Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#21

Post by devarist » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 9:29 AM UTC

Please feel free to checkout Devarist, it's an app we built for exactly this purpose.

https://devarist.com

It's for capturing quick daily notes, supports Markdown, Screenshots, export, daily standup view...

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#22

Post by WilliamMayor » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 10:09 AM UTC

I really like using a calendar for this. I use Google Calendar and iCloud in Sunrise, on my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad.

Events get a title that provide the project. They then get more detailed in the description. I also have a Google Apps Script that pulls this information into a spreadsheet so it's easy for me to report on my time.

What I like about this system is that it's pretty universal, fits into my current workflow, and it's flexible. Every platform has a calendar app, I don't have to do anything fancy to get my time tracker up and running on a new device. I'm already using my calendar to tell me what things I'm doing today, now I'm also using it to tell me what I did yesterday. Changing dates, times, and descriptions is easy, you just edit a calendar event, you can even do it on the train home when you realise that you've forgotten to update.

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#23

Post by galfarragem » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 10:23 AM UTC

rasengan0 wrote: post #7

After many years of trying everything, a few conclusions have greatly helped: only PLAIN TEXT, cross platform and date stamp every line item (add to your dotvimrc or dotemacs or js bookmarklet) mindmappers? - bought and tried them all cloud subscription notetakers - yep pretty much all Best to have data close at hand - Oh nooos, everything is locked in that proprietary app I bought in the 90's or cloud service I thre…

Tiddlywiki only needs a better UX/UI to be a killer app. Evernote with a scripting and plain text approach would be a killer app also..

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#24

Post by kayman » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 10:27 AM UTC

Surprised no one mentioned iDoneThis.com I use it to keep a log of accomplishments of the day. You get an email at a set time (4:30pm) is what I set mine to. For journaling I use a emacs journal mode. It lets you create a text file with the date stamp.

To organise notes it's org mode all the way.

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#25

Post by chrisbennet » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 11:14 AM UTC

I use plain old Notepad on Windows. "F5" inserts the date and time which I then edit a bit. I wrote a program to total the hours and such.

I started keeping a log years ago because sometimes it seems like I can't remember what I had for lunch. :-) It a lifesaver when your boss wants to know what you did last week.

Keeping a daily log comes in handy. A former colleague needed to know the details of a project I worked on a few years ago. I had him search my old logs and the answer was there (weird complier switch for using QT).

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#26

Post by whatok » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 11:17 AM UTC

chrisbennet wrote: post #25

I use plain old Notepad on Windows. "F5" inserts the date and time which I then edit a bit. I wrote a program to total the hours and such. I started keeping a log years ago because sometimes it seems like I can't remember what I had for lunch. :-) It a lifesaver when your boss wants to know what you did last week. Keeping a daily log comes in handy. A former colleague needed to know the details of a project I worked…

I've been using Notepad for quite a while and had no idea you could use F5 to insert a timestamp. Thank you for this.

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#27

Post by anotheryou » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 11:48 AM UTC

I use markdown text files and display them as a wiki with yellow cms on my desktop.

not too calendary though

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#28

Post by chrisbennet » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 12:26 PM UTC

whatok wrote: post #26

chrisbennet wrote: post #25

I use plain old Notepad on Windows. "F5" inserts the date and time which I then edit a bit. I wrote a program to total the hours and such. I started keeping a log years ago because sometimes it seems like I can't remember what I had for lunch. :-) It a lifesaver when your boss wants to know what you did last week. Keeping a daily log comes in handy. A former colleague needed to know the details of a project I worked…

I've been using Notepad for quite a while and had no idea you could use F5 to insert a timestamp. Thank you for this.

Don't feel bad, I discovered it by accident. I think a cat walked on the keyboard one day.

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#29

Post by thehoff » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 12:37 PM UTC

chrisbennet wrote: post #25

I use plain old Notepad on Windows. "F5" inserts the date and time which I then edit a bit. I wrote a program to total the hours and such. I started keeping a log years ago because sometimes it seems like I can't remember what I had for lunch. :-) It a lifesaver when your boss wants to know what you did last week. Keeping a daily log comes in handy. A former colleague needed to know the details of a project I worked…

Same idea but I use Sublime Text. You can add the same feature to ST by creating a new plugin.

Stack Overflow answer (not mine) for how to do this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11879481/can-i-add-date-t...

* Note it's not the accepted answer but the one with the most upvotes on the proper way.

Re: Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary

#30

Post by pajop » Tue, Oct 20, 2015, 1:09 PM UTC

if you type .LOG on the first line of Notepad, it will also put a timestamp (just like if you had pressed "F5") https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/260563