My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file

I 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, or the year before, on this day, in seconds.

I just type

    note (maybe some text here)

and it cracks open Emacs on the notes file, adds a timestamp, appends the optional text, and then I can just type or paste something in. Nearly frictionless, that's key. Great for writing those miserable annual reviews, too (easy answers to "what have I worked on in the past year?")

I use plain old notebooks (simple blank sketchpads, or something bound like a Moleskin/Lecchturm) for meetings, interviews, walking around datacenters and so forth where a keyboard is awkward and anyway, drawings.

I've tried the EverNote/OneNote/etc. apps and none of them were as convenient or as easy to use, or as portable.

I started doing this at my first job in 1985. There is a direct lineage of the file to a few of the text files I use today. "todo.txt", "address.txt", and "dates.txt" have morphed continuously for 35 years.

Besides this reminiscence, I wanted remind vim users of a particular feature that allows easily navigating between text files like a hypertext system. The "gf" key sequence (mnemonic: go file). Typing "gf" will cause vim to extract the text under the cursor (it doesn't have to be at the head of the string) and open the file of that name. If you have ':set path=..' established, it also searches for the named file using that path order.

For example, in my main TODO I have a section like this for notes on things I want to attend to for various websites I maintain:

    ---------- websites todos -----------
    family website:   c:/path/to/this/todo.txt
    personal website: c:/path/to/that/todo.txt
    resume:           c:/path/to/other/todo.txt
    emulator:         c:/path/to/emulator/todo.txt

Just place the cursor over one I wanted to visit, hit 'gf' then I'm teleported to that document.

This is very close to what I do, with a few modifications. Biggest difference is that I use Emacs Org-mode (https://orgmode.org/) which automates things like date strings, building a daily agenda, adding due dates, and the monotony of getting your itemized lists properly indented. (and a whole lot more)

Everything lives in my TODO.org file that's mirrored via dropbox between all my devices and on my phone where I use the Beorg app on the iphone (https://beorgapp.com/).

I archive my finished TODO items at the end of the year. Taking the opportunity to delete (mark CANCELED) things that no longer need doing and carrying over any TODO items that still need getting done.

The 21st century has burdened the human psyche with a wonderful array of problems—most of which are invisible, abstract things.

It's taken some time figuring out how to make them real. Doesn't feel like anybody created a tool to help manage these abstract monsters. We still do not know ourselves that well. Not in this strange world.

Whenever I hear someone say, "Just use paper", part of me agrees. Paper is simple. It's easy to use. Plain text too. Simple.

I wonder if that's the best we can do.

I use paper. I use plain text. I use everything. Against the enormity of everything I want to do and the unfinished thoughts that repeat, it feels like nothing.

I've discovered small tips here and there. I'm making progress. I'm learning how to work with myself. But if I'm honest, the enormity of what's before me is infuriating and immense.

It's something like the question of how we want to live our lives.

I wonder if there's a tool for that.

My favourite "productivity app" is not an app at all. It's a plain old notebook. I write down any notes and actions I need to take, and strike through them once finished. It has a nice benefit that I can scribble notes, draw lines between ideas, sketch out diagrams, etc.

My 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.

I do this too, since 2005. Part of the reason I do this was because between 1995 and 2005 I experimented with a bunch of different software, and the software kept being deprecated. I forget a lot of the software that existed at the time. I used a bunch of early web apps, in the 1990s, all of which disappeared, and I used some interesting experiments with desktop productivity apps, all of which were discontinued, and I used a 5 or 6 different PDAs (this was in the era before the smart phone, when cell phones were dumb and we used PDAs to take notes) all of which were abandoned by the companies that were selling them (most of them were pushed by hardware companies that had no strategy for building important software that would survive over time).

Having been burned, many, many times, trying apps and formats that all were abandoned, I eventually realized that the only thing that would definitely last, over the long term, was a simple text file. The simpler the better. Simple is the only guarantee that something will last. Unix text files have not changed much since 1970s, it is the only thing in the tech world that has demonstrated longevity.

So I stick with a simple text file, and I will do so till the day I die.

I jumped on this bandwagon about 6 months ago and I love it. Like many others I had some levels of success with other apps (trello, RTM, Todoist, Toodledo, etc.), but a single text file is a whole new world. I've been do

My setup is a single .md file with typora as an editor. Some things I love about it are:

- Markdown checklists that (with custom css) can be faded when checked - When I copy/paste an image in (often a screenshot of a whiteboard or sketch) it creates a local copy in ~./resources. - Outline view on the side (I used headings to separate days, weeks, quarters, and year). - I keep goals for the week/quarter/year near the top so I see them when I'm setting goals for the day/week/quarter.

The other nice things that's grown out of it is that I've started to create a knowledgebase (popular to discuss these days [0]) that is a collection of .md files (for example injection-molding.md, antennas.md, etc.). Having the same format for it and my todos makes adding to either seem more seamless. Just in the past 6 months the collection has become much more useful than the enormous pile of content I'd collected in evernote over the years.

At the end of the day I commit+push and that's it.

I don't see myself going back (although will maybe change to a FOSS .md editor once it has enough features).

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21310030

This article gets at something that's really key. The system is so much more important than the tool. The tool may facilitate the system, but without a system even the fanciest tool won't help you feel organized.

For work I used to use Evernote, but these days I just have a folder of markdown files named by date. (20200208.md)

Anytime I run a new command, SQL query or work on a new issue I try to write it down in the note before running it. Then I commit+push everything at the end of the day.

At least for me, knowledge degrades quickly. So having a history of that command I ran to fix X three weeks ago is a life saver.

I've found that better organization isn't really needed because find is good enough and I usually have a vague sense of where I'll find what I'm looking for anyway.

Also these day private GitHub repos are free. So it doesn't cost anything to setup.

For teams you can use runbooks as the same concept. Anytime you on work on an on-call issue record the steps you took to fix it. At Datadog we just used GitHub issues in a dedicated runbook repo, but almost anything could work. The point is to reduce friction as much as possible and eliminate decision points. You can always clean it up later but if the barrier for entry is too high developers won't bother doing it.

Remember this is a developer at their worst - it's 3am, they're fixing something they might know little to nothing about, and they're working as fast as possible under pressure. Any additional procedure needs to be as lightweight as possible.

But if you get it right, man does it make on-call and onboarding easier.

"One big text file" was a big deal a while back. Here's a post by Merlin Mann:

http://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text...

For notes, I keep trying all kinds of apps and approaches, but I always come back to a single big text file. It's surprisingly easy to search. The main thing is it's just so convenient.

Edit: This is a better link https://danlucraft.com/blog/2008/04/plain-text-organizer/

I use the Notes app on my phone to do non work-related stuff in my everyday life.

