5 ms·

Honestly, I just keep everything in a journal. I have a folder called "daypages" in my dropbox. Each day in my life becomes a file in this folder. Today's is "

by gcr 10y ago

Honestly, I just keep everything in a journal. I have a folder called "daypages" in my dropbox. Each day in my life becomes a file in this folder. Today's is "daypages/2016-10-26.org" That's about it. I don't really organize by project much. Each day typically covers the tasks that I intend to get done that day, along with places I've been / friends I've met. The occasional tearful journal entry punctuates the otherwise mundane. Every morning, I spend a few minutes arranging today's daypage and rescuing forgotten tasks from yesterday. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, a keybinding quickly flips to today's daypage. From there, keybindings can go back or forward by day or by week. I just jot everything down as I think of it or experience it. (I implement this with emacs/org-mode, but i'm sure you could extend this idea to any configurable text editor) When I need to find something (whether "united frequent flier number" to "cool restaurant in SOHO" to a link that i captured six months ago), it's only a `git grep` away. Emacs has incremental search for this. If I need to schedule something, it goes in my calendar or in that day's daypage. When I'm in the mood to reminisce, I just flip back to last year's daypage and spend the afternoon drinking tea and reading about the lovely things that happened last year. It's like Google for the last three years of my life. Maybe this wouldn't work for you, but my small but growing collection of daypages is now one of my most prized digital possessions.

thro1237 10y ago
Mind sharing how you do this on emacs? (Forwarding to the next day)?
- gcr 10y ago
  I'm using a tweaked version of this package: https://github.com/almost/org-daypage/blob/master/org-daypage.el https://github.com/almost/org-daypage/blob/master/org-daypag... The important keybindings to set are for `todays-daypage`, `daypage-next`, and `daypage-prev`. On top of this, I use `helm-git-grep` for incremental searching.
dsschnau 10y ago
i had no idea that emacs had so many features (from this and other comments).
- gcr 10y ago
  This system doesn't really require emacs. The general idea is to assign keybindings to jump to today's daypage, the previous file, and the next file. Being able to create a daypage that doesn't exist is helpful (but not necessary -- you could create 300 of them with a shell script once a year), and being able to search for things in a folder is also helpful. You can implement that with your favorite text editor. You could do it with Notepad and AutoHotkey if you were persistent. Org-mode adds organization, but honestly I benefit from its syntax highlighting and the bragging rights more than anything else. :-)
dvcrn 10y ago
I'm doing something similar but use the mac/iphone app "Day One" version 1 for it (Not version 2 that requires you to sync with their proprietary cloud). During the day I write down bullet points and roughly outline what happened. Then on the next day noon, or same day evening if I feel like it, I fill out the points and write a full page. For tasks I am using GTD (OmniFocus and lately Things). Every thought I have of something I should do, I quickly capture through Siri in OmniFocus/Things or use the global system shortcuts. All few hours I go through my GTD inbox, schedule tasks, create events, delegate if necessary and get to "Inbox Zero".
erelde 10y ago
PSA: if you like a thrill, don't do backups of your journal.
- gcr 10y ago
  You monster. :-) Backing up a folder of daypages is easy though. Backing up a cloud service like Evernote or Trello sounds more difficult...
  - whiteandnerdy 10y ago
    Evernote supports XML and HTML export. I have mine on external drive and in Dropbox. Migrating to a new platform would be horrible, but at least the data's there.
noir_lord 10y ago
I do something similar but I gave up using org-mode (mostly because that was all I was using emacs for and I spent more time configuring the thing 'just so' than I did actually using it. Now I just keep everything in plain text and aliased it to 'tj' (todays journal). alias tj="touch ~/Dropbox/journal/$(date +%d-%m-%Y).org && code ~/Dropbox/journal/$(date +%d-%m-%Y).org" Effortless backups as well (and as a side benefit the NSA now knows I need to look at better ways of handling css in packages pulled in from npm etc).
- tapan_k 10y ago
  Perhaps old fashioned, but I fill up a page of TWSBI [1] every evening, using a Sheaffer Prelude [2]. [1] http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks/products/twsbi-notebook-medium http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks/products/twsbi-no... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Sheaffer-Prelude-Black-Featuring-Fountain/dp/B00166BD44 https://www.amazon.com/Sheaffer-Prelude-Black-Featuring-Foun...
  - clappski 10y ago
    I've never head of TWSBI, although I do enjoy Moleskine. Would you be able to give a comparison between them?
    - tapan_k 10y ago
      Cannot comment on Moleskine as I've never used one. I am loving TWSBI notebooks [1]: the paper is thick, and does not feather or bleed with fountain pen ink. There is very little ghosting which makes it possible to use both sides of paper. Here [2] is a review I found helpful. [1] http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RJkNfiP_ys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RJkNfiP_ys
- banterfoil 10y ago
  I am curious, what does the "code" alias link to? and why is it that you need to touch it before you edit it? wouldn't an editor do that for you?
schmidtc 10y ago
> "it's only a `git grep` away" Off topic, but how did I not know this was thing? You never know what you're gonna learn reading hn comments.
- oftenwrong 10y ago
  You forgot to RTFM.
jorams 10y ago
I do something very similar, and have also been doing it for the past 3 years. I started out somewhat structured, not with org-mode but something similar, but I fairly quickly switched to just using plain text. A few days after I started, I noticed that the vast majority of the things I was writing down were not actually important to be reminded of. I just needed to get them out of my head, and an unstructured plain text file made that somehow easier. That said, as the number of tasks and appointments I need to keep track of has increased, I might give switching new files to org-mode a try. Integrating agenda items and such might just work for me.
sasvari 10y ago
No matter where I am or what I'm doing, a keybinding quickly flips to today's daypage. From there, keybindings can go back or forward by day or by week. I just jot everything down as I think of it or experience it. (I implement this with emacs/org-mode, but i'm sure you could extend this idea to any configurable text editor) vimwiki's diary [0] functionality offers exactly the same. <leader>w<leader>w opens a new file under ~/vimwiki/diary/ with the current date as a filename. <CTRL>-up and <CTRL>-down jump to the previous/next day. [0] https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki/blob/master/doc/vimwiki.txt#L1593 https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki/blob/master/doc/vimwiki.t...
smarterAvgBear 10y ago
Have you tried zimwiki? http://zim-wiki.org/ http://zim-wiki.org/ * It's basically a collection of text files * Uses a markdown like syntax * Has built in git support, so you can use git for versioning and looking at edit history. * There is a gui that let's you edit in wysiwyg style * Can link between pages * Written in python, so pretty much runs anywhere (no proper android/ios app still though) * Todo item support * most importantly, it's open source * plugin system so you can add functionality easily I pretty much use this as a knowledge management, daily task tracking system. It has a journal plugin that essentially creates a files for each day, similar to what you are doing. I have it for both work and personal stuff.

