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My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020)

• johnmato 5y ago
  I agree with this one; I only used a notepad to track my productivity and tasks for the day. It's so simple, and there's no complicated UI that you need to memorize.
• levmiseri 5y ago
  For the fellow .txt filists — I made a minimal online notepad https://kvak.io https://kvak.io that makes it easier to access your notes anywhere. (With my wife we are also using it as an always-up-to-date shopping list).
  • jiggunjer 5y ago
    Is there a self hosted version. No offense :)
    • Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
      A simple no-frills note taking web app seems like it would be incredibly simple to make. Any professional web developer could probably make it in under an hour. It'd only need two pages. A list of notes, and a single page for editing notes. Perhaps a login page, but you could simplify further and just use HTTP Basic Auth. You wouldn't even need any JavaScript if you don't mind having to click a button to save your note instead of having it constantly updated as you type.
• bengale 5y ago
  I do something similar but with apple notes. Still simple but I get a bit of formatting and some checkboxes, tags and decent search. I can also create reminders that link back to highlighted parts of a note.
  • criddell 5y ago
    You can also add images, scan in documents with your phone or tablet camera, you can sketch with the Apple Pencil (on an iPad), and it does OCR on images you paste in so you can take a picture of a whiteboard and the text on it will be indexed. My big complaint is that there isn't a decent Windows client. I sometimes will use the web version, but it's maddening because some of the keystrokes for things like word left or word right (ctrl-arrow) don't work.
  • athenot 5y ago
    Same here. The best part is that I spend zero brain cycles in thinking where to file a note before I write it; pretty much every note is in a generic Notes folder. I have one exception: any 1:1 meeting with a person gets its own note and those go in a specific folder. One note per person and a bullet list under a date, with talking points. I also use this ahead of meetings; when I suddenly think of something I need to discuss with someone, I add it to their note. Then when I meet them, it's part of my agenda. It's also searcheable so if I need to refresh my memory about an older discussion, whether it took place and when, it's a few keywords away.
• dukeofdoom 5y ago
  If anyone want to do this but with markdown, Typora has a very nice GUI app for this. You can get headings, checkboxes and tables, and so on.
• nilsandrey 5y ago
  This remember me a system that helps me a lot: https://plaintext-productivity.net/ https://plaintext-productivity.net/
• rappatic 5y ago
  The author makes some points about the benefits of doing this, but I really think he's making things more difficult for himself. Even a basic note-taking app would provide a much larger number of features and be equally easy to use. It's quirky idea but it's really not that practical.
  • tajd 5y ago
    Sometimes its good to remember that the best method is the one that you actually use - the author clearly uses their method! You could also argue that reducing your number of dependencies to a calendar and a note file is actually quite practical. It depends on your perspective.
  • superkuh 5y ago
    Nope. A note-taking application would not work for 12 years. And it certainly wouldn't work for the 20+ years I've been using a single .txt file. The longevity and ease of longevity of simple plain text is the major benefit.
    • cableshaft 5y ago
      But what about an application wrapper around plain text files, like Obsidian or a Markdown editor? You get some benefits while the files are also saved in plain-text format.
      • superkuh 5y ago
        What benefits? My notes are now full of someone elses arbitrary mark-up I get to see with my eyes? That's just clutter. I doubt those programs have existed for more than a handful of years and I doubt they'll exist longer than that into the future.
        • dotancohen 5y ago
          I had exactly that line of thought for decades. My notes files go back to 1999. That's why I'm so happy with org-mode. Seriously give it a try. It's syntax is not far from what I was using on my own - though it seems that I independently invented Mardown - just that it uses a * for headings rather than # (which I choose because of C comments). Org-mode has been around since around the turn of the century I think. And I'm happy to open the org-mode files in VIM and edit them there if need be.
• Hoasi 5y ago
  Text works well for managing one's schedule. Here is a simple system in Markdown that I've been using for some time: https://github.com/YJPL/personal-kanban https://github.com/YJPL/personal-kanban.
• bm3719 5y ago
  I used a plain text file for about 5-6 years before finding org-mode in 2009. Of course, I technically still use a plain text file since that's what Org uses, just with some extra features that make organizing things specific to productivity easier. That said, I'm not sure I'd exclusively use a plain text file or even Org if I had to break my day down into as low as 15 minute chunks like this guy. I find the text-based approach to work best for longer-term planning/strategizing and just keeping yourself from forgetting stuff over the course of days. It also works better if you're already on your computer and using your text editor all day and/or SSH-ing into a box with the file. If I need to remember to make it to 4 meetings today at very specific times, something that pushes notifications and upcoming meeting warnings might accommodate that better. I've had meeting-heavy jobs, and split off the meeting management into Outlook (or similar) with good results. Useful info that flows out of meetings can still go into your notes to be organized later though. Then I make my GTD list "task-centric", meaning that it focuses on getting discrete activities started and completed, with less focus on times/dates. That requires some level of freedom to manage your own time though, so it's not for everyone.
• Brajeshwar 5y ago
  This was one of the few text-based philosophies that helped me settle with a "mostly" plain-text lifestyle. It is not about the tools that gives you all the features but the freedom to be free of tools and just pick up the raw things right away anywhere, anytime, even if it requires more learning in the beginning. After a while, the habits, the processes just become muscle memory. One may indeed use a tool on the top when one is comfortable with how the plain text is organized.
• PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  The key to this solution isn’t really the .txt file or the formatting. It’s the ritual. Any productivity system can be made to work once it becomes a habit and therefore your default action. I think .txt files or Org mode are attractive to devs because they feel like something we’d be doing anyway during our day. the same system will work with a paper journal or even a fresh piece of paper every morning if, and only if, it can be integrated into your natural daily workflow as an automatic habit. I personally found that paper is better for me because I get to it before unlocking my computer and being confronted with work and communications and notifications that compete with it. However, I have a lot of peers who couldn’t hang on to a paper journal or TODO list during the day if they tried, so digital formats win. The real key is to make it a habit and learn to stick with it.
  • kamaal 5y ago
    This, several times this. My favorite system for knowledge management is Google Docs(due to obvious advantages- online drive, WYSIWYG etc), and for metadata/task-management tasks(GTD, working things out, mind maps, todo lists, solving software problems) is a plain cheap notebook and a pen. If you study GTD the hardest aspects of GTD are sticking to routine, and it's very easy to fall off the GTD routine. Its hard to do weekly reviews, its hard to create next tasks etc etc. Once you establish a cycle that works, its magic.
    • quaintdev 5y ago
      Until Google suspends account for no reason.
      • dotancohen 5y ago
        This comment was downvoted when I got here, but it's very very relevant. Thank the creator that I've never been locked out of an account, but I've seen it happen enough times to be terrified of putting critical infrastructure on a single provider. GP should be diligent to download his spreadsheets periodically.
• vasco 5y ago
  Mine is a notebook and a pen. Whatever isn't in the last 3 pages deserves to be forgotten and not done unless it reappears through another context in which case it gets re-added. Writing with a pen also has the advantage that working remotely, people do not wonder if you're sending slack messages or emails instead of paying attention because you're typing. My notebook also doesn't need any privacy features.
  • criddell 5y ago
    A commonly stated benefit of the text file is that it's searchable and easy to backup. If you only care about the last three pages, then searching isn't a problem and if you lose it you've only lost three pages of value. That's probably not a huge problem as well. For your last point about working remotely, I sometimes wonder if I spend a few hours working through some problem on paper, my chat avatar will go to inactive ("last seen 23 minutes ago") and people might think I've wandered off.
    • kamaal 5y ago
      >>A commonly stated benefit of the text file is that it's searchable and easy to backup. Not all data is same. Personal Knowledge Database is not the same as metadata things like todo lists, often todo lists don't need searching, back up etc. Also one must look at tools as things to achieve end goals, not as goals themselves. Data pollution is a thing, and having extra things isnt always good.
      • Lhiw 5y ago
• charcircuit 5y ago
  A file isn't an application. Ultraedit is the productivity app.
• kgeist 5y ago
  I use a simple text file, too. It has four sections: "major", "minor", "done", and a section for random thoughts. Every evening, I copy the file (with remaining unfinished tasks) and give it a new name (for example, "December 23, 2021"). This way I also have a history of everything. It has worked well so far.
• da-x 5y ago
  I can see why a simple text file is working for many people. Anything that requires you to wait for a program to start, a window to appear, or a webpage to load is very detrimental to the mental mode of note taking because thoughts change even on the slightest of latency. It should be as immediate as picking up a notebook from the table that has a pen attached to it.
  • lambic 5y ago
    Yeah this is important for me. My work day is organised with Jira tickets, and we all know how klunky the Jira interface can be, so I installed one of the Jira cli clients[1] and it's invaluable. I can do all my ticket management from the terminal just as if I was working with text files. Editing or commenting on a ticket opens it in vim for me. I have a few scripts on top of the client to make things even easier like sprint to see tickets in the current sprint, jv to view a ticket, take to grab a ticket, transition to transition a ticket and slackscrum to push the tickets I've worked on today to slack for my scrum update. [1] https://github.com/go-jira/jira https://github.com/go-jira/jira
    • da-x 5y ago
      Thanks! I'll try this (I also suffer from Web-JIRA latency fatique).
• blueboo 5y ago
  My kingdom for a fast, one-page, multiplatform notes app that could accomplish this
  • ISL 5y ago
    Google Docs?
  • lotsofcows 5y ago
    An app? You just need DropBox and a text editor. Both are pretty ubiquitous. I used to find myself moving between random terminals so used curl webdav instead of DropBox.
  • chapium 5y ago
    OneNote, DokuWiki, and org-mode. Each multiplatform and one page (as long as you don't go about creating multiple pages.)
    • blueboo 5y ago
      Ah. Also needed: offline editing and instant-on. Even Apple’s Notes is too slow from launch to editing.
  • heresie-dabord 5y ago
    I use git and Mercurial (command hg). If you don't know Mercurial, it is a SCM/VCS written in Python.[1] You can install it with python3 -m pip install mercurial In addition to all the virtues of version control, Mercurial can also be run with an HTTP interface that is rather good. Thus, you could have a main box at home with a main Mercurial repository and run the daemon in the root of the repository: hg serve -d --config web.push_ssl=No --config "web.allow_push=*" -A hg-access.log -E hg-errors.log Your laptop would also have Mercurial installed. You would clone from and push to the server. You could view the server content from any client using a browser. I do not ask for any kingdom, but a good friendship is always welcome. ^_^ [1] https://www.mercurial-scm.org/ https://www.mercurial-scm.org/
    • 5y ago
• rav 5y ago
  My productivity app is a Git repository (that happens to be a GitLab wiki git repository at $WORK as well) with my "priority queue" text file and the following bash function. The contents of the text file are similar to what Jeff Huang describes in the blog post (but MUCH less organized). Since it's in version control, I can freely delete old content that's no longer relevant for my day-to-day, and then I frequently use git log -p to search for old text in the file if it becomes relevant. The bash command also pushes and pulls automatically, so it can be used across my devices. plan-edit() { cd ~/wiki && git diff --exit-code && vim Rav-priority-queue.txt && ! git diff --quiet Rav-priority-queue.txt && git commit -qm 'Update Rav-priority-queue.txt' Rav-priority-queue.txt && git pull -q --rebase && git push -q }
  • dotancohen 5y ago
    Why rebase? I would imaging that preserving history would be a feature. An important feature at that.
