How to Keep a Journal in Plain Text (2017)

org-journal has a global-map binding (C-c C-j) that drops me into a timestamped outline for the day. It's pretty handy for recording a command snippet or query or something without having to think about where to put it, even though I haven't gotten into the many org-mode label and calendar features.

I use markdown syntax for plain text even if I'm not displaying it as formatted HTML. Having the option to format headers and text automatically is nice to have especially if you're sharing it with others.

It's simple enough to search through if everything is neat.

Line breaks are the most difficult issue. I was writing notes about investing and about my career using Atom and realized how shitty it is to use for that. I'm anti-cloud for certain types of documents and I wanted it to be as portable as possible.

I use the Notes app on MacOs for work notes pretty much all day every day. I have dozens of saved commands for Kafka and Kubernetes that I can just grab and run.