Same for me. Single txt with tag delineating topic start and text search
My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
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Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#42Doing this now too. It was vim outliner before but I was fed up of trying to remember how to install it every time I used it.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#43I just started writing key metrics of mine in a small physical notebook every day. I write tally marks for each glass of water I drink, jot down any supplements I take, and also track the weight of dumbbells/plates I lift that day. I also use it to track any big TODO's.
I've tried all of these things digitally but I've never had the follow-through as with paper.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#44My text file just turned 21 :)
I tried various automation things, org mode, scripts, markup for time spent (so I can automate timesheets, ugh) but none of it stuck. org mode in particular is like a straitjacket with the indentation rules. So text file it is.
I do keep command lines in it occasionally but ever since I started using eternal bash history that I version control I stopped recording those separately very much.
PS I find myself using Trello for home hobby projects, by using an "active" lane with 7 bottom cards being days of the week Mon-Sun. Then, TODO cards go on the top of the lane, and when I feel 95% confident I can get any given card done I drag it below a day of the week and make very sure it gets done. That way the system means something, and as a result I am pretty conservative about what I promote. If I know in my heart I won't really get it done tomorrow, I put it the day later, break it up into smaller tasks, or just leave it.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#45I've used a text file with a very similar workflow for a couple years and wholeheartedly agree it's a very flexible and useful tool. The trouble I had was what to do when I'm not in front of my computer. I tried sending myself TODO emails and I'd add them to the list later. That works pretty well. Although typing more than a line on a phone is kinda painful. And it requires the discipline to add the item to the list…
I've been using notebooks for years to write things down, but only recently I found one with a table of contents area at the front that has been immensely helpful in finding things later on.
What brand?
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#46For people on the go that need somewhat more organization I like iAWriter for iPhone (let’s you use md files for notes) and then you can also edit the markdown files directly on your laptop in the iCloud folder. Everything syncs up nicely in a nonproprietary format it’s seriously life changing
I have thought about different apps for this txt-approach for iOS, and you’re right. iA Writer seems to be perfect for this.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#47A while back I fell out of love with Evernote and migrated all my years of notes out to txt files which are synced to Dropbox. Huge nested folder structures but easily searched via grep or whatever. And then I have a folder called “Captains Log” and I make txt files for as many things as I can during the day. Code snippets, reminders to buy eggs at the store, urls to some dumb thing I want to remember to read later o…
Honest question. Does it freak you out to have many years of intimate and detailed notes about all aspects of your life and inner monologue to live in freetext on a stranger's computer?
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#48[deleted]
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#49One step up from this (if you’re a vim user) is vimwiki. But it really doesn’t matter what you use, the real benefit comes from having a process/habit of continuous review.
Seconded. This is my day to day tool to take notes, and keep track of what i do thru the diary function.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#50I used org mode at my last job, lots of management data, deep learning research, and patent application notes. Org worked great for me.
Now except for occasional DL related consulting, I am retired and my tech world activities are centered around writing. I have four book ideas that I will get to in the next few years, and updating my older books to new editions takes time. Keeping notes and research is vital for authors:
Now I use markdown text files for local notes and for cloud based note taking I went back to using Google Keep. I was using Apple Notes until I realized that they used imap to synchronize and that was not secure enough for me. For a decade I had used Evernote, but that ended up being too much ceremony/overhead.
EDIT: Apple really needs to encrypt more types of user data in iCloud.