    • dahart 5y ago
      That rebase doesn’t lose any history, it’s just flattening the commit sequence coming from multiple computers. This is a good normal/default workflow for personal repos.
      • dotancohen 5y ago
        I see, thanks.
    • rav 5y ago
      As dahart mentions in a sibling comment, the todo-list doesn't operate with branching - all edits are performed by one person according to the real-time circumstances. Any Git history divergence is a matter of technical accident and not an expression of feature branching/merging.
  • _dain_ 5y ago
    I have something similar, a folder full of text files that gets automatically committed to a git repo. Each file is a note or todo list item. When I want to review or search through things I do `cat *.txt | less` or similar. When I finish an item I just delete the file and commit. That keeps it tidy while also keeping an archive of old items if I need it (in practice I rarely do).
• punkspider 5y ago
  I really like this article. Thanks to reading it last year (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22276184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22276184) it validated the idea of using simple files. I used to try various productivity apps because I thought I needed something to help with reducing the "amount of willpower" I needed to keep a to do list. Ultimately I realized I had been using Sublime Text for years to take temporary notes in a very unorganized manner. Since April 2021 I'm happy with the todo lists/notes I keep in Sublime.
• satysin 5y ago
  This is pretty similar how I work also. I use iA Writer but could be any text editor obviously. However I keep this for things that are 'active'. I also use Things as it is a simple todo list but has a few nice feature and can remind me of stuff unlike a text file :) I keep things very simple though. I never found modern "productivity apps" very helpful personally. They all require too much work to maintain like Notion, etc.
• 4monthsaway 5y ago
  I'd like to try a better version of using the default notes app on iphone. I keep attempting over the years to keep at it but end up never reviewing the notes. I have half the battle down...I use it for a crazy amount of ideas but yea, definitely need to adopt a more consistent routine. Interesting to see what others do like this article
  • asimpletune 5y ago
    My productivity app is basically this txt file, but with the vanilla apple notes app + a apple shortcut script that I write that generates the template for that week. It works really well.
• mFixman 5y ago
  I create a new dated file every day and edit it on Vim. I think this is the ideal middle point: I can easily go back and see old information, but I also don't feel that I'm "wasting" important space if I feel like writing down more things in a particular day.
• edf13 5y ago
  Mine used to be the same… however recently I send myself a daily “To Do” email
• mwattsun 5y ago
  I've always kept a text file or spreadsheet of things to do, priorities, etc... My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting organized, it's remembering to look at my list. I tend to space out for days working on a problem and forget to look at my list. I've experienced a big productivity boost by using the desktop background of my 43" monitor as a whiteboard (blackboard actually). I have an jpg the size of my monitor that I jot things down on as text on the image. I can store meaningful small images the trigger my memory to do something. I've become so used to visually thinking about what I'm doing that I switched my text file todo list to markdown so I could store images in it. It's surprisingly quick to keep my large jpg open in paint and jot or paste things to it and then reset it as the desktop background. I learned later this is called a "vision board" Still, I'm so bad at spacing out that I need more than looking at my vision board monitor all day, so I use the Windows system scheduler to bring up a daily, weekly and monthly html file that reminds me to do things.
  • jamil7 5y ago
    I do something similar for language learning, every new tab in Firefox shows a flashcard. If I'm in the middle of something I can ignore it but when my minds already wandering I tend to notice the word there, hopefully it helps.
    • mwattsun 5y ago
      I'm working on a simple flash card app for learning. People have decided to call those "wisdom cards" and I plan to have a folder of them for my app to bring up once in awhile. The coolest thing about vision board desktop background is that I save them every two weeks or so and start another. I now have a folder of two years of my thinking in visual form that's easy to review in just a few minutes. It may be that this works for me because I'm a visual person and others need to write it down and rewrite it down often to learn it.
    • ad404b8a372f2b9 5y ago
      That's a cool system, how did you set it up?
• 13324 5y ago
  For another approach of keeping a todo-list in a .txt file one may also look at the syntax of todotxt. I use Todotxt.net on Windows for several years now with nextcloud sync and SwifttoDo on iOS and am quite happy with it.
• iszomer 5y ago
  I kept my password/credentials in a single .txt file on a truecrypt volume for a time, just to maintain the KISS principle.
• jasode 5y ago
  >A text file is incredibly flexible, and at any point, I can quickly glance to see what I've done that day and what's left. When a task is completed, which is the most common default, I just leave it. [...] I use Ultraedit because I'm familiar with it I've also been using a plain "todo.txt" for 20+ years and also use UltraEdit. So far, it's been better than alternatives such as Borland Sidekick, PalmPilot gadgets, Evernote. I agree with all the positives the author laid out but I also recognize there are serious limitations with my reliance on "todo.txt". - no "live" schedule of upcoming events because there's no runtime that turns the text file into active reminders and a countdown of when things are due. A lot of people have a "inner clock" in their head and don't need countdowns but my brain seems to to lack this. E.g. the author has example of "11:30am meet with student Enya" and when I write entries like that, the 11:30am time comes and goes because I got distracted. - not editable by others. Sometimes, important people in my life remind me I need to do X,Y,Z but I often don't get around to the tedious data entry of adding it to to the text so it gets overlooked. The issues above are solved better by a cloud or smartphone app but I'd miss the instant access speed and flexibility of the text file. That's why I'm working on some tools to create a runtime that converts my "todo.txt" into something that pings me on my smartphone and gives me a better live dashboard for activities.
