2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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---
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title: Thoughts on personal organization
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date: 2023-08-31T13:57:29.022Z
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tags:
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- organization
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- logseq
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heroImage: ./calendarHero.png
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heroAlt: pastel colored stationery background with a bunch of calendars and personal organization tools in a crayon drawing