Why I keep a plain-text work log
I have tried most of the note apps. Each one lasted about four months, which is roughly how long it takes for the export format to start worrying me. The thing that survived is a folder of text files, one per month, with the newest entry at the top.
An entry is a date, a line saying what I was trying to do, and then whatever happened. Commands I ran go in verbatim. So do error messages, because future me will search for the error text, not for my summary of it.
What goes in
- Anything I had to look up twice.
- The reason behind a decision, especially a boring one.
- What I tried that did not work, in one line each.
- Where a file or setting actually lives.
What stays out is anything that reads like a diary. If I would not want it pasted into a ticket, it does not go in.
Finding things again
Search is grep. That sounds primitive until you notice it is instant, works offline and has never needed a subscription. Twice this year it found a fix I had completely forgotten writing down, which is the whole point of the exercise.