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

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

#91

Post by anon2020dot00 »

Tangentially-related in terms of organization, something that I've been trying recently is using numbered folders to get organized.

I'd create folders by month like "01 November", "02 December" and inside of those folders I'd create projects like "01 New Project", "02 Another Project".

It functions like a To-Do list in that it reminds me to work on a particular project and when I'm done, I can move it to a _Done folder.

For short-term reminders though, like with an upcoming meeting, I'd just write it down on my Boox Tablet on a weekly calendar template.

For a what-done list, I'm not sure if there is real value with writing down everything I've done for the day. I think short-term memory is good enough and for longer time periods, there are usually emails or commits that can answer the question on what was done.

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

#92

Post by denton-scratch »

/me retired.

When I worked, my daily todo list would have been:

* Spend another day working on Project X.

Now it's all domestic tasks, which fall into two categories: tasks that have to be done urgently, and those I can do "when I feel like it".

Guess what? My todo list now consists of one or two things I must do urgently, and getting on for a coupla hundred blue-sky tasks that'll never be done.

Task #1: weed the todo list (high priority)

I've never been much good at time-management, as you can see.

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

#94

Post by a9h74j »

mwattsun wrote: post #31

I've always kept a text file or spreadsheet of things to do, priorities, etc... My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting organized, it's remembering to look at my list. I tend to space out for days working on a problem and forget to look at my list. I've experienced a big productivity boost by using the desktop background of my 43" monitor as a whiteboard (blackboard actually). I have an jpg the size of my…

> My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting organized, it's remembering to look at my list.

You need to put "Look at the list" on the list!

That sounds facetious, but for GTD it makes some sense. "Do maintenance on GTD" as one periodically-important goal.

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

#95

Post by ad404b8a372f2b9 »

jamil7 wrote: post #49
mwattsun wrote: post #31

I've always kept a text file or spreadsheet of things to do, priorities, etc... My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting organized, it's remembering to look at my list. I tend to space out for days working on a problem and forget to look at my list. I've experienced a big productivity boost by using the desktop background of my 43" monitor as a whiteboard (blackboard actually). I have an jpg the size of my…

I do something similar for language learning, every new tab in Firefox shows a flashcard. If I'm in the middle of something I can ignore it but when my minds already wandering I tend to notice the word there, hopefully it helps.

That's a cool system, how did you set it up?

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

#97

Post by denton-scratch »

meribold wrote: post #89

Does 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…

> Does anyone else take notes by sending messages to themselves on Signal or another messaging app?

Yes. I use email - text/plain, on Thunderbird. I save the unaddressed email in the local Drafts folder (doesn't depend on internet). If I need to edit, I can open it, edit it, and save it in-place (it replaces the original). I own a smartphone, but I don't carry it around.

TBird has a tasklist, but it's pretty bad - a lot worse than a textfile.

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

#98

Post by egypturnash »

rappatic wrote: post #2

The author makes some points about the benefits of doing this, but I really think he's making things more difficult for himself. Even a basic note-taking app would provide a much larger number of features and be equally easy to use. It's quirky idea but it's really not that practical.

It's been working for him for twelve years. I think that's pretty practical.

App require maintenance and are out of your control; right now a chunk of my personal process is a mess because some stuff depended on Evernote. Which was great for about a decade until it got a complete rewrite as an Electron app, and now it's super slow and keeps adding new "friendly" stuff that gets in between me and my notes. I haven't found a replacement that's not full of its own problems and it's impossible to downgrade to the old, perfectly functional native apps on the iThings (and eventually an OS update will break all the apps), it's incredibly frustrating. The parts of my process that depend on writing stuff down in a paper journal, meanwhile, continue to work exactly the same.

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

#100

Post by lazyjeff »

jasode wrote: post #35

>A text file is incredibly flexible, and at any point, I can quickly glance to see what I've done that day and what's left. When a task is completed, which is the most common default, I just leave it. [...] I use Ultraedit because I'm familiar with it I've also been using a plain "todo.txt" for 20+ years and also use UltraEdit. So far, it's been better than alternatives such as Borland Sidekick, PalmPilot gadgets, Ev…

Author of the posted article here. You raise fair points.

For live scheduling, I generally have my meetings clumped together so I just go to the next meeting or take a break when one is over. If it's a sporadic meeting day, there's still the calendar on my phone as a backup alarm in case I forget. So far I've missed maybe a handful of meetings over the past 14 years, so it hasn't really been an issue.

People can schedule on my calendar the regular way, but I don't like them editing or even viewing my todo/done file because I make a lot of quick personal notes that I'm not ready for others to read, like my thoughts about someone's talk or paper.

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