  • lazyjeff 5y ago
    Author of the posted article here. You raise fair points. For live scheduling, I generally have my meetings clumped together so I just go to the next meeting or take a break when one is over. If it's a sporadic meeting day, there's still the calendar on my phone as a backup alarm in case I forget. So far I've missed maybe a handful of meetings over the past 14 years, so it hasn't really been an issue. People can schedule on my calendar the regular way, but I don't like them editing or even viewing my todo/done file because I make a lot of quick personal notes that I'm not ready for others to read, like my thoughts about someone's talk or paper.
• vp8989 5y ago
  I have been doing this for about 3 or 4 years too. I wouldn't say it necessarily makes you "productive" unless you work in a very isolated fashion. By whittling it down to the bare essentials you at least know if you are unproductive it's not because you are faffing around with the tracking of your own tasks.
• TimLeland 5y ago
  Hopefully he has a backup
• kache_ 5y ago
  Based & redpilled
• notRobot 5y ago
  (2020)
• bootcat 5y ago
  even after getting so many apps, the old school ways are still awesome - mine are paper, - cards, - text file using vscode
• hellelujah 5y ago
  I'm moving from a single .txt file to vimwiki, which plays nice with calendar, diary and daily todo checklist.
• dpweb 5y ago
  Highly recommend ClipX (with "Disklog" plugin), one of the few apps I've kept for years. All clipboards go to a text file which can be easily searched. When I need to save something I just Ctrl-C it. Its my code snippet manager I can instantly find something I wrote years ago. https://bluemars.org/clipx/ https://bluemars.org/clipx/
• philmcp 5y ago
  My productivity app has been pen + A5 paper pad Advantages: - Instant availability (no need to load up an app) - Works offline - I can't access it when I'm not at work (feature, not a bug) - I can draw as well as write - It's satisfying to tick items off
  • themodelplumber 5y ago
    This is why I developed a system that works in both worlds, digital or paper. Also because if you know shorthand, it may even be faster and less distracting to jot than to type.
  • madphilosopher 5y ago
    My choice is paper, too. For that, I really like the Pocketmod [0] system. I generate my own Pocketmod booklets using PostScript [1]. [0] https://pocketmod.com/ https://pocketmod.com/ [1] https://gist.github.com/madphilosopher/c71dac84a096533d335bfa56612e0516 https://gist.github.com/madphilosopher/c71dac84a096533d335bf...
• rubyist5eva 5y ago
  Same here, all I use is a single `notes.txt` file in my cloud storage using the notepad.exe .LOG feature that inserts the current timestamp in the file when you open it.
• guerby 5y ago
  Same for me at my previous work, kept a log in a txt file for about a decade. When I came back visiting my old colleagues one of their gift was my txt file printed on paper, it was a few centimeters thick :)
• cookingoils 5y ago
  I was just talking about this blog post with a friend yesterday. I’m curious to know the file size of the doc after 7 years.
  • themodelplumber 5y ago
    For sure. It actually reminded me of when I was first learning QuickBasic. Appending certain words to a hidden text file (I think via TSR?) on boot was how we would casually fill up the hard drives of the lab computers in our electronics class, driving the teacher back into his submarine CPO days and streams of curse words. Fortunately he took it in stride and got us back...
  • lazyjeff 5y ago
    Author of the original article here. It's now year 9 with the current todo/done file I have now. And I'm on line 50473, with a file size of 2.3 MB.
• miki123211 5y ago
  I do something pretty similar. I have a big, append-only TXT file that I keep in Dropbox. Most of my notes and bookmarks go there. I sometimes add hashtags, I use #book for books that I might want to read in the future. If I have too many notes of some kind, I make a separate file for them, I'm considering moving my to read list to its own file, for example. I kept a separate file with a calendar until I switched to Mac OS, I use the built-in calendar app these days.
• kristianpaul 5y ago
  I moved to mutt 10 years ago, no regret and its the first thing i look in the morning
  • yakshaving_jgt 5y ago
    I've been a happy mutt user for several years also but my understanding is that it is just an email client, so I'm now not sure how it fits into the context of a todo list. Are there more mutt features that I'm not aware of? Or do you mean you manage your productivity with an email inbox? I'm curious to hear what your workflow is like.
  • dredmorbius 5y ago
    I can see using Mutt as a knowldge-capture system: email notes or links to yourself, or to a designated notekeeping address / alias. But how do you incorporate workflow into this, particularly task-management for both one-time and repeat tasks? (I can think of a few possibilities. I'm interested in what you're doing specifically in this regard, if anything.)
• anon2020dot00 5y ago
  Interesting especially with the rise in popularity of productivity apps recently such as Obsidian, Roam, etc.. A single .txt file can work as a to-do-list and a what-done list but it really isn't a knowledgebase like Obsidian or Roam. It is more comparable to a To Do List app like Microsoft To-Do or Amazing Marvin. It wouldn't work as a knowledgebase because a knowledgebase has copious amounts of text about a topic which wouldn't fit neatly in the by day subdivision. Although, I don't use Roam Research, I think the single .txt file approach also has similarities with the Roam style of using Daily Notes and Outlines. Roam Research is an outliner which emphasizes not using paragraphs of text but instead just using bullet points. His single .txt file approach is also using this outline and bullet-style approach and I think it is an underrated aspect of why his approach works. Using an outline and bullet points helps a lot, to quickly see the forest and the trees; I've only recently realized how powerful this approach is and so I think it's worth mentioning. On a personal note, I've operated for years without a to do list app and so I can easily imagine someone using a single .txt file and being way more productive with it. But I highly recommend anyone to try Microsoft To-Do or Amazing Marvin or the single .txt approach since I agree that it is better than going without.
