Ask HN: What's your journaling setup?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16039166

by olegious • 9 years ago

15 9 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

For those of you that consistently journal, what's your set up? Do you use paper? Do you use an app? Do you answer specific questions?

Thanks.

krrishd• 9 years ago

I use an app that I made myself (http://write.itskrish.co), its defining features being:

1. you choose a fixed duration of time within which to journal (i choose 15 minutes even though it is initially tough to spend all of)

2. if you stop typing for more than a few seconds within the duration, you lose your writing

These constraints basically force me to dump anything and everything on my mind for the sake of continuous typing, and I've been successfully doing it at least 1-2 times a week for more than a year.

wingerlang• 9 years ago

While I kind of stopped using it, DayOne is quite nice on macOS. It let's you setup an automated popup that shows from the menubar. This makes writing quite frictionless.

It also asks you random questions about anything really, like whats you childhood memory of X and Y.

It also has a calendar view which is nice.

olegious• 9 years ago

The problem with Day One is it is now a subscription model and the old version no longer syncs across all your devices.

zapperdapper• 9 years ago

Combination. I use a Paipur notebook for physical notes. Slightly larger form factor than a typical Moleskine but very good paper quality still.

I used Ulysses app for years for journaling and note taking etc, and I loved it, I but don't like the fact they've switched a subscription model so I now use Emacs in combo with GitHub.

Something that I tried years back and it worked quite nicely was sending myself emails - it sounds sad but you get auto-archiving dates and all the benefits of the email app/web app (search, labels etc.). Tempted to go back to doing that frankly, but got into the habit of using Emacs now.

afarrell• 9 years ago

I have 1 paper journal which I keep behind my bed with a reading light. This is for me to be able to write down the thoughts that come to me as I go to sleep.

I have one digital journal that I use to record my accomplishments and feedback at work. This is just a Dropbox Paper doc.

I have one digital scratchpad that I use while I work to write down Question-Approach-Answer as I’m working through things. This helps keep me focused and helps me break down problems.

dejv• 9 years ago

All of my journals are paper and I do have few of them. One is strictly work related, another one is for travel, next is more like work ideas/things to do. They are all dated and it is just simple stream of what is going on in my head and what I think is going to be interesting to read in future (as I do read my old journals from time to time)

zachlatta• 9 years ago

I've given up on using any sort of branded app for notetaking. At best it's open source and the maintainers will lose interest in a few years.

When you write things down, you're investing in your future. It's silly to use software that isn't making that same investment.

After trying Evernote, wikis, org-mode, and essentially everything else I could find, I gave up and tried building my own system for notes. Plain timestamped markdown files linked together. Edited with vim and a few bash scripts, rendered with a custom deployment of Gollum. All in a git repo. It's... wonderful. Surprisingly easy. Fast. If there's a feature I wish it had, I can write a quick bash script to implement it. If Gollum stops being maintained, I can use whatever the next best markdown renderer is. Markdown isn't going away anytime soon.

It's liberating to be in control. I find myself more eager to write things down. I'm surprised more people don't do the same.

Here's what my system looks like on mobile https://imgur.com/a/nGplj. I usually SSH into the tmux session from a computer.

When it comes to the act of journaling itself, I’ve found that sometimes I feel like typing, sometimes I feel like speaking, and sometimes I feel like writing on paper. The most important thing is that the barrier to Just Writing is as low as possible.

With this setup, I just need to run `new_journal` and I’m dropped into a new Markdown file where I can just write. If I feel like speaking or writing on paper, I have workflows (https://workflow.is) on my phone for creating journal entries from voice memos or photos with one tap.

Ginguin• 9 years ago

Outside of keeping a Field Notes notebook on me at all times for jotting down ideas (or keeping score when playing a board game or cards), I have basically just copied and tweaked the entire system from http://plaintext-productivity.net/ to work for me.

For the journal, I create a new text file every month and use Markdown to type up what is happening. Every day, I insert the date and list what I hope to accomplish for the day. I will occasionally add what I have completed for the day, notes on random stuff, etc.

It's quick, searchable, and accessible from anywhere (backed up to both OneDrive and Dropbox and editable from home/work/phone, etc.).

ryanthedev• 9 years ago

https://boostnote.io

And a notebook

Ask HN: What's your journaling setup?

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