Ask HN: Could you share the notes you took on a typical work day?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31395476

by weavie • 4 years ago

47 31 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

My note taking is all over the place, unstructured, random, but most frequently non-existent. I'd really like to get better at this.

I was wondering if perhaps people would be willing to share their notes from a typical work day which may help to provide some insight into what effective note taking actually looks like.

taubek• 4 years ago

What kind of notes are you talking about? List of tasks that you are working on, some notes on how you have solved specific task, etc?

weavie• 4 years ago

Any notes that you feel help you with your working day!

redox99• 4 years ago

Here you go:

adityam582y• 4 years ago

Just few observations:

* note down date-time stamp with everything.

* write explicitly, without any assumptions.

* write in a way, which will make sense to yourself, even after 5 years.

* almost everything is a draft, work-in-progress. Embrace the mess.

encrux• 4 years ago

The "notes" I'm taking are mostly slack reminders on important messages when I know I have to come back to it soon.

Also, because I'm very much still a junior, I started breaking down my tasks and writing checklists using Joplin. Especially for larger tasks, it helps me keep track of what needs to be done, resulting in (hopefully) less mistakes.

captaincaveman• 4 years ago

Depends on what you mean by notes.

1. temporary short term memory aids ... ip address, doodles to help concentrate and picture in your head what someone is talking about, or to stay awake

2. facts, concepts and relations, piecing together knowledge

3. tasks, todo's

4. ... dunno, sure there are more

ericalexander0• 4 years ago

Check out obsidian.md and the many YouTube videos demonstrating how it can be used.

mihaigalos2• 4 years ago

I'm keeping all my notes under source control in GitHub:

* notes from literature I read (articles, books, forums).

* code templates for easy starting of new projects.

* docker with tools I constantly use (including the window manager) - that way I can always have my setup anywhere on any OS.

* passwords (encrypted with YubiKey HW tokens + PIN via rage).

* interviews for candidates for our team.

* vacation destinations.

* ideeas for presents.

andscoop• 4 years ago

Can you share more about your passwords setup?

mihaigalos2• 4 years ago

Sure. See this: https://github.com/mihaigalos/pass

acemarke• 4 years ago

I actually wrote a blog post a couple years ago about the value of keeping a daily work journal, and that post includes an anonymized-but-real set of notes from a particular work day:

https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2020/09/coding-career-advi...

(re-reading that: at the time I was using Boostnote to keep my notes. I've since switched to VS Code and the Foam extension, although the only feature I actually use is its "Open Daily Note" command that creates a new note file - I have it configured to automatically name the file based on the date, and insert the date in the file title.)

koliber• 4 years ago

It took a long time to get to where I am. It's like a personal operating system. Over many years, tons of little tweaks and a few tool changes got it to where it is right now.

Key thing is to ask yourself what you want:

- plan your day or ahead of time?

- remember what you did yesterday, or over the past week?

- record details about a particular experience?

- journal thoughts and ideas?

This is not a complete list. Once you have a list, look at your note taking practice and ask yourself: What is one thing I could change in order to be able to better accomplish what I want with my note taking? And then do it. Rinse, repeat.

What I do is likely not going to serve others. What I have draws a lot of inspiration from GTD and from wikis. Some things are 'process" oriented, such as my TOOD list. Some things are "hub" oriented, with things like "Books", "Finance", "Project: Fix the sprinkler system". Hubs an have TODO lists, TODO archives, information, journals, pictures and anything else that relates to a given area. TODO lists hyperlink to relevant hubs. Hubs link to other hubs. Hyperlinks are key for keeping related things discoverable. It's likely that your notes will not form a neat hierarchy. Think of them more like a web. Notion is my favorite tool for this, but that's a personal preference.

Based on how you describe your note taking practice, it seems that the biggest problem is that it is "most frequently non-existent". Start by doing, and then see how you can do it better, improving things bit by bit.

iamwpj• 4 years ago

Anti-note advocate here!

Your notes should either be updates on tickets, documentation, or comments in code/git readme. You shouldn't be isolating information on separate platform and outside of the tools that you share with your team to manage a codebase/software stack/etc. You're doing a disservice to your team if you're withholding access to knowledge!

If you're not a natural notetaker don't worry about becoming one. Update tickets/tasks, docs, etc.

elliottkember• 4 years ago

Counterpoint, I take notes on paper that I seldom read. The process of writing (nice pen, A5 legal pad) slows down my thinking and stops me from interrupting people. I remember things better when I have written them down, even if I don’t read what I wrote.

paulcole2• 4 years ago

I agree w/ you. I saw a quote about this that says, "If you think without writing, you only think you're thinking."

diatone• 4 years ago

Counterpoint, most of my notes are gibberish and exploratory. For me the note taking process allows me to eventually synthesise a coherent idea. The idea makes its way to the team. If they read my notes it would confuse them, just like how I experience a mixture of confusion and familiarity when I reread my old notes.

k8si• 4 years ago

I read in a 'how to improve executive functioning' book that it can be helpful to have one unified TODO list. So that's what I do. I don't think I should make myself a JIRA ticket for 'buy peanut butter and milk'. I also don't think I should make a Confluence page about 'random idea for blog post I had last night while I was falling asleep'. So for things that I need to share that are relevant to work, sure. Otherwise, my notes are generally a very very very long TODO list (bullet journal method has worked for me), punctuated by things that won't quite fit into working memory that I know I'll need to remember in like 20 mins. Also random doodles that I use to help myself pay attention during meetings.

paulcole2• 4 years ago

Notes are for you. Updates to tickets/tasks/docs, etc. are for the people you work with.

notesinthefield• 4 years ago

Nonsense. My notes are for me, a synthesis of my observations or things of utility to me, why obligate the effort to everyone to make it all make sense to anyone else?

nso95• 4 years ago

I used to take notes all the time, but they have never been useful so I've since given up. Nothing more than short term stuff I can throw on sticky note.

kleer001• 4 years ago

Thank gosh I'm not the only one. I even kept the yellow legal pads I wrote them on, but they turned out to be useless. After two decades I scanned the interesting doodles and tossed the rest in the recycle.

pSYoniK• 4 years ago

It depends a lot on the day. My most constant notes are my personal studying notes that cover some tasks that I set for myself in a day, the work I do, any difficulties and any blockers things that worked well.