  • Forge36 5y ago
    Obsidian is an editor. It does a lot of things, and makes no effort to hide it's a markdown editor. The biggest advantage to me is splitting files, and indexing. I'm only using it on my phone. (Notepad++ makes this easy enough for me at work that i write everything out as separate files, downside being i don't use tags was often as I should for finding things later). The best system is one which can easily change. By making the backend plaintext files on the system, portability is preserved with no extra steps.
• slk500 5y ago
  You should try org-mode
• giancarlostoro 5y ago
  I use Sublime Text like anyone would pastebin or a simple clipboard manager, but it is slightly more curated and I dont need to save anything. I also sometimes write my schedule / tasks on it but not as often.
• raldi 5y ago
  How are finished tasks marked?
• Crontab 5y ago
  This kind of reminds me of the "One Big Text File" thing that was a popular subject a while ago[1][2]. I haven't attempted it, but if I did, it would probably be a "One Big Markdown File". [1]https://www.williamhern.com/living-in-a-single-text-file.html [2]http://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-file
  • civilized 5y ago
    Hey there!! I've been doing "One Big Markdown File" for about three years and I can highly recommend it [1]. Do it in a highly responsive text editor with Markdown highlighting, like Sublime. You get the simplicity and responsiveness that keeps you writing at the speed of thought, and the highlighting provides a perfect balance of "just enough structure to keep you sane" while "minimizing formatting distractions". I have so, so much to say about how to make this approach work. Please AMA if you have any interest in this. [1] OK, full disclosure, my main file does sometimes spawn child Markdown files for particular projects. I don't apologize for this! A lot of the challenge around sustaining a useful to-do list over multiple months and years is managing the cruft of your thought. If the document gets too crufty or weedy, it becomes an impediment to thought rather than an aid, and you will let it languish. I have a pretty detailed system for mitigating this risk. Spawning child documents for the weedy stuff + "link" to the child in the main is an important technique here. (Once we start talking about links you might imagine we could use a wiki, but the most important property of the system is to stay lightweight and at-the-speed-of-thought - I use it to capture requirements during meetings, for example.)
• AreYouElite 5y ago
  ORG-MODE ORG-MODE ORG-MODE Jeff, everything you do could be done with org-mode by using a key combination. it would also add a calender with an agenda and schedule and and and and the main thing: it's a text file just like what you are using. this is a nice how to (no relation to me) https://youtu.be/SzA2YODtgK4 https://youtu.be/SzA2YODtgK4
  • themodelplumber 5y ago
    Isn't org mode less portable though? My understanding was that you need an editor plus appropriate tooling for it to really shine, which to me is similar to saying "productivity software" and less like text editing.
    • lytefm 5y ago
      I wouldn't say that it's less portable than using your custom txt file file format. But sure, in order to really make it shine and you'll want to use Emacs and something like orgzly on the phone.
    • xenodium 5y ago
      I'm working on making org more portable (at least bring parts to iOS), via https://plainorg.com https://plainorg.com and flathabits.com. Karl Voit is doing the hard work of rallying folks to promote org markup outside of Emacs and hopefully create a diverse ecosystem under the Orgdown proposal https://gitlab.com/publicvoit/orgdown https://gitlab.com/publicvoit/orgdown
      • dempedempe 5y ago
        I have yet to try PlainOrg, but loved your app, Flathabits!
        • xenodium 5y ago
          Thank you. Nice to hear that!
      • 5y ago
• marttt 5y ago
  Ah, the OBTF or "One big text file" meme was making rounds 10-15 years ago. I ditched mine out of curiosity for other systems -- but I'm still surprised how well it actually worked. Calendar, links, drafts of stuff I wrote -- it was all there. I was kind of proud when, at one point, my file (brain.txt) reached 1 MB. I'll just share some of those old links for new kids on the OBTF block. Probably one of the discussion starters in 2005: https://web.archive.org/web/20060101001857/http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7567 https://web.archive.org/web/20060101001857/http://www.oreill... Which apparently got inspiration from this: https://craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt https://craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt And was passionately discussed by the 43 Folders crowd: https://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-file https://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-tex... Me, I essentially stole and fine-tuned the syntax exlained here: http://www.matthewcornell.org/blog/2005/8/21/my-big-arse-text-file-a-poor-mans-wikiblogpim.html http://www.matthewcornell.org/blog/2005/8/21/my-big-arse-tex... OBTF vs Zettelkasten (from 2020): https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1508/zettelkasten-vs-one-big-text-file https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1508/zettelkasten-v... I've tried to set up a Zettelkasten many times, but in practice, loosely structured flat files, maybe utilizing the OS' file system (folders) and occasional ad-hoc hierarchies, still beats everything else for me.
• ehnto 5y ago
  I have a one-liner bash alias that stores whatever I feed it into a file by todays date, alias "note"="echo $1 >> ~/.notes/`date+'%Y-%m-%d'`.note" So you end up with a folder of files formatted like this 2021-11-02.note. Then to view them I either just cat it, or jump in to a text editor. I have an alias to cat todays .note alias "notes"="cat ~/.notes/`date+'%Y-%m-%d'`.note" I have sometimes considered fleshing it out, but like other commenters have pointed out, it's the habit more than the tool that makes it useful. Simple is key.
  • jll29 5y ago
    Thanks. Space between "date" and "+"?
    • ehnto 5y ago
      Yes I think you're right!
• pkrumins 5y ago
  Checkmate org mode people.
• coliveira 5y ago
  I do the same, every day I add a heading with date to my txt file, which is always open. Then I write topics of the day. It works more as a way to remember what I was working and what is missing.