by gcr 10y ago

thro1237 10y ago

Mind sharing how you do this on emacs? (Forwarding to the next day)?

gcr 10y ago
I'm using a tweaked version of this package: https://github.com/almost/org-daypage/blob/master/org-daypage.el https://github.com/almost/org-daypage/blob/master/org-daypag... The important keybindings to set are for `todays-daypage`, `daypage-next`, and `daypage-prev`. On top of this, I use `helm-git-grep` for incremental searching.

dsschnau 10y ago

i had no idea that emacs had so many features (from this and other comments).

gcr 10y ago
This system doesn't really require emacs. The general idea is to assign keybindings to jump to today's daypage, the previous file, and the next file. Being able to create a daypage that doesn't exist is helpful (but not necessary -- you could create 300 of them with a shell script once a year), and being able to search for things in a folder is also helpful. You can implement that with your favorite text editor. You could do it with Notepad and AutoHotkey if you were persistent. Org-mode adds organization, but honestly I benefit from its syntax highlighting and the bragging rights more than anything else. :-)

dvcrn 10y ago

I'm doing something similar but use the mac/iphone app "Day One" version 1 for it (Not version 2 that requires you to sync with their proprietary cloud). During the day I write down bullet points and roughly outline what happened. Then on the next day noon, or same day evening if I feel like it, I fill out the points and write a full page. For tasks I am using GTD (OmniFocus and lately Things). Every thought I have of something I should do, I quickly capture through Siri in OmniFocus/Things or use the global system shortcuts. All few hours I go through my GTD inbox, schedule tasks, create events, delegate if necessary and get to "Inbox Zero".

