
Ask HN: The best app to keep a work diary - funkyy
Hi there. Is there an app that let you keep a work diary? All good diary apps seems to be limited to either mobile, or desktop. Best calendar web app seems to be all about organizing rather than keeping notes. Some ideas?<p>I am looking for app possibly with build in calendar that will let me to make quick notes for each day on what I did and how was my day work-wise.
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rasengan0
After many years of trying everything, a few conclusions have greatly helped:
only PLAIN TEXT, cross platform and date stamp every line item (add to your
dotvimrc or dotemacs or js bookmarklet)

mindmappers? - bought and tried them all cloud subscription notetakers - yep
pretty much all

Best to have data close at hand - Oh nooos, everything is locked in that
proprietary app I bought in the 90's or cloud service I threw 3 yrs in.

After years with orgmode and vimwiki, I went back to Firefox
[http://tiddlywiki.com/](http://tiddlywiki.com/) \+ vim as editor with
[https://github.com/docwhat/itsalltext/](https://github.com/docwhat/itsalltext/)

if you live in emacs then stay in orgmode or deft.el for speed if vim, vimwiki

rsync is my friend

~~~
mercer
I agree. I've been keeping work/life journals using various systems and
inevitably either the tool would become unsupported, my data would get
corrupted, or the 'friction' of opening the application would eventually make
me stop keeping track of things.

What really worked well for me instead has been to us Notational Velocity
(nvALT to be specific). I create a new note for every day (titled YYYY-MM-DD),
and especially for work notes I add a timestamp for every new entry for that
day (ISO 8601).

The result is one folder full of text files that I can quickly update and
search through using nvALT. I can use the same app for storing all kinds of
other things, but I can also use any other text editing tool for my notes as
well (grep, WriteRoom, Sublime Text with markdown plugins, etc.).

Currently I moved my 'journalling' into a locally running web tool, but
because the source data is just text, 'migration' has been trivial. It's quite
possible I'll move back to the plain text + nvALT solution though. I usually
do. I just can't help tinkering.

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chrisbennet
I use plain old Notepad on Windows. "F5" inserts the date and time which I
then edit a bit. I wrote a program to total the hours and such.

I started keeping a log years ago because sometimes it seems like I can't
remember what I had for lunch. :-) It a lifesaver when your boss wants to know
what you did last week.

Keeping a daily log comes in handy. A former colleague needed to know the
details of a project I worked on a few years ago. I had him search my old logs
and the answer was there (weird complier switch for using QT).

~~~
whatok
I've been using Notepad for quite a while and had no idea you could use F5 to
insert a timestamp. Thank you for this.

~~~
chrisbennet
Don't feel bad, I discovered it by accident. I think a cat walked on the
keyboard one day.

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reinder
I recommend DayOne, both available for Mac and iOS. Recently I've begun
recording done MITs in Rescuetime, because I don't want to make time for
writing a log but do need to jot down 1-2 lines on accomplishments. You could
also just use a text file, or Trello. Oh and DayOne has calendar and sync
features.

~~~
markba
DayOne integrates with the excellent jrnl project.

[https://maebert.github.io/jrnl/](https://maebert.github.io/jrnl/)

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rkwz
I use plain text file.

I use the following format:

    
    
      ----
    
      2015 September
      Weekends/Holidays - 13,15,20,23
      Wasted days - 26,27
      Project{Name}/Component{Name}
      01 - what I did
      02 - what I did
      ...
      Project{Name}/Component{Name}
      14 - what I did
      16 - what I did
    
      2015 October
      ....
    
      ----
    
    

So, I have a breakdown of my worklog by days and grouped by months. Multi-
month components/projects have an entry in each month. Holidays and weekends
are noted down for me to quickly know why there's a gap in the middle of
working on a component. Whole days wasted due to meetings are also noted down.

