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djcb comments on On Journaling - Less Wrong Discussion

8 Post author: RobertLumley 10 February 2012 09:43PM

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Comment author: djcb 11 February 2012 08:03:03AM 4 points [-]

I think that unless you get the data easily (ie., automatic), it will be very hard to maintain such a detailed journal (well, unless you're neurotically obsessed). I have been using some tools to help me deal with this:

  • For endurance sports (in my case: running), I've been quite happy with Sports Tracker to record my times/distance etc.
  • To maintain lists of todos, tracking their states, clocking them etc., I'm using org-mode. It's incredibly powerful once you get the hang of it.
  • For overall time-management, I'm using something inspired by David Allen's Getting things done. Works pretty well for me.

In general, I don't think there is any ultimate answer to battle procrastination, but you can get better at it. Reading a book about it (say, David Allen's or The 7 Habits) now and then helps a bit, even if the effect is only short-lived.

Comment author: Anubhav 11 February 2012 09:13:49AM 1 point [-]

To maintain lists of todos, tracking their states, clocking them etc., I'm using org-mode. It's incredibly powerful once you get the hang of it.

On behalf of my fellow Vimmers, I hereby declare a blood feud against you.

<serious> Isn't there a good desktop tool or a web-based tool that does the same thing?</serious>

Comment author: dbaupp 11 February 2012 11:57:50AM 4 points [-]

The battle lines are drawn!

Google also turns up Vim OrgMode. I've got no idea how good it is (in absolute terms, or relative to VimOrganizer).

(And as an Emacs-er, I wouldn't dare to venture any deeper into enemy territory to investigate :P )

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 11 February 2012 06:54:49PM 1 point [-]

Org-mode made me switch from Vim to Emacs. It's very hard to compete against, since using the same large set to interface idioms for everything is a pretty big win, and any dedicated solution to just one aspect will probably fail to provide all of a spreadsheet, embedded LaTeX, time tracking and a programmable TODO list all usable without any context switching.

Comment author: djcb 11 February 2012 10:21:52AM 1 point [-]

There's VimOrganizer, which aspires to be org-mode-for-vim. Judging from the video, it seems like a nice tool.

There are many todo-list/organizers online (Remember The Milk is a nice one), but I don't think there is any tool that does what org-mode does.

Comment author: RobertLumley 11 February 2012 03:24:30PM 0 points [-]

Perhaps it will be difficult to keep up with, but I really, really, wouldn't expect so. Filling out the numbers takes at most a minute, and there's no real reason not to do it.

Comment author: djcb 11 February 2012 04:57:11PM 0 points [-]

If that works for you, that's excellent of course.

For me, it'd be hard to keep the routine -- it's not so much the little time it takes, but simply the fact I would need to systematically do it. So, when designing my own 'support-system' (various tools, scripts, habits etc.) I try to take my own imperfections into account.

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