erelde 10y ago

PSA: if you like a thrill, don't do backups of your journal.

gcr 10y ago
You monster. :-) Backing up a folder of daypages is easy though. Backing up a cloud service like Evernote or Trello sounds more difficult...
- whiteandnerdy 10y ago
  Evernote supports XML and HTML export. I have mine on external drive and in Dropbox. Migrating to a new platform would be horrible, but at least the data's there.

noir_lord 10y ago

I do something similar but I gave up using org-mode (mostly because that was all I was using emacs for and I spent more time configuring the thing 'just so' than I did actually using it. Now I just keep everything in plain text and aliased it to 'tj' (todays journal). alias tj="touch ~/Dropbox/journal/$(date +%d-%m-%Y).org && code ~/Dropbox/journal/$(date +%d-%m-%Y).org" Effortless backups as well (and as a side benefit the NSA now knows I need to look at better ways of handling css in packages pulled in from npm etc).

tapan_k 10y ago
Perhaps old fashioned, but I fill up a page of TWSBI [1] every evening, using a Sheaffer Prelude [2]. [1] http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks/products/twsbi-notebook-medium http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks/products/twsbi-no... [2] https://www.amazon.com/Sheaffer-Prelude-Black-Featuring-Fountain/dp/B00166BD44 https://www.amazon.com/Sheaffer-Prelude-Black-Featuring-Foun...
- clappski 10y ago
  I've never head of TWSBI, although I do enjoy Moleskine. Would you be able to give a comparison between them?
  - tapan_k 10y ago
    Cannot comment on Moleskine as I've never used one. I am loving TWSBI notebooks [1]: the paper is thick, and does not feather or bleed with fountain pen ink. There is very little ghosting which makes it possible to use both sides of paper. Here [2] is a review I found helpful. [1] http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks http://www.twsbi.com/collections/notebooks [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RJkNfiP_ys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RJkNfiP_ys
banterfoil 10y ago
I am curious, what does the "code" alias link to? and why is it that you need to touch it before you edit it? wouldn't an editor do that for you?

schmidtc 10y ago

> "it's only a `git grep` away" Off topic, but how did I not know this was thing? You never know what you're gonna learn reading hn comments.

oftenwrong 10y ago
You forgot to RTFM.

jorams 10y ago

I do something very similar, and have also been doing it for the past 3 years. I started out somewhat structured, not with org-mode but something similar, but I fairly quickly switched to just using plain text. A few days after I started, I noticed that the vast majority of the things I was writing down were not actually important to be reminded of. I just needed to get them out of my head, and an unstructured plain text file made that somehow easier. That said, as the number of tasks and appointments I need to keep track of has increased, I might give switching new files to org-mode a try. Integrating agenda items and such might just work for me.

sasvari 10y ago

No matter where I am or what I'm doing, a keybinding quickly flips to today's daypage. From there, keybindings can go back or forward by day or by week. I just jot everything down as I think of it or experience it. (I implement this with emacs/org-mode, but i'm sure you could extend this idea to any configurable text editor) vimwiki's diary [0] functionality offers exactly the same. <leader>w<leader>w opens a new file under ~/vimwiki/diary/ with the current date as a filename. <CTRL>-up and <CTRL>-down jump to the previous/next day. [0] https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki/blob/master/doc/vimwiki.txt#L1593 https://github.com/vimwiki/vimwiki/blob/master/doc/vimwiki.t...

smarterAvgBear 10y ago

Have you tried zimwiki? http://zim-wiki.org/ http://zim-wiki.org/ * It's basically a collection of text files * Uses a markdown like syntax * Has built in git support, so you can use git for versioning and looking at edit history. * There is a gui that let's you edit in wysiwyg style * Can link between pages * Written in python, so pretty much runs anywhere (no proper android/ios app still though) * Todo item support * most importantly, it's open source * plugin system so you can add functionality easily I pretty much use this as a knowledge management, daily task tracking system. It has a journal plugin that essentially creates a files for each day, similar to what you are doing. I have it for both work and personal stuff.