I have everything on there - buying groceries, washing clothes, getting stuff dry cleaned, washing the car. Whatever.

As soon as I get a spare moment, I scan the list (about 20 items) and do a little travelling salesman solution - what can I knock off this list in about 2 hours, and what’s the most efficient route to drive to get all this done?

Usually I manage to knock off a massive chunk of the list which feels great and super productive. I’ve learnt that it feels good to write things on the list so that shortly afterwards I can erase them again.

If you address the items one by one, then you waste a lot of time. The key is run everything asynchronously (put the clothes on wash now, so that I can dry them later. Buy the soap for the car now, but we’ll wash it after we drop off the dry cleaning on the way back from the shop)

One 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.

I do something similar but with paper and pen. I purchase customized laboratory notebooks that have my name and a serial number embossed on the front and otherwise blank pages. I write down every meeting I attend (or call into), the date and time of their start and stop, all the attendees names, as well as regular to do lists, action items, etc. After years of doing this I have a nicely curated collection of notebooks that look great on the shelf and give me a sense of pride and history on my work. I took the inspiration from George Washington's diarys which are in the library of congress. I also use a fancy fountain pen with beautiful blue ink which my wife purchased for me that adds an extra bit of personality to the whole experience. https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0010/gwdiary.html

Why do people feel a strong need to organize their day, spend tremendous amount of time(ironically) and energy in exactly what they need to do that day and how many calories they eat?

I feel the complete opposite. I structure projects, not my time. I want a loose schedule. You could stop worry about time, try a free schedule, enjoy life a little, and get work done. This whole "productivity" bullshit is an urban concept. Back when my grand pa was a farmer, he didn't have a schedule but he worked all day. The task can take as long it has to. I am willing to bet, your average urban wizbang with TODO apps and productivity hacks will not match the output.

I 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.

I currently use Google Tasks for Todos and I honestly have never been happier. To make Google Tasks work you have to be using Gmail and Google Calendar (which may be a non-starter for some people), but if you are using those already then Google Tasks is worth taking a look.

The beauty of Google Tasks is it lives alongside your email, integrates seamlessly with the calendar, and automatically synchronizes across devices. The interface is super simple and intuitive (drag/drop for prioritizing and simple completion), yet powerful enough to allow for things like setting up recurring tasks.

I especially like scheduling tasks for items I know I have coming up a week or so out. When I know I have something coming up, I just enter the date/time and a description and I'm done. (Maybe all of 10 seconds?) It's so much faster than trying to put something in a calendar and I find myself offloading all of these things I have to remember from my brain and just rely on my device.

It has been very freeing. :)

When Danny O'Brien started researching what he called "life hacks" around 2004, the giant decades-long text file was the key practice shared by most of his interviewees. But not just for to-do lists; also for research notes, ideas, and so on.

https://craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt

It's too bad things didn't work out for him to get the book on it finished, but the important thing is that Danny's still with us.

Yep, text file(s). The key is flexibility and putting an effort into something you're going to stick with. A single text file works. Multiple files work. You can accomplish a lot with just the features of the OS, like the window manager, search and shell scripting.

Lots of people like Org mode. I think people who don't like Org mode are partially just overwhelmed. One key is to do as little as you need to and then use the tools available as you find a need for them. One big file works well for that. Or starting with the minimal set of Org mode works well for that. Most people will dive right into the deep and try to incorporate everything right away.

Another trick is just forcing yourself to use something. The most sticky processes I have used were those which came with a job... because I was FORCED. Maybe you should just force yourself to use the tools you have in front of you.

Personally, I like doing small incrementations of my processes and using shell scripts to push those small improvements. If I'm moving slow, then I can back off. If I'm putting everything down to build the most awesome system in like a week or more, then I'm quickly getting myself stuck in a corner.

I'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 instead of leaving it in my inbox.

Recently I switched to a physical journal that I carry everywhere. I find a zen like joy in physically writing my thoughts and the portability can't be beat. I do miss the search though. Wish there was a way to combine these two systems without creating more work for me.

Ultimately the best system is whichever one you find it easiest to keep up to date. It's almost like negotiating with my lazy side. "Ok lazy brain, if you're too lazy to keep a list in google docs, let's see if you can get excited about this journal. Look it's got a picture if space on the cover!"

I don't use a single text file, but I do keep notes with text files. I created a little bash script to help me do that.

I type 'note' in the terminal and it opens up a new file at ~/notes/$year/$month/$day/note.md in vim in insert mode with a timestamp already inserted for me.

https://github.com/dcchambers/note-keeper

I do kind of like the idea of having a single file for searchability, but I do already have powerful search of my `notes` directory with grep.

What people don't know or forget: You can always start minimally. For personal projects, it turns out a text file works for 99% of use cases. Text editor, vi or emacs? Doesn't matter, as long as it's just text! You can have more text files for different stuff. Invent ways to use flags, prioritize, assignments, etc. It's your ad-hoc format, and easy to evolve. Heck, for personal hobby, I've had success with such TODO-lists at end of such sourcecode.

For more structure, I've found Freemind cool to use. It works like a text-file, but you put everything in a graph and can spread through different files. Can even use links, colors and text formats if you like.

What doesn't really work, is other people's tools, like so-called collaborative tools, SM, and whatnot. One day they'll just delete everything, migrations will fail, it's slow and unreliable. Email seems to work well enough personally, though less so with the advent of "cloud computing" (other people's computer).

I’ve found OneNote very useful for Todo lists. It’s very flexible and supports collapsible nested lists. But the killer feature is the “dock to desktop” feature, which makes the list always visible on my monitor. It forces me to stay on task and reminds me what to do next. I create a new page every week and copy over my remaining tasks from the last week. I’ve been doing this for 3 years now and haven’t looked back.

It is relatively recent for me, but my journal, to do list and similar eventually found a home in Zim. At the end of the day, it is just a bunch of text files and it just works for me.

I think an ideal system would include voice notes. The problem is, I would really like it if the voice notes were geotagged and timestamped AND really easy to record. I think a smartphone app is to cumbersome. It should be a single physical button, just for that purpose.

What I really would like is a minimal device with a microphone and a button, that stores the notes in my phone.

I have not figured out how yet.

I do similar only it's a notes.txt inside whatever project I'm in... for all todos for that project...

I've been working on getting more organized though and have started using Joplin for similar thing, though not single file it does sync things... I like having a more organized look at things than just searching through a txt file that can get super huge.

For 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

There's beauty and power in simplicity. Thanks for sharing! Also, take a look at Roam (https://roamresearch.com) which almost comes full-circle to a place of simplicity (just write instead of worrying about where to put things or how to organize them) while providing all kinds of benefits. There are many tradeoffs and valid reasons to prefer your .txt (or my .md) file(s), but I highly recommend playing w Roam to see what's possible.

