Evolving my note-taking processes

I journal computer and software ideas as markdown files out in the open on GitHub. When I get to 100-300 entries I move onto a new repository.

https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas2 https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas3 https://GitHub.com/samsquire/ideas4 https://GitHub.com/samsquire/startups

I create a new markdown heading for each entry and write.

It's searchable and the data is easy to synchronize, backup and use and the solution shall last for multiple decades maybe even longer.

It's also indexed by Google.

I'm still tweaking my first journal that I created in 2013.

At one point I tried to love Emacs and I am yet to use org mode. I actually use the GitHub interface mostly to update my journal. And before that vim and lately IntelliJ which includes preview features.

I would recommend if you want to write notes or create an external mind to improve your thinking just write. The tool you use doesn't really matter. It's the quality and reward from writing and rereading what you wrote.

> I would recommend if you want to write notes or create an external mind to improve your thinking just write.

Agreed. Personally, I still use paper + pencil for a lot of things. Even if I never rustle through my stacks of notes to find it again, I already got a big chunk of the value from just writing it.

Aside: I find rustling through my notes to be useful in itself, even though it's inefficient on the surface. Electronic systems are so good at finding exactly what you want as quickly as possible that the "browse around and see what you bump into" experience can get lost.

Sometimes I'll just happen to see diagram X next to diagram Y and come up with a new insight, where if I only ever saw what I was specifically looking for, I'd lose that. Though I do waste a lot of time, too (:

What I want in a personal note taking system is something where I can link anything. Anything is just a generic object that can be linked to and worked with.

Like a mix between Logseq and Nextcloud, where I can still use CalDav and CardDav but I can link to tasks and calendar events and contacts from my notes.

And i can link to a certain pdf page right from my notes.. or even a certain page of a word document. Anything needs to be treated as a generic object of content that is linkable.

You can also self-host the Standard Notes extensions though.

Markdown question:

I want to take create a chronological journal where I track tutorials I've done (and how well, etc), but I want to add some sort of a tag wherever I feel like so that with a click I can find all my entries related to (say) React, or R (statistics), and so on.

If you're reading this, and have had luck with such a tagging mechanism, please share your solution.

FOSS only, of course.