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My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

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Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#91

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

blackhaj7 wrote: post #65
BasilPH wrote: post #5

I'm doing something similar with Obsidian daily notes[^1]. I also have a weekly note that I use to plan the next week. Similar to how the author talks about scheduling their next day the evening before, I've started planning the big tasks for next on Friday afternoon, as this gives me momentum on Monday morning. Related: I've found the 3/3/3 technique from Oliver Burkeman[^2] and the concept of open and closed lists…

I use Obsidian but it is unbearably slow upon when opening the app for me, to the point where I want to move away. It’s also dare-I-say-it too customizable for me. I just want it to look nice and do standard notes stuff without having to spend hours tinkering. The only thing keeping me is that it is just markdown. I don’t like the idea of being locked in with the proprietary formats of other apps

Curious, I have starting using Obsidian recently and one of the things that I love about it is that it's lightning fast on my systems, including startup time. Much snappier than other note-taking programs I've used, and than 95% of the programs altogether (only the likes of Notepad are faster).

Maybe it's because I don't have many notes yet and it becomes a behemoth if the vault gets too big?

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#92

Post by vonjuice »

d--b wrote: post #77

I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the…

ime it's a journey of knowing yourself. If you adopt this person's workflow it won't work for you, but if you try something similar, start small and gradually add more organization, you might end up with something that works

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#93

Post by realfeel78 »

Gbox4 wrote: post #25

I've been using what is essentially a single sticky note (Raycast floating notes feature) for a year now and it works great. I put todos, meeting notes, ideas, and everything else in there with zero organization. When I want to remember stuff I read it. When I finish stuff I delete it. Has worked for me better than Notion, Obsidian, Reminders, Tick Tick, etc. I've found that for productivity tools, there is an invers…

You get it.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#94

Post by jimbokun »

zwieback wrote: post #26

Takeaway: if you're already highly organized and disciplined a simple tool is all you need

I see the causation in the other direction:

a simple tool is more likely to help you get organized and stay disciplined, due to the low activation energy to get started and keep using it.

Otherwise, there is a great temptation to futz around with your organization tools instead of making plans and getting things done.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#95

Post by jjjjj55555 »

d--b wrote: post #77

I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the…

Does that mean that you don't get stuff done? Or does it mean that you just decide what to do moment by moment? If it's the latter, then why does having it written out add any more stess?

For me, NOT having stuff planned out is what's stressful and the difference in productivity is noticeable when I have some sort of to-do list/schedule vs. when I just wing it.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#96

Post by rubslopes »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #86
d--b wrote: post #77

I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the…

If it's a consolation, I feel the same as you. I clicked because what I have is a gigantic TODO .txt file that grows and grows and grows. I typically only look at the bottom (newest) part, typically at what fits on screen. The rest is full of things I should have done at some point and never actually did.

If I could make a suggestion, try dividing your list into two: a to-do list and a "someday, maybe" list. That's a concept from GTD that helps a lot with peace of mind.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#97

Post by s_m_t »

d--b wrote: post #77

I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the…

The trick is that you don't actually have to do all the tasks you write down. It is still nice to have a record of what you've planned so if you ever decide to jump back on any task you have a history of what you have done and any context associated with it on hand.

A lot of my todos are something like "I found this article interesting but I don't have the current skills to really understand everything in it" or "I want to add this feature to X but I think I will wait until the new version comes out because it will be easier then" or "I want to remember this when I finally decide to do Y".

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#98

Post by bachmeier »

I tried doing it this way. While it sounds nice, and apparently works for some people, my biggest problem was stuff getting buried hundreds of lines into the file. I couldn't trust it to remind me of anything beyond the few items at the top of the file. Another problem was having everything as a big blob of text mixed together, unless you take on some overhead when entering things (put them in the right place) or during the day (moving things around).

If this appeals to you, I'd recommend using a big html file with Javascript to query the things you want to see, using class names as tags. A good text editor will have snippet support, and you can just dump any new items at the top of the file as they come in. If you want to get fancy, you can write in markdown and convert to html on the fly.

Re: My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

#100

Post by supportengineer »

Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #86
d--b wrote: post #77

I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the…

If it's a consolation, I feel the same as you. I clicked because what I have is a gigantic TODO .txt file that grows and grows and grows. I typically only look at the bottom (newest) part, typically at what fits on screen. The rest is full of things I should have done at some point and never actually did.

I enter my to-do items into Google Calendar. If I can't finish them today I move them to tomorrow or another future date. Once they are done they stop moving.
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