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My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

jeffhuang.com

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Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#171

Post by Hurdy »

dr_kiszonka wrote: post #142
ahnick wrote: post #53

I currently use Google Tasks for Todos and I honestly have never been happier. To make Google Tasks work you have to be using Gmail and Google Calendar (which may be a non-starter for some people), but if you are using those already then Google Tasks is worth taking a look. The beauty of Google Tasks is it lives alongside your email, integrates seamlessly with the calendar, and automatically synchronizes across devic…

I like how you can drag tasks directly to Google Calendar. Do you know if it is possible to drag them as events, not reminders? I prefer to block entire time slots as events in my calendar because it helps me better manage my time. For example, I would add a 3 hour long event called "refactor hello_world" or a 2 hour one "find lost socks" and dedicate these time block to these specific activities. Unfortunately, you…

That's indeed not possible. The Tasks calendar is a separate calendar and the 'events' on it have no duration.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#172

Post by yoavm »

entilzha wrote: post #164
kabdib wrote: post #109

I use a single text file, have done this for decades. I dump everything into it and don't worry too much about structure, it's an incredible resource for "remembering" minutia, things like "what was that server that i thought might have had some issues last August?" Just a quick control-S and I'm there. My current 7+ year old notes file has about 100K lines in it right now. I can tell you what I was doing last year,…

Any thoughts on how to access/modify on mobile without making it too cumbersome? I often think about todo on walk/train, but could see making it a computer only thing.

On Android, I've been using Markor with Syncthing for years now and never had any issues.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#173

Post by kabdib »

entilzha wrote: post #164
kabdib wrote: post #109

I use a single text file, have done this for decades. I dump everything into it and don't worry too much about structure, it's an incredible resource for "remembering" minutia, things like "what was that server that i thought might have had some issues last August?" Just a quick control-S and I'm there. My current 7+ year old notes file has about 100K lines in it right now. I can tell you what I was doing last year,…

Any thoughts on how to access/modify on mobile without making it too cumbersome? I often think about todo on walk/train, but could see making it a computer only thing.

Absurdly, comically simple is the way to go. In these situations I usually just send myself an email, or write something down in the current physical notebook.

About 20 years ago I spent a while writing a server to do a bunch of automation and reminding and so forth, and found that I was spending more time on that thing than I was doing real work, so I ditched it, just like I did OneNote and all the other apps. There's no need to fix bugs in a text file, nor do you need to upgrade your version of Python or whatever.

Simple will survive decades with zero effort. Complicated pieces of code (especially ones that use networking or browser tech) will need to be maintained, patched, debugged and ported. Life is short. I'd rather actually be productive than have to spend time keeping some productivity app running, or worrying if the vendor of the online notes app I chose to use is going to be bought by Oracle or something.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#174

Post by greenhacker »

I coded up MinimaList Outline app to add few more basic features to basic txt, such as multiple lists, bullet points, collapsable categories, etc. I use it as my daily driver, maybe others will like it also: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.toadlybrood...

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#175

Post by jwtorres »

kabdib wrote: post #109

I use a single text file, have done this for decades. I dump everything into it and don't worry too much about structure, it's an incredible resource for "remembering" minutia, things like "what was that server that i thought might have had some issues last August?" Just a quick control-S and I'm there. My current 7+ year old notes file has about 100K lines in it right now. I can tell you what I was doing last year,…

Funny that we all resort to the same things. I have an almost identical bash script that appends and timestamps each note, but I push it to my Dropbox account using their REST APIs instead of my local file system.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#176

Post by agumonkey »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #168
agumonkey wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you use a full sized A4 pad ? I tried tiny (A6, A7) notebooks and they frustrate me. My brain prefers scribbling but I have to admit that I'd love something that connects idea to realization directly (the good old bidirectional modeling app)

I use Muji A5 notebooks paired with muji 0.7mm tip pens. I hated carrying a notebook and writing in it until I found this combo.

thanks, ill review and report asap sir

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#177

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

gorgoiler wrote: post #140
lostlogin wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m in your camp. Apple Notes somehow fell into this gap for me. For me the ability to format, add images and screenshots and easily share gave it an edge over plain text.

I loved notes for years but switched to Bear in the last few months in order to get sane Markdown export. I couldn’t ever find a nice way of exporting (and backing up) my Notes notes. There was an IMAP storage option but that meant losing formatting options.

There's this: https://bear.app/faq/Import%20&%20export/Migrate%20from%20Ap...

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#178

Post by reidjs »

Tomte wrote: post #120
pzumk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have thought about different apps for this txt-approach for iOS, and you’re right. iA Writer seems to be perfect for this.

I just checked it out again, and it doesn't seem to support the Files API, only syncs with iCloud. Same with the app "txt". That's annoying, because my default sync service is OneDrive, and iOS generally supports it very well.

Yea that’s actually the most annoying thing for me too, I would rather use it with gdrive or Dropbox instead of iCloud (which is prone to a ton of issues). I had to do some hacky things to get it to work the way I wanted tbh.
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