Use a work journal • Hacker News Board

Re: Use a work journal

#221

Post by mbreese » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

epolanski wrote: post #218

devsda wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a comment about the project itself. If someone wants to try a similar flow but cannot run the above for any reason, git can be used to achieve something similar. You can also make use of existing tooling around git for shell integration like PS1 and gui. 1. Your main/master branch is your root frame. 2. Child Branches + branch commits themselves are messages. 3. Pop is hard reset of branch to parent or branch swi…

But how do you use that flow to _plan_ your work?

I wouldn't see that as a way to plan work, but rather to keep track of what you did or where you were.

In general, I like the idea of ruthlessly tracking what I've done like this. But I think that it is still missing the context of the environment... meaning, if you are editing a file, it would be nice to not only know that you edited file A, but also that you changed line N to X.

I've spent a decent amount of time thinking about this over the years and haven't fully figured out a good solution. I was a wet lab scientist for a long time and we have the tradition/requirement of keeping a lab notebook. This is something that is incredibly helpful where you keep track of what you've done and what you're planning to do. I've missed this when I switched over to mainly computational work. In the past, I've thought about maybe having a loopback FUSE-ish mounted directory to track changes to files would work. But I think something akin to working in a git tracked repository (with these intermittent commits per command) might make this work better!

Re: Use a work journal

#222

Post by lelanthran » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 5:26 PM UTC

tra3 wrote: post #216

lelanthran wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

This is really cool. How do you reorder frames? If you’re working on a particularly complex frame, how do you maintain context?

> This is really cool. How do you reorder frames?

Since each frame is a subdirectory directory in ~/.framedb/root, I can simply `mv` them. TBH, I've never yet found a need to rearrange them.

> If you’re working on a particularly complex frame, how do you maintain context?

I create child frames using whatever context was written into the current frame.

Re: Use a work journal

#223

Post by was8309 » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 5:31 PM UTC

tarruda wrote: post #126

lelanthran wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

and a tool to squash or expand the hierarchy helps alot. jEdit can fold/unfold based on indentation. along with simple prefixes : '-' for info, '>' for todo, '= {date}' for done, etc

Re: Use a work journal

#224

Post by volume » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 5:46 PM UTC

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.

I think you need to go past this common thinking to "just focus on consistency/habits/discipline". You need to get clear about how/why you decide in the present moment. I assume this takes varying amount of time/effort for different people.

I think one needs to unravel our inner state and psychology ... we cannot simply turn on and off. But then, once we understand our inner state/psychology it makes it easier to turn on/off.

Re: Use a work journal

#225

Post by bloopernova » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 6:11 PM UTC

The org-journal extension to Emacs' org-mode is great for this.

  ctrl-c n j = add new timestamped journal entry

https://github.com/bastibe/org-journal

So the workflow for this is: command-tab to switch to Emacs, ctrl-c n j to add a new journal entry, write the entry, command-tab back to whatever else I was doing. Emacs auto-saves my changes.

Of course, getting to that point requires some work. You have to be using Emacs and org-mode already, or prepared to try it, and that journey can be difficult for some.

The org-journal extension is great: It supports daily/weekly/monthly/yearly journal files (I use daily but I'm considering switching to weekly or monthly). When I create a new daily file, it only "brings forward" uncompleted TODO items, which means any completed TODOs are automatically archived out of your sight.

Because it integrates with org-mode, I have it set up such that it tracks when a task is moved from TODO into PROG, and again when it moves into DONE. (I get annoyed when columns don't line up, so I made my todo item names 4 characters long)

Re: Use a work journal

#226

Post by lelanthran » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 6:13 PM UTC

johtso wrote: post #138

lelanthran wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Love the sound of this tool! Seems a bit of a shame to permanently delete anything that's been completed, sometimes it's really useful to have a record of what you've been working on.

> Love the sound of this tool! Seems a bit of a shame to permanently delete anything that's been completed, sometimes it's really useful to have a record of what you've been working on.

I did originally have that; it lowered the signal:noise ratio.

I've found that there's isn't a need to keep around any frames of context for things that I have completed: generally there's already an artifact from that frame of context anyway (write this function, call that person, design that foobar, etc).

Re: Use a work journal

#227

Post by setopt » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 6:15 PM UTC

rigmarole wrote: post #163

esskay wrote: post #156

Evey time I've tried essentially journaling for my own sanity I get too bogged down in the way to actually do it. Logseq and Obsidian are often mentione but by the time I've figured out how the hell to use thier obscure syntax (why the hell am I programming, its a journal) I've lost interest. I'd like for there to be an out of the box option, but there doesnt seem to be any. When you bring this up in discussions like…

What syntax are you trying to use or thinking that you need? In Obsidian for example, remove all plugins except Daily Note and just start typing. Ignore all syntax except maybe bullets. Ignore properties and links. Ignore any habit-tracking or database tricks people say you need. Ignore the graph. Or consider using Vim/Neovim and set a leader hotkey to open today’s journal/YYYY-MM-DD.txt

> Or consider using Vim/Neovim and set a leader hotkey to open today’s journal/YYYY-MM-DD.txt

For a broader audience: Create a shell script that runs “$EDITOR $JOURNALDIR/$(date +%Y-%m-%d).md”, and bind a system-wide keybinding to run that script. Works even for GUI editors.

Re: Use a work journal

#228

Post by hallman76 » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 6:26 PM UTC

tarruda wrote: post #126

lelanthran wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Mineis called README.md or notes.txt I use a similar hierarchical format - I use tabs for the hierarchy. I use markdown for most notes, but I find it somewhat incompatible with the tab-based note-taking that I prefer.

I share this in case there are others out there who work the same way. Let's band together to establish a tab-friendly Markdown variant!

Re: Use a work journal

#229

Post by waxaxiom » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 6:40 PM UTC

rustypotato wrote: post #101

I hand-write a work journal. Just an A5 notebook and a few pens of different colors. Definitely an essential piece of my dev toolkit. I've especially come to love the free-form nature of hand-writing, which allows me to visualize more of my thoughts than a digital text editor. The journal has served two main purposes. One, I can write and annotate free-form pseudocode at exactly the level of abstraction I need withou…

Can you tell me more about the scientific notebook? Does it have a specific layout or is it just another notebook you use for debugging?

Re: Use a work journal

#230

Post by setopt » Sat, Jul 13, 2024, 6:46 PM UTC

sudhirkhanger wrote: post #150

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/…

How do/would you use it over various systems? What's the best way to cloud sync this? One might have to use it on work machine with restrictions around installing apps.

As long as auto-revert-mode is on (so the editor notices synced changes from other devices), you can sync it using any file storage service: Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Resilio Sync, etc.