I approximately "invented" this after reading tons of productivity blogs and stuff.
I keep an org-mode file with 3 headings:
* week range
** day-in-week
*** major topic
And then I log what I did in the day. It is unbelievable how much you actually do some days when you feel like you did nothing but yammer and poke small problems.
edit: I've done this for about 47 weeks now. I keep a single file, synced out to a backedup location periodically. Anything worth writing about goes in here. My hope is that any professional conversation and act is captured here, ready for later searching and review.
I also keep a high-level TODO list at the top of the file when I'm pondering priorities and direction.
Nah, not really. I really hit a comfort zone with this tracking system, so I haven't felt the drive to improve it.
The only thing that niggles a bit is that I'd like to check in/out on tasks sometimes. I know it's possible, but I don't have the urge to figure that out.
I use more of org-mode in other arenas: agenda preparation, PDF creation, and the occasional spreadsheet.
Honestly, you don't need org mode to do this. You just need a way to have a hierarchical folding tree (an outline) that takes text for both the headers and contents. I implemented a half-baked similar system in C# years and years ago - that worked really nice. I just use org-mode because I'm an emacs user and hey, it works well for me.
The nice thing about org-mode is it's as involved as you would like it to be. Sure, the beginning is a bit steep, but if you're already using Emacs, it will be a breeze, and you can keep it light (as pnathan is doing). I've been slowly inching my way into using it over a long period of time; I have to admit, it's quite involved for me, but it never felt forced, it was always "cool, that works nice; but I wonder if I can X?" and with org-mode, you can almost always do X. Or not, if you don't want to. Unlike a lot of other "productivity tools" it's very flexible.
I keep an org-mode file with 3 headings:
And then I log what I did in the day. It is unbelievable how much you actually do some days when you feel like you did nothing but yammer and poke small problems.edit: I've done this for about 47 weeks now. I keep a single file, synced out to a backedup location periodically. Anything worth writing about goes in here. My hope is that any professional conversation and act is captured here, ready for later searching and review.
I also keep a high-level TODO list at the top of the file when I'm pondering priorities and direction.