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What text files do you use?

I started keeping text files of ideas a year or two ago, but the system quickly collapsed due to its own complexity.

I am a journalist and a blogger, and so I started out with three files. -- blog ideas and article ideas. I also had a file called "inbox" for random thoughts, most of which would get turned into GTD next actions.

The first difficulty I encountered was that it wasn't always clear, up front, what's going to turn out to be a blog, and what will be an article. Back then, I went by gut feeling, now I think I have some good thumb rules -- but either way, this decision should not be made at this stage of the process.

Then I said to myself, "I really ought to group similar ideas together, because they're likely to all end up in the same article or blog." For instance, I'm a Second Life enthusiast, and I'm working up a list-type blog post or article: "N Easy Things Second Life Can Do To Make Itself More Useful And Attractive" So I really ought to group all those ideas into a separate file.

So I started keeping separate files for separate projects. Separate ideas for separate contexts, too -- for example, I'm one of those people who gets only limited time with his boss, so I had a whole list with the filename, "@Tom."

Quickly, I had a half-dozen lists, then a dozen, and eventually the whole thing got too hairy and I had to give it up.

But then I heard Merlin's talk at Macworld, and he mentioned, in passing, while making another point, an "ideas" file. And I thought to myself, "One file for EVERY idea. That's the ticket!" Just open Quicksilver whenever I have an idea for something, invoke the append-to command, append the idea to the "ideas" file, and then move on. Read through the file and organize occasionally. Very much in the spirit of the "trusted system" in GTD.

Only now I've opened a second file -- I've started a Facebook group for InformationWeek (the publication I work for), and I'm using the "Post" command to post links to selected articles. I like to do that once a day. When I see an article during the day that should be promoted, I append it to the "promo" group, and I plan to check that group every morning.

I put next actions in OmniFocus. It's usually pretty easy right upfront to tell what's an "idea" and what's a "next action." Or it seems that way to me.

Which leads to the question:

What sorts of lists and plain text files do you keep?

MichaelRose's picture

Have your cake and eat it

This thread has been really useful to me. I'm now a big fan of the todo.txt and Notepadd++ is now a default.

But it wasn't quite working for me in many of the ways Anonymous Coward mentions; "the system loses its clean edges. the single file becomes a reference, a mini context/action list, and a collection device."

As soon as I got into one file, I wanted to break out again into small sections with clean edges.

So... I got thinking and my wishlist was this:

  • ONE file that I can search quickly and easily.
  • As small as possible (so I can get it on mobile dialup when not in a Wifi Zone).
  • The ability to see, and be, in contexts.
  • As portabile as possible.

My solution?


I have MULTIPLE @context lists in plain txt (@work, @errands, @online). A FEW MORE plain.txt files (calendar, projects etc). I edit files on live server (the FTP feature in Notepad++ is excellent for keeping in sync). I then collate all the files into ONE todo.php file.

Best of both worlds, multiple simple files, brought together into one.

The todo.php just collates all the contexts and builds me one file, I can then search everything, or skip to a context, or get the whole load on my phone at the cost of just a few kilobytes.

And all the files live on my server so myserver.com/todo gives me the whole lot, and myserver.com/todo/@work is my home page at work, etc. etc.

Next steps:

  • Add css to make it sweeter, with a cut down mobile version formatted for my screen size etc. Hey, maybe even one for my iPod Touch.
  • Add ability to edit on phone and MobilePutty it back to the server.
  • Automatically turn URLs into hyperlinks, auto format, etc. perhaps with MarkDown.

It's been a long trip, but I'm really happy with this idea now. So... thanks all for inspiring me. Hope this is useful to others somehow.

 
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