Comment by diegoprzl | Hacker News Reader

Comment by diegoprzl | Hacker News Reader

Do you keep a personal journal?

Yes. Org-Mode+Org-Capture

If yes, do you find it useful?

Yes. There are many advantages to keeping a personal journal. It allows you to have better recollections about what actually happened in the past, which is important taking into account that memory is constructive and prone to distortion. Many ideas and insights are forgotten, recording them is a way to fight that.

What tools would you recommend?

Emacs and Org-Mode. Git. Markdown and any other editor is a good option also.

Is there any specific methodology that you follow?

I use some ideas from GTD. Explaining my whole methodology would take more time than I have right now.

When journaling, do you try to track any specific aspects of your life or just write about anything that is currently occupying your mind?

Both.

Any advice on how to get the most out of personal journaling?

Make it an habit. Put a time or word limit and just let the words flow. Make it seamless, for me capturing an entry is pressing 3 keys.

I've been keeping a journal with Org-Mode for nearly three years now. I also have an easy system of adding entries via my mobile devices, which was a huge thing I missed at first. Here's what I finally came up with as a solution that works really well for writing Org-Mode journal entries from my iPhone and iPad and getting those entries back into my main Org-Mode journal file:

- I use the Drafts app [1], which has a incredibly powerful feature that lets you create custom commands that include a series of steps, such as "Append to /refile.org file in Dropbox", which I have setup as a "Save to Journal" command

- I have a TextExpander snippet that includes the proper Org-Mode format for an entry, complete with a the date and tags and even a default entry title all filled in. All I do is type "Jjj" inside Drafts and I'm ready to start typing my journal entry.

To write a journal entry from my mobile device:

- I launch Drafts, type my TextExpander abbreviation ("Jjj") to fill in the Org-Mode template, then just start typing my journal entry.

- When I'm done writing my journal entry, I hit the "Save to Journal" action in Drafts, which appends that entry to my refile.org file on Dropbox.

- Once a week or so I open the refile.org inside Emacs and for each entry I run a custom function [2] that refiles that entry into my main journal-2017.org file. The function properly files the entry into the right spot in the datetree. Processing my refile.org file literally takes a few seconds, as I have that function bound to a key that I just run with the cursor over each entry.

I've been using this process for a few years now and it's incredibly easy and reliable, not to mention completely free of any proprietary data formats, which is exactly what I wanted for journaling. I'm using a similar process (Drafts app + TextExpander + Dropbox) to make Ledger CLI [3] entries from my iPhone very easy, so that I can keep my financial ledger up-to-date when I'm out.

[1] http://agiletortoise.com/drafts/

[2] https://github.com/raamdev/dotfiles/blob/master/emacs.d/conf...

[3] http://www.ledger-cli.org/

I also use org-mode for my daily journal. Have been for about a year and I'm very happy with it. I used to use Evernote, but I like the idea of keeping it to myself with encrypted backups better.

I also journal using org. The only reason it stuck for me was exactly what you said. It's 3 keypresses when I'm already in the application and I find my mind wandering.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com