Greenspun's 11th Law:

"Any sufficiently complicated note-taking/productivity/GTD system contains an ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of Org-Mode."

Notepad++ user here. I use multiple pads and create new notes. The autosave feature is great that you don’t have to sAve a note to persist after a restart.

Once a week I either save and file these tabs or just discard them. It’s like a great scratchpad.

I also try not to hoard on too much data, I discard a lot with this in mind

Ps in notepad++ ctl+alt+up/down arrows move a line up and down. I use this a lot to rank lists and mark priority by moving it to the top

I wonder if there's any correlation between static/dynamic typing fans of programming languages, and people who organize their lives with highly structured apps versus a big text file.

I've tried to use various to-do apps and calendars and email organizing systems (and some of them look really cool!), and they're all way too structured for me to use for even my most boring week. They're too complex, but not in useful ways, because I don't get the flexibility I want out of that complexity. I end up putting most of my information in the big "NOTES" field, or in giant email drafts to myself, where it's not really usable for anything.

Sadly, while I see many effective programmers who prefer static or dynamic languages, and many effective organizers who use structured or unstructured task systems, essentially 100% of the new software I see are new highly structured systems. Were Emacs and Hypercard unique events in all of computing history, with a power and flexibility that is never to be repeated, for fear of crossing the streams?

I have attempted something similar for some time, but always have issues making a habit of it. My solution is to use a physical piece of paper that I can always carry with me. The physicality of it is a great reminder for me.

Heres a vim shortcut for something like this: `alias did="vim +'normal Go' +'r!date' ~/did.txt"`

More: https://theptrk.com/2018/07/11/did-txt-file/

I know how to work with org-mode and I’ve also tried the paper notebook. Both seem like they should be working fine, my problem is that I never remember to work on my notes or todos. The last entries are likely at least a few months old.

Typically I just want to start with whatever comes next, I probably already have a plan in my head and it doesn’t occur to me to write something down after I’m done. My workdays vary also significantly (tools, projects, contexts, etc.) so there’s no typical environment where I can integrate something like this into. Even a weekly reminder to write down my hours at the end of the week has failed to trigger action half of the time. It is only irritating when I do miss the notes, e.g. for a yearly review, filling out some timesheets or when googling for the 5th time in as many days for the same info.

I'm amazed by how many productivity apps there are out there right now, many with tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in VC funding.

This has to be a bubble, right?

To me the major takeaways from the popularity of this post/discussion: * Modern productivity software is still severely inadequate * No matter how good your system is, the affordance to drop into plain text is key for the dev market

More and more I am going back to simple tools. The simpler the better. I think using a pure text file with the basic GNU command line tools is very powerful and more flexible than anything. Just remember to keep it in git!

I have been using a single text (markdown) file for at least five years instead of the todo list I usually write what is done during the day and sometimes add important tasks that need to be done. I try to keep everything fairly plain and avoid overcomplicating the structure. For me this provides an easy way to go over the history, usually try to document more complex devops operations, decisions etc.

I use Sublime to keep the document open there, works really well with larger files.

Each day begins with separating section: # 08.02.2020 # ... # 09.02.2020 #

A single file seems like a forcing function for including the right amount of context you'll need later. I use nvalt, which is basically a small collection of text files. It seems like whenever I let myself create many files, I just feel scattered, and am more likely to enter garbage.

Nowadays I just use maybe 10 notes. If I create a new one for a meeting, etc.., I'll copy in the relevant parts and delete the meeting note after.

It seems like having a proliferation of notes has also been an issue on most orgs I've been in :/.

I have separate text files for todo and notes. I use Notepad on Windows and it has a nice (though not very well known) F5 feature to insert current dateTime. Certainly not surprising given the name of the program is notepad. I also extensively use Autohotkey to quickly open up the desired file by pressing a system-wide keystroke. I also keep these text files in a remote git repository so there's a history to restore from in case I accidentally delete something

Where/How would I jot down a brand new todo? The way I understand it right now is, that everything is immediately being scheduled into an appropriate calendar spot, but that seems so very wrong that I feel I must be mistaken.

(To elaborate: To me it is critical to have swift todo entry with minimal effort to account for the random and probably inconvenient times new tasks and thoughts pop up. Having to also deal with scheduling at that very moment would really not allow for that.)

I use Evernote just like a folder with sub-folders and files in those sub-folders. For instance, I have my main folder, a folder to keep things of my workplace, a folder for generic notes, a folder for personal things, a folder for my monthly-semester-anual planning, etc., etc.

What I do that really has been working very well for me is maintaining a list of things to do for the next weeks (usually for the next 2/3 months). I have a list with items for my work, and generic life items.

For instance, my work list has something like:

  Week 10/Feb
  - SO: Prepare exam (print)
  - SO: Hold project discussions (Thursday, 10h)
  - CD: Prepare next semester (generic overview)

  Week 17/Feb
  - ...

My personal list has things such as:

  Week 10/Feb
  - SIM: do accounting
  - Ophthalmology (17h30)
  - ...

Every week I grab the information from those weekly lists and add to my TODO file. My TODO file is where I split the weekly items through the days:

  Monday
  - SO: Prepare exam (print)
  - SIM: do accounting

  Tuesday
  - ....

My TODO file comes from a template with recurrent items already set in their respective days, so I never miss recurrent things..

All in all, my system is like a calendar and todo list in the same place. I don't like to use two or three apps to do my planning.

Eventually I would like to get rid of Evernote mainly because I have to delete older items to keep my scroll to a minimum (and so, I lose all information about my previous weeks and todo lists)..

I like dead simple solutions like this; in general when people reach for new tools or abstractions they swing further away from greatest productivity, not closer.

But sometimes it's weak. I once had a junior dev who logged his time in a single text file, by actually typing out the times he started and stopped doing things. Using a (simple) stopwatch tool is clearly more effective than that.

What I use: - Google keep, for basic notes and todos - Alarms for things that have to happen at a certain time. Outside of collaborative work I've never felt the value in calenders. I'm not a machine and I need my slack. - Toggl for keeping track of time spent on productive things. Time is the most valuable thing we all have, so keeping track of where it's going is critical, even if it's just knowing how many hours you worked this week. - For collaborative work, a project management tool like Jira. Yes they add friction, but they're the only way I've seen to effectively keep everyone on the same page and maintain a single source of truth of project status. The biggest problem with them (other than having irritatingly complex and slow UIs) is usually the guy driving them making a dumpster fire out of them, not the tool itself.

I've done something similar. Since 2001 I've used txt files, but I broke them up by having 1 file for each month.

It really does work nicely without getting in your way.

