23 ms·

My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

• HermanMartinus 3y ago
  Considering the size of LLM token contexts now, this has become easily parseable. It would be trivial to set up a GPT that has all historic notes ever, making them easily queryable. Neat.
• bloopernova 3y ago
  Mine is: Orgzly Reloaded syncing to a webdav share, which is mounted at ~/Org so it can be opened by Emacs. For shared shopping lists, my wife and I use the OurGroceries Android app and website. It's simple and just works.
• porridgeraisin 3y ago
  I use heynote.com just like this
• wernsey 3y ago
  I didn't see anyone mention Markdeep [0] yet. I started with a notes.txt file for the system I maintain. I found myself gradually adopting Markdown syntax because I need bulleted lists and headings to separate different sections. I also needed hyperlinks to documentation or StackOverflow answers. So one day I just added the Markdeep tags to the bottom of the file and renamed it to notes.md.html I still keep it open in a text editor for day to day use, but it looks really nice when you open it in a browser. [0]: https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/ https://casual-effects.com/markdeep/
• paulcapewell 3y ago
  I feel like this post gets posted to HN every few months. Not as frequently as that, but a bit: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=productivity%20.txt&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
• nstricevic 3y ago
  I also use a single text file, but it's Markdown. And I wrote a CLI application to help me maintain it -https://www.hackberry.dev/alas/ https://www.hackberry.dev/alas/.
• pemosirichards 3y ago
  [dead]
• arj 3y ago
  I have a similar system, I have the latest 3 + active in one org buffer and the rest in separate files. Mostly use org mode for expanding headers. Super fast search for anything is the killer feature. https://people.iola.dk/arj/2024/01/02/a-work-diary/ https://people.iola.dk/arj/2024/01/02/a-work-diary/
• ansonhoyt 3y ago
  I just read two posts, same topic, same day, same first name. Fun! Yesterday, Jeff Geerling explained his .txt file TODO list: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/my-todo-list-txt-file-on-desktop https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/my-todo-list-txt-file...
• dcchambers 3y ago
  This little nugget at the end is the key of all of this, to me: > It does mean sometimes I miss some questions or don't pursue an interesting research question, but helps me maintain a manageable workload. It's easy to get hyped up by modern productivity software, sort, categorize, and prioritize everything, only to end up creating way more work than you will ever be able to do. Keeping things simple (eg using a TODO.txt file) is one easy way to help prevent putting too much on your plate.
• bitsoda 3y ago
  Glad to know I'm not the only madman using a slew of text files to dump their thoughts into. My kids will surely think I was a crazy person if they ever stumble on them after I pass.
• ProxCoques 3y ago
  Archy had everything in one file too, for similar reasons to the ones expressed in FTA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archy_(software)
• jaystraw 3y ago
  the checkout fallacy: waiting in line compresses your perception of time. when your items are being rung up, and it's time to pay, your perception of time dilates. i pay cash mostly. if i don't organize my change at the register, i have to do it later, which i'm less likely to do since others behind me are waiting, causing my next transaction to take longer. i don't want to hold up the line, but i'm largely unaware of the time it took those ahead of me to accomplish the same task i'm sweating through and doing poorly. what i'm attempting to propose via analogy, is that systems are only as effective as the amount of time you put in. if social pressure causes me to toss everything back into my pocket haphazardly, it takes me more time in the future to use those things. i used a straight text file with my own format while i had my own business. it worked. i'm not a dev anymore, i'm a musician and booker. if i don't amend my calendar or text file or handwritten notebook in the moment? i'm toast. the fallacy is thinking one system is better when any system that's not updated fails
• gtzi 3y ago
  Yes – and I’m using Writeroom.
• peso4ek 3y ago
  I use the same system but with highlighting/formatting of https://xit.jotaen.net https://xit.jotaen.net I even learned how to create a plugin for the IntelliJ IDEA and created one for highlighting this format (love idea hotkeys and workflow).
• yard2010 3y ago
  > 4pm Rihanna talk (368 CIT) 5pm 1:1 with Beyonce #phdadvisee Sounds like a nice day.
• gumby 3y ago
  > Every night before I go to bed, I take all the items on my calendar for the next day and append it to the end of the text file as a daily todo list, so I know exactly what I'm doing when I wake up. T This is a key win. Most of the rest he describes is support (also cruicial). But setting up your day the night before is amazingly powerful. Many of the things I plan for the day I actually schedule into my calendar (12:30-13:00 read and respond to those three unanswered messages from Jane).
  • blowski 3y ago
    This is the challenge of the modern manager, especially in remote jobs. You turn on the computer with a plan, and then 345 Slack messages and 10 Zoom meetings later, you consider working on it. As an EM, I really miss that state of flow and productivity. I’m whinging because I see other managers that have nailed this so much better than me and I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
    • ambicapter 3y ago
      Can you get started on the things you need to do before attending to those Slack messages?
    • gumby 3y ago
      I address it with asynchrony: I look at my mail when I get up and normally at three other fixed times. Sometimes there's something complicated going on via mail and I have to be more responsive. Today I'm trying to debug something with a prospective partner who is in Japan (normally in NYC) so I check for messages from them between tasks. But otherwise it's systolic. I also run a lot of automation over my mail most of which causes me not to see as much. For slack, we have a culture that it's either transient (doesn't matter what someone wrote yesterday) or, depending on channel, archival ("here's the documents from partner P") which means you search for it but don't otherwise follow in real time. We're relatively hardcore about channels so that you can ignore ones that aren't germane to you. So I skim them in the same times I check mail. Zoom meetings...I have the luxury of mostly only attending meetings with agenda and objectives published ahead of time. We try to do as much as possible asynchronously though we have one outside partner who doesn't do any homework and tries to use meetings to get work done rather than just use them for things that can't be handled asynchronously. And also: certain topics are only handled on certain days, e.g. patent (bletch) related stuff I only work on tuesdays and fridays. Otherwise it will just sit in my inbox or wherever.
• snarfy 3y ago
  I noticed your format is pretty close to markdown, which is itself just ascii. Might as well go all the way.
• BasilPH 3y ago
  I'm doing something similar with Obsidian daily notes[^1]. I also have a weekly note that I use to plan the next week. Similar to how the author talks about scheduling their next day the evening before, I've started planning the big tasks for next on Friday afternoon, as this gives me momentum on Monday morning. Related: I've found the 3/3/3 technique from Oliver Burkeman[^2] and the concept of open and closed lists to be a great complement for this type of organization. It hits the sweet-spot of flexibility and consistency for me. [^1]: https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Daily+notes https://help.obsidian.md/Plugins/Daily+notes [^2]: https://ckarchive.com/b/e5uph7hx43mn https://ckarchive.com/b/e5uph7hx43mn
  • sssilver 3y ago
    Those who are familiar with both Obsidian and Bear — what are the principal differences for this particular use case?
  • andygeorge 3y ago
    +1 for Obsidian, it's invaluable for my day-to-day AND long-term stuff
  • zeta0134 3y ago
    Happy Obsidian user here. I love that the "vault" concept it uses is literally just a folder of markdown files, meaning I'm still in full control of my data. I don't use their proprietary sync service, I just drop it into a regular folder and let syncthing take care of cloning it to every device I own and a few extras for backup. Obsidian itself has got to be the nicest markdown editor I have ever used, hands down. It gets so many of the little details absolutely right, down to tiny things like a quick shortcut to turn a list item into a checkbox (Ctrl+L) and then into a checked box (Ctrl+L again), without needing to even think about the underlying syntax. But you totally can, if you need that control. It's great.
