Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Use a work journal

fev.al

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 305 posts

Re: Use a work journal

#121

Post by lifeisstillgood »

I don’t like keeping it seperate from “The code”. I try but there is ultimately one place to keep everything and that is in “the code”. So my comments become my journal, and this gels with how I view code and source control - that leaving dead comments, moving around functions and chnaging stuff is part of the process

It’s like, we are somehow conditioned into thinking that the commit must be perfect and not reflect a process over time.

And the thing is a software system reflects a process over time even if we are pushing it into production

Re: Use a work journal

#122

Post by Scarblac »

flakiness wrote: post #45

To me the hardest part of journaling (or Pomodoro, or whatever work-related methodology/hack) is to stick with it. I have a work journal. I abandoned it and came back, then abandoned it and came back again. It's an endless back-and-forth. To those who keep doing this for a longer period: Any tips would be appreciated.

Accept that that is how it works for you. Like, maybe you do different types of work and subconsciously find it useful only for some of them. That's OK.

Consider it a tool you sometimes use, and think of using journaling as an option when you're frustrated with something.

Re: Use a work journal

#123

Post by mettamage »

simpaticoder wrote: post #30

The benefit of journaling is not just reentry, but that you begin to solidify the mental model into a concrete branching of possibilities that is tightly coupled to the specific problem. Your work becomes traversal and mutation of this tree. Several benefits accrue: you begin to see gaps in the tree, and can fill them in. You begin to have confidence in your mental model, recovering the time you used to spend going o…

I had a whole CLI full with bash scripts and a Sublime Text app with self-written plugins that functioned like this at my previous job.

Re: Use a work journal

#125

Post by greggsy »

mettamage wrote: post #123
simpaticoder wrote: post #30

The benefit of journaling is not just reentry, but that you begin to solidify the mental model into a concrete branching of possibilities that is tightly coupled to the specific problem. Your work becomes traversal and mutation of this tree. Several benefits accrue: you begin to see gaps in the tree, and can fill them in. You begin to have confidence in your mental model, recovering the time you used to spend going o…

I had a whole CLI full with bash scripts and a Sublime Text app with self-written plugins that functioned like this at my previous job.

You mean, for journaling, or to automate the process?

Re: Use a work journal

#126

Post by tarruda »

lelanthran wrote: post #112
simpaticoder wrote: post #30

The benefit of journaling is not just reentry, but that you begin to solidify the mental model into a concrete branching of possibilities that is tightly coupled to the specific problem. Your work becomes traversal and mutation of this tree. Several benefits accrue: you begin to see gaps in the tree, and can fill them in. You begin to have confidence in your mental model, recovering the time you used to spend going o…

> solidify the mental model into a concrete branching of possibilities that is tightly coupled to the specific problem. Your work becomes traversal and mutation of this tree. I wrote a program (used from a CLI, but I mostly use the GUI I developed for it) to do something similar for my own use: https://github.com/lelanthran/frame/blob/master/docs/FrameIn... I use it daily.

Interesting tool.

I currently use a TODO text file in the root of each project I'm working on, which I update right before I stop working. The lists are hierarchical, so each task I'm focused on has a parent item, which helps me remind of the bigger picture.

Re: Use a work journal

#127

Post by elitan »

polairscience wrote: post #104
hubraumhugo wrote: post #96

It's surprising how many devs are trying to overoptimize for productivity with various fancy tools and techniques, when it actually comes down to simple basics. Here is what I rely on as a founder who does a lot of context switching: - a never-ending text file for todos and work journal [0] - calendar for planning (and blocking focus time) - website blocker - turned off notifications [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/…

What website blocker do you use?

I follow the same structure, and I use Notion, Google Calendar, and Flow App.

Re: Use a work journal

#128

Post by smusamashah »

I was assigned a big project at work 2 years ago. Apart from main code base there were a bunch of other modules and services it talked to at it was all very old code. I couldn't have kept all of that in my head throughout.

I kind of rediscovered OneNote which helped me actually do the project. It's like your thought dumping playground. It's the only tool that offers least resistance to jotting down thoughts in whatever form you like. Every page is like a freeform infinite canvas. Just click anywhere, start typing or paste the screenshot or even files.

OneNote has been my daily driver since then. I mostly just dump thoughts in a lossely structured system that I am following for myself.

Re: Use a work journal

#129

Post by karencarits »

singhrac wrote: post #117
karencarits wrote: post #116

I've concluded that I need different note taking tools for various contexts. * LogSeq for day-to-day notes. Append only. Since everything is bullet points, I don't have to worry about structure, and it's easy to just add a comment instead of revising a paragraph. * TiddlyWiki for write-ups. I've tested many wiki solutions but always return to TiddlyWiki. Mainly because it is so easy to adapt how things look, and vari…

I use Obsidian for the first two. Email was very useful but you need to essentially categorize the data yourself manually. I’m very surprised there isn’t a bot that will automatically attempt to categorize your emails for you via IMAP access.

I tried obsidian too, but found that outlining/nested bullet points in LogSeq matched my flow better.

I agree regarding emails, one day I'll try to write a script that imports emails with a specific tag, perhaps autotagging can be a part of the pipeline

Re: Use a work journal

#130

Post by safety1st »

simpaticoder wrote: post #30

The benefit of journaling is not just reentry, but that you begin to solidify the mental model into a concrete branching of possibilities that is tightly coupled to the specific problem. Your work becomes traversal and mutation of this tree. Several benefits accrue: you begin to see gaps in the tree, and can fill them in. You begin to have confidence in your mental model, recovering the time you used to spend going o…

If I'm working on something particularly complex I basically just do the journaling in a code comment adjacent to what I'm working on. So the first commit may be three lines of code and a huge long winded rambling comment of what I've already tried or thought about. By the time the task is done I've pared away the more speculative/rambling elements of what I wrote, and what's left is typically some extremely well commented code. I think this method results in higher quality code produced faster than if you just try to keep everything in your head. No one's complained yet...!
Post reply on HN