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Last year, I went through this whole gamut of the usual suspects emacs(org-mode), plain text, markdown, tiddlywiki/ mediawiki/bunch of other wikis, google keep,
by sh87 7y ago
Last year, I went through this whole gamut of the usual suspects emacs(org-mode), plain text, markdown, tiddlywiki/ mediawiki/bunch of other wikis, google keep, one note, notational velocity, anki, evernote, LaTeX. One after the other, they all crumbled. I tried them all and failed. I got to a point of calm reflection based on my experience with each one. I realized what was most important for me. I eventually settled on a combination of email + git + google calendar. I use a separate email just for my notes. Every new thought, todo, bookmarks, quotes, images of doodles, event, information about people becomes a new email. Any update on the same one becomes a reply to the last email on that subject. Any topic or area that gathers enough content or insight that’s worth remembering goes to my git repo’s wiki page. If there’s enough content/files/code, it gets a directory. Common patterns, get linked via their respective wiki pages. I create collections of related topics as separate wiki pages with links back to the source.
This setup has worked well for me for over 6 months now. I do not worry about email / git becoming obsolete. Or how I would move my email/git data when I need to switch vendors. I can access it via any device I own or through someone else’s. Stuff I want to share with people are hosted via git pages or sent via email. I have a plethora of client applications to choose from. And above all... it just works.
I can give out more details but I feel anyone’s personal information needs can be met/exceeded with a combination of email + git + calendar.
- lethologica 7y agoThis is a fascinating approach and would actually solve a lot of the problems I've had with trying this before. I would love to hear more if you had anything additional to add because this method has become the top of my list after trying several software packages mentioned thus far.
- sh87 7y agoI'm happy this appears to solve your problems with other approaches. I took out a few minor but important details. use a separate email client for this on all devices. Use conversation/threaded view. Have a way to send an email in under 5 sec. I use iOS shortcuts to quickly send an an email with just the subject. Review the list of emails almost everyday. Have folders in your email and move them as necessary. Keep it under 5-7 folders. Ideas,Bookmarks,Done,Projects. Inbox is your list of ongoing high priority tasks. Stay away from adding petty tasks(use a paper/pen for this). Trash task emails once you're done. If its worth noting, it goes to git.
- andrewsleigh 7y agoHi. I also thought of email when I was thinking about this problem recently. How do you get information from your email thread to the wiki? And is this a github wiki?
- sh87 7y agoEmail is my todo/inbox. Its disposable. Wiki is gitlab wiki. It is my index for the information I've collected. I do not move too much information from email to wiki. I'm quite mindful of it actually. Wiki gets written and re-written, cross linked and edited. I keep it consistent. Helps quick lookups. I very frequently use markdown files in topic specific directories. Helps store information gathered from deep dives on those topics. Markdown file names are also consistent - YYMMDD-topic-detail.md. Helps sorting by date. I use the wiki mostly for the free hosting and the links. I could very well use a static site generator when there's enough content in a topic's directory to be shared as a mini website. A link to the wiki on the home screen comes quite handy.