• meribold 5y ago
  Does anyone else take notes by sending messages to themselves on Signal or another messaging app? I've been doing that for years. Taking notes in dedicated note-taking apps always seems to involve more friction than sending myself a message. The note-taking apps I've tried also lacked polish compared to messaging apps. It's important to me that I can take notes on my phone because it's the thing I have on me most of the time (unlike a laptop or notebook). Sometimes a random thought pops up and will distract me until I write it down. On my laptop I can use the Signal desktop app to view, add, or search notes. Every note automatically gets a timestamp and is synced between my devices. Both taking and viewing notes works without an Internet connection. Notes can't be edited but more information can be added by replying to a note and the new information gets its own timestamp. Sometimes I also use emoji reactions as tags. Recently I've started to use groups in which I'm the only member as note categories (e.g. ideas, thoughts, journal, work).
  • denton-scratch 5y ago
    > Does anyone else take notes by sending messages to themselves on Signal or another messaging app? Yes. I use email - text/plain, on Thunderbird. I save the unaddressed email in the local Drafts folder (doesn't depend on internet). If I need to edit, I can open it, edit it, and save it in-place (it replaces the original). I own a smartphone, but I don't carry it around. TBird has a tasklist, but it's pretty bad - a lot worse than a textfile.
  • uglygoblin 5y ago
    This is my favorite low effort note taking. I've been doing this with email for a long time and for work I message myself in Slack.
  • mbrodersen 5y ago
    Yep I use my email Inbox to organise everything.
• a9h74j 5y ago
  Since the post describes relying upon a single text file, and makes passing mention to the problem of email ... IIRC Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface, which expounds in part on his Canon CAT features and philosophy, proposed [and/or "stole" w/o credit] integrated email within the editor hard-wired to a single file. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface https://archive.org/details/humaneinterfacen00rask https://archive.org/details/humaneinterfacen00rask
• anon2020dot00 5y ago
  Tangentially-related in terms of organization, something that I've been trying recently is using numbered folders to get organized. I'd create folders by month like "01 November", "02 December" and inside of those folders I'd create projects like "01 New Project", "02 Another Project". It functions like a To-Do list in that it reminds me to work on a particular project and when I'm done, I can move it to a _Done folder. For short-term reminders though, like with an upcoming meeting, I'd just write it down on my Boox Tablet on a weekly calendar template. For a what-done list, I'm not sure if there is real value with writing down everything I've done for the day. I think short-term memory is good enough and for longer time periods, there are usually emails or commits that can answer the question on what was done.
• denton-scratch 5y ago
  /me retired. When I worked, my daily todo list would have been: * Spend another day working on Project X. Now it's all domestic tasks, which fall into two categories: tasks that have to be done urgently, and those I can do "when I feel like it". Guess what? My todo list now consists of one or two things I must do urgently, and getting on for a coupla hundred blue-sky tasks that'll never be done. Task #1: weed the todo list (high priority) I've never been much good at time-management, as you can see.
  • LegitShady 5y ago
    if you remove the weed from your todo list maybe you'll get more done
• jonbaer 5y ago
  https://momentumdash.com https://momentumdash.com
• wly_cdgr 5y ago
  Same. A great example of satisficing in action
• designium 5y ago
  I do that too in txt. I tried DayOne, AI writer, etc. but the simple text editor is perfect. Also, I don't want to be relying on someone else to save and backup my info. I know where my txt is and how I am backing it up. It's portable.
• kcartlidge 5y ago
  Totally agree. I've got an almost 4,000 line file with the same kind of stuff for work, every day since 27th March 2019. It includes not just what I did, but also things like IDs for data in various environments so I can go straight back to what I was doing if needed. At the end of one day I add the entry for the next day (mine is Markdown and the latest is at the top) to remind me of things I've discovered that will be relevant, and I update the current day's entry as I go. I use Markdown because I use bullet lists almost exclusively (brief, with nested children for detail). It's also great for short code blocks. Having seen my file during remote stand-ups I now have several colleagues doing similar. There really is no need for anything fancier. But remember - frequent dated backups and if possible (and you're an employee) use networked drives so you are enrolled in corporate backups too.
• Tomte 5y ago
  Has anyone found an iOS app that can do advanced searching in text files? Everything I've found from 1Writer to all those minimal txt apps just uses Apple's very very basic search UI. I'd need search through several files, and especially their contents, not just file names or titles, also regexp.
• silasdb 5y ago
  I'm a heavy user of todotxt. For me, the greatest thing about keeping everything in a txt file is that it is very easy to build your own extensions with a combination of sh, awk, grep, etc. For calendars, the problem is a bit more problematic, though. Yes, there are things like calendar[1] and remind[2], but nobody seems to use them nowadays and in the mobile world there is no app to process them. Do you know of any existing solutions for calendars that work like todotxt? [1] https://man.netbsd.org/calendar.1 https://man.netbsd.org/calendar.1 [2] https://linux.die.net/man/1/remind https://linux.die.net/man/1/remind
• yosito 5y ago
  I'm using an .md file that I sync with Nextcloud between all of my devices. I edit it with Obsidian on my laptops, and the Nextcloud Notes app on Android, which also has a nice widget that allows me to pin my todo.md on my homescreen and formats the markdown checklist appropriately. It's the most flexible system I've ever used. The only missing features for me are the ability to reorder items quickly on mobile and add reminders to a todo. But control over my own data beats both of those features.
  • q1w2 5y ago
    I use Typora, and sync with WinSCP. same same - but different.