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slilo
[http://orgmode.org/](http://orgmode.org/)

~~~
erik998
+1 orgmode is the way to go. Everything is kept in a text file and you can
have multiple text files. It's a bit of a learning curve but a quick tutorial
and some practice can get you going.

[http://orgmode.org/worg/org-
tutorials/orgtutorial_dto.html](http://orgmode.org/worg/org-
tutorials/orgtutorial_dto.html)

The tab effects are pretty cool. It's the best way to track your ideas, tasks,
notes.

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jfaucett
I know you're asking for an app, but I just would like to suggest a good ol
fashioned diary. I use this method and really like it, you can sketch up
abstract models of your ideas and implementations, not to mention jott down
thoughts and algorithms easily enough. I really like the feel of a pen on real
paper, I feel I even remember better (I know on what part of the page I wrote
something, and can remember the dates, for some reason I dont have this kind
of recall when typing - probably due to all the noise and multitasking) when I
write things down by hand. I use this method and like it so much Id never
consider going digital.

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pcr0
I think Evernote might be able to do the trick.

You can put the notes under a notebook, and then there's an "Expanded cards
view" which comes sort of close to a real calendar.

Example:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2skt4exf5eg66e/Screenshot%202015-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2skt4exf5eg66e/Screenshot%202015-10-20%2012.59.43.png?dl=0)

------
mmosta
I prefer a combination of two methods:

Can't beat a regular pen and paper for quick recording of the micro-tasks you
do to answer the question of "what did I do today, what advanced, what didn't
and why?"

For things that need to be referenced or searchable, a timestamped flat-file
that you synchronize is the way to go, especially useful inside of your git
repo

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WilliamMayor
I really like using a calendar for this. I use Google Calendar and iCloud in
Sunrise, on my MacBook, iPhone, and iPad.

Events get a title that provide the project. They then get more detailed in
the description. I also have a Google Apps Script that pulls this information
into a spreadsheet so it's easy for me to report on my time.

What I like about this system is that it's pretty universal, fits into my
current workflow, and it's flexible. Every platform has a calendar app, I
don't have to do anything fancy to get my time tracker up and running on a new
device. I'm already using my calendar to tell me what things I'm doing today,
now I'm also using it to tell me what I did yesterday. Changing dates, times,
and descriptions is easy, you just edit a calendar event, you can even do it
on the train home when you realise that you've forgotten to update.

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jasimq
I just found out about orgmode and use that on a text file in sublime using
this plugin
[https://github.com/danielmagnussons/orgmode](https://github.com/danielmagnussons/orgmode)

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itemzapp
I recommend [http://itemzapp.com](http://itemzapp.com) \- it can be used like
a notebook, and it has not only calendar but also "someday" and "overdue"
column. The cutomized view might be also handy. It's more productivity app,
but it's web and it's easier than most of the organizing apps like wrike or
asana. I'd suggest you try it and I hope it helps :)

Good luck finding the right app!

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Gustomaximus
I use a combination of Outlook and Onenote. I'd really suggest trying outlook
tasks. I was hesitant to start having build my dream spreadsheet over the
years. But its great for scheduling tasks + blocking out time in the calendar
if that's useful.

Onenote I use for all note keeping. The structure is different so you need to
think how best to layout the note keeping first and then its a good platform.

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skriptmonkey
I use TimeTrap
([https://github.com/samg/timetrap](https://github.com/samg/timetrap)) for
keeping track of my time and pen/paper (Bullet Journal) for my work journal.
In TimeTrap, I give the name of my current task in the notes and that will
point me towards specific notes in my notebook.

------
kapv89
Google Keep : [http://keep.google.com/](http://keep.google.com/)

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apricot13
My first suggestion would have been DayOne but since your on windows that’s
ruled that out! (or moo.do) I think evernote is your best bet - maybe using a
digital bullet journal style?

Or just keep a bullet journal open on your desk and photograph the pages into
evernote at the end of each day. (That’s what I do)

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pajop
if you type .LOG on the first line of Notepad, it will also put a timestamp
(just like if you had pressed "F5") [https://support.microsoft.com/en-
us/kb/260563](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/260563)

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kayman
Surprised no one mentioned iDoneThis.com I use it to keep a log of
accomplishments of the day. You get an email at a set time (4:30pm) is what I
set mine to. For journaling I use a emacs journal mode. It lets you create a
text file with the date stamp.

To organise notes it's org mode all the way.

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devarist
Please feel free to checkout Devarist, it's an app we built for exactly this
purpose.

[https://devarist.com](https://devarist.com)

It's for capturing quick daily notes, supports Markdown, Screenshots, export,
daily standup view...

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tsocks
Workflowy :) [https://workflowy.com/](https://workflowy.com/)

You can use either the app or the web version. Best TODO list I've seen so far
(simplicity, ux, etc)

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heynickc
I've been using Yast [https://www.yast.com/](https://www.yast.com/) for about
5 years now and I still love the simplicity.

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danielvf
A good text editor! Make macro to open a text file named with the date of the
current week. Make another macro to insert the current day and time and a new
line.

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rreyes1979
Try
[https://github.com/rodrigoreyes79/ttlogger](https://github.com/rodrigoreyes79/ttlogger)

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varnamvmv
Moo.do - Organize everything in a tree:)
[https://www.moo.do/](https://www.moo.do/)

~~~
gexos
Thanks for that, it looks great.

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iJebus
Timely is alright, though free tier only supports a low number of 'projects'.
Depends how you want to use it I guess.

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gdiocarez
Any.do helps you and reminds you your daily and future task. Also "Discipline"
should always be imposed.

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anotheryou
I use markdown text files and display them as a wiki with yellow cms on my
desktop.

not too calendary though

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hanfer
for plain time tracking im rather happy with
[https://toggl.com/](https://toggl.com/)

------
devopsproject
OneNote