I tend not to include specific time logged entries tho. I just free form drop things in. That's why I like having it split up per month, it's so I can look back and get a high level picture of "oh, that's what I was working on 6 months ago" or in this case almost 20 years ago.

I am thinking the consistency is part of the value.

I use paper and pen for my weekly ToDo lists, even while I play around with QtPy and MariaDB on Linux (most recent set of tech I am experimenting with) for an eventual electronic version.

I always put a title at the top left, and the date at the top right. This helps if the page eventually gets filed (like when I take notes during support calls). And if it is multi-page (usually is) I put Page X of Y at the top center. Y gets back filled once I am done, as I then know how many pages total there are.

I begin the list with my calendar appointments for the week at the top so that I keep them in mind.

Then I start with most recent or most urgent items from memory. Next I canvas my Inbox for electronic communications that indicate items to go on the list. Then I can file the email into permanent storage to keep my Inbox from becoming overwhelming.

After that I look at the accumulated service notes (I run an IT support business, among others) and add any open items/follow ups, etc. to the list prior to filing those notes in client folders in a filing cabinet. This likely catches all my phone calls, as I tend to take notes while assisting others, eliminating the need to go through my voice logs.

Last, I review any previous To Do lists and add their content so I can destroy the old lists.

This system has been working for several years, even as my programming attempts have morphed with each new platform/dialect/db I turn my attention to.

The act of writing also helps organize my thoughts and solidify some of the items in mind for the week.

The headline doesn't mention he mainly uses a calendar app to hold a list of to-dos and builds his 'things-to-do-tomorrow' list from that every night.

Beside email and calendar, I use the filesystem extensively and I create "project folders" for everything from software(git) to personal things like (2020-02-08_DaughterRoomBlinds) for the "project" of changing blinds in my daughter's room. Except git repo I sync everything using syncthing on my android and laptop. I also have a set of scripts to generate nice PDF using pandoc (for regular mail letters).

I've been using an Excel file (https://i-kh.net/2019/10/20/how-i-keep-the-side-project-movi...) for week-to-week goals and tracking how I do.

I find it's a bit more structured, and easier to review afterwards. Though I still use text file for organizing a day's work.

After experimenting with dozens of different products in order to become 'more productive' I've ended up doing something similar, but I use Apple Notes instead. At one stage I was experimenting with Trello, Todist, GTD, Zettelkasten, Wikis, Notion, Emails, Calendars, Workflowy...You name it, I've tried it, and combinations of it with other products.

Then one day I started using Apple Notes to start a journalling practice and then I realised I could use it for just about every other thing that I was using all these pieces of software for. I now use it and a calendar exclusively and it handles my todo lists, my random thoughts, my personal relationship management, my checklists, pretty much all the things that are actually important to me. The reason I prefer this over a single text document is simply because I can categories my files into folders. That's it. Same thing could be achieved with text files and folders but I like having this synch on all my devices.

Plain old text is amazing in its simplicity and power.

Someone once left a comment on a Zettlekasten thread and it's something I've always thought about now whenever I get the itch to complicate my system. [1]

"I had the realization yesterday while waiting for a train that the Notes app on iOS contains all the functionality I'd need in order to be able to build a small organization/business .. as long as I standardized my form of note-taking and rigorously applied policies on how Notes are transformed from one Folder to the other"

And I find this applies in my personal note taking life as well.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21222150

This rings true to me. I decided to make a thing that keeps that text right in your face as often as possible though: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goal-board-vision-...

Maybe other folks will be into it too.

I keep a daily log like this at my job. Basically, if I have a list to-dos, I add them to today's log and if they don't all get done, I copy-paste them into tomorrow's entry.

Like the author, I tried various productivity apps (even created my own to-do app), but the one constant for the last 15-20 years of working for me is the daily log.

For my personal coding projects, I just keep track of tasks using a TODOs.md file. Whenever I encounter a new bug, a design idea, feature request, etc., I add it to the file. I check off the items as I do them and move them around the file to keep it easy to find incomplete tasks.

Here's an example of one: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/allenu/slouchdb4/master/TO...

The big learning for me is simple tools are often good enough. Just get things done and don't worry too much about complicated tools or workflows that you may end up getting tired of and ditching.

This is exactly what I do, except I don't save the to do lists. Instead, I simply spin out any ideas and notes I'd taken into a separate new note. I've got around 10,000 notes now that I've never looked at, but I simply like knowing they are there as it seems to provide a nice psycholgoical foundation for the continued evolution of my ideas/thoughts.

I've tried and used a lot of note taking apps, including the big ones like evernote and onenote. I have been using cherrytree for a couple of years now and it is terrific:

* good formatted text/content paste from the browser (this is what the other newer contenders mostly fail to do well)

* rich formatted text, images, tables

* ability to organize notes in tree structure

* cross-platform

* open source

* open file format

* no account required

* no electron

* active development (albeit slow)

I like it, but I think it's a matter of preference. Another article from the author:

https://jeffhuang.com/designed_to_last/

Nothing is going to break a static next.js page that wouldn't also break this page. Hosting space and bandwidth are cheap, and while next.js has some overhead, it has built-in tree shaking to compress what may be a 200MB node_modules directory into less than a megabyte. Next.js also changes a lot of the code by running it through WebPack, but anything is easily seen using Firefox Inspector.

Back to the actual HN story: While I have gotten mileage out of something similar to a single text file from time to time, what I hope for is something like https://mycroft.ai/ to help me keep track of information.

I have been using nvALT. Its very fast and searchable - wish it connected to my iphone though. On my iphone I use notes.

For personal/private notes, I built https://www.build.my/logbook

For public notes, I use GitBook https://www.aizatto.com/why-gitbook

I think your system is great, especially for this kind of daily logs and personal record of what you have accomplished.

If you start to widen your scope and try to do more complete personal knowledge management, I think this system will have some limitations. Some obvious ones, such as no image support and no integrations with other software (project management, GitLab/Hub,...), and some less obvious ones that only become apparent once you use more complex tools.

If you want a more capable setup at the cost of more complexity and friction, have a look at how I use Notion, GitLab, and other tools to manage my personal knowledge base: https://tkainrad.dev/posts/managing-my-personal-knowledge-ba...

Basically every idea I have (Software related or otherwise) is shoved into a .txt in the appropriate folder or potentially the application RedNotebook which has been my go-to diary for YEARS. If I wanna get REALLY fancy for a big game design document it all goes into an .odf file.

My secret "Hack" is having a physical notebook next to my bed so I can scrawl my bedtime thoughts in it so I don't lose them. I obtained this amazing technique from an episode of a family guy spinoff that was just the cutaways, no joke. Might even upgrade to a dictaphone so my musical thoughts are much less hard to parse due to my poor sheet music skills plus my handwriting would no longer be an issue. Would irritate my housemates to no end though with my rambling.

