Usually, ths simplest solution is best and your approach exemplifies it: no need for a special application, simply open the text file and then go to work.

I have found, and advise teams I lead or work with, that the tool absolutely does not matter because it is the discipline to use the tool consistently that makes a difference.

Now, having said that, shoving jira down peoples throats with all kinds of rules around tagging and whatever wears people out.

So, yes, a text file, a google doc, linear or a few post-its on the wall.

> because it is the discipline to use the tool consistently that makes a difference.

Agree, though I advise folks that tooling matters tremendously, because a bad tool requires more discipline to continue using than a streamlined tool.

This is very true. I guess I was thinking about all the times new people join a team and want to make changes to the team to fit the tools they prefer (including when a "big org" person rolls in wanting JIRA).

Toil and friction are killers.

In "Secrets of Productive People" Mark talks about building systems and that the lower level / background things should be reliable and without friction.

"Good systems for simple administration will free your mind for more productive work. Ideally you shouldn’t need to have to think about the lower-level stuff at all. Thinking needs to be kept for the high-level systems, which will be designed to fit each particular case. But even then the aim of designing a high-level system is to avoid eventually having to think about that system too."

Obsidian in a nutshell.

Too many bells a whistles to tweak, and isn’t conducive to consistency.

I run it without any modifications from the default and it has been working quite well tbh. I'm pretty far from being a "power user" of obsidian though, it's literally only a note taking tool for me.

This is generally true.

Logseq is one of the only tools I feel different about.

The per item line entry combined with a basic plugin to auto tag based on the words you type and existing tags, has been a game changer. I can simultaneously tag one line to multiple things without having to go the point of filing or adding them to each.

> Usually, ths simplest solution is best and your approach exemplifies it: no need for a special application, simply open the text file and then go to work.

I agree. The "tool" I have simply maintains text files and provides a streamlined way to display/edit the current one, switch to some previous one and switch back.

I made it to manage context switches. IOW, it's not to serve as a journal, it's to serve as a swap partition for my brain.

and a tool to squash or expand the hierarchy helps alot. jEdit can fold/unfold based on indentation. along with simple prefixes : '-' for info, '>' for todo, '= {date}' for done, etc

Mineis called README.md or notes.txt I use a similar hierarchical format - I use tabs for the hierarchy. I use markdown for most notes, but I find it somewhat incompatible with the tab-based note-taking that I prefer.

I share this in case there are others out there who work the same way. Let's band together to establish a tab-friendly Markdown variant!