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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)

#111

Post by wenc »

I still use Google Docs but I take notes in Markdown in VS Code. The advantage of Markdown is I can create lists of lists of lists that VS code will indent correctly. (emacs does that too but that’s another story). Checkboxes in list items is another nice touch.

But what have been most compelling of Markdown is that I can create flow diagrams with Mermaid syntax and type math like LaTeX. Not to mention insert code snippets. It all works.

And Markdown is portable too. Couple it with rclone for replication to the cloud and I’m golden.

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

#113

Post by dukeofdoom »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #25
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…

One of my favorite quotes, is one [incorrectly, probably] attributed to Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Professional artists are really interesting to listen to when they talk about their productivity routines. Since many of them work alone, they are more prone to not accomplishing anything.

The successful ones have a repeatable process for balancing creativity with the time required to produce a work of art. They tend to have a daily practice of challenging / improving their skills. They setup a dedicated studio, and work at reducing disruptions and so on.

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

#114

Post by avgcorrection »

“A text file is my productivity app” is such clickbait. No one would bat an eye at someone using GTD with pen and paper. But using a digital pen and paper method is somehow noteworthy? (Well maybe, but I didn’t want to click on a baity link…)

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

#115

Post by AlwaysRock »

dukeofdoom wrote: post #113
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my favorite quotes, is one [incorrectly, probably] attributed to Aristotle: We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Professional artists are really interesting to listen to when they talk about their productivity routines. Since many of them work alone, they are more prone to not accomplishing anything. The successful ones have a repeatable process for balancing creativity with the time required to produce a work of art. They tend to have a daily practice of challenging / improving their skills. They setup a dedicated studio, and…

Inspiration often comes after starting any given creative process.

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

#116

Post by jiggunjer »

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 recall Windows has/had yellow "sticky notes" that could be used for that purpose.

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

#117

Post by rav »

dotancohen wrote: post #53
rav wrote: post #17

My productivity app is a Git repository (that happens to be a GitLab wiki git repository at $WORK as well) with my "priority queue" text file and the following bash function. The contents of the text file are similar to what Jeff Huang describes in the blog post (but MUCH less organized). Since it's in version control, I can freely delete old content that's no longer relevant for my day-to-day, and then I frequently…

Why rebase? I would imaging that preserving history would be a feature. An important feature at that.

As dahart mentions in a sibling comment, the todo-list doesn't operate with branching - all edits are performed by one person according to the real-time circumstances. Any Git history divergence is a matter of technical accident and not an expression of feature branching/merging.

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

#118

Post by jamil7 »

ad404b8a372f2b9 wrote: post #95
jamil7 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There's a few Firefox extensions to do it, one of which "Flashcard New Tab" I was able to write a bit of javascript to paste into the console to bulk import a word list. It's a hack but it works for me. You might be able to find more complete solutions around.

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

#119

Post by shnock »

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.

What's the implementation? Hoping to do something similar for language learning

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

#120

Post by sivakon »

K_REY_C wrote: post #108

Just sharing this tool, logseq [1], that I learned about a couple of weeks ago. It traffics in plain text files and does graphically what an org-mode might do after a lot of work. I figure more people should be aware of this open source tool I hope improves and becomes more robust. [1]: https://logseq.com/

I actually used it continuously for six months. Once the data and the size of the graph increases, it gets very slow, even text editing gets unresponsive. The features are good, but it will get slow and taking notes feel sluggish
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