A 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 on but can’t bother with right now. Often the only content of the txt file is the title and no content if it was just a quick jot. And now you can use the Dropbox app edit txt files directly inside it which makes for easy note taking when mobile. Been using this method for years now, still going strong.

Same, two Google docs (one for year, one for current month).

I just switched to roamresearch.com. I like it a lot.

Ditto. I have vi going in a term maxed in it's own workspace and just leave it open always so that when I have an idea I just do :r!date to add a timestamp and type in whatever ideas / notes. But I do use separate files for different projects.

I do the same thing on my Linux machine, except I also have scripts I wrote for conveniently adding various tasks and notes to my file with automatic formatting which I predefine in another file for various types of tasks. I then have a cron job that regularly reads the file everyday and puts new items into a Postgres database so I can run queries later through a web interface I host from my home on a static IP so I can check tasks when I’m away from my computer. My plan is to eventually allow for myself to push items into the database and have the txt file sync up with the new lines of text automatically when I startup my machine.

I do the following.

When consulting for clients:

  I use an email draft with subject:

    <client name> Tasks done for week ending 7/Feb/2020

       -- task 1

           -- task 1 detail 1

           -- task 1 detail 2

           ...

       -- task 2

           -- task2 detail 1

           ..

When working on own projects:

- I use a physical register

    - Date (at the top)

       - organized notes

       ...

       - random doodling/scribbling

Edit: On a Monday morning, I send that email to myself. So that that week's activities are always searchable by that week ending date. It helps me in my client reporting.

I found FreeMind (a mind-mapping program) back before 2011, and have been using it as both a daily task tracking system as well as for project planning, and task mapping.

I have introduced many people to FreeMind, and the interesting thing is that the numbers have not changed over nearly 10 years: - 50% hate it and cannot grok it - 50% love it and have used it every day since

(link:http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)

I suggest you use the 0.9.0 version as it has only crashed and destroyed a file once is nearly 10 years..

I love this and have also used a txt file for years. I’ve moved from Google Docs to Vimwiki to org mode for notes, todos, and journaling. Most recently I’ve started incorporating a moleskine notebook to take to meetings for note taking and it’s been a nice addition. Sometimes I’ll copy notes over from it to org so that it’s all in one place, but I’ve found it isn’t too hard to page back through it to find something I wrote weeks or months ago if I have a general sense of when I wrote it. Plus the experience of taking notes with a Pilot G2 is just more fun than using a ballpoint on a legal pad. Maybe that’s just me.

I have been using StandardNotes (https://standardnotes.org/), which stores all my data in encrypted format and syncs across my devices..

I do exactly this, but with the sticky notes application. I find it easier to shuffle and tweak the raw text than moving around and editing discrete todo items, and I have it covering the next 2-3 weeks at any given moment with longer term stuff noted at the bottom. I've also started carrying around a small notepad that acts sort of like a buffer for the todo list, both incoming items that occur when I'm not at the keyboard and outgoing data/thoughts for meetings. It feels more like a natural extension of my memory than any todo app I've tried.

In the last few months Ive moved to a single vc'ed text file for work notes and a notebook for tasks and calendaring similar to the typical bullet journal but broken into weeks instead of months. I love it far more than shucking my life into 2-5 productivity apps because I can change my system on a dime. Sometimes my week calendar is a quarter page, sometimes its 2. Having my work notes in git makes them constantly available to my team and eventually Id like to let them contribute. I dont think id even consider personal info management in any other way.

Maybe it's just me, but I use everything

* Plain text files to serve as my "ram" while I am working. Jot down ideas, paste snippets of code, results (or paths to results), etc.

* Physical notebooks for different projects

* Todoist for personal projects, long term view

* Evernote and OneNote (yes, both) for structured writings, notes, etc. OneNote for work (extension of physical notebooks) and study about some subjects. Evernote for logging various things, notes from conferences, etc.

* Filing cabinets for old documents that almost never look at now.

I tried todo.txt after learning about it from Cal Newport. But it didn't work for me.

Did this for 15 years. Todos, notes, any list goes in a plain text file.

It was all good but not aesthetically pleasing in terms of readability (wonder if Text Editors will ever focus on improving leading and tracking, or better fonts). And lack of other visual goodies like easy columns.

Tried almost all todo apps and the lack of flexibility was always annoying. I wanted the flexibility of a text editor - an enhanced text editor.

Last year, I discovered Notion and have never looked back. I use it for everything. It's not perfect, but it's pretty close to what I've always wanted.

Question: about "There's no running "todo" list with items that keep pushed back day after day" - but what if you have items that you don't manage to do, and they accumulate, example of such low priority items: pause car licence (nothing bad will happen if you don't), cancel some subscription, let's say you have many of those, where do you put them and how do you avoid this growing list? let's say every day I manage to do one such low priority item but I have two new to do etc.

A good way to sync text files between mobile device and Mac is by using Simplenote app (https://simplenote.com/) on the phone and nvAlt on Mac to sync and Vim to edit the text file. I use NvAlt just to sync with Simplenote, as it works perfectly. SimpleNote also uses markdown format, and even does checkbox / todo using markdown `- [ ]`. On the Mac, I can use vim to edit the text file, and nvAlt will sync any changes.

I do the same. I know there exist more powerful tools, but I simply don't care. Software is simply not built to last nowadays and I'll be forced into an app/service/format that that most probably will be obsolete in the future and I will have to move to the next pile of shit.

I've been gradually alienated from using new pieces during my experience in this industry.

There is so much wrong with using other people's software nowadays, that I simply don't adopt anything new, unless I absolutely have to.

I used to use Evernote before it stopped being good and keep kicking you off your devices after the 2nd one. New Notes app on OSX is actually pretty good now, just change the silly font it comes with something normal. It syncs to iCloud on mac and iPhone and across all your Apple devices. It does merges incredibly well. I remember Evernote every now and then would duplicate ton of my notes because it couldn't resolve a merge conflict, this has never happened on Notes. Give it a go!

I use https://imdone.io

A simple cmd+shift+j takes me to my daily journal markdown file in vscode. Everything is markdown and my tasks look something like this...

  # [Read hacker news post](#TODO:)
  - [My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22276184)
  - [ ] Leave a comment with my setup

These appear as cards in the imdone board.

> The one outside tool I use is an online calendar, and I put everything on this calendar

So, the title is totally wrong then? It's really "My productivity suite has been Ultraedit with a single text file and an online calendar"? Ok, reading on.

... oh, what's that?

> Email is obviously a part of my workflow.

Indeed, seems reasonable.

But now it's: "My productivity suite is Ultraedit with a text file, an email client on an always-on remotely accessible machine, and an online calendar."

Ok, fine, but not as impressive as the title suggests.

