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My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

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Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#81

Post by Zambyte »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #27

Obligatory reference to Emacs Org-Mode [1]. Author's approach is basically Org-Mode with fewer helpers. Org-mode's power is that, at core, it's just a text file, with gradual augmentation. Then again, Org-Mode is a tool you must install, accessible through a limited list of clients (Emacs originally, but also VSCode), and the power of OP's approach is that it requires no external tools . [1] https://orgmode.org

I found the hierarchy imposed by Org was more friction for me than it was worth. Adding Org Roam into the mix and making many bite sized files in a directory, and hyperlinking them together has proven to be incredibly useful to me. Notes fall out of my brain and are instantly discoverable. I often find useful notes that I completely forgot that I wrote.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#82

Post by twodave »

I tend to format my plaintext notes as markdown to add a small amount of organization. I also have some light folder/file organization to break things into categories/topics/days, depending on what it is. That gives me a nice clean slate to work from each day, but lets me pick up where I left off on more long-term stuff. Finally, I push it all to a private Github repo so I can get to my notes easily from wherever I am.

Overall this system works for me for several reasons. First, I hate pretty much every note taking app out there. Second, I like having control over my files. Most importantly, though, I don't actually need to write notes all that often, and this way of doing things is convenient. When my brain is so crowded I need to overflow some thoughts or tasks for the day/week somewhere, this system is there. When I'm managing it all in my head just fine, I don't have to worry about keeping notes up to date, and I can count on my own system not to send me a push notification bugging me about it.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#83

Post by 6c696e7578 »

d--b wrote: post #77

I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the…

I've a notes.txt file that follows me around in most jobs I do. It's more a journal than a planner. Sometimes I put TODO in, sometimes what to do when a change needs to be implemented so I don't forget. That works quite well as I can return to that later, or see what I was doing some months ago. It's in vim, which works well too for me as I'm already familiar with how to edit.

One of the popular getting things done methods was to keep your stuff in one place, at least this article keeps inline with that idea.

If it works, keep doing it.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#84

Post by dopu »

I've arrived at something similar after going through a lot of different solutions: Evernote, Quiver notes, Apple Notes, Logseq, Tana: now I just keep everything in one big Journal.md file in Obsidian. I added a datestamp shortcut that inserts the date as a title in "2024 February 19 (Mon)" format, and get to writing. I use subheadings sometimes if I'm writing a lot on a particular day and it gets messy, but most days it's just a hodge podge of everything, and that's fine.

It works. A big issue with computer notetaking software, I've realized, is that I was spending too much time trying to figure out where to put things: what note should this be connected to, which folder should this be in, etc. Dumping everything into a single document, under today's date, gets rid of that. The other issue this solved was that I never looked back at what I'd written previously: opening a bunch of files was too tedious to ever do unless I was explicitly looking for something. With this, I can just scroll down and see what I was doing last week, immediately.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#85

Post by 331c8c71 »

BasilPH wrote: post #5

I'm doing something similar with Obsidian daily notes[^1]. I also have a weekly note that I use to plan the next week. Similar to how the author talks about scheduling their next day the evening before, I've started planning the big tasks for next on Friday afternoon, as this gives me momentum on Monday morning. Related: I've found the 3/3/3 technique from Oliver Burkeman[^2] and the concept of open and closed lists…

I plan exclusively on paper despite using Obsidian quite extensively for taking notes. I also do weekly and daily planning.

Initially I tried to plan on Obsidian as well but it didn't work for me. Writing on paper is slow and not only it calms me down but also directly incentivizes me to state my tasks and goals concisely. Similarly, the limited space on a planning page helps me to be realistic in terms of things I set to accomplish.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#86

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

d--b wrote: post #77

I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the…

If it's a consolation, I feel the same as you.

I clicked because what I have is a gigantic TODO .txt file that grows and grows and grows. I typically only look at the bottom (newest) part, typically at what fits on screen. The rest is full of things I should have done at some point and never actually did.

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