Ask HN: How do you manage your day to day work logs?

I use a dedicated diary-feed in Snackis (https://github.com/andreas-gone-wild/snackis) to store my logs since a while back. Besides privacy, the ability to selectively share posts with other Snackis-users and support for threaded replies and automagic updates is what finally convinced me to give up Emacs orgmode for my own dog food.

I created an app that makes it easy for you to save notes or jot down everything necessary, even allows for HTML and CSS designs. It is called MyPost ( https://mypost.io )

And yes, it was created in part because my memory sucks badly.

After you've created your post, you can save the link and associate it with your email address so you can return back to it later on. Save a bunch of posts and you can always view them later.

While I don't have a routine for day-to-day logs, I use it often to keep track of activities, write to-do lists, even use it to take quick notes, like if I'm working with a client and I write everything down... I create a new MyPost... they can keep track of it and even comment on things that are done or have yet to be done. All URLs are custom and you "own" that URL. I even wrote a post on all the things I thought of what people could do with it.

https://mypost.io/post/what-can-i-do-with-mypost

Simple to use. Find your use!

I use a notebook with a pen and something roughly corresponding to the bullet journal format. Portable, power outage safe, hard to steal remotely and easy-ish to slot into the legal process if required.

-Google tasks (for long standing things, to remind me that i should think about it from time to time)

-A note block with ramblings on.

-Ipad pro. (I recently tried to switch away from the note block but unfortunately it does not work as well as the old note block did)

-And i have recently set up a intricate system consisting of Post-it's on a wall. (will evaluate it as i go but so far it is good)

-Complete shit as fast as i get it so that i don't have to remember. (this i the one that really get stuff done)

I list down how I manage my work logs here. I hope this article helps you

https://hackernoon.com/an-organized-chaos-5c844f8a9c82?sourc...

I use a Google Doc. I insert each entry at the top, with the date and a bulleted list of things I did (each check-in, each meeting with notes, and anything else I discovered or decided). It's also a good place to jot down who I had lunch with (and things discussed), Meetups I went to, vacation days I took, etc. I keep this in an open tab and write stuff as it happens. I name the Doc after the year, like "Work Log 2017" and switch to a new doc January 1. It's been invaluable.

Onenote for detailed logs on a specific issue (bug/feature/research)

TFS for tracking effort in a sprint. And I no longer take notes -- our sprint planner takes notes in individual user stories.

Todoist for task management outside of TFS (and also for personal tasks)

Pen and paper. Digital tools still aren't flexible enough to capture the full functionality of pen and paper.

Shell script, markdown files and MacDown markdown app

    $ today
    created TODAY-20170726.md

- https://github.com/erikj/bin/blob/master/bin/today

- https://macdown.uranusjr.com/

TextWrangler and NV.

Org Mode stored on Dropbox.

At any given moment I have two "running" files - one being a general tasklist, and one being this month's notes.

On the general tasklist I maintain my own, much more detailed, copy of what's in the issue tracker we use. I rotate that file every few months, copying over unfinished tasks. I also use it to record any bug and weird thing I spot with the application, if I don't have time to investigate it, so that I won't forget it and can come back to it later.

The monthly notes file has entries for each work day. Each entry follows the same template:

  * <2017-07-26 wed>

  ** Things I want to accomplish
  *** TODO A task
      Some notes under it.

  ** Other work notes
     This is my scratch area. Here I just type when I need to talk to myself.

  ** End-of-day mind dump
     Here I dump the state of my head at the end of the workday, so that
     I can pull it in quickly the next day.

  ** Jira for today                                                      :jira:
     Here I note down task numbers I want to log time on - at least if
     they don't match the commit log 1:1.

  ** Insight from today                                               :insight:
     Here I try to note down something important or insightful I discovered
     that day.

  ** Things that should be automated                                 :automate:
     A most recent addition to the template - if something is repetitive
     and annoys me, it goes here.

The template is evolving, and I'm not always consistent in actually using it, but I'm trying - and it proves very helpful when I'm dealing with a difficult problem, or for some non-work reasons have problems concentrating. It's also my place for writing down stuff I wouldn't bother (or wouldn't dare) post on the issue tracker.

I created something called "Task files" in CoCalc.com. For each thing I'm doing in a project, I make a task, do it, and then mark it done. All past tasks are searchable.

I use Google Sheets. One of my friend started to try out using a Slack Channel and aggregates the info every week.

Moleskine and pen, using bullet journal format. I usually jump between that and markdown with a good ol' text editor.