    • vunderba 3y ago
      Vaults are great. I compartmentalize all notes surrounding each consulting job as a self-contained folder/vault - that way I only have to search relevant information but still have access to it at a later time if I want to open that vault again.
• tarr11 3y ago
  OP uses their calendar as a supplement for their the todo file. There is a lot of functionality implied in that decision: - calendars have mobile apps which enable quick and precise entry - calendars understand time spans - calendars have many options to display events - calendars have cloud syncing - calendars are backed by a queryable data store Not saying using a text file is good or bad, but I think a more accurate title would be “my productivity app is a never ending txt file and a calendar app”
  • joemi 3y ago
    Indeed. The calendar app really is doing the heavy lifting in their case, not the txt file. I can kind of understand the author not really registering just how much the calendar app does for their organization, since calendar apps are so ubiquitous.
  • mortify 3y ago
    I love using my calendar as a data store. The "notes" section of the calendar is often full of info. E.g. for travel it includes my itinerary, confirmation codes, links to my boarding pass, etc. One stop shopping for an event. However it's limiting for detailed lists of things to do (e.g. great for travel, lousy for packing list), and it's terrible for time-independent data: notes from talking to my heating contractor, screenshots of setting for my media player, etc.
• ukuina 3y ago
  [2022]
• kredd 3y ago
  I actually sent this to my friend as he always thought I'm crazy for doing this. Mine one is a bit simpler though, just a big .txt file with TODO and DONE sections. Some of TODOs just have dates next to them if they're urgent, otherwise it's just it's just a simple list. That being said, I do use my calendar-equivalent app on my phone for very time-sensitive stuff, just in case.
• nickthegreek 3y ago
  Previous: My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file (2020) (December 23, 2021 — 523 points, 202 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29661167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29661167
• jcoletti 3y ago
  Interesting. I've been using Things (similar to Apple Reminders) for 10+ years, which I thought was really minimal, but a .txt is about as barebones as you can get. Makes me want to give it a whirl. Curious about the use of Remote Desktop with a mobile device. Being an iPhone user, I'd prefer putting it in iCloud Drive or something more easily accessible natively.
• jckahn 3y ago
  This really is the way. Just one long append-only dump of all pertinent information. It’s the perfect complement to what’s in my head because I know where everything is!
• TOGoS 3y ago
  I use a format[1] that's _slightly_ more structured, in that files are divided into explicit entries with headers to indicate whatever metadata I want, and I also use this same format for storing other information (metadata about my music[2], workshop projects, orders, whatever). Other than that, same, bro. [1] https://github.com/TOGoS/TEF https://github.com/TOGoS/TEF [2] https://www.nuke24.net/music/music.txt https://www.nuke24.net/music/music.txt
• deleted 3y ago
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• deleted 3y ago
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• ivalm 3y ago
  This is how I run all my one-on-ones, just an append only list where every meeting just gets appended on top of another with a date. If there are kaban tasks/external documents/etc that are relevant they still get linked into this page. It very amazing to see what we're working on now, a week ago, a month ago, etc. And as a collaborative free-form document it gives both the manager and their report the ability to craft a story of what's happening (and check in on progress in a way that dashboards fail to represent correctly!).
• devmor 3y ago
  I just use a weekly planner. I have a nice one without pre-printed dates made by Moleskein. I find the act of writing things down with a pen helps me remember them better as well.
• walteweiss 3y ago
  Make it .org file and you’re in a different league instantly.
  • kingkongjaffa 3y ago
    I've maintained a single log.org file for 5 years now and it's been great!
    • walteweiss 3y ago
      I have multiple files, by the way. And as a recent org user I’m not quite sure what is better. It feels like org designed with huge files in mind, although for me it works with multiple files as well.
      • kingkongjaffa 3y ago
        I just kept getting lost and having an org agenda with missing files, so I just have the one file and my org agenda pulls up all the TODO’s I have from across 1000’s of lines. That way I am sure if my org agenda adds anything then I have everything in one place (since its one file its all or nothing)
• due-rr 3y ago
  I love the idea. Do you think he uses Remote Desktop from his phone? Or does he only use a desktop or a laptop.
• intrasight 3y ago
  I've been doing this long enough now (decades) that some of my .txt files (I have one per client/project) are in the size range of 20mb.
  • ta1243 3y ago
    That's about 2.5-3 million words, 5 times the length of Lord of the rings.
    • kjkjadksj 3y ago
      I wonder what astronomical figure they’ve billed the client just to spend that much time on the notetaking part of this project
      • intrasight 3y ago
        What astronomical figure does a law firm bill for all their words.
    • intrasight 3y ago
      Lots of code and data ends up in my .txt files. Also I just checked actual stats. Only three client/project files are over 10MB. Most are in the 2-4MB range.
• superkuh 3y ago
  Same. Ever since I had my proprietary rich text note taking application/database corrupt and become inaccessible in the early 2000s I've used a single notes.txt file with filepaths for noting images and other rich media. It is super simple to search within; everything is in one place. And it'll never become corrupted or inaccessible.
• Ecoste 3y ago
  Now do an article on how to get the discipline to keep this going.
  • npteljes 3y ago
    My personal approach was that I realized how useful it is for me, and how deeply I appreciate it that I don't forget things. The second thing that helped is to realize how I use my devices, and how the note taking can be set up to accommodate that. For me, this meant a system to sync my notes between my main computer and my phone. This way I have the information everywhere I need it to be, and also it's backed up, which is a nice bonus.
  • dudinax 3y ago
    As an undisciplined person who nevertheless does something similar, elimination of the fear of forgetting something is enough motivation.
    • cpeterso 3y ago
      It’s your “backup brain”.
• ivanjermakov 3y ago
  I ended up using plain text files because it's the most efficient editing experience with my editor. Although I have multiple files for different things: work reminders, abstract ideas, bookmarks, etc. For time sensitive events I use stock calendar app on my phone because it's the only thing I need notifications for (except email).
