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My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

jeffhuang.com

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Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#191

Post by war1025 »

ramraj07 wrote: post #121
kabdib wrote: post #109

I use a single text file, have done this for decades. I dump everything into it and don't worry too much about structure, it's an incredible resource for "remembering" minutia, things like "what was that server that i thought might have had some issues last August?" Just a quick control-S and I'm there. My current 7+ year old notes file has about 100K lines in it right now. I can tell you what I was doing last year,…

That sounds quite elegant, but seems this is only possible if you work out of a single machine almost always. Perhaps it could be made into a service? As long as explicit effort is taken that there's absolute minimum extra effort as possible!

I just keep a private git repo that I push the updates to after entering them.

I've gotten to the point that anything important enough to keep around I basically just put in a git repo somewhere.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#192

Post by criddell »

lostlogin wrote: post #128
Operyl wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that using an iPad with the Pencil has been a great middle ground. The OCR in the various Notes apps (including stock) is able to recognize my horrendous writing (it’s really bad).

What notes app have you settled on? Annotating images was a key for me.

I use GoodNotes and it's astonishing how well it recognizes my hand writing.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#193

Post by criddell »

Insanity wrote: post #99
beejiu wrote: post #58

My favourite "productivity app" is not an app at all. It's a plain old notebook. I write down any notes and actions I need to take, and strike through them once finished. It has a nice benefit that I can scribble notes, draw lines between ideas, sketch out diagrams, etc.

It's great, I tried replacing it a few times with apps but it just did not feel right, sometimes pen and paper is just faster

Pen and paper is great but if it's something I want to hold on to, I have to add it to my digital system. Sometimes that means taking my written notes, doing some editing, then saving digitally. Other times it just means taking a snapshot and saving that.

I still use Evernote for my long term storage (although I do worry about the long term viability of the company) and it does a pretty great job of finding and indexing text (even handwritten text) in images. The search operators are also pretty great.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#194

Post by hopia »

dylanz wrote: post #100
hopia wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you analyze the data afterwards? Or for what reason are you keeping such detailed records of your life of?

I don't care about analyzing the data afterwards. When I open the notebook and see that I've only had one glass of water, it motivates me to drink another, until I get around 8 in one day. I've read https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-ana... , have used Seinfeld calendar apps, and bought productivity tools... all with no luck. I have an addictive personality so I could easily sit in front of the…

Would seeing any kind of analysis benefit you or boost your motivation? Like something that would clearly show based on your own data that, say there is a strong correlation between feeling ill and drinking less than 4 cups of water throughout the day?

The reason I ask is because I'm building something like this. And not many people track their habits as systematically as you do.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#197

Post by s_c_r »

I love this and have also used a txt file for years. I’ve moved from Google Docs to Vimwiki to org mode for notes, todos, and journaling. Most recently I’ve started incorporating a moleskine notebook to take to meetings for note taking and it’s been a nice addition. Sometimes I’ll copy notes over from it to org so that it’s all in one place, but I’ve found it isn’t too hard to page back through it to find something I wrote weeks or months ago if I have a general sense of when I wrote it. Plus the experience of taking notes with a Pilot G2 is just more fun than using a ballpoint on a legal pad. Maybe that’s just me.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#198

Post by hashhar »

aeontech wrote: post #97
numbers wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say “eternal bash history” how long is that? I thought after some large number it becomes very slow. I’d like to try this if you don’t mind sharing how you did that?

Not parent poster, but I use zsh-histdb [0] to keep my history in an SQLite database. There is also Historian [1] for bash, and a bunch of other suggestions in the discussion thread on it on HN [2] [0]: https://github.com/larkery/zsh-histdb [1]: https://undertitled.com/2017/04/12/historian-because-please-... [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14103688

I have a script that removes duplicates and HISTIGNORE set to ignore simple commands like cp, ls, mv, mkdir etc. In the past 5 years I've only executed around 20k unique commands using up around 900kb.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#199

Post by johnzim »

aloknnikhil wrote: post #76
endisukaj wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree with you, but the killer feature digital notes have, for me, is the quick and effortless searching.

Yup. I miss this too. I tried OCR for all my written notes, it just doesn't work.

Nothing has ever beaten the Newton Messagepad for me for this (certainly the last models made, the 2100).

I really wish a modern Newton existed. Evernote started off quite Newton'y (Newton team members were on board) but I fell off quite early.

Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

#200

Post by Spooky23 »

I don’t use a task manager, but I keep a daily highlights journal. Usually I pull some scrap paper from the printer, fold it in quarters, and put a day’s notes on a quadrant or two.

Then I take a picture of it and drop in Apple Notes on my phone.

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