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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)

#231

Post by sph »

zogrodea wrote: post #185
cyanydeez wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 reminded of the memorable Sherlock Holmes quote. Hopefully it is good advice for those of us who are a bit younger. "His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incide…

'Tis a lovely quote... though I believe our memory is less like an attic and more like the eponymous house in Mark Z. Danielewski "House of Leaves".

It is not a fixed size, but it grows and shrinks, and you might find it still houses long lost or useless memories, while somehow being too full to store the name of the person you just introduced yourself to.

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

#232

Post by sph »

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…

The issue about productivity tools is that they target two categories of people:

- those that like to obsess over productivity tools instead of doing work

- those that share the same brain structure as the author's

If you are neither of those, have ADHD, OCD or any other brain variety, most advice on the matter is worthless at best. The only way out is find how your brain operates, and what works for you. There is no silver bullet.

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

#233

Post by lycopodiopsida »

materielle wrote: post #112
et-al wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the author is trying highlight that one doesn't necessarily fancy tools. The productivity space has so many options that it's easy for one to get overwhelmed with settling on the "best" option. My partner relies on a Leuchtturm weekly planner; my father bought into the whole Stephen Covey system; a coworker has a stack of Post-its, and I use a hodgepodge of Google Calendar (far off single events), Apple Notes…

I agree with the parent comment, but I would phrase it as: This article feels so foreign to me because I’m not trying to be productive. I don’t have a productively system, because I’m not. I complete my works tasks. Those usually have lists. After work and on the weekends, I spend time with friends and family, and do hobbies as I enjoy them. Beyond that, I don’t try to remember things. I let stuff slip through the cr…

You don't use productivity systems for planning your leisure time and hanging out, you use them to free more time and to let the things go your way at the same time. I can compare myself to my wife, who is not able to plan anything properly, and it is fascinating. She lets thing slip through the cracks, often small things which have no big consequences, but once in a while they snowball. A recent anecdote: a cabriolet she ordered gets cancelled, because she left the order unfinished for 3 months by not checking the order status and the model is not produced anymore. All easily avoidable with a proper organization. Her life mostly runs smooth only because I (and my productivity system) keep track of all the administrative stuff, otherwise things would bite her every other day.

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

#234

Post by kelsolaar »

JordiGarcL wrote: post #72
ravishi wrote: post #41

I use a similar system, but I duplicate and rename the file at the start of each day. Then I remove stuff that got done the previous day. Or stuff that is old and not relevant anymore. The system has evolved over the years. The greatest thing about it is how flexible it is. When faced with new requirements (new projects, job change, etc) I can just start taking notes in a different way and see if it sticks. I also co…

Doing the exact same thing using Obsidian and the obsidian-git plugin, which allows for automatic git push at a given interval. Works very well and it's very convenient to use.

Same setup here and pretty happy about it, only minor issue is the `Update time on edit` plugin creating some conflicts if I have my vault opened on two machines.

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

#235

Post by lycopodiopsida »

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?

You have to find your way of doing things. I mostly stick to GTD, and I've used Apple Reminders, org-mode, and Omnifocus (currently back to Omnifocus) over the years. My workflow does not change so much between these applications, I have to adapt it to technical limitations of the application somehow, but these are the same projects, due dates, tasks, inbox, reviews. Now what stresses me out out and overwhelms me is not having a system in place - now I have to keep all the tasks in mind and to think of them all the time.

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

#236

Post by wernsey »

I didn't see anyone mention Markdeep [0] yet.

I started with a notes.txt file for the system I maintain. I found myself gradually adopting Markdown syntax because I need bulleted lists and headings to separate different sections. I also needed hyperlinks to documentation or StackOverflow answers.

So one day I just added the Markdeep tags to the bottom of the file and renamed it to notes.md.html

I still keep it open in a text editor for day to day use, but it looks really nice when you open it in a browser.

[0]: https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/

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

#237

Post by fuzztester »

sgc wrote: post #181
fuzztester wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taking hard-copy printouts of code to study it for bugs, design or code review is one area some people I know use it for. Edit: I guess even for non-code text files, though I haven't used it for that purpose myself, yet. Bet many authors do.

You can go through a text to be published 5 times on a computer, print it out and for any text of decent length, I guarantee you will find a ton of stuff you missed. I have never tried using an e-ink device for that to see if it has the same effect, but I would be curious of the feedback on that if anybody here has done so.

True dis.

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

#238

Post by bbkane »

swah wrote: post #148

Nothing really works for me long run - my todo files get a bunch of random notes with the actual tasks, and I don't want to go back to them..

I rarely go back to my notes either (except with ripgrep), but a good chunk of the value for me is psychological - when I take a note I can evict the idea from my mind to focus on something higher priority.
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