• ramses0 3y ago
  I've had pretty decent luck with `todo.txt` style tracking, but also tend to run into issues with tasks or notes "going stale" so came up with this system. `today` basically opens `~/Desktop/$YYYY_MM_DD-todo.txt`, but it'll start you off with a copy of the most recent (previous) file. This lets me have "durable" files (I can grep for pretty much anything and get a date-specific hit for it, similar to doing a `git log -S`), and also lets me declare "task-bankruptcy" without any worry (I can always "rewind" to any particular point in time). The addition of `report` (aka: `diff $YESTERDAY $TODAY`) is helpful to see what I've added/removed. Yeah, there's better ways to do things, but the degenerate simplicity of `open ~/Desktop/todo.txt` is fantastic. Having the equivalent of `open ~/Desktop/$TODAY.txt` (with no ceremony) has been very valuable to me! $ cat ~/bin/today #!/bin/bash TODO_HOME="$HOME/Desktop" TODAY="$( date "+%Y-%m-%d" )" TODAY_FILE="$TODO_HOME/todo-$TODAY-todo.txt" PREVIOUS_FILE="$( ~/bin/previous )" if [[ ! -f "$TODAY_FILE" ]]; then cp "$PREVIOUS_FILE" "$TODAY_FILE" fi report "$TODAY_FILE" printf "Press Enter to Continue, Ctrl-C to exit." && read -r PROMPT open "$TODAY_FILE" echo "$TODAY" $ cat ~/bin/previous #!/bin/bash TODO_HOME="$HOME/Desktop/" TODAYS_DATE="$( date "+%Y-%m-%d" )" MOST_RECENT="$( ls "$TODO_HOME"/todo-*-todo.txt | sed 's/^.*todo-//g' | sed 's/-todo.txt//g' ; echo "$TODAYS_DATE" | sort )" PREVIOUS="$( echo "$MOST_RECENT" | awk -- "BEGIN { YET=0 } /^$TODAYS_DATE/ { YET=1 } { if ( !YET ) PREV=\$0 } END { print( PREV ) }" )" PREVIOUS_FILE="$( echo "$TODO_HOME/todo-$PREVIOUS-todo.txt" )" echo "$( realpath "$PREVIOUS_FILE" )" $ cat ~/bin/report #!/bin/bash TODO_HOME="$HOME/Desktop" TODAY_FILE="$TODO_HOME/todo-$( date "+%Y-%m-%d" )-todo.txt" PREVIOUS_FILE="$( ~/bin/previous )" echo "${PREVIOUS_FILE}...${TODAY_FILE}" diff -U0 "$PREVIOUS_FILE" "$TODAY_FILE" | grep -v ^@@
  • alabhyajindal 3y ago
    I made something similar for myself. It even has the same name! https://github.com/alabhyajindal/today https://github.com/alabhyajindal/today
  • FredPret 3y ago
    This is brilliant - thanks for the great idea
  • nickjj 3y ago
• eschneider 3y ago
  Yeah, I use a similar text file journaling system to this and have for years. Let's me know what I need to work on every day, let's me know exactly where I left of debugging, etc, makes status reports a snap, and makes figuring out what I did all year at review time simple. Would recommend.
• Gbox4 3y ago
  I've been using what is essentially a single sticky note (Raycast floating notes feature) for a year now and it works great. I put todos, meeting notes, ideas, and everything else in there with zero organization. When I want to remember stuff I read it. When I finish stuff I delete it. Has worked for me better than Notion, Obsidian, Reminders, Tick Tick, etc. I've found that for productivity tools, there is an inverse correlation between time it takes to setup and how effective it is.
  • safehuss 3y ago
    +1 for Raycast Floating Notes. Looking forward to their version 2.0 which will support tabbing and markdown. Should make it even better.
  • realfeel78 3y ago
    You get it.
  • al_borland 3y ago
    >I finish stuff I delete it. I run into the issue where I’m told to start new things all the time, then things don’t get finished, because of other new things that “need” to start. And no one ever seems to care than nothing actually gets done… but someday they might. So the list of what I need to look through keeps growing with nothing to keep it in check.
• zwieback 3y ago
  Takeaway: if you're already highly organized and disciplined a simple tool is all you need
  • whartung 3y ago
    I don’t see any tool working if you’re not disciplined. Organization is just a facet of that.
  • wyre 3y ago
    I'm not highly organized or disciplined and simple tools still work better, but a single txt file is too simple. I've had good luck using Things 3 as an easy and flexible to-do list for tasks I will forget and I've been using Obsidian as a tool for everything else. My takeaway is that the effectiveness of organizational tools scales with discipline and the simplicity of the tool removes organizational friction.
  • jimbokun 3y ago
    I see the causation in the other direction: a simple tool is more likely to help you get organized and stay disciplined, due to the low activation energy to get started and keep using it. Otherwise, there is a great temptation to futz around with your organization tools instead of making plans and getting things done.
• AceJohnny2 3y ago
  Obligatory reference to Emacs Org-Mode [1]. Author's approach is basically Org-Mode with fewer helpers. Org-mode's power is that, at core, it's just a text file, with gradual augmentation. Then again, Org-Mode is a tool you must install, accessible through a limited list of clients (Emacs originally, but also VSCode), and the power of OP's approach is that it requires no external tools. [1] https://orgmode.org https://orgmode.org
  • Zambyte 3y ago
    I found the hierarchy imposed by Org was more friction for me than it was worth. Adding Org Roam into the mix and making many bite sized files in a directory, and hyperlinking them together has proven to be incredibly useful to me. Notes fall out of my brain and are instantly discoverable. I often find useful notes that I completely forgot that I wrote.
  • Lyngbakr 3y ago
    A nice thing about Org-Mode is that you can keep an active todo list in one file for daily tasks and then at the end of the day send all done items to an archive file (C-c C-x C-a). That way, you still have all your tasks in a searchable format if you ever need to go back to them, but the active file — which you open each day — is small and snappy.
    • erik_seaberg 3y ago
      There's also org-journal, where a global keybind (I use the recommended C-c C-j) adds an empty timestamped item to a dated file.
• rocky1138 3y ago
  I do this as well, except I tend to stick to markdown for formatting. This file is routinely committed to git.
• jameschensmith 3y ago
  > So my daily routine looks like > [...] > 5. copy the next day's calendar items to the bottom of the text file Interesting. For a file with 51,690 lines at the time this post was created, I'm curious why the file is not ordered with the most recent day at the top of the file.
  • MathMonkeyMan 3y ago
    All that text is heavy to push out of the way when you insert a new line break. Also, the feeling of accomplishment as the job's entire history whizzes by when you press ctrl+end each morning.
• abulman 3y ago
  I'm also using Obsidian daily notes, with all un-actioned items shown on a page with a dataview API[^1]: ```dataview TASK FROM "VaultName/Journal" WHERE !completed ``` Since at least 2012 I've also been using a text file format from http://todotxt.org/ http://todotxt.org/ and more recently I wrote a program that takes a crontab-like list[^2] to pre-generate entries on a daily, by-day-name (every Sunday for example), and I also pull in a list of holidays from gov.uk, so they are also populated. [^1]: https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview https://github.com/blacksmithgu/obsidian-dataview [^2]: https://github.com/alister/alister-tools/blob/main/.todo.crontab.sample https://github.com/alister/alister-tools/blob/main/.todo.cro...
• cptaj 3y ago
  I use notepad++ with 2 columns of files and around 40 tabs open.
• js2 3y ago
  Everything old is new again: John Carmack's .plan¹: https://garbagecollected.org/2017/10/24/the-carmack-plan/ https://garbagecollected.org/2017/10/24/the-carmack-plan/ Archive: https://github.com/ESWAT/john-carmack-plan-archive https://github.com/ESWAT/john-carmack-plan-archive ¹ https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc742 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc742
• rabbitofdeath 3y ago
  I also use a simple text file, but for sake of context switching - I have one file for one topic - account x has a file, account y has a file, topic z has a file and everything related to it goes in. This is all now curated in my Obsidian vault that is synced via the fantastic Git plugin.
• web3-is-a-scam 3y ago
  My productivity app is just todo.txt in one drive using specificaly notepad.exe. You put .LOG at the top of the new file with a return. Save and close the file. Every time you reopen the file, the timestamp is append to the file. Add your notes, save, exit notepad. Open it again when you need to update, rinse and repeat. Nothing I’ve ever tried has been more effective than just keeping this endless file.
