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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)

#121

Post by cyanydeez »

twodave wrote: post #82

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 a…

I'm guessing you're younger than 40.

At some point, either your jobs novelty will wear off or your memory will just degrade.

what happened to me is the lack of novelty in day to day and long term plans created a lot of unreliable data. having done a task multiple times, recalling the latest event details became a mixed bag of questionable facts.

I still have the same capacity but now because I had such a great capacity it's redundancy causes issues.

just take note.

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

#122

Post by erik_seaberg »

Lyngbakr wrote: post #120
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

A nice thing about Org-Mode is that you can keep an active todo list in one file for daily tasks and then at the end of the day send all done items to an archive file (C-c C-x C-a). That way, you still have all your tasks in a searchable format if you ever need to go back to them, but the active file — which you open each day — is small and snappy.

There's also org-journal, where a global keybind (I use the recommended C-c C-j) adds an empty timestamped item to a dated file.

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

#123

Post by AndyPa32 »

anonacct37 wrote: post #68

Going on 5+ years using a single giant org file. It's the only system I've ever been able to stick with for more than a couple days. I think of it as my labbook.

Almost the same here. But I have two files, one as archive for completed stuff.

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

#125

Post by plg »

I have been using Apple Notes which is great because I can read/write in the moment on a Mac, on iPad, on iPhone, and everything is (almost always) synced and stored in the cloud. I have been doing one note per day.

On the other hand, PTF (Pity The Fool) who tries to export these notes. I know some people have written exporters but of course, whenever Apple decides to change format, PTF.

I would like to change to a more portable format, e.g. markdown, but I am looking for a solution that syncs nicely across devices. Maybe iaWriter. Maybe just sublime text or even emacs and just put everything in a dropbox folder.

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

#126

Post by Gigachad »

denvaar wrote: post #115

I am drawn to the idea of keeping todo lists, but it seems like whenever I start to do it, I begin to feel stressed out or overwhelmed. Not so much by the contents of the list, but by maintaining a list in and of itself. Kind of like an obsessive type of problem. Does anyone else feel this way?

I only do them when there is a big gap between finding out about the task and doing it. Mostly I do them on the end of the day friday so when I get back on Monday and have completely forgot what I was working on, I can see a few checklist items for what I was in the middle of.

Creating a 20 point check list is just pointless. Unless maybe it's a list of things you need to verify before pushing something forward and you absolutely can not forget any of them.

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

#128

Post by kbos87 »

cyanydeez wrote: post #121
twodave wrote: post #82

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 a…

I'm guessing you're younger than 40. At some point, either your jobs novelty will wear off or your memory will just degrade. what happened to me is the lack of novelty in day to day and long term plans created a lot of unreliable data. having done a task multiple times, recalling the latest event details became a mixed bag of questionable facts. I still have the same capacity but now because I had such a great capaci…

This hits hard. As I've gotten older I've accumulated a lot more complexity in my life. Finances that I need to take seriously, properties, family stuff, a decade+ of depth in my career... it takes a lot to keep track of everything, and to make it legible when you come back to it a year or 5 years later.

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

#129

Post by jcul »

I've tried various note taking / organising strategies in the past and nothing compares to pen and paper for me.

I used to go through a lot of notepads as "scratch" work and would also lose things that I would like to look back on. So for the past few months I've been using a rocketbook. I have a special format for weekly todo / done tasks, a kind of daily log format, pages for meeting notes, and then scratch pages for rough notes etc.

I usually upload the weekly / daily / meeting stuff or research stuff I may want to keep. Rocketbook ocrs the page and uses anything with ##s as a title so I can find stuff quickly. I have set up different Dropbox folders for different categories of notes.

It's been working quite well for me.

Some things like documention, or draft documentation etc. I do store in markdown text files, and sync between my devices with syncthing. On my phone I used termux and vim for editing them, which works surprisingly well.

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

#130

Post by al_borland »

Gbox4 wrote: post #25

I've been using what is essentially a single sticky note (Raycast floating notes feature) for a year now and it works great. I put todos, meeting notes, ideas, and everything else in there with zero organization. When I want to remember stuff I read it. When I finish stuff I delete it. Has worked for me better than Notion, Obsidian, Reminders, Tick Tick, etc. I've found that for productivity tools, there is an invers…

>I finish stuff I delete it.

I run into the issue where I’m told to start new things all the time, then things don’t get finished, because of other new things that “need” to start. And no one ever seems to care than nothing actually gets done… but someday they might. So the list of what I need to look through keeps growing with nothing to keep it in check.

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