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My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

jeffhuang.com

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Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#71

Post by kamaal »

dotancohen wrote: post #50
quaintdev wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until Google suspends account for no reason.

This comment was downvoted when I got here, but it's very very relevant. Thank the creator that I've never been locked out of an account, but I've seen it happen enough times to be terrified of putting critical infrastructure on a single provider. GP should be diligent to download his spreadsheets periodically.

Most work related knowledge should go on work place infrastructure online document store, at the same time its a total waste of time to re invent a clone of stack overflow. Any general knowledge information I'd want to look up, is already available on the internet. Work information, tribal knowledge- should never go on a personal Google Drive.

At the same time my notebook information is a mix of personal things, work things and lots of other notes, scribblings, and free form information(mind maps, doodling, random writing), I need this just because creating a meta-data knowledge graph, list in the brain is just too much work, stressful and its like a offline store for your brain's functions.

Software tools don't work well for this kind of information input and putting it in either GDrive would not be good. Hence the notebook and pen.

Another big thing I've noticed is the personal productivity system is a catalyst that helps you do work, its not your main work itself. There is little incentive in storing what time you went to gym ten years back. Information/Feature pollution is a bug not a feature.

Unfortunately, Org-mode in emacs, like anything in emacs is a full time project in itself, a huge time sink that has little return on time investment. Use a tool to make your life better. Don't spend time wandering in sub goals trying to make the tool, that makes your life better. The former gives results, the latter is just a long play time sink, where you will forever make the tool better, you will never arrive at making your life better.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#72

Post by Crontab »

This kind of reminds me of the "One Big Text File" thing that was a popular subject a while ago[1][2]. I haven't attempted it, but if I did, it would probably be a "One Big Markdown File".

  [1]https://www.williamhern.com/living-in-a-single-text-file.html
  [2]http://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-file

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#73

Post by AreYouElite »

ORG-MODE ORG-MODE ORG-MODE Jeff, everything you do could be done with org-mode by using a key combination. it would also add a calender with an agenda and schedule and and and and the main thing: it's a text file just like what you are using. this is a nice how to (no relation to me) https://youtu.be/SzA2YODtgK4

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#74

Post by zerocount »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #7

The key to this solution isn’t really the .txt file or the formatting. It’s the ritual. Any productivity system can be made to work once it becomes a habit and therefore your default action. I think .txt files or Org mode are attractive to devs because they feel like something we’d be doing anyway during our day. the same system will work with a paper journal or even a fresh piece of paper every morning if, and only…

Yeah, I'm a pen and paper guy. Make a list of things to do each day and start at the top. If I don't finish the list, it's the beginning of the next day's list.

For some reason, I prefer pens over pencils.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#75

Post by ant6n »

quaintdev wrote: post #43
kamaal wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, several times this. My favorite system for knowledge management is Google Docs(due to obvious advantages- online drive, WYSIWYG etc), and for metadata/task-management tasks(GTD, working things out, mind maps, todo lists, solving software problems) is a plain cheap notebook and a pen. If you study GTD the hardest aspects of GTD are sticking to routine, and it's very easy to fall off the GTD routine. Its hard to…

Until Google suspends account for no reason.

Or until the doc becomes so large and slow that u can't work with it anymore (perhaps around 50 pages if there are images?)

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#76

Post by civilized »

Crontab wrote: post #72

This kind of reminds me of the "One Big Text File" thing that was a popular subject a while ago[1][2]. I haven't attempted it, but if I did, it would probably be a "One Big Markdown File". [1]https://www.williamhern.com/living-in-a-single-text-file.html [2]http://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-file

Hey there!! I've been doing "One Big Markdown File" for about three years and I can highly recommend it [1]. Do it in a highly responsive text editor with Markdown highlighting, like Sublime. You get the simplicity and responsiveness that keeps you writing at the speed of thought, and the highlighting provides a perfect balance of "just enough structure to keep you sane" while "minimizing formatting distractions".

I have so, so much to say about how to make this approach work. Please AMA if you have any interest in this.

[1] OK, full disclosure, my main file does sometimes spawn child Markdown files for particular projects. I don't apologize for this! A lot of the challenge around sustaining a useful to-do list over multiple months and years is managing the cruft of your thought. If the document gets too crufty or weedy, it becomes an impediment to thought rather than an aid, and you will let it languish. I have a pretty detailed system for mitigating this risk. Spawning child documents for the weedy stuff + "link" to the child in the main is an important technique here.

(Once we start talking about links you might imagine we could use a wiki, but the most important property of the system is to stay lightweight and at-the-speed-of-thought - I use it to capture requirements during meetings, for example.)

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#78

Post by Forge36 »

anon2020dot00 wrote: post #61

Interesting especially with the rise in popularity of productivity apps recently such as Obsidian, Roam, etc.. A single .txt file can work as a to-do-list and a what-done list but it really isn't a knowledgebase like Obsidian or Roam. It is more comparable to a To Do List app like Microsoft To-Do or Amazing Marvin. It wouldn't work as a knowledgebase because a knowledgebase has copious amounts of text about a topic w…

Obsidian is an editor. It does a lot of things, and makes no effort to hide it's a markdown editor.

The biggest advantage to me is splitting files, and indexing. I'm only using it on my phone. (Notepad++ makes this easy enough for me at work that i write everything out as separate files, downside being i don't use tags was often as I should for finding things later).

The best system is one which can easily change. By making the backend plaintext files on the system, portability is preserved with no extra steps.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

#79

Post by kamaal »

ant6n wrote: post #75
quaintdev wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until Google suspends account for no reason.

Or until the doc becomes so large and slow that u can't work with it anymore (perhaps around 50 pages if there are images?)

How else would you store images if you did it on a text file? Links to your hard drive?

Notice at some point you are just making a wiki. And of course now you have the added effort budget of maintaining the wiki on top of your regular work.

I have seen random posts on the internet where people were migrating their notes systems to org mode or markdown. If you ask me that's too much meta work to do, in order to do your main work.

The entire idea behind making a knowledge system, or a todo system is to help you do things. If you are doing whole project to set these things up, I wonder what the actual goal of this system even is.

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