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Isn't it also because of ageing?
Habit is the main journaling challenge, a fact barely touched in the article. There are two habits that need developing simultaneously: taking notes and reviewing notes. It’s true that simply writing something down leads to better recall, but that’s not what the article is about. The article is about creativity.
To make something based on your past observations you have to review and synthesize. That skill is much different than taking notes to remember stuff.
I agree with the author that there is nothing better than pen and paper. But There are scenarios where all I have is my phone and I still want to take notes. This leads to another can of worms: how to organize all the notes you generate on a daily basis.
I built a general purpose note-taking tool [0] to help me develop the habit of taking and reviewing notes. It has also become my repository of snippets of information generated from my phone.
I use the snippets I create to inform writing I do elsewhere: documents, outlines, letters, etc.
As someone who "recently" (couple of years or more) switched from "senior developer" to architect and at the same time got handed responsibility for 5-10 independent software systems, i completely agree. Before this switch i would default to using memory. It was easy, it worked, and i have a rather good memory. Most things worth remembering somehow just "sticks" without any mnemonics. After the switch, i got 10x the…
For this reason I try to write everything down twice. Once roughly by hand, and then a day or two later tidied up and put on the computer.
I'm a software engineer, and I've been keeping a "lab journal" on and off for the past decade or so. A single markdown file per day, with the date as filename. First thing I do every day is copy the previous day's entry, give it a once over & remove what's no longer relevant. This helps me remember what I've been working on, and it's a track record of sorts. There's a todo list at the top of each day's entry. But the…
I do the same-ish thing. Main highlights on mine: 1) I start off the day with things I should be working on (samesies) 2) I use ### to demarcate different "working sessions" ... one for each meeting, etc. 3) I struggle with finding something that lets me: encrypt, search, big notes, and use multi platform easily :( Closest I've found was google keep so far .. but i hate relying on it like that. I'm pretty sure "somet…
I make entries for each meeting, date, participant, notes, incoming and outgoing tasks. Also adding in sketches, designs, and other stuff that I wanted to write when I didn’t have a computer near.
I started this because I found having a laptop or phone out during a discussion with someone off putting. People would open up if I was jotting small notes but would not if I had a laptop open.
I can keep the notebook in my front pocket. Started out with hardcover moleskines but am not trying out rhodia, leuchtturm, and others.
Each one lasts about 3 months and I have a stack 4 feet high so probably 10 years or so.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For this reason I try to write everything down twice. Once roughly by hand, and then a day or two later tidied up and put on the computer.
How do you find time for that?
I also put references to my (page-numbered) paper notebooks in my notes file, and vice versa, so stuff that would be very long to transcribe doesn't usually have to be transcribed at all.
Defaults to markdown which is ideal.
There is also a nice insert date time plugin so you can time stamp your entries more easily.
It's a fluent setup.
I'm a software engineer, and I've been keeping a "lab journal" on and off for the past decade or so. A single markdown file per day, with the date as filename. First thing I do every day is copy the previous day's entry, give it a once over & remove what's no longer relevant. This helps me remember what I've been working on, and it's a track record of sorts. There's a todo list at the top of each day's entry. But the…
I mean, i currently put everything that needs doing into org-mode, clock in on the task when i'm working on it, and clock out when i'm done. Mark the task completed, and archive done tasks daily to an archive file.
I guess that's the limit of my daily "todo" activities. It's mostly in point form "x needs doing", "request confirmation from x", "send status on project x to y".
If i'd have to do it in a "daily file" i have no idea how to structure it. Todo'ish lists probably wouldn't work. They're either done or they're not. I guess it would have to be more like "short stories".
Vscode has a nice journal plugin that uses a simple year month day directory structure, has convenient actions like open today, tomorrow and yesterday. Defaults to markdown which is ideal. There is also a nice insert date time plugin so you can time stamp your entries more easily. It's a fluent setup.
vscode-journal, for those who are interested
I'm a software engineer, and I've been keeping a "lab journal" on and off for the past decade or so. A single markdown file per day, with the date as filename. First thing I do every day is copy the previous day's entry, give it a once over & remove what's no longer relevant. This helps me remember what I've been working on, and it's a track record of sorts. There's a todo list at the top of each day's entry. But the…
I do the same-ish thing. Main highlights on mine: 1) I start off the day with things I should be working on (samesies) 2) I use ### to demarcate different "working sessions" ... one for each meeting, etc. 3) I struggle with finding something that lets me: encrypt, search, big notes, and use multi platform easily :( Closest I've found was google keep so far .. but i hate relying on it like that. I'm pretty sure "somet…
I use Zettlr as a markdown editor, with the underlying directory being in git. It's not encrypted, though doing that should be pretty easy with something like EncFS.