These personal notes are like diary entries, nothing fancy, all in regular MD, kept on my laptop/desktop/work system, synced with syncthing and pushed to a remote repo.

--------------- ## 12 May 22

TODO: - [x] progress with work in the first 2 hours of the work day - [ ] spend 60 minutes in the morning on the exercises (01:21) - [ ] spend another 60 minutes after lunch on exercises

Time Spent: 01:21

I managed to get to the Q&A section yesterday, which means I got through another 5 pages, not great, but good enough I think. The day was busy as it lined up with my monthly backup checks and I got sucked into a hole doing some maintenance on the logins and adding 2FA [...] ---------------

At work it depends a lot. I generally create a new folder for each new sprint and then dump in there things related to the sprint. If there are things that I feel are relevant to other sprints as well, then I add those to my main notes.

Most of the notes are simple, describing maybe some data flow or some abstractions I need to keep in mind. Any new API that I might want to be aware of or anything of the sort.

If it's a new technology or if it's something new that I need to learn from scratch, then I take time and setup a blank markdown and a new folder for that particular thing. Last time I spent time digging into this sort of stuff was when I had to put together a small console app that did a backup from one Azure Storage account to another (transferring tables and blobs). I wasn't familiar with the interfaces or the best way to achieve this, so I spent a couple of days putting something together.

themodelplumber• 4 years ago

Over here a daily cron job creates a general diary template with some dynamic components like calendar entries imported from pal.

Each project has a separate markdown file in the same relative location per folder.

Project file notes follow the same structure: TOC, People (phone, email, etc), Procedures (for example special invoicing procedures), Projects (structure-first), Current Position (What I'm focused on in recent context), Work Journal (Chronology), and meta-log.

I change the above about once a year in big ways, on average, as I find new tools or ways to organize for better results. The last year's big change was adding the Current Position section which I developed and transferred from position trading.

Note taking from a typical work day follows the Task BATL system, link in profile. It's very structured in terms of indented lists with special symbols for example, and usually list item steps are noted in 2-15m increments and 45-60m work periods.

On average days there is a need to moderate the structure, though, and this is also part of the same task system at that link. I consciously attempt to limit that structure to less time than it takes to complete a normal business day. Otherwise there is no time to be unstructured, which I view as an energy- and perspective-building period.

I use a set of common tags that also help me jump through files in any editor, for example +timesheet IN 3P OUT 330P (30m) Upgrade minor version and review all maintenance services.

At a higher level I have built other tools and shortcuts that help me find and navigate the various text files. The most common example would be a keyboard shortcut that opens a search input with very specific parameters. But I've also built gui tools to easily click and browse sets of files, and panel buttons to quickly open specific files. (In addition to the thousands of journal files and project files, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of files for various topics like Wi-Fi gear in my office, phones, my cats, favorite foods, movies, music, specific hobbies like swl, etc. So there's a lot to search.)

I bounce between my project files and daily journal all day, which also helps me keep my work in context, and avoid getting stuck in an overwork cycle. I have journal shortcuts that place a timestamp and a new heading for me so I can get in periodic resets during the day. A new blank space can be really important for a mental reset.

Hope you end up with a setup that works for you.

asadlionpk• 4 years ago

I recently started taking notes and I like LogSeq for this. My memory is of goldfish so I type meeting notes, code snippets, links, progress of the day, etc.

I really love the [[]] feature of LogSeq and how the datastore is .md files which I can just keep in a folder in gDrive/Dropbox.

brudgers• 4 years ago

Why do you want to take notes?

FloNeu• 4 years ago

Here they are ' '. Oh, I wrote an email and a teams msg - does that count.

justsomehnguy• 4 years ago

Lost the comment, so in a more terse format:

a bunch of unsaved tabs in Notepad++

folder structure to store the assorted bits of anything useful I did in the day:

~/projects/:

docker/docker-recipes/

$project-name/

$company-name/$project

Everything worth bothering to save to consult later (shell/PS scripts, compose files, text files, transcripts of shell history, ocassional Hugo site...) goes there.

penjelly• 4 years ago

i keep a exploratory todolist that grows as i work, if im really stuck on a problem ill draw out a diagram to help me visualize the data or the UI interaction. todolists are sufficient for me 98% of the time though. i use Notion for that.

fattybob• 4 years ago

When working, my notes are almost always confidential - operational situations in oil and gas exploration and drilling. I wouldn’t be considered suitable for my job if I started publishing the stuff anywhere - I’ve had staff that thought it smart and self elevating to broadcast operational info - they can face instant dismissal - quite foolish some people

smusamashah• 4 years ago

I have started using OneNote. Every page is an infinite whiteboard. I recently did a project which I couldn't have done without it.

Its a great tool to dump info as you would on a white board (screenshots, code snippets, bullets, check lists etc etc). Its absolutely not good for writing proper documents.

Ask HN: Could you share the notes you took on a typical work day?

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