I use Scrivener, it is a software mainly used by writers. Downside of that was that it "lived" on my PC and I had to send Signal messages to myself with additions during the day. I recently discovered and all called JotterPad. By uploading the Scrivener container to a Dropbox/Google drive I can use it from both ends, PC-Scrivener and Phone-JotterPad, so I can continue on the same medium and not have to copy & paste.

Any tip how to do this when my main note/insight taking device is the iphone, and I want to be able to do this offline as well, and sync with desktop?

It seems like no iOS note taking tool is written in a way that would handle 100 kB of text :/.

OneNote gets slow, Apple Notes is a bit better but I don't trust it since the incident where all tables and images disappeared in all my password protected notes in iOS 13 (and Apple didn't own this fuckup).

I’ve never really gotten into “productivity” apps. Typically my email inbox and calendar combine as my to-do list. Anything in the main inbox still needs to be dealt with. Anything else shows up as a reminder when I need it to. Literally everything work related lives in 1-2 work applications. I intentionally don’t integrate those with my home life. Sometimes I’ll keep a scratch note open in VS code but rarely do I save anything there.

Same, of course. I added some bash aliases to make it much easier to write to the file, and use markdown instead to allow tracking todos easier.

I also added a vim command to push it to github while editing. These just remove barriers to opening and syncing the file, but the concept is the same.

You can see the result here: https://github.com/jodavaho/bashlog

I coded up MinimaList Outline app to add few more basic features to basic txt, such as multiple lists, bullet points, collapsable categories, etc. I use it as my daily driver, maybe others will like it also: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.toadlybrood...

Having EVERYTHING in one big text file would scare me a bit. I've been using the open source app Joplin which lets you take notes in Markdown and am leaning toward one folder per month and taking individual plain text notes there.

The metadata is in a database but the notes themselves are all plain markdown. If something bad ever happens to Joplin, I can just dump the .md files to a folder and move to something else.

I basically use web based email clients like gmail, Outlook, yahoo, create draft email , set subject As note.

Then keep my lists, etc.

Easy to search, Easy to access anywhere, and I can send a copy around to get duplicate info. I only use file based text files for actual script driven Workflows.

I can make as many As needed and they are secure. Storing secrets is a challenge, for this I use a Password manager, they can store secrets securely and distributed.

You might want to look at Tiddlywiki https://tiddlywiki.com/ It's got text file storage and different ways to get into and edit pages. I like that there is formatting things you can do to make the "pages" look better. The ability to link to items makes structuring / finding things a little easier.

Pen and paper and .plan files weekly have gone a long way in motivating me to use my time and not procrastinate. Furthermore, I recall an article title called 'procrastination is about emotional management ' or something similar, and it really drove home the WHY behind the time sinks i have in my daily routines.

I increasingly see these claims of simple means to enhanced productivity to me more true.

Yup... seriously... F* those insanely stupid productivity apps out there. Me too use a single text file and sublime. I use the same for note-taking too. Works amazingly well. Not that I haven't tried other dedicated apps. But, nothing comes close to the simplicity and flexibility of a single text file. To format it a bit better, I generally write in markdown format. Works best!

The todo.txt CLI and related tools [1] that grew out of Gina Trapani’s Lifehacker article [2] served me well for years.

[1]: http://todotxt.org/

[2]: https://lifehacker.com/geek-to-live-reader-written-todo-txt-...

I'm the same. It drives my employer crazy, they want me to use JIRA and I use Notepad, and guess which requires less maintenance? I do use a couple of external tools though - Trello in particular, and Google Sheets to keep a basic external calendar where people can book appointments in slots that I provide (rather than an open calendar). That's it. It works perfectly.

I use a "Todo" web app I made with the same toolset I use for my apps.

On a desktop you can drag and drop the order of the todos so when coding I use it to make quick notes of things I run into and prioritize them.

That's really all I use, but I work for and by myself so I don't need much.

https://cherrypc.com/todo/

I do something similar, a draft gmail on which I list tasks in sequence, and as they are done = ticked. Next day a new one is initiated, undone tasks are promoted to this day, deleted, or just stay queued until done or deleted. Every few weeks I cull the herd, copy stuff not done to a recent one of delete it. I can access anywhere, as secure as gmail 2 factor, and works well

I love this. Being “productive” (however you define it for yourself) is all about desire + process.

Fancy tools can help you manage / automate the process but the tool has to come last. It’s like all the “pro” devices marketed to consumers (cameras, laptops, whatever): they mostly add value when you are already good enough that you you don’t need them.

I 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.

I use a website for recording stuff. That website enables me to create a title, and write into it everything as a post with a timestamp.

For example, "health" is a title. I can dump everything in that page and read it later on. "Payments" is another title, etc. I believe this to be the best solution for me, because I can reach this site from my mobile phone too.

Also do it but with a Google Doc in the form of monthly daily logs (i.e Feb 2020 Daily Log). In addition to keeping track of daily to dos, there's also a backlog at the top and a future anticipated events. It has become a big part of my routine and feel very happy about it. I've done that for the past 3 years and like the simplicity of this workflow :)

This is an interesting approach, and definitely something I will adopt when my situation requires it.

I already write everything in plain text files. But one thing I find extremely important is to be able to treat it as a peace I can nurture. To go back and revisit old thoughts, reflect on my development etc. However, this is not as much productivity as introspection.

I was burned by a proprietary rich-text note taking application in the late 90s/early 2000s. I've been using a simple text file called "notes" ever since.

"notes" is ~1.4 MB now. Full text search is easy and fast and I always finds what I'm looking for because everything is there. For media I just paste the file path on disk.

I just use Simplenote for everything: shopping lists, vacation plans, research notes, work meeting notes and todos, etc. Anything that requires collaboration can easily be shared, and I can view and edit notes from any device. There's no structure at all, so I can impose whatever structure is appropriate for the context and works for me.

Tempted to try this. Whats common format to use or the point is there is not one?

Also this made me think of StarTrek captains log...

My boss does this and he is a multitasker who routinely has stuff in eight columns on four monitors. For searching his notes, he basically uses the Windows start menu search funtionality.

He's tried to switch to different Linux distributions but none of them has had a properly functioning indexed search box.

Me too, i has using windows notepad since 2003 to take notes, but in 02/2019 i just found Joplin...and its a amazing tool, simple like notepad and with cloud integration for backup. https://joplinapp.org/

I have one named thoughts.txt, and one named notes.txt, to separate daily scrum list vs. random idea or thought list. shortcuts on the desktop and aliases for easy access.

Also started using the notation

  [ ] thing to do
  [x] thing got done

Ok, I have some other special case ones like recipes, etc

As a die hard Emacser, I’ve always been drawn to the idea of plain text productivity. What keeps me using apps like Todoist and Calendar.app is I am unaware of a way to have location-based reminders, collaborative to-do lists, and shared calendars. Is anyone doing this with plain text?

