, from the command line. Also, not much code, the source can be read in a minute or two.

I like this. Thanks. You can combine this with syncthing and have the notes folder synced to multiple devices.

Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#95

Post by sorum »

Havoc wrote: post #60

On a side note - why are bank apis so sht? Would love a clean read only way to http api my 3 banks. I don't even care if the security is rubbish for read only. Csv imports are bullshit. There is no reason why this can't be live and clean So hard to keep track of things when it's spread over multiple banks & jurisdictions

If you're in the US, I'd recommend checking out either Mint (by Intuit) or Personal Capital. Both use OAuth for the banks who support it. No handing over of bank credentials to a 3rd party and the sync is near real-time from my own testing of both.

https://mint.intuit.com/ https://www.personalcapital.com/

If you want something with more functionality to do budgeting, You Need A Budget (ynab.com) has a lot more functionality in that department, but does not support OAuth connections to banks; in my test period I had to re-add my bank accounts constantly. Shame, because the functionality of YNAB is stellar overall.

Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#96

Post by JZL003 »

I wrote a little personal messenger bot and it's amazing. I wanted it to be slightly numerical, mostly text, and easy for me to customize and access. So the messenger bot mostly is a wrapper over pushing to different Google sheets or docs (depending on if it's a daily diary, logging exercise/headache/etc)

Having a customized not that's always on my phone has been surprisingly helpful

Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#97

Post by DailyHN »

JZL003 wrote: post #96

I wrote a little personal messenger bot and it's amazing. I wanted it to be slightly numerical, mostly text, and easy for me to customize and access. So the messenger bot mostly is a wrapper over pushing to different Google sheets or docs (depending on if it's a daily diary, logging exercise/headache/etc) Having a customized not that's always on my phone has been surprisingly helpful

Awesome! I've been wanting to do this.

Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#98

Post by decasteve »

gen220 wrote: post #57
decasteve wrote: post #50

All of my banking transactions get put into a sqlite database, imported from csv monthly, and I have a python command line utility that lets me categorize and add notes to each transaction. I have a new sqlite file for every year. I have a number of SQL scripts that do most of the work. The amounts I need for tax returns are generated by SQL queries. Most of my general note taking is done in emacs org-mode.

SQLite is an underrated interface for this kind of stuff. Do you support things like nested categories (Expenses:Food:Groceries) and budgets? If so, do you keep them in your data model, or do you construct them in the queries? Also, just curious, have you considered using gnu Ledger? If so, what prompted you to choose SQLite over it?

No nested categories. Mostly it’s centred around having the correct amounts for tax returns. Some categories like groceries and eating out I have but I haven’t really used it for budgeting—just curiosity. I tag everything as business or personal. I have a Tax/HST column to make that easier.

Every month I get all of my various accounts exported as csv and then import into sqlite with a single command. It was just something I was tinkering with at first and then it became something I used.

I have considered gnu Ledger but my own personal tool does what I need and it was fun to do. So I haven’t felt the need to.

Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#99

Post by decasteve »

jpeeler wrote: post #72
decasteve wrote: post #50

All of my banking transactions get put into a sqlite database, imported from csv monthly, and I have a python command line utility that lets me categorize and add notes to each transaction. I have a new sqlite file for every year. I have a number of SQL scripts that do most of the work. The amounts I need for tax returns are generated by SQL queries. Most of my general note taking is done in emacs org-mode.

I'd love to see what your schema looks like, assuming it's beyond what you mentioned (and obvious items like date and transaction amount).

My .schema is:

CREATE TABLE account (transaction_date text, amount integer, hst integer, subtotal integer, description text, debitcredit integer, category_id integer, account_id integer, business_percent integer, notes text);

CREATE TABLE category(category_id int, name text);

Re: Ask HN: Best solutions for keeping a personal log?

#100

Post by yolo42 »

peterhurford wrote: post #79

I like Workflowy

Same here!

It is simple, searchable and extremely flexible.

I have a list for each date in a Logbook list and keep dumping all my completed TODOs at work there. It has come in useful a few times already to recall when did I do thing X.

I also have an Inbox list to keep all my thoughts in there, which get groomed once a couple of weeks. The mobile app is a little slower than I'd like but it is the best tools I've found to organize my thoughts.

I also get daily emails from Workflowy which provides a nice timeline of everything I've done or recorded at any point.

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