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…
The more senior your job title, the more you need to keep a journal (2017)
131–135 of 135 posts
Re: The more senior your job title, the more you need to keep a journal (2017)
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
agree but zebra 401 here
I found that the Zebras, while certainly attractive and satisfying in the hand, write like crap (rough feel, inconsistent ink flow). My favorite pen these days is the Pilot V5 RT, but I wish I could throw the refill for it in a body more like the Zebra 401.
Pilot V5 RT refills fit into the Everyman Grafton pen ($35)
I used that for a while but found the pen a bit too large.
Nowadays I either use an Energel [2] or the classic Pilot V5.
[1]: https://everyman.co/collections/frontpage/products/grafton-p... [2]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0776M8VY1
Re: The more senior your job title, the more you need to keep a journal (2017)
#133Hmmm... the most important "paper skill" at my work is learning to "promote" papers across the tiers of journals. 1. Loose-paper and Whiteboards -- Sketches and concepts that rarely last longer than 5 minutes before being erased or trashed. 2. Short-term journal -- When a concept needs to stick with me for 1-day or so, I write it down into my short-term journal. This is a tiny Field Notes journal I keep in my pocket,…
I tend to use a lot of paper for notes as well, and this hierarchy is interesting.
My biggest issue is I do not regularly review my notes. And I know that there are valuable pieces in my notes.
And I hate copying notes over, because of the time taken.
Your post is giving me pause and I am reconsidering the value of rewriting.
Re: The more senior your job title, the more you need to keep a journal (2017)
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Try this alias. alias jim=' \ journaldir="/home/myusername/journal/" ; \ jfile="log_`date -I`.txt" ; \ jfilepath="$journaldir$jfile" ; \ echo "Creating log: $jfilepath" ; \ vi $jfilepath ; ' Instructions: (1) Copy to your .bash_aliases file. (2) Edit the journaldir, and replace myusername with your name. (3) Create a journal directory somewhere for #2. (4) Source it. source ~/.bash_aliases (5) jim will open up today'…
Or, here's an even better alias. alias jim=' \ journaldir="$HOME/journal" ; \ year="`date +%Y`" ; \ yearpath="$journaldir/$year" ; \ [[ -d "$yearpath" ]] || mkdir -p $yearpath ; \ jfile="log_`date -I`.md" ; \ jfilepath="$journaldir/$year/$jfile" ; \ header="# log_`date -I`\n\n# Highlights:\n\n" ; \ [[ -f "$jfilepath" ]] && echo "Opening log: $jfilepath" || { echo "Creating new log: $jfilepath" ; echo -e "$header" > $…
on macos
Re: The more senior your job title, the more you need to keep a journal (2017)
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, here's an even better alias. alias jim=' \ journaldir="$HOME/journal" ; \ year="`date +%Y`" ; \ yearpath="$journaldir/$year" ; \ [[ -d "$yearpath" ]] || mkdir -p $yearpath ; \ jfile="log_`date -I`.md" ; \ jfilepath="$journaldir/$year/$jfile" ; \ header="# log_`date -I`\n\n# Highlights:\n\n" ; \ [[ -f "$jfilepath" ]] && echo "Opening log: $jfilepath" || { echo "Creating new log: $jfilepath" ; echo -e "$header" > $…
jim date: illegal option -- I on macos
Try this instead. It works for me. Let me know.
Copy it to your ~/.bash_aliases. And source it.
alias jim='
function _jim() {
journaldir="$HOME/journal"
year=`date "+%Y"`
today=`date "+%Y-%m-%d"`
yearpath="$journaldir/$year"
[[ -d "$yearpath" ]] || mkdir -p $yearpath
jfile="log_$today.md"
jfilepath="$journaldir/$year/$jfile"
header="# Log: $today\n\n# Highlights:\n\n"
[[ -f "$jfilepath" ]] && echo "Opening log: $jfilepath" || { echo "Creating new log: $jfilepath" ; echo -e "$header" > $jfilepath ; }
vi "$jfilepath"
}; _jim'