• K_REY_C 5y ago
  Just sharing this tool, logseq [1], that I learned about a couple of weeks ago. It traffics in plain text files and does graphically what an org-mode might do after a lot of work. I figure more people should be aware of this open source tool I hope improves and becomes more robust. [1]: https://logseq.com/ https://logseq.com/
  • sivakon 5y ago
    I actually used it continuously for six months. Once the data and the size of the graph increases, it gets very slow, even text editing gets unresponsive. The features are good, but it will get slow and taking notes feel sluggish
    • approxim8ion 5y ago
      That's unfortunate, since I've been using and enjoying it for about a month now. I was planning to ramp up my usage quite a bit. I suppose they will be working on performance, but there's no telling how soon that comes.
    • zaphod4prez 5y ago
      They are actively working on this and [a recent update](https://discuss.logseq.com/t/very-slow-performance-with-large-local-graph/1484/20 https://discuss.logseq.com/t/very-slow-performance-with-larg...) solved part of this problem. I'm not a logseq user but have toyed around with it and am really hoping it gets to a rock-solid state soon. Development has been moving super fast but I'm not quiteeee ready to trust it with all my notes. I'll probably switch once they release a beta (as it's currently alpha software).
• oftenwrong 5y ago
  This reminds me a bit of The Erlang Ticket System, a "Minimal Viable Program", that Joe Armstrong described on his blog: https://joearms.github.io/published/2014-06-25-minimal-viable-program.html https://joearms.github.io/published/2014-06-25-minimal-viabl...
• wenc 5y ago
  I still use Google Docs but I take notes in Markdown in VS Code. The advantage of Markdown is I can create lists of lists of lists that VS code will indent correctly. (emacs does that too but that’s another story). Checkboxes in list items is another nice touch. But what have been most compelling of Markdown is that I can create flow diagrams with Mermaid syntax and type math like LaTeX. Not to mention insert code snippets. It all works. And Markdown is portable too. Couple it with rclone for replication to the cloud and I’m golden.
• fegu 5y ago
  Me too. 20 years, actually. Mine was called todo.txt. It got unwieldy. I am now on todo2.txt.
  • kingcharles 5y ago
    I accidently opened a second copy of todo.txt and made edits and I didn't have a good way to merge the changes across both so I just saved the second one as todo2.txt and now everything is fucked and I'm just sitting here waiting for the singularity to arrive and kill us all. wasabi.
• avgcorrection 5y ago
  “A text file is my productivity app” is such clickbait. No one would bat an eye at someone using GTD with pen and paper. But using a digital pen and paper method is somehow noteworthy? (Well maybe, but I didn’t want to click on a baity link…)
• pmontra 5y ago
  I have a txt file open in emacs since 2012 formatted like YYYY-MM-DD Project 1. Daily notes. N.M hours TODO Project 2. Notes I use it to track what I'll have to invoice at the end of the month and why (some customers just pay others want to know what they are paying for) and to plan for the future. Plus a number of discarded A4 papers with a clean rear side filled with short term todo lists. Occasionally they become not so short term v_v I'm using Emacs so I should learn Org mode but that simple file bought me so far so I'm unsure what Org mode will actually gain to me.
  • macintux 5y ago
    My experience introducing myself to Orgmode over the last couple of years has been that I can add new features/syntax as I need them, or not. I don’t care whether my one big notes file can be processed by any tooling other than Emacs itself, and Emacs seems to be forgiving of whatever I do with it. All I really needed to get started was to understand the equivalent syntax to the basic features Markdown would offer.
• 7thaccount 5y ago
  This made me laugh, as I've done the same thing for years. I just keep a "to do" text file open and put new things into it and move things into the completed section when done. I don't have time for the JIRA method as it is overly complicated and I work on a lot of solo projects these days, so the additional features aren't useful. My boss just wants a weekly status update (email with a few bullet points), so nobody would care anyway. I'd say it is super effective for me.
  • Sohcahtoa82 5y ago
    For solo projects, I still prefer a tracker, but I use Taiga. It's very basic, but that's all I need. I don't want to create a list of fields that I have to fill out on every ticket. Most of my tickets don't even have a description, just a title.
• tarkin2 5y ago
  Psychologically, the most important part of txt files, and lists in particular, is writing `* DONE Whatever the task was` when it's finished. Even if you end up deleting the line later on, it still feels great and helps you continue with more items.
  • mbg721 5y ago
    I do a paper version of this; there's a particular type of box I draw to highlight a task among all the other notes and doodles, and when it's done, I color it in.
• egypturnash 5y ago
  I am glad for this post because it spurred me to open up the paper journal I do my own work planning/tracking in for the first time in a month. I've been getting stuff done in that time but it's been unplanned and meandering and hasn't even felt like a vacation or anything. I took a moment to survey the precise remaining scope of a big project I'm nearing the end of and that felt really, really good to do. So thanks for posting this, Simone.
• xenodium 5y ago
  For anyone who's into org mode, needing an iOS counterpart when away from keyword, I've built https://plainorg.com https://plainorg.com
• hackerbrother 5y ago
  I do something similar, but use a Sqlite DB! I have some views set up to view today's to-do items, etc.
• WanderPanda 5y ago
  I use the Mac Os notes app because the bullet points / hierarchical lists have the best ux I've seen yet.
• deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
• dgreensp 5y ago
  I think the real insight here is the calendar: it sounds like new tasks go straight onto the calendar, and that's how a to-do backlog is avoided! Interesting.