  • royjacobs 3y ago
    Oh wow, I didn't realize notepad had that feature. Awesome!
    • abhinavk 3y ago
      I cannot confirm right now but Notepad was rewritten for Win11. It might have lost that feature.
      • gl-prod 3y ago
        It still working, I just tested on Windows 11 and Notepad.
      • Kokouane 3y ago
        Just tested. Both the F5 and .LOG technique work on Windows 11 notepad.exe
    • machomaster 3y ago
      You can always use Autokey/autohotkey to get this functionality in any software you may want.
    • fuzztester 3y ago
      Metapad is a nice replacement for Notepad, with a few extra useful features, but don't know if it has the feature you refer to. Likely not, because work in it stopped a while ago. But it is still available. I had used it for some years. Still may in future. https://liquidninja.com/metapad/ https://liquidninja.com/metapad/
• ravishi 3y ago
  I use a similar system, but I duplicate and rename the file at the start of each day. Then I remove stuff that got done the previous day. Or stuff that is old and not relevant anymore. The system has evolved over the years. The greatest thing about it is how flexible it is. When faced with new requirements (new projects, job change, etc) I can just start taking notes in a different way and see if it sticks. I also commit it to git every 30 minutes using a cron script. Its awesome.
  • zestyping 3y ago
    This is exactly what I do, in Notational Velocity. One file per day, duplicate at the start of each day, with regular backups. I mark completed items with a "+" and items I won't do with a "-". Simple and works great!
  • jimbokun 3y ago
    I've landed on a similar process, but one file per sprint instead of one file per day. I take the last sprint's file, save a copy for the new sprint, summarize what got done to report in sprint meeting, then add the tasks for the new sprint to present at the meeting as well. Still have JIRA tickets to track tasks in a more formal way. But the text file is far more flexible and easier to quickly edit and view everything at a glance, as well as including things that don't fit cleanly in a ticket.
  • drewzero1 3y ago
    I don't usually take the time to write out a daily to-do list, but I do keep one for long-term projects that I tend to lose track of. Each line is a task and at the beginning of the line is the date it was initiated/requested. It's semi-structured but doesn't take any longer than typing out a note. At the beginning of the month I duplicate the file and rename it for the new month, then I clean out just like you do. I've tried apps, I've tried tracking systems, and this seems to work best for me for now. I can keep it open all the time in a tab of my text editor which I would have open anyway and it backs up with the rest of my files.
  • JordiGarcL 3y ago
    Doing the exact same thing using Obsidian and the obsidian-git plugin, which allows for automatic git push at a given interval. Works very well and it's very convenient to use.
• akira2501 3y ago
  Old man checking in. I use the TOPS Steno Pad and PaperMate Gel Ink pens. Light weight, damage resistant, and no power required. Still works a treat. There's something about writing information down on paper that makes it store in my memory differently. I read volumes of digital text on my monitor every day, but I write very little into the steno book, so almost everything I write gets stored very deeply in my memory and is very easy to recall even when I don't have the original.
  • MathMonkeyMan 3y ago
    I sketch all of my ideas on yellow legal pads for the same reason. It's my playground. Mostly diagrams and code snippets. Playing around with the names of things. For my "TODO/notes," though, I still use a plain text file in gedit. No timestamps, no nothing. When I want to remember how to build Envoy with bazelisk, I search for "bazelisk" and see the most recent, oldest, and all intermediate attempts with my notes (e.g. "runs out of memory, but if you're not building the tests, you can get away with 6 cores"). I've gotten into the habit of "tagging" potentially useful information with words that I might search for later. Need to save an error message for possible later reference? notes.txt. Meeting notes? notes.txt. TODO? notes.txt. Rough draft of slack message? notes.txt. You get the idea.
• dandy23 3y ago
  I used to track every project in its own text file. Every task and a description was in this file. It was great, but got a bit messy. So now I use EasyOrg [1] where I also track each project's todos in its own text file, but now with time scheduling, search by time, links to other tasks in the file etc. [1] https://easyorgmode.com https://easyorgmode.com
• chrsw 3y ago
  I thought I was the only one that did this
• wim 3y ago
  It's something I also tried to do for a while, just by using VSCode and a bunch of text files. I really like the lightweight-ness of just being able to edit as if it's text, but wanted to have for tasks what VSCode has for code: command palettes, "syntax highlighting", jump to "references" (like dates) and an editor which understands structure (like an outliner, but without all the awkward text selection issues). Anyway all of that led us to try and build a dedicated "IDE", but for tasks/notes and multiplayer support [1]. Hopefully it's going to be useful for others working from their todo.txt/thoughts.txt! [1] https://thymer.com https://thymer.com
• j45 3y ago
  Lists in text files work great. So unbelievably great. I go back to them often, and some things can outgrow them completely when you want to: - Reduce the work between my list and collaborating with others (a shared list) - First class convenient experience on all my devices is useful - Notes synced automatically can go a long way. - When projects grow, and there's more details to manage, along with updates, than not. Has anyone used the text file appoach that can be compatible with LogSeq/Obsidian? I'm not sure why, but this time using mainly LogSeq has clicked. I do run it inside of an Obsidian Vault just in case... but haven't used Obsidian much. I really like the feel of per line item like a text file that logseq provides. There are tradeoffs too though. I think I might be enjoying it because it's plaintext, with a little bit more metadata, when/if I want it. The hashtags I invent that only I know are almost an unfair advantage for pulling up all the meetings with a person, or a topic, etc.
• mightybyte 3y ago
  I also use plain text files for a lot of my personal organization. My system isn't quite like what OP describes, but it has some things in common. Some of my files are also structured by date as a never-ending journal. This isn't for a todo list, it's for a journal of things I encounter that I'd like to be able to find again and that I don't want to accumulate as clutter elsewhere...i.e. in browser tabs, etc. Sometimes it's a web link, or maybe something I learned somewhere, something someone told me, etc. I include notes whatever words / strings I think I might use if I want to find this particular thing later. I use org mode and make each date be a top-level bullet so I can nicely leverage powerful text search tools like ripgrep, regular expressions, etc. I don't find it useful to force everything into a single file. Instead, I'll organize these text files somewhere inside a directory structure that I can recursively grep. Unlike the OP I do use mutable TODO lists to track high level lists of things that I want to continue to spend mental energy on, but I do like the chronological list of done things and I might think about adding something like that or maybe augmenting the chronological notes file I already have. I do depart from the world of plain text for keeping track of larger amounts of information such as good papers I encounter, complete blog posts that I might want to refer back to, etc. For this I use the fantastic DEVONthink tool. It's got a large array of powerful features including automatic OCR and indexing of images and an excellent search feature, but the one that I use the most is its ability to make a "web archive" from a link. This downloads all of a web page's resources and stores them in the database locally, making it really easy to refer back to things that I've seen before regardless of whether I have internet access or not, whether the website is still around, etc.
• xandrius 3y ago
  Joplin + Dropbox + Markdown = free form, full control over data, checkboxes (if needed), mobile/desktop support - top
• hu3 3y ago
  I use https://joplinapp.org https://joplinapp.org because it allows for pasting images and files. Supports markdown. Has easy sync and also mobile and desktop apps. Free and open source.