I made a quick plugin to vscode where F6 opens up a specific text file on my disk. This is where I capture all these things. For me the trick is that there is no formatting. It's just a rough scratch pad to make short lived lists or things I need to remember.

I use one large mind-dump file (~15 years) in Apple Notes and keep todos for the next day on a single sheet of paper which I throw out in the evening — why would anyone archive their accomplished tasks? I love destroying the past every single day.

I tried the todo.txt approach, but found I wanted to have secure access from any device (including devices I don't own), so went with an easy cloud option: https://five.today

Mine is a piece of paper. I can even write things to the side, draw diagrams in place, erase, create tables easily.

Paper real estate is also not nearly as limited.

I also use a bug tracker and sometimes a text file, but always have the minutiae on a piece of paper.

I don’t use a task manager, but I keep a daily highlights journal. Usually I pull some scrap paper from the printer, fold it in quarters, and put a day’s notes on a quadrant or two.

Then I take a picture of it and drop in Apple Notes on my phone.

I created a simple timeline app called http://www.ribbbn.com to take notes. It's super early stage right now. I use this in conjunction with Workflowy.

Seems good for managing yourself, but what are you all using to collaborate with your colleagues. For example I want my team to be able to assign me tasks (I'm CEO). Right now they do that in Asana.

I use a note type approach with an app that allows me push tasks to the top. No needing to transcribe items to the top. The app that I use is called Sortd.com. It’s like a bullet journal but simpler.

I've been doing this kind of thing for years, to the point of managing highly complex multi-million dollar multidisciplinary projects very successfully with basic text files.

When you get right down to it, it's the embodiment of a Kanban system in a text file. Because I have so much to manage every single project has its own text file in the relevant directory. In other words, I don't have one text file to rule them all. This makes sense because of the multidisciplinary nature of our work. I could be running Solidworks doing mechanical and optical design one day, coding FPGA's the following week, embedded software next and running Altium for electronics design at the same time. Each major discipline gets its own text file. I call them "Project Log - <relevant designator goes here>".

This is what they would look like for a hypothetical home sprinkler controller:

    Project Log - Sprinkler Controller
     --------------------------------------------------- WORKING ON NOW
     - Chase down VC for that $25MM check
    
    --------------------------------------------------- TO DO
     - Decide on form factor
     - Decide on votage (12 or 24?)
     - Measure current of typical sprinkler valve
     - Draw basic block diagram
     - Conformal coating?
     - Start mechnical design
      - Injection mold of CNC machine enclosure?
      - Off the shelf enclosure a possibility?
     - Start electrical design
      - What type of connectors do we use?
      - Does it have to be IP-something rated?
    
    --------------------------------------------------- IDEAS
     - Nuclear powered?
      - Maybe solar power is better
     - Transparent case to see blinking LED's inside?
     - How about just buying one from Home Depot?
    
    --------------------------------------------------- CONTACTS
     - Talk to applications engineer at Arrow: <name>@arrow.com
     - Talk to Intel about using new 20+ core processor: <name>@intel.com
    
    --------------------------------------------------- RESEARCH
     - Article on the advantages of 32 core 64 bit processors for sprinkler systems
       http://example.com/32-core-processors-for-sprinkler-controllers
    
    --------------------------------------------------- DONE
     - Decide how many output channels we need
     - Decide on maximum BOM cost
     - Talk to VC's about raising $25MM for the 32 core 64 bit processor sprinkler controllers
       - We have one VC very interested in this!
    

Over the years this approach has proven to be highly effective in managing anything from small to very large and highly complex projects. I mostly use OneNote for research and note taking and, if team collaboration is required, a multi-user Kanban board where I distill relevant cards from my text files for the appropriate team/board.

Another nice thing about text-based Kanban is that it can travel with version control.

I can't believe that a single file would suit my own note taking method which is very hierarchical. I imagine that the people who are using a single text file have a very focused life.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12575501 John Carmack .plan Archive (2014)

It's not the "tool" is the behavior (the individual).

I've been using ultralist (https://ultralist.io) and love it. It's open source + command-line based.

So do people append at the bottom or put each new day at the top?

This sounds great. How do you deal with long running projects?

I do this exact same thing except I prepend at the top of the file the days notes. Also the only consistent structure is the putting the date before each note.

What about images?

The simplicity and longevity is very appealing, but how do you handle images in your note taking? Any recommendations on tools and workflows in that regard?

I have tried every productivity app in the world, yet keep falling back to the iOS/Mac "Notes" app for daily use, so can definitely relate.

I'm working on an programmable version of something like this: https://qworp.com

I do similarly, but use markdown instead (Typora for editing, and viewing). I have all my documentation, plus daily tasks, etc., in it.

I use something similar but more simple: An editable HTML file that stores everything in localstorage.

Here it is: work.eggdude.come/notepad.html

NB to those who would be professors with federal grant funding. Sometimes your documents get FOIA'ed by adversarial parties.

Shameless plug. My webapp jumproot.com for organising everything from big ideas to minutia. Has memo feature for one-step notes.

I use a .TXT file too in conjunction with Microsoft To Do (mostly to setup reminders). Can't beat the convenience of TXT ;)

Doing 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.

https://stackedit.io/ works great for this

Same here, though I use a combination of permanent and transient TXT files. The latter I use like physical post-it notes.

Notepad++ for me, love the auto save and tabs for other temp notes. Sync with OneDrive so its always backed up

Damn it. This, bash history, and grep have been a secret weapon for years. Was hoping it would stay a secret.

would be nice if lousy systems were not foisted on us by enterprises. very glad and liberating to be an IC now. sometimes i don't answer emails on our shitty enterprise email system for months but i warned them i don't like that ever-crashing, one-9 of uptime hunk of garbage.

I'm doing something similar. I use markdown and have a structure log/year/<month>.md.

OMG i thought i am the only one working in a txt file all day for todos and notes and schedule etc. :D

This seems like a great place to plug smos: smos.cs-syd.eu

It's like emacs' org mode but without the emacs.

I use a txtfile but version it in git so I have history and a short file to work with daily.

I use markdown files organized in folders under a master folder version-controlled with git.

I do the same thing. Just keep a running bucket list of tasks with highest priority at top.

The solution is so simple. I like it, I think I may even give it a try. Thanks for sharing.

Much work in the file system and text editor, though. Plenty of sophistication behind it.

interestingly, after thinking about this all day, I realized it exactly what the app Noteplan does nice: connects a daily todo.txt file with a calendar. very helpful.

https://noteplan.co

I use a "Notes" app on Android for all my personal projects.

