Grateful Log

• Clarity on a few projects I have going, specifically beginning to see how they will fold into the “bigger picture”.
• Plain text files.
• The right tool - it just makes things go so much better!

@aa Thanks as always for the grateful log! Plain text files?

@JohnBrady @aa Can't speak for @aa, but I'm a fan of plain text (well, markdown) because it will always be legible and markdown covers my needs for formatting. I've got a workflow for capturing web as markdown, starting with a Markdownload clipper as a browser add-in/extension. Thence to Obsidian.

@ReaderJohn Do you know todo.txt?

@JohnBrady I didn't know todo.txt, and it may merit a look if only because Apple's "Reminders" aren't working all that well for me. Still, I expect the problem is me, not the tool, which does allow me to separate personal from each of the organizations I have obligations to.

@ReaderJohn I admire todo.txt, but I don't think of any electronic record as "future proof." All is relative I guess. Plain text does guard somewhat against the day when your favorite app shuts down.

@JohnBrady Yep! I've come to realize that almost all of what I write starts out in a text file, using Markdown as @ReaderJohn mentioned. The files are lightweight, can open in virtually any app I choose, searchable, and won't be sold off to the highest bidder. Plus, the plain nature of them allows for complete focus on whatever it is I'm writing, so I'm not bogged down with navigating a massive feature-set. I've also recently started to experiment with using plain text files (in Markdown) as a knowledge management system, as I didn't want to feel locked into a particular system/application.

@JohnBrady Specific example of my use is the morning journaling I do. I usually write using my MacBook Air. I have a Shortcut created to capture a lot of the "front" matter, things like the Gratitude Log, how I'm feeling, where I'm at, what I want for the day ahead, then all of that goes into a note in the Drafts app. From there I continue writing. Once finished I use a Drafts Action to append the entry to a plain text file and also add the entry to DayOne. I've been using this method for a few years now. I like knowing that my entires are stored in two places, and I really like knowing that one of them is not app-dependent in order to read, move, etc.

@aa @JohnBrady I like the idea of sending it to a plain text file. Do you append it to a file in iCloud drive?

@aa what action do you use to append the entry to a plain text file?

@ReaderJohn @johnbrady As someone contemplating moving from Things, back to Reminders, I’d be curious to read your thoughts on why the latter isn’t working for you.

@aa @greghiggins I love this workflow, would you be willing to share the Shortcut? Also I’m curious how you’re pulling out just the gratitude log for posting to Micro.blog. Do you have a Drafts action that’s accomplishing that, or doing it manually?

@pimoore @aa I'm not sure about his workflow. I have a shortcut that automatically creates a journal template in Drafts. It runs automatically every day at 3 in the morning. Then I fill in stuff throughout the day (including my daily quote I post to micro.blog everyday). I was having another shortcut automatically create a pdf and save it to icloud everyday. I kind of like this plain text thing though and I'm thinking maybe I could have a shortcut automatically do that for me instead of me having to remember to do it every day.

@pimoore @greghiggins absolutely...here's the shortcut (never shared one before so hopefully this works)...I'm currently pulling the gratitude portion out manually and reformatting in MarsEdit before publishing to m.b. Could very easily automate that but haven't taken the time to do so yet :-)

@aa @pimoore that worked perfectly and I love that shortcut. Thank you!

@greghiggins Here's the draft action I'm using for both day one and the plain text portion. Quickly published to the directory, hopefully it works :-) it saves to the Drafts folder in iCloud, appending to a file for the current month (which is created if one does not exist). It has been years since I first made this...hopefully setup is minimal.

@aa wow … very nice .. worked like a charm .. first time .. congrats on the work

I then added a post to day one action in drafts and ‘silver’

Gold will be when I get it to post to a draft appending the template that I am already using .. which I will edit to accommodate this work. But until the. Copy paste / edit is hardly arduous.

@aa Awesome. Thank you so much!

@aa I added a tag to make sure it went to a specific Day One journal. Works great though. Thanks for sharing!

@aa Thanks so much for sharing these.

@pimoore  if I left the impression that I was dissatisfied, I left a misimpression. I’m satisfied with Reminders in conjunction with Fantastical. However, bear in mind that I am a retired guy without a lot of demands tied to my calendar. It might not work equally well for you.

@ReaderJohn Gotcha, yeah I think I did. One reason I find myself considering a switch back to Reminders, is the tighter system integration and access through Siri. Linking back to things like notes and emails can be done directly, whereas Things requires copy and paste or dragging items into tasks.

I like the UI of Fantastical but I’m not willing to pay double the price for a subscription. I might see how much I can get away with using the free version, but Calendars is perfectly usable for me otherwise. This is one feature I really like in Things—calendar events can be synced within it. It allows me to still use the stock calendar app, but not have to see it much. 😆

@pimoore you may want to check out GoodTasks. It syncs Calendars and Reminders. The UI is powerful, but somewhat complex. goodtaskapp.com

@pimoore I am very much in the same position with Fantastical. Natural language entry is great, but not that great. My sub renews at the end of August and I will probably bail.

@jeremycherfas It sucks because it really is a great app, feature set, and UI. But, greed.

@pimoore Fantasical has some annoying, intrusive "aren't I smart!" features that I consider bugs. E.g., if I type a description "Prepare for Saturday meeting" in Fantastical, it will date it for Saturday.

@jeremycherfas I dumped Fantastical and found BusyCal to be a good replacement. Also natural language processing and good integration with the MAC environment. Did the one-time payment.

@pimoore absolutely!!

@greghiggins sweet, glad it worked out!

@JohnPhilpin thanks! Glad you are able to use it, and further improve!

@pimoore Yeah. I meant to start giving the native apps a fair shake much sooner. I’m sure they will be just fine and I will adapt.

@leeS An interesting thought. Maybe if Calendar and Reminders doesn’t click.

@aa ha - well - it just might be beyond my pay grade.

@leeS @pimoore Playing around with Calendar this morning and it is much improved from when I last look. For example, if you select anything that looks like a date (and time) in a text file, a contextual menu will offer Create Event, Create Reminder and Show This Date in Calendar. Easy!

@jeremycherfas It has improved!