  • vunderba 3y ago
    Joplin is good but I absolutely hate the way that they structure your notes. If you have all of your notes in a folder ~/my_notes ~/my_notes/work ~/my_notes/music etc Joplin takes them and stores the notes internally as a SQLite table with UUID named markdown files. It makes it very difficult to use bash tools, finding them, other IDEs, etc to work with your files after Joplin has ingested them. Compare this to apps like Obsidian and Logseq (also open source) which don't mess with your markdown file organization.
• nonethewiser 3y ago
  This matches my experience. Its all about ingestion speed. Ingestion of the thoughts in my head, that is. Most note taking systems require you to structure it. That’s basically the whole point. I find that this just gets in the way. I just need a sort of working-memory dump. I have a note directory with a root level markdown file which I use for general stuff which i dont use much. I also have folders for each task # with a similar sort of markdown file. And sometimes (rarely) other useful assets.
• anonacct37 3y ago
  Going on 5+ years using a single giant org file. It's the only system I've ever been able to stick with for more than a couple days. I think of it as my labbook.
  • AndyPa32 3y ago
    Almost the same here. But I have two files, one as archive for completed stuff.
• dankco 3y ago
  I love the idea of using plain text files for note taking and task tracking. As others have commented on specific tools and workflows that make this easy for them to stick with, I thought I'd add mine. I use textnote [0], which is a tool I built for exactly this workflow but is hopefully flexible enough to accommodate many of the similar processes mentioned here. It simply opens a plain text file in your terminal and provides lightweight tooling for tracking by date and rolling up previous notes into archives if desired. Thanks for opening another great discussion of plain text note taking as a productivity tool! [0] https://github.com/dkaslovsky/textnote https://github.com/dkaslovsky/textnote
• pchm 3y ago
  I have a TODO.txt and it’s the only productivity system that I’ve ever been able to stick with. Just a list of stuff I need to do, what’s done gets moved down or deleted. Maybe there’s value in having an archive (a DONE.txt?) but I’ve found that after a while most notes/items lose the context and often it’s hard to decipher what they were about. One thing I haven’t figured out yet: I’d love to be able to keep this file open at all time, have it pop up with a hotkey. Currently it’s just a TextMate window that I often close by accident.
• PM_me_your_math 3y ago
  [dead]
• dbacar 3y ago
  Overkill. Just use Obsidian and never look back.
  • athorax 3y ago
    How is a single text file overkill vs. using a whole application to structure your notes and format with markdown?
    • joemi 3y ago
      It's not a single text file, though. They're using a single text file AND a calendar app. (That said, I still think it's simpler than using Obsidian.)
• d--b 3y ago
  I don't know how to articulate it, but I could never do anything like this. The ability to organize one's life like this is so foreign to me, it's almost like he's describing what it's like to be an octopus. I think it may be my emotional state that I can't manage. There is absolutely no way, I could decide what I'd be doing the next day every night. The thing is my state of mind would prevent me from doing half the tasks in the list. So shit would just pile up in that text file, making me every day more nervous about things. For what it's worth, I think I am more "normal" than the person who wrote that piece. So that's a consolation...
  • sph 3y ago
    The issue about productivity tools is that they target two categories of people: - those that like to obsess over productivity tools instead of doing work - those that share the same brain structure as the author's If you are neither of those, have ADHD, OCD or any other brain variety, most advice on the matter is worthless at best. The only way out is find how your brain operates, and what works for you. There is no silver bullet.
  • 6c696e7578 3y ago
    I've a notes.txt file that follows me around in most jobs I do. It's more a journal than a planner. Sometimes I put TODO in, sometimes what to do when a change needs to be implemented so I don't forget. That works quite well as I can return to that later, or see what I was doing some months ago. It's in vim, which works well too for me as I'm already familiar with how to edit. One of the popular getting things done methods was to keep your stuff in one place, at least this article keeps inline with that idea. If it works, keep doing it.
    • theshackleford 3y ago
      > One of the popular getting things done methods was to keep your stuff in one place, at least this article keeps inline with that idea. Do you extend that idea to mixing work and personal?
  • Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
• mrshu 3y ago
  Probably needs a "(2022)" in the title.
• twothreeone 3y ago
  I've been using chat apps "send to self" for this exact same workflow.. at work I just use Slack as it supports threads and basic formatting (e.g. render code blocks separately and clickable links). So every day has a few threads on different things I'm working on and I can just add notes on them as I go throughout the day. For my own projects I use a messenger app, which is not as nice because most messengers do not support threads. I was actually considering switching to an external text file for versioning purposes.. and being able to render code blocks would be nice, org mode looks like overkill though.
  • Kaibeezy 3y ago
    I like Slack-to-self for the reasons you list and also because I think of things to do whilst out walking the dog, sitting on the bog, or should be sleeping like a log (like now).
• ErikAugust 3y ago
  I made a Node CLI that captures everything in a flat JSON file: https://github.com/ErikAugust/todo/blob/main/applications/cli/README.md https://github.com/ErikAugust/todo/blob/main/applications/cl...
• twodave 3y ago
  I tend to format my plaintext notes as markdown to add a small amount of organization. I also have some light folder/file organization to break things into categories/topics/days, depending on what it is. That gives me a nice clean slate to work from each day, but lets me pick up where I left off on more long-term stuff. Finally, I push it all to a private Github repo so I can get to my notes easily from wherever I am. Overall this system works for me for several reasons. First, I hate pretty much every note taking app out there. Second, I like having control over my files. Most importantly, though, I don't actually need to write notes all that often, and this way of doing things is convenient. When my brain is so crowded I need to overflow some thoughts or tasks for the day/week somewhere, this system is there. When I'm managing it all in my head just fine, I don't have to worry about keeping notes up to date, and I can count on my own system not to send me a push notification bugging me about it.
  • charlie0 3y ago
    Sounds like Obsidian would make a great candidate for you on a note taking app.
  • cyanydeez 3y ago
    I'm guessing you're younger than 40. At some point, either your jobs novelty will wear off or your memory will just degrade. what happened to me is the lack of novelty in day to day and long term plans created a lot of unreliable data. having done a task multiple times, recalling the latest event details became a mixed bag of questionable facts. I still have the same capacity but now because I had such a great capacity it's redundancy causes issues. just take note.
    • kbos87 3y ago
      This hits hard. As I've gotten older I've accumulated a lot more complexity in my life. Finances that I need to take seriously, properties, family stuff, a decade+ of depth in my career... it takes a lot to keep track of everything, and to make it legible when you come back to it a year or 5 years later.
• dopu 3y ago
  I've arrived at something similar after going through a lot of different solutions: Evernote, Quiver notes, Apple Notes, Logseq, Tana: now I just keep everything in one big Journal.md file in Obsidian. I added a datestamp shortcut that inserts the date as a title in "2024 February 19 (Mon)" format, and get to writing. I use subheadings sometimes if I'm writing a lot on a particular day and it gets messy, but most days it's just a hodge podge of everything, and that's fine. It works. A big issue with computer notetaking software, I've realized, is that I was spending too much time trying to figure out where to put things: what note should this be connected to, which folder should this be in, etc. Dumping everything into a single document, under today's date, gets rid of that. The other issue this solved was that I never looked back at what I'd written previously: opening a bunch of files was too tedious to ever do unless I was explicitly looking for something. With this, I can just scroll down and see what I was doing last week, immediately.
