This is the one that I use
> doing is a basic CLI for adding and listing “what was I doing” reminders in a TaskPaper-formatted text file. It allows for multiple sections/categories and flexible output formatting.
Keeping a plaintext “did” file
31–40 of 202 posts
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#32What benefit are you getting out of journaling?
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#33Similar but not the same: most days day at work I create one or more txt files in notepad (kate to be exact) where I paste every temporary info while I work on some task. Basically everything that doesn't go to git, and you have to keep somewhere while you're working on it: - nonobvious terminal commands or small scripts I had to write - fixes for enviromental/configuration problems - fragments of stacktraces - fragm…
Thank you for sharing. It is simple and efficient. I did something like this on a "per-ticket"-basis but did not really thoughtful use it. I will definitely try this again with more focus on putting all necessary/related information in it - I included only a fraction of the relevant information.
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#34These small log files really help to keep things in perspective. However for longer plans I use Trello. It works as an issue tracker / planner for me so I can put the bits I find on the issue to the cards, or to my dropbox and link them.
When I finish a task, I put all relevant information to a folder in my "Old documents" folder, and put the card to the "Done" column. If the task is a project, everything is already become documented and archived on git at the end.
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#35This reminds me of the `plan` files used by John Carmack and and ID software. It's a good way to look back at things and remember how far you've gone and give some perspective on how some big problems at the time were not so big today...
The history of the .plan file goes back to way before ID or Carmack. It's been part of unix for a long time. Back when things were simpler, you could finger a user and read their .plan to see what they were up to.
> you could finger a user
Usually `finger` was not used alone. Associated tools included grep, fsck, mount and if all went well `yes`. I usually prefer to finish the task with `sleep` as well.
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#36I keep a bugs.txt text file (complete with alias for opening it), in which I record particularly difficult or tricky bugs. It's a really good way to learn from hard bugs. At the top of the file I have a template that I copy each time I add an entry. It has the following fields:
Date:
Symptom:
Cause:
How found:
Fix:
Fixed in file(s):
Caused by me:
Time taken to resolve bug:
Lessons:
I've used this system for 15 years now (210 entries), and it's been very helpful, especially for lessons learned.
More here: https://henrikwarne.com/2016/04/28/learning-from-your-bugs/
https://henrikwarne.com/2016/06/16/18-lessons-from-13-years-...
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#37I have a windows notepad file for the same reason. F5 prints the date/time stamp.
or you can just start the file with: .LOG one of the few extra features notepad have =)
Just to clarify because I had to google to have any clue what writing .LOG at the top was supposed to do.
It will create a time-stamp (similar to F5) each time you open the document.
So nothing for us that never closes applications ;)
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#38For those who use Emacs, org-capture is probably the way to go: https://orgmode.org/manual/Capture.html#Capture
Org caputre is great. Also, helm-org-rifle is an excellent way to quickly find something in your notes:
https://github.com/alphapapa/helm-org-rifle
You can give mulitple search terms to search for them in any order with instant results when typing.
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#39For those who use Emacs, org-capture is probably the way to go: https://orgmode.org/manual/Capture.html#Capture
Plus org-clocking, easy time keeping and also offers easy aggregation for reviews. It is really interesting to see after a while how much time was spend at various activities...
Re: Keeping a plaintext “did” file
#40For quick notes the most important for me is as little friction as possible.
Having to switch to a terminal and using an alias is too much friction.
So I have a global hotkey which I can press anywhere on my desktop, regardless of the current application and if I press it it opens an editor window with the current timestamp already added, so all I have to do is type and press a key to finish the entry.
This way I don't have to switch apps to make a note, I stay in the current context and it's so quick and convenient to make notes that I don't even have to think about doing it.