Ask HN: How do you manage your day to day work logs?

Shell script, markdown files and MacDown markdown app

    $ today
    created TODAY-20170726.md

- https://github.com/erikj/bin/blob/master/bin/today

- https://macdown.uranusjr.com/

Org Mode stored on Dropbox.

At any given moment I have two "running" files - one being a general tasklist, and one being this month's notes.

On the general tasklist I maintain my own, much more detailed, copy of what's in the issue tracker we use. I rotate that file every few months, copying over unfinished tasks. I also use it to record any bug and weird thing I spot with the application, if I don't have time to investigate it, so that I won't forget it and can come back to it later.

The monthly notes file has entries for each work day. Each entry follows the same template:

  * 

  ** Things I want to accomplish
  *** TODO A task
      Some notes under it.

  ** Other work notes
     This is my scratch area. Here I just type when I need to talk to myself.

  ** End-of-day mind dump
     Here I dump the state of my head at the end of the workday, so that
     I can pull it in quickly the next day.

  ** Jira for today                                                      :jira:
     Here I note down task numbers I want to log time on - at least if
     they don't match the commit log 1:1.

  ** Insight from today                                               :insight:
     Here I try to note down something important or insightful I discovered
     that day.

  ** Things that should be automated                                 :automate:
     A most recent addition to the template - if something is repetitive
     and annoys me, it goes here.

The template is evolving, and I'm not always consistent in actually using it, but I'm trying - and it proves very helpful when I'm dealing with a difficult problem, or for some non-work reasons have problems concentrating. It's also my place for writing down stuff I wouldn't bother (or wouldn't dare) post on the issue tracker.

And for the millionth time I wish vim had orgmode!

I use vimwiki and have a per project wiki for notes and issues, but I need to formalize it.

I use timetrap for the basic "what am I working on" notes. Works ok.

I use Google Sheets. One of my friend started to try out using a Slack Channel and aggregates the info every week.

I use taskwarrior (for tracking todo items) and timewarrior (for logging work and what I've done with those items). It integrates nicely in my current workflow (every time I spawn a new tmux window a todo list along with my current time tracking and my calendar for the rest of the day pop up), and it emails my personal address at 18:30 a list of what I've accomplished for the day and the highest priority tasks for the day tomorrow.

I do like to live in the console. If you're not a console/cli junkie, this might not work for you.