  • trefoiled 3y ago
    Because this sounds so much like Logseq, I'm curious what about it didn't meet your needs
  • coffeeling 3y ago
    This is one thing where a Roam / Logseq / Amplenote style scrollable list of daily note files works wonders. It's one of the biggest things Obsidian lacks. Dumping things into daily notes is a really powerful workflow.
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• inferense 3y ago
  there's a much better way providing simplicity with full data ownership and real tasks out of the box in daily documents https://acreom.com https://acreom.com
  • usernamed7 3y ago
    Sorry but the fact that you would reply to a thread about a TXT file with the gibberish "providing simplicity with full data ownership and real tasks out of the box" shows you don't get your own product, and that you are unable to make a compelling case to use it over a simple TXT file.
• hanezz 3y ago
  Simple txt file is the best indeed. For easily creating a new file (from a template) everyday in VSCode, can recommend the vscode-journal extension.
• bachmeier 3y ago
  I tried doing it this way. While it sounds nice, and apparently works for some people, my biggest problem was stuff getting buried hundreds of lines into the file. I couldn't trust it to remind me of anything beyond the few items at the top of the file. Another problem was having everything as a big blob of text mixed together, unless you take on some overhead when entering things (put them in the right place) or during the day (moving things around). If this appeals to you, I'd recommend using a big html file with Javascript to query the things you want to see, using class names as tags. A good text editor will have snippet support, and you can just dump any new items at the top of the file as they come in. If you want to get fancy, you can write in markdown and convert to html on the fly.
  • cpeterso 3y ago
    I split my todo list into three files: today, this week, and later (backlog). Every Sunday, I move dated task reminders (and copy some recurring weekly reminders) from my later file to my “this week” file. Every day I move reminders from my “this week” file to my today file. Ideally my today file would be empty at the end of every day, but in reality I always have tasks that roll over to next day… or week. This system helps me focus on my most immediate work and still have peace of mind that my system won’t lose the reminders in my later file. I store my todo files in Dropbox so I can access them from multiple devices (including my phone) and get automated backup for free.
• iaw 3y ago
  VSCode and Markdown go a long way for me because it allows for index linking and some other nifty tricks. The main challenge is making sure the md files are organized.
  • machomaster 3y ago
    If one uses .txt files, then one might as well use .md. And in the way, one might as well use something like Obsidian. So information is still textual, but there are a great lot of additional niceties one can now have.
• hk__2 3y ago
  I mostly do this, but with a physical notebook. I wouldn’t be able to work with a .txt file because it’s too limiting: you can’t draw anything, you can’t easily make arrows between stuff, you don’t have the nice mental reward when you strike some item off your list. This is for the day-to-day organization. For the rest, I dump all my knowledge in a wiki (MediaWiki), and I use iOS/macOS’ Reminders app to remember things to do far in the future (like "cancel XYZ subscription" in 6 months) or at very specific times.
  • testcase_delta 3y ago
    I have an iPad and use notability for this. I have a 350 page note that's filled with to-dos, doodles, screenshots of quotes, etc. I love being able to just scroll up endlessly to see what I was thinking about or working on, all in chronological order.
• pwillia7 3y ago
  I ended up at the same point after a lot of trying and failing but wanted a _few_ extra features than notepad offers. It's also important to me to be able to take notes in a browser. I do use logseq/obsidian in my better moments, but having another faster system is so helpful for a number of reasons. I have been building my own text bookmarklet[0] that I use for this. [0]: https://github.com/pwillia7/Text_Bookmarklet https://github.com/pwillia7/Text_Bookmarklet
  • bobbylarrybobby 3y ago
    I'm curious what the reasons for another faster system are? Obsidian is pretty fast for me; I can't imagine it being much faster.
• disillusioned 3y ago
  There's a virtue in being able to take this and plug it into a large-enough-context-windowed ChatGPT to be able to search/converse with. Makes me think that the real play is to use ChatGPT for, say, an ongoing todo list/dialog/personal notes system for that purpose. Or wire up a custom GPT to reference notes stored elsewhere. Either way, the idea that you can interrogate, intelligently, a list of your own ramblings, is pretty damn cool.
• denvaar 3y ago
  I am drawn to the idea of keeping todo lists, but it seems like whenever I start to do it, I begin to feel stressed out or overwhelmed. Not so much by the contents of the list, but by maintaining a list in and of itself. Kind of like an obsessive type of problem. Does anyone else feel this way?
  • lycopodiopsida 3y ago
    You have to find your way of doing things. I mostly stick to GTD, and I've used Apple Reminders, org-mode, and Omnifocus (currently back to Omnifocus) over the years. My workflow does not change so much between these applications, I have to adapt it to technical limitations of the application somehow, but these are the same projects, due dates, tasks, inbox, reviews. Now what stresses me out out and overwhelms me is not having a system in place - now I have to keep all the tasks in mind and to think of them all the time.
  • Cthulhu_ 3y ago
    That's not unique, and also, it's often the trap of any productivity tool; doing things in the tool becomes a productivity goal and gets you the feeling of productivity in itself, instead of the tasks it's supposed to help you organise.
  • Gigachad 3y ago
    I only do them when there is a big gap between finding out about the task and doing it. Mostly I do them on the end of the day friday so when I get back on Monday and have completely forgot what I was working on, I can see a few checklist items for what I was in the middle of. Creating a 20 point check list is just pointless. Unless maybe it's a list of things you need to verify before pushing something forward and you absolutely can not forget any of them.
• evnc 3y ago
  Reminds me of Heynote, posted to HN recently[0]. In general I think this approach of "super easy capture into an append-only log" is great, especially if it can be paired with features to enable editing/re-discovery/search/synthesizing old ideas together, which exist in a separate view/mode from the "just get something down as fast as possible" mode. Working on something like this, but just in nights/weekends free time with other obligations, so it's been slow going. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38733968 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38733968
• renewiltord 3y ago
  Same. I saw a very productive friend just build a list like this: - Thing to do - Subtask before that can be done - Another level deeper - Another task And he just deleted things from the list when done. I adopted it and quite like it. I've tried keeping it in git, using some tool, etc. but in the end the Notes app on Mac with the same format helped because I dislike the strike-through stuff. It just occupies cognitive space. Just deleting feels better. Notes.app is nice as well because if I have it on a hot corner I can access it easily.
  • swah 3y ago
    What about attachments? :) Comments on new stuff on that topic? Etc. I need more, at least something like Todoist/Ticktick...
    • renewiltord 3y ago
      Understood. I do better without those things because I'm more likely to over-record than miss out on information but I can see how things land differently for someone with the inverse abilities.
• wouldbecouldbe 3y ago
  To be honest, that's why apple notes really is great. I have the same, but apple notes manages to save my mess on all my devices without ever overwriting my own changes.
• plg 3y ago
  I have been using Apple Notes which is great because I can read/write in the moment on a Mac, on iPad, on iPhone, and everything is (almost always) synced and stored in the cloud. I have been doing one note per day. On the other hand, PTF (Pity The Fool) who tries to export these notes. I know some people have written exporters but of course, whenever Apple decides to change format, PTF. I would like to change to a more portable format, e.g. markdown, but I am looking for a solution that syncs nicely across devices. Maybe iaWriter. Maybe just sublime text or even emacs and just put everything in a dropbox folder.