I use taskwarrior (for tracking todo items) and timewarrior (for logging work and what I've done with those items). It integrates nicely in my current workflow (every time I spawn a new tmux window a todo list along with my current time tracking and my calendar for the rest of the day pop up), and it emails my personal address at 18:30 a list of what I've accomplished for the day and the highest priority tasks for the day tomorrow.

I do like to live in the console. If you're not a console/cli junkie, this might not work for you.

I tend to take a more task-oriented approach. If there is something important that is related to product, that will go in JIRA and scheduled/assigned appropriately. If I need to do something in the future that nobody else really cares about, including what I want to work on tomorrow, I'll just use slack [0] to remind me. Other than that I don't really bother with notes. I've tried in the past but things change so quickly I've never had value in reviewing notes, other than to get the action items. Notable exceptions made for board meetings and other official business.

I've also been using DropBox Paper [1] a bit recently. They have a really cool meeting template so if someone is taking notes they can easily invite the team from Google Calendar and assign simple followup tasks from there using @mentions in a checklist.

[0]: https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/208423427-Set-a-rem... [1]: https://www.dropbox.com/help/paper/smart-meeting-notes

Paper and pen (of two colors).

Draw a circle with text to the right, bottom, etc, connect to other items and sketches with arrows. In top left corner there is a type-box with "task|iss|pm|adm" text or combination of these — that quickly describes contents of the page. In progress, Completed, Rejected items are marked with ..., V, X. Once all is completed/rejected, big (V) mark near type-box is drawn, (W) for "even tested". If related group is completed, draw bounding shape and big (V) in it. Use colors for better visual cues.

Draw shortened operative plan (with ...) on separate temporary page. Dispose it once complete.

Put all papers into "punched pocket"[1] in you-see-latest order.

I tried many tools and formats, but these are either unflexible or slow to create, this tradeoff was never beaten. At first glance, one may note that there is no search or redraw capabilities, but these are not really necessary, if you follow simple rules.

Never reuse page for something completely unrelated or temporary. Use only one side of paper. Disallow your colleagues to draw anything on it, always have blank pages for them. Redraw papers that were wasted like above. Every [edit]discussed task should have a circle and text. Once punched pocket is full, archive bottom half of it into hard folder.

Listing these pages makes me instantly remember the entire situation/discussion. It never happens with post-created electronic records.

  [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_pocket

I use a variation of the Bullet Journal, but I use MSFT One Note to manage it.

I think the big thing, no matter what you do, is to establish a routine of reviewing it for a few minutes daily. No matter where you're capturing ideas, todos, status etc, I believe you need to have dedicated mental processing time to maintain the list, keep it clean, organize priority, etc. Even if you can't do it daily (you may not need to), try to aim for once/week to review and iterate....

(I'm trying to give you more of a philisophy for managing it than a technology, because no matter which tech you go with, without an established process, you'll fail.)

I just keep a simple flat text file. I have a command that opens that file and positions the cursor at the end. I have a simple editor command that adds a new timestamp when I start a new day. There is really no other structure (well, notes that say 'TODO' with checkboxes like [] for "not done" and [x] for "done", but that's really it).

The file is many megabytes long, and that's useful because it's incredibly easy to search.

I've tried other approaches, other tooling, and really it just came down to realizing that there was tremendous value in keeping a log, and that to be successful I had to keep it dirt simple rather than switching horses to new shiny every few months.

I try to write anything complex, easy to be forgotten and relevant to the project at an official place like a shared functional spec document, a wiki or edited into a jira ticket.

For my own day-to-day todo list I use workflowy. These are things that I just delete once dealt with.

Google Docs works well too, I think. Just create a spreadsheet and log in your to-dos as needed. Makes it easy to go back over and track what you were able to accomplish. I spend 5 minutes every morning thinking about what I want to do that day, type out 3-5 key goals, then at the end of the day I copy and paste what I was able to do (with any amendments if I think of other things) into a Google Sheet. Easy to add things like "time spent" or "project" if you want -- just add rows or data validation to the Google Sheet. Then pivot table that as needed.

It's always a good idea to track your time. If you were looking for a more automated approach, Harvest integrates with just about everything and makes adding notes as you do commits or close out tasks pretty painless. Free for single users too.

* Time Tracking and Invoicing Software Pricing - Harvest || https://www.getharvest.com/pricing

Trello -- I keep a list for all active projects, and drop a card on each list when something changes. Allows for a quick scan to see where I'm with each of my projects.

I use jrnl http://jrnl.sh/, which is an excellent command-line app for time-based capture. It also supports tagging and has a really useful query mechanism.

I use trello similar to this workflow (http://www.mytodoodly.com/).

Disclaimer: I am working Todoodly as a side-project.

Standard Notes works well for this. Cross-platform with fast sync, along with Markdown and Code editors.

https://standardnotes.org