• rasengan0 5y ago
  Yay! Good to read validation after trying so many: wikis, org, TheBrain, Freemind, etc. It's like a return to the old .LOG in notepad trick. After a score, I'm came to the same conclusion as the article; plain text just works. I log in vim using ISO 8601 date stamped records in the log format of (priority - datetime stamp - keywords/tag - content) inspired by Randy Pausch https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0 https://youtu.be/oTugjssqOT0 others noticed too: https://github.com/nrr-deprecated/todo https://github.com/nrr-deprecated/todo Sorting by date, priority or keyword keeps me on track and helps for quarterly summaries. A simple bash loop runs annually to give me a fresh 365 dashboard of days but inserts are a datetime stamp command - keywords autocompleted - then actual typing the meat of the task/content Because all text is in a single file, vim autocomplete saves typing as I use CamelCase for keywords; vim dict helps too. Caveat: For enjoyment, I still use fountain pens and paper for a running top 3 priority and scribbling offline. Backup interop is via TiddlyWiki for reference archive and sync with a plain text Zettelkasten (heavy on vim gf, Rg, FZF and jq for TiddlyWiki json export) Plain text is built to last.
• _dain_ 5y ago
  > Prerequisite: A calendar. The one outside tool I use is an online calendar, and I put everything on this calendar, even things that aren't actually for a fixed time like "make a coffee table at the workshop" or "figure out how to recruit new PhD students" — I'll schedule them on a date when I want to think about it. That way all my future plans and schedule are together, and not a bunch of lists I have to keep track of. On this topic, what calendar software do people use? I'm a very disorganized person, never used calendars to keep track of my life. Maybe I'll try it out. I'd like something independent from Google/Microsoft/$BIGTECH.
• claviska 5y ago
  I use a similar system, albeit organized through Bear for macOS/iOS. But organization aside, it’s just text in a couple key “files” that I can quickly and easily update. They sync from my laptop to my phone so I can jot ideas down any time without effort and have confidence knowing they’ll be there waiting for me when I need them. The problem I’ve found with many note taking apps is that it takes too long to simply write something down and find it later. Having simple “files” reduces friction and gets out of the way. Sometimes simpler is better.
• crossroadsguy 5y ago
  I find it difficult to have one app/file/mode that is my todo, journal, calendar, reminder everything. I function better with multiple apps/tools that do all these things well, each of them doing just one thing at a time.
• NorSoulx 5y ago
  Since 2012 I've been keeping task files to document all the stuff I work on. Most are job related. This comes in handy when I need to re-visit something I've worked on previously, sometimes going several years back in time. The task files are plain text files which are quick to create and update, and I use Sublime Text or VIM to edit. I do both development and operational related tasks, and can work on many tasks during a day. The trick is documenting in the task files right away before the details are wiped from my memory. When looking things up, I usually search by file name, or content, or both. Having documented a task previously can save time when returning to a similar task at a later date. I use a naming format for the task file, including the date and a short task description, e.g: task.2021.12.23.short.task.description.txt Number of task files created since 2012: Task files: 18231 Total size: 350 MB For each day I also create a worklog of the tasks I've been working on that day (including minutes spent). Since 2012 I've registered 2540 daily worklog files: ls -l task.????.??.??.worklog.txt |wc -l 2540 The worklog files are also used to estimate time necessary to complete similar or recurring tasks.
• TAKEMYMONEY 5y ago
  > Email: Email is obviously a part of my workflow...flag Red if it's something I need to deal with, flag Orange if.... So, it's not just a single .txt file. It's an email app, a calendar app, and Org Mode with more steps and no features?
  • overeater 5y ago
    Pretty sure emails don't magically disappear even if you use Org Mode.
• michaeljohansen 5y ago
  Are you me? I've been keeping a txt file for the last 12 years too. Synced in Dropbox, only available on my laptops (on purpose), only ever opened with Sublime Text, and using my own syntax highlighting, keywords and autocompletions. A new block of text for every day. Nothing is ever deleted. Consistent writing style, lots of checkboxes, and an onthology of tags to categorise everything. File size at time of writing: 3.5 MB.
• muktabh 5y ago
  That is so relatable. I use Tomboy Notes instead of just plain text file as it is stuck on my desktop and keeps reminding me that downloading and trying out a new github project is something I can spend next 5 minutes on, but not the next hour doing. I also somehow feel that just listing down tasks on Tomboy in terms of achievable chunks helps my focus.
• fleddr 5y ago
  At work I have a colleague that is basically a 10x software architect/engineer. You can throw anything at him and he masters it in record time. He's just in another league. He uses pen and paper for notes and todos. Nothing else. The other oddity is that he uses the internet read-only, except for email. Zero social media accounts, forums, no mobile apps other than the standard ones. He doesn't exist online. I admire him. There's no need for productivity suites or "life hacks" when you keep things simple, focus, and remove all distractions. Besides avoiding personal distractions, he's also my role model in avoiding work distractions. He commits to one or two projects and ignores everything else. He won't answer your email or chat and won't attend your meeting. He cuts through nonsense like a human laser.
  • foobarian 5y ago
    > He cuts through nonsense like a human laser. I love that metaphor!
• dang 5y ago
  One past thread: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22276184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22276184 - Feb 2020 (402 comments)
• trixie_ 5y ago
  I’ve been using the same OneNote notebook for over 15 years. Works online/offline with native clients on the desktop, web, and phone. Has never lost any of my notes and will sync back changes if I’m offline.
• srb24 5y ago
  Me too!
• mro_name 5y ago
  it could also be a paper exercise book, couldn't it?
• redbar0n 5y ago
  > There's no running "todo" list with items that keep pushed back day after day Your calendar would easily become that, unless you are always excellent at estimating what you are able to do on each day. Also, what days will you put items on which has no set date? What about when priorities change? Do you then have to reorder items on a lot of days in your calendar?
• mayerwin 5y ago
  Looks like you'd really be best served by an app like Todoist. A .txt file doesn't scale. But beware the productivity trap (becoming more productive means you'll end up even more busy).