  • overvale 3y ago
    Text files in iCloud (or whatever whatever) works great. There’s a bunch of good iOS text editors. I like Runestone.
  • al_borland 3y ago
    I’ve gone back and forth between Apple Notes and more portable solutions many times now. It has been awful, but I decided to stick with Apple Notes. If/when it goes away, I will need to suffer one more time. If I keep trying to app hop looking for the perfect tool, I’ll suffer every 3-6 months for the rest of my life and never find peace. I like that Apple Notes gives me the option to write, easily add images, make tables, etc. While 98% of my notes are just text, and some of these things can be done in markdown, it is higher friction in markdown. So I’m choosing the lower daily friction and extra features, knowing that I’ll probably experience one high friction migration day in the future, but that day could be 10 years from now. The biggest issue moving notes out of Apple Notes was the extra new lines and spaces all over the place. I have to assume if the app is going to shutdown that some nice developer will make a little tool to take care of this. If not, meh… I’ll use it as an opportunity to clean up some clutter.
    • lloeki 3y ago
      > some nice developer will make a little tool to take care of this There are already a bunch: - (discusses the internals) https://devlog.notespub.com/2022/08/site-generator-for-apple-notes/ https://devlog.notespub.com/2022/08/site-generator-for-apple... - https://github.com/dunhamsteve/notesutils https://github.com/dunhamsteve/notesutils - https://github.com/ydkhatri/mac_apt https://github.com/ydkhatri/mac_apt - https://github.com/threeplanetssoftware/apple_cloud_notes_parser https://github.com/threeplanetssoftware/apple_cloud_notes_pa...
• dudul 3y ago
  > My daily workload is completely under my control the night before This being the key for such a system to work. Preparing a todo list the day before would be mostly pointless for people who have to deal with interrupts and such.
• jcul 3y ago
  I've tried various note taking / organising strategies in the past and nothing compares to pen and paper for me. I used to go through a lot of notepads as "scratch" work and would also lose things that I would like to look back on. So for the past few months I've been using a rocketbook. I have a special format for weekly todo / done tasks, a kind of daily log format, pages for meeting notes, and then scratch pages for rough notes etc. I usually upload the weekly / daily / meeting stuff or research stuff I may want to keep. Rocketbook ocrs the page and uses anything with ##s as a title so I can find stuff quickly. I have set up different Dropbox folders for different categories of notes. It's been working quite well for me. Some things like documention, or draft documentation etc. I do store in markdown text files, and sync between my devices with syncthing. On my phone I used termux and vim for editing them, which works surprisingly well.
• crtified 3y ago
  My todo.txt is more of a digital whiteboard, a temporary summary. Once the day or task is done, the text is wiped. (That's not to say I don't document things - only that I don't use my todo.txt as long-term record-keeping) The concept (along with sentiments such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39434558 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39434558, where the mundane inefficiency of having to access the todo.txt window every time is the annoyance) makes me think that a wall-mounted screen dedicated to displaying the list may be an improvement for some people. Alternatively a multi-monitor setup where one (perhaps smaller) screen is permanently dedicated to the list. After all, back in the old days when people did literally do all this with physical black/whiteboards and similar, you didn't have to "pull up the whiteboard" every time you wanted to look at it - you just turned your head a little, or shifted your gaze. In that particular sense, having to open or pull up a file every time is a regression, an added inefficiency.
• seoulbigchris 3y ago
  How did the meeting with Madonna go?
• riston 3y ago
  I am using a similar structure a single text file usually split by each day, which also gives a good start to writing my standup notes. I tried to avoid bringing in some strange formatting rules etc, quite free form. With a single file, it's effortless to go back and find out maybe why something was done in that way or why it wasn't done at all. Looks kind of like a work diary to me, I have seen people trying to do a similar thing by bringing too much structure/org modes etc and making it so complicated that they forgot at first why they are doing it. KISS
• mark336 3y ago
  I use my own messageboard: https://willashani.com/gigabots/threads https://willashani.com/gigabots/threads Feel free to post! And I use Apple Notes. I like the messageboard because you can see the relationships in a tree-based structure. I store techy things in the messageboard above. I store non-techy things in Notes or when I am in a hurry and its not high priority.
• swah 3y ago
  Nothing really works for me long run - my todo files get a bunch of random notes with the actual tasks, and I don't want to go back to them..
  • bbkane 3y ago
    I rarely go back to my notes either (except with ripgrep), but a good chunk of the value for me is psychological - when I take a note I can evict the idea from my mind to focus on something higher priority.
• Glench 3y ago
  About a month ago I made a chrome extension that adds a "sometime this week" todo list at the bottom of google calendar (a feature I copied from Hey calendar). Any items that don't get done roll over to the next week and I can go back to previous weeks to see what I got done. Super helpful to help plan out my week that way and integrated directly into my calendar.
• yorman2251 3y ago
  Flffmff
• goodburb 3y ago
  [duplicate]
  • rnewme 3y ago
    Why not just git?
• akho 3y ago
  This looks like a bullet journal (with the transfers to next day & from calendar), but without the journal. I, too, find the approach very natural.
• swah 3y ago
  I use all the systems mixed together, a bit of text files, a bit of Obsidian, apple notes, notion..
• aeturnum 3y ago
  Personally, I feel that Todoist[1] has revolutionized how well I can track things. You can use it exactly like a text file, where each line / task is tracked individually. I'll often add tasks for my current day (that will fail over to tomorrow if I don't get to them). However it's real strength (compared to a text file) is in its features for repeating periodic tasks. Other products I've used struggle with irregular timing structures, but todoist simply understood (for example) "the first monday of every month" for street sweeping. I still keep daily notes at times and track what I'm doing in other spots, but getting used to using Todoist to help me do periodic tasks at the proper rate has been one of the only productivity tools that felt like they "really worked." I pay for the app because not doing so would feel ungrateful, but I don't really use any of their premium features. The base app is more than good enough in my view. [1] https://todoist.com/features https://todoist.com/features
  • ryangs 3y ago
    Big fan of todoist. I've been using it for less than a month, but have already switched to the yearly subscription. I use Obsidian for my notes, but for remembering to do something, I now use Todoist. Any passing thought that I want to deliberately go back to (or even patterns of thinking, like every 6 months, reflect on this concept) can be put into Todoist and I know that I'll see it again. I contemplated trying to do all of this in Obsidian but the conventional advice seems that while you can, it isn't worth it. Todoist offering a simple mobile interface where I can quickly add a task is great. I wish reminders worked a little better (I'd been using alarms on my phone for reminders I want at a specific time, and Todoist reminders aren't nearly as attention grabbing).
    • aeturnum 3y ago
      I know they offer time-based tasks, but I've never used them. I limit myself to a resolution of one day and then setup alarms in the morning if I need.
  • sonnhy 3y ago
    I've used Todoist during my university period for writing my thesis. I've setup a project and laid down every section of the thesis as a task, then, night after night, I wrote some section and marked off the task. I didn't do anything particular that I remember of, but I had a great time, the interface was polished and it felt rewarding. I abandoned ever since I got my degree and started exploring other apps when I got a job.
