For the fellow .txt filists — I made a minimal online notepad https://kvak.io that makes it easier to access your notes anywhere. (With my wife we are also using it as an always-up-to-date shopping list).
My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
81–90 of 205 posts
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#82Ah, the OBTF or "One big text file" meme was making rounds 10-15 years ago. I ditched mine out of curiosity for other systems -- but I'm still surprised how well it actually worked. Calendar, links, drafts of stuff I wrote -- it was all there. I was kind of proud when, at one point, my file (brain.txt) reached 1 MB.
I'll just share some of those old links for new kids on the OBTF block.
Probably one of the discussion starters in 2005: https://web.archive.org/web/20060101001857/http://www.oreill...
Which apparently got inspiration from this: https://craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt
And was passionately discussed by the 43 Folders crowd: https://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-tex...
Me, I essentially stole and fine-tuned the syntax exlained here: http://www.matthewcornell.org/blog/2005/8/21/my-big-arse-tex...
OBTF vs Zettelkasten (from 2020): https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1508/zettelkasten-v...
I've tried to set up a Zettelkasten many times, but in practice, loosely structured flat files, maybe utilizing the OS' file system (folders) and occasional ad-hoc hierarchies, still beats everything else for me.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#83I have a one-liner bash alias that stores whatever I feed it into a file by todays date,
alias "note"="echo $1 >> ~/.notes/`date+'%Y-%m-%d'`.note"
Then to view them I either just cat it, or jump in to a text editor. I have an alias to cat todays .note
alias "notes"="cat ~/.notes/`date+'%Y-%m-%d'`.note"
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#84ORG-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
Isn't org mode less portable though? My understanding was that you need an editor plus appropriate tooling for it to really shine, which to me is similar to saying "productivity software" and less like text editing.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#85My productivity app has been pen + A5 paper pad Advantages: - Instant availability (no need to load up an app) - Works offline - I can't access it when I'm not at work (feature, not a bug) - I can draw as well as write - It's satisfying to tick items off
This is why I developed a system that works in both worlds, digital or paper. Also because if you know shorthand, it may even be faster and less distracting to jot than to type.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#86Checkmate org mode people.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#87I do the same, every day I add a heading with date to my txt file, which is always open. Then I write topics of the day. It works more as a way to remember what I was working and what is missing.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#88I was just talking about this blog post with a friend yesterday. I’m curious to know the file size of the doc after 7 years.
For sure. It actually reminded me of when I was first learning QuickBasic. Appending certain words to a hidden text file (I think via TSR?) on boot was how we would casually fill up the hard drives of the lab computers in our electronics class, driving the teacher back into his submarine CPO days and streams of curse words. Fortunately he took it in stride and got us back...
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#89Does anyone else take notes by sending messages to themselves on Signal or another messaging app? I've been doing that for years. Taking notes in dedicated note-taking apps always seems to involve more friction than sending myself a message. The note-taking apps I've tried also lacked polish compared to messaging apps.
It's important to me that I can take notes on my phone because it's the thing I have on me most of the time (unlike a laptop or notebook). Sometimes a random thought pops up and will distract me until I write it down. On my laptop I can use the Signal desktop app to view, add, or search notes. Every note automatically gets a timestamp and is synced between my devices. Both taking and viewing notes works without an Internet connection.
Notes can't be edited but more information can be added by replying to a note and the new information gets its own timestamp. Sometimes I also use emoji reactions as tags. Recently I've started to use groups in which I'm the only member as note categories (e.g. ideas, thoughts, journal, work).
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)
#90Since the post describes relying upon a single text file, and makes passing mention to the problem of email ...
IIRC Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface, which expounds in part on his Canon CAT features and philosophy, proposed [and/or "stole" w/o credit] integrated email within the editor hard-wired to a single file.