For work I carry a notebook around.

Same here. Except time period longer and it's a few text files and text routines.

Same, my coworkers laugh at me but it seems to be getting the job done just fine

I also use a single file, but I never save it, when my computer crash or I reboot, i lose everything in it. It helps me do the important things right away and keep temporary information in case I need them, but not believe that they will get done just because I put them on my list.

Same for me. Single txt with tag delineating topic start and text search

I use the same technique, sibgle text file under version control.

One thing successfully productive people have in common is habit.

would never make me productive but im glad it works for you.

Grep’ing your notes and todos is a big plus. Nice strategy.

Workflowy accomplishes the same but a bit more structured.

The same for me, but it's a markdown file (notes.md)

Do you only put new entries in at the top of the file?

This mechanism risked for S P O F s right?

looks like workflowy.com or dynalist.io would highly increase your note taking using your current methodology.

I use notebook and pen. Unbeatable UX!

I'm still on pen and paper..

I used a single log.txt file between 2005 Nov 4 and 2014 2014 Aug 11. This was instrumental in my professional life between those dates. Business ideas, call stacks of ViEmu bugs that I worked on, passwords, financial forecasts, bug and feature lists, database schemas, tracking of billable time for contracting and consulting work... can't recommend it too much. Having a single file is great, I had actually switched from having two separate log files, one from each project, which I had kept during 2005 (one for ViEmu and another for NGEdit, the text editor I was working in that never saw the light of the day but did give birth to ViEmu). Of course, I always edited this file under vim, "murphy" color scheme. A sample:

  Sun 19-6-05 Researched (HEAVILY) how to do a "vi emulation module" for microsoft visual studio:
             * Downloaded and installed VSIP
             - Need: Visual Studio .NET CDs with C# (seems that C# will be easier)
             - Install & compile some samples
             * Create a new ViEmu sample
             - We can "host" the Visual Studio text editor - using the "Data/View" separation model.
             - We can follow the instructions on how to host it, but tell IVsCodeWindow to use a different
                CLSID for the text views (IVsCodeWindow::SetViewClassID). It uses CLSID_IVsTextView by default.
             - We implement a new COM object which is a pass through. It uses IVsTextView internally, and
                we pass everything to it. We can call GetWindowHandle() on it to retrieve the HWND, and
                install a message hook to process keys before they are sent!
             - Implement VimEmu in C++

In 2014, I wanted something that would work better both on my laptop and on my phone, and I switched to OneNote. Several great things: text formatting, having separate notes for some things, good mobile integration back then. I tried several options mainly to make sure synchronization would work fine, and really poor conflict resolution on both Apple's Notes app and on Evernote got me to adopt OneNote. I've been using it until 2019, OneNote on MacOS has become basically unusable. Input lags like it's nobody's business, rendering it nearly unusable. Mobile does not work well at all any more, especially with large notes. The very non-standard document model together with their MacOS and iOS implementations make it unbearable. A pity, but I couldn't wait a few seconds for characters to show after I type them.

So, a few months ago, I went back to... using plain text files with vim. I missed some coloring, so I set up some autocmds to color buffers according to some rules. I'm using a few files (less than 10) to handle different projects and keep them separate, I miss the single file for searching and there are always items that overlap different areas, but i prefer it this way now - plus I do have a "main" catchall file (chautauqua.txt, after Robert Pirsig's book reference).

This kind of "journalling" is very useful but kind of addictive too, so I'm sometimes ambivalent about this. I did stop tracking my weight daily after doing it for about 10 years too, I like to stay aware of my weight and somewhat fit but I don't want to depend on a daily fix of a Excel spreadsheet to do that.

People, do journal and track things if you have never done it, it's a boon. Then find your best way, and maybe even do find the areas of your life you don't want to keep track of, there is something to be said for that too.

me was an Google Sheet, the result is incredibly amazing

Yes, one of my best tools is a single text file, FACTS.DAT, that I use to remember essentially all little facts.

What is amazing is the combination of (i) how simple the file is, (ii) how easy it is to use, (iii) how little work it took to start using it, and (iv) how useful it is.

I maintain the file, add to it, search it, extract from it with my favorite text editor KEdit and some macros I wrote for KEdit. A lot of (i) -- (iv) is due to the good functionality of KEdit. E.g., KEdit has some sweetheart text parsing tools.

KEdit is no joke: It is a PC version of XEDIT written by an IBM guy, on his own time, in Paris and quickly was an important tool inside IBM. The macro language for XEDIT was Rexx, and for KEDIT, Kexx, a version of Rexx.

Kexx is no joke, e.g., offers decimal integer arithmetic of 1000 digits. E.g., recently, as part of developing some notes on calculus for my 9 year old nephew, as at

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22179494

I used that long precision arithmetic and Taylor series to find Euler's constant e, the base of the natural logarithm, to 36 decimal digits:

e = 2.71828182845904523536028747135266250

I have a command line command FACTS that looks for any executing instance of KEdit that has that file open and (i) if there is an instance then makes that instance visible and at the top of the Z-order and (ii) otherwise creates such an instance.

What does the file look like?

A recent entry is

     ========================================================================
     :Created at. 10:12:19 on Saturday, February 8th, 2020.
     :Keys.  Internet DNS sinkhole C2

     C:\Users\user1\data05\topics\tech\communications\internet\domain_name\domain_name.doc

So, the file consists of a sequence of entries where each entry starts with a line of equal signs and has a time-date stamp, some keywords, and the contents of the entry.

For this sample entry, the next time I want to know about sinkholes and C2 I can read the file with its tree name in the contents of that entry -- the tree name is for a file on one of my disks.

How big is the file FACTS.DAT?

I've been using such files for 20+ years. The latest version started on

Friday, September 2nd, 2005

and now has 97,223 lines.

The file has 2,902,471 bytes and from the rotating disk on my little HP laptop loads right away.

The number of days from September 2nd, 2005 and today, February 8th, 2020, should be 5272, courtesy of some little KEdit macro language procedures I wrote for converting to/from dates and days from the start of the Gregorian calendar.

Having KEdit select all the lines full of equal signs and then count those lines I get 5073 entries in the file. So, that is

5073 / 5272 = 0.962

entries per day.

So

97,223 / 5272 = 18

says that my average has been about 18 text lines a day.

The average number of lines per entry is

97,223 / 5073 = 19.2

and the averge number of bytes per entry is

2,902,471 / 5073 = 572.1

Lesson: Can do a lot with a really simple tool.

stuff.txt

I do a very similar thing except that I have a folder with multiple .txt files named by dates.

I used notepad++ to record daily work logs and pseudo codes. Low overhead, fast, always work like a charm.

Yeah but with a .txt file how am I gonna boast about my productivity on Instagram every 5 minutes, geez.