• komodus 3y ago
  I do the same grouped by week with some personal markup like: FEB 18 - todo x done ! important ? optional FEB 11 - todo x done ! important ? optional
• Full_Clark 3y ago
  I use the notes app on my phone and I'm also split between two calendar apps and three email accounts, none of which integrate well with each other. It's a real dog's breakfast of a system and while I forget few things, I procrastinate many of them because the act of even trying to track what's done vs outstanding is very taxing. ahh well, c'est la vie
• koch 3y ago
  Looks like markwhen[0]. When making it, which initially started out as a strictly timeline-making tool, I realized it is essentially a log or journal language - write a date, any date, and add some stuff to it. Good for notes, blogging, a calendar, etc etc. [0] https://markwhen.com https://markwhen.com
• fma 3y ago
  This is basically this auto focus system I was introduced to. I use Google Sheets so I can have a few columns. I can print it out if needed, and easily accessible on my phone and desktop. http://markforster.squarespace.com/autofocus-system http://markforster.squarespace.com/autofocus-system
• conqrr 3y ago
  Did the exact same thing, sublime shortcut to add a datetime stamp (Python command) whenever I needed it. Moved to Obsidian recently and the daily note takes care of that. The folder system helps a bit with organizing recurring themes that the daily log journal didn't. Edit: Reading the comments. Wow Uncanny so many people doing something similar
• LeicaLatte 3y ago
  Good choice for non visual users maybe
• nnx 3y ago
  Anyone using Freeform (the recently added iOS/macOS app) similarly? It feels to me like it can be a powerful yet simple productivity helper.
  • overvale 3y ago
    I like it! Kind of an infinite canvas app. I had a board with boxes for upcoming meetings, notes from calls, useful links, screenshots of things I was thinking about, etc. A really good system actually.
• nunez 3y ago
  same, except I use MacOS Stickies. Way faster and much more persistent than Trello (where they end up, eventually)
  • overvale 3y ago
    Stickies is under appreciated. I saw someone in a coffee shop once outlining an essay or something in stickies. They had each point they wanted to make on a sticky, with some details, and they were moving them around the screen to re-order their ideas. Maybe not the most durable idea, but you could screenshot your screen if you wanted some kind of version control.
• Herodotus38 3y ago
  I started doing this for work after reading this here 2 years ago. It’s been helpful, but I haven’t made it a consistent habit to check the night before. I don’t access the todo list from home (partially due to barriers inherent in my work’s IT dept and also of my own making). I also keep it pretty limited to my work and don’t let my other hobbies/projects/family onto it too much. It’s been a good record and reference for things!
• namegulf 3y ago
  Same here but it's a spreadsheet Previously standalone (libre) now google sheet
• martin82 3y ago
  Planning the next day on the evening before has to be the single most important productivity hack in the world.
• danielrk 3y ago
  I used to use a .txt file like this for over 10 years that I edited with Vim and could also edit on my phone using Dropbox. And then I used the Mac Notes app and realized the search, sync, autosave experience, and other properties made Notes way more useful for me. Similarly, for over 10 years I used to compile my CV with LaTeX using a fancy template I designed, until I realized the time it took to edit it was just not worth it. So I pasted it into a Google Docs file with Arial font and just text bullet points and no rich text features. My life became way easier and my CV looks way less annoying. (This may be irrelevant to the original post but) I found that a lot of the optimizations I thought were good for me were stemming from an unnecessary attachment to a minimalist technical aesthetic.
  • lelanthran 3y ago
    > Similarly, for over 10 years I used to compile my CV with LaTeX using a fancy template I designed, until I realized the time it took to edit it was just not worth it. I went the opposite way - trying to typeset[1] in word processors just became too hard as changed CV to emphasise some things over others. My CV[2] in LaTeX was extremely quick to adjust for someone else who wanted an identically formatted CV. [1] I like the ability to do proper boxes all over the page for things that require box-models, like advertisments, which is what your CV actually is! [2] In case you are interested in what the output looks like: https://www.lelanthran.com/downloads/resume-1page.pdf https://www.lelanthran.com/downloads/resume-1page.pdf
    • tiptup300 3y ago
      Not trying to be negative, but the photo on your resume looks to me like a "negative" face. Not to say a picture like that should be happy smiling or linkedin look, but yours look like you are having a bad time. Although I'm from US where pictures aren't on resumes.
      • lelanthran 3y ago
        I agree, I will change it. Now that I look at at it properly, I look constipated :)
• tasty_freeze 3y ago
  At my first job out of college in 1985 I worked for a unknown, unsuccessful mainframe company. I started a TODO.TXT file when I arrived; when I left a year later I put my TODO.TXT (along with ADDRESS.TXT, DATES.TXT) on a 5.25" floppy and took it with me to the next company, and the next, and the next. I didn't buy my own computer until 1997, and those files finally made it to a machine I own and control. Those files have been in continuous use for 39 years. TODO.TXT's icon is the upper left icon on my desktop and I view and edit it multiple times a day. I now have 46 .txt files for managing things, where each one pertains to some particular topic: food, music, travel, a website, etc. All are listed in my main TODO.TXT and since I use vim, I can just move the cursor on top of any of the files and type "gf" to jump to that other file. When I'm done, I hit Ctrl-O to jump back to the original file. It is hypertext without the html.
  • undopamine 3y ago
    Quite similar to how I started too! A single piece of paper with a list of videogames I wanted to finish. Then it kept expanding with time - one txt file, multiple txt files, Evernote, Notion,... Finally settled with Google Keep (checklists) + Obsidian (~2,700 text files, interconnected and easy to navigate).
  • hawski 3y ago
    You made your private wiki. I used to use Zim and it was splendid. Then I went down a few rabbit holes and explored a more GUI-less approach, but in my case nothing ever approached the level of Zim. It is more on me, than on tools. Now, when I'm doing a job that finally doesn't cause me a burn out I am slowly going back to Zim and I like it.
    • Propelloni 3y ago
      Full agreement. I use Zim Desktop Wiki for years now and still use it daily, but it has become harder. I also write on mobile and the experience is lacking. I don't mind syncing with Syncthing, but there is no good editor. Markor is able to open Zim files (which are just text files with markup) but it is just not cutting it. Maybe I need to wait until the itch becomes too large to ignore and start my own little side project :/
• yieldcrv 3y ago
  same, I use TextEdit specifically because its seemingly the only gui text editor left on MacOS that isnt online sometimes I use notes, for the syncing, but then I regret it
• system2 3y ago
  My obsidian already got out of hand. I switched to asana for business todo but it also got out of hand. I still create txt files occasionally. I think it is inevitable.
• Kaibeezy 3y ago
  Jarring that the author doesn’t use 24:00 time notation. 3:45pm meet with Oprah 4pm Rihanna talk 15:45 meet with Oprah 16:00 Rihanna talk Monospace typeface keeps it tidy and the timestamps pop in a visual scan. Zero AM/PM ambiguity.
• danjc 3y ago
  This illustrates well that you don't need another productivity app - you just need a basic tool and discipline. This also generalizes to other domains.
  • pantulis 3y ago
    Agree, the rationale of the FA and the HN comments goes to show that productivity is not about the tool, it's about how you figure out a system that works for you.
• c-smile 3y ago
  Original EverNote (v 2.0, first public version) was built on that idea - endless tape of notes : https://notes.sciter.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/evernote2.png https://notes.sciter.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/evernote... Plain text is OK, or Markdown as poor man WYSIWYG for that matter, but at least images should be there too.