3 ms·

I have been writing down what I do every day since 2002. So 17 years of daily notes about what I did, how I feel, what I was excited about that day. One cool

I have been writing down what I do every day since 2002. So 17 years of daily notes about what I did, how I feel, what I was excited about that day. One cool thing about the journal is that it is electronic. So its searchable which is kind of cool. Its always handy to look up stuff you did in the past and when you did it, who you were with, when you went on that great vacation to the beach etc... I highly recommend keeping a journal, for people who are into it.

badrequest 7y ago
What tools are you using to manage all the data/indexing it for search/etc? I've gotten into journaling just this year, and have honestly been contemplating building my own proprietary system for managing them because of how crucial I feel it's become to my lifestyle, but I'd obviously love the opportunity to use something that's already useful.
- philips 7y ago
  I have been using pass[1]. Lots of git hosting providers out there and mobile apps. I just have an alias that runs pass edit journal/$(date '+%Y-%m-%d') And I run the alias when the mood hits me. Then pass git push origin [1] https://www.passwordstore.org/ https://www.passwordstore.org/
  - war1025 7y ago
    I use `pass` to manage my passwords, and I have a git repository where I run "vim `date -I`" every day to make a daily journal of what I'm doing at work. But I never thought of combining the two to get encrypted files. Very neat.
  - yowlingcat 7y ago
    Nice system. Simple and ergonomic. I've used a similar system before but 1) stored locally (never persisting to git) and 2) not using pass + `date`. This streamlines that for me.
  - sleavey 7y ago
    I was just thinking of how best to do journaling in an encrypted way and figured pass might work, but then I realised it probably isn't easy to search across notes. Have you found a way to do that that doesn't involve just dumping everything to intermediate plaintext?
    - philips 7y ago
      It isn't fast but `pass grep SEARCHTERM` works great.
  - zimbatm 7y ago
    That's a really good idea. The format is simple and will probably be readable for many years to come. And it works with the user's preferred editor. There is also gopass[1] who is compatible with pass and has a few more nice features like the git auto-sync and templates. `gopass template create journal` [1] https://www.gopass.pw/ https://www.gopass.pw/
- michaelangerman 7y ago
  So my interface to all of my text files is Redis. I use the simple Redis data structures to store the data and with a common interface I am able to populate all sorts of different tools for indexing and search. Then from there I use the following tools... elasticsearch https://github.com/blevesearch/bleve https://github.com/blevesearch/bleve Recently I have been experimenting with... https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliDB https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliDB By maintaining Redis as my interface engine, I can experiment with all sorts of different tools in different programming languages... Over time I have grown to love Redis as my data store... Of course I have a simple way of getting the common text files that I write my daily journal in into Redis. And then from there its just a matter of the common interface into the different indexing / search technologies.
- boardwaalk 7y ago
  People have these crazy custom systems, and more power to 'em, but I just use Apple Notes connected to my self-hosted mail system (it doesn't need to be self-hosted, just standard IMAP). It stores your notes essentially as pieces of mail in a "Notes" folder, and you can search within the Notes app or any email client (Apple Mail hides the folder, though). Then you get a nice desktop/mobile/tablet apps, rich text editing, and your data stays yours.
- najarvg 7y ago
  I've used Penzu for my one-off journaling (https://penzu.com https://penzu.com). Their basic free tier worked out perfectly for me.
- lazyasciiart 7y ago
  I use OneNote. Search is fantastic, I have a section for each year, and a page for each week. I tend to move sections into an Archive notebook when they are a couple years old, but there's no real need to do that.
  - locacorten 7y ago
    On iOS, OneNote has a completely broken search experience. That's a showstopper for me.

badrequest 7y ago

What tools are you using to manage all the data/indexing it for search/etc? I've gotten into journaling just this year, and have honestly been contemplating building my own proprietary system for managing them because of how crucial I feel it's become to my lifestyle, but I'd obviously love the opportunity to use something that's already useful.

philips 7y ago
I have been using pass[1]. Lots of git hosting providers out there and mobile apps. I just have an alias that runs pass edit journal/$(date '+%Y-%m-%d') And I run the alias when the mood hits me. Then pass git push origin [1] https://www.passwordstore.org/ https://www.passwordstore.org/
- war1025 7y ago
  I use `pass` to manage my passwords, and I have a git repository where I run "vim `date -I`" every day to make a daily journal of what I'm doing at work. But I never thought of combining the two to get encrypted files. Very neat.
- yowlingcat 7y ago
  Nice system. Simple and ergonomic. I've used a similar system before but 1) stored locally (never persisting to git) and 2) not using pass + `date`. This streamlines that for me.
- sleavey 7y ago
  I was just thinking of how best to do journaling in an encrypted way and figured pass might work, but then I realised it probably isn't easy to search across notes. Have you found a way to do that that doesn't involve just dumping everything to intermediate plaintext?
  - philips 7y ago
    It isn't fast but `pass grep SEARCHTERM` works great.
- zimbatm 7y ago
  That's a really good idea. The format is simple and will probably be readable for many years to come. And it works with the user's preferred editor. There is also gopass[1] who is compatible with pass and has a few more nice features like the git auto-sync and templates. `gopass template create journal` [1] https://www.gopass.pw/ https://www.gopass.pw/
michaelangerman 7y ago
So my interface to all of my text files is Redis. I use the simple Redis data structures to store the data and with a common interface I am able to populate all sorts of different tools for indexing and search. Then from there I use the following tools... elasticsearch https://github.com/blevesearch/bleve https://github.com/blevesearch/bleve Recently I have been experimenting with... https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliDB https://github.com/meilisearch/MeiliDB By maintaining Redis as my interface engine, I can experiment with all sorts of different tools in different programming languages... Over time I have grown to love Redis as my data store... Of course I have a simple way of getting the common text files that I write my daily journal in into Redis. And then from there its just a matter of the common interface into the different indexing / search technologies.
boardwaalk 7y ago
People have these crazy custom systems, and more power to 'em, but I just use Apple Notes connected to my self-hosted mail system (it doesn't need to be self-hosted, just standard IMAP). It stores your notes essentially as pieces of mail in a "Notes" folder, and you can search within the Notes app or any email client (Apple Mail hides the folder, though). Then you get a nice desktop/mobile/tablet apps, rich text editing, and your data stays yours.
najarvg 7y ago
I've used Penzu for my one-off journaling (https://penzu.com https://penzu.com). Their basic free tier worked out perfectly for me.
lazyasciiart 7y ago
I use OneNote. Search is fantastic, I have a section for each year, and a page for each week. I tend to move sections into an Archive notebook when they are a couple years old, but there's no real need to do that.
- locacorten 7y ago
  On iOS, OneNote has a completely broken search experience. That's a showstopper for me.