me was an Google Sheet, the result is incredibly amazing
My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
411–420 of 420 posts
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#412I 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 was the ethos behind the app I wrote, https://screwnotes.com - I just wanted a note taking tool that syncs everywhere and I there's only one way to add items. I don't want to wait for a product to load, or to have to make any mental decisions about organisation, due dates, or relationships between items.
I like the idea but I wish your website showed me what the app looked like and a rough idea of what features were available before I create an account.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
> it cracks open Emacs on the notes file, adds a timestamp, appends the optional text Do you mind sharing how you have setup Emacs to do that? Thanks!
This isn't exactly what was asked for, but because I live in emacs I don't get much value being able invoke it from the command line. If that's ok, try this.. (defvar org-journal-file "~/Dropbox/org/engjournal.org" "Path to OrgMode journal file.") (defvar org-journal-date-format " " "Date format string for journal headings.") (defun org-journal-entry () "Create a new diary entry for today or append to an existing one…
Love this. Running it outside of the file though is truncating my file though ?
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#414I 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,…
I'm late to the conversation here as I've been pondering it for a few days. I'm not a very good programmer or a bash user, but I can usually understand a script when I see it.
What script or bash alias are you using to do your "note (maybe some text here)"? I'd love to be able to do something similar.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've also had success using syncthing for this if you want something self hosted.
What do you use for editing on mobile, for files synced by syncthing?
I believe I used an app from fdroid called Markor. Mainly because it had a nice widget, so I could keep a to do list on my home screen.
Edit: Fixed a spelling error. Also, here's a link to the app:
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#416Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been doing something similar to track what I do at work for just over a year. I tried keeping a home journal with a similar technique, but it didn't stick. I have a git repo set up, and I run: "vim `date -I`", which opens a text file named for the current date (2020-02-08 today for example). Then I'll put in notes about what it is I'm currently working on. I've come up with the convention of separating tasks wit…
I use vim. Doing files based on timestamps sounds smart so I might steal that. I used just one big file right now and one thing good about it is that you can search all your notes with one command. I also use the uuid command to tag/reference sections. Then, I can just put the cursor on the uuid and hit '*' to jump right to that spot in the file.
Could you explain a bit more how you tag sections?
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#417I 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,…
Just a thought but would't creating a new file for each year make it more maintainable? I can't imagine searching a 100k line file or scrolling through it.
Searching visually? Yes, 100k would be impossible. But then, even one year's worth would be impossible. So you're surely using your editor's search function, and that's definitely fast enough to not care whether you've got several lifetimes' notes.
A do see a lot of people who are making date stamped files, but I can't understand why. Do you want to switch between using C-s vs dropping to command-line for grep?
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#418Earlier quoted context omitted.
That was the ethos behind the app I wrote, https://screwnotes.com - I just wanted a note taking tool that syncs everywhere and I there's only one way to add items. I don't want to wait for a product to load, or to have to make any mental decisions about organisation, due dates, or relationships between items.
I like the idea but I wish your website showed me what the app looked like and a rough idea of what features were available before I create an account.
Hi, there have been some updates to it and the landing page does have a short explanation, but I agree - something a bit more interactive would probably be better.
The app itself is something tightly coupled to having an account to operate (so no data is lost), but I might try adding in an interactive demo on the landing page so you get that feel of how it works straight away.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#419Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just a thought but would't creating a new file for each year make it more maintainable? I can't imagine searching a 100k line file or scrolling through it.
Searching visually? Yes, 100k would be impossible. But then, even one year's worth would be impossible. So you're surely using your editor's search function, and that's definitely fast enough to not care whether you've got several lifetimes' notes. A do see a lot of people who are making date stamped files, but I can't understand why. Do you want to switch between using C-s vs dropping to command-line for grep?
Most editors allow searching all files in a directory.
Re: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
#420Earlier quoted context omitted.
Searching visually? Yes, 100k would be impossible. But then, even one year's worth would be impossible. So you're surely using your editor's search function, and that's definitely fast enough to not care whether you've got several lifetimes' notes. A do see a lot of people who are making date stamped files, but I can't understand why. Do you want to switch between using C-s vs dropping to command-line for grep?
Most editors allow searching all files in a directory.
It's another function though, surely harder to reach for than the normal search. What's the value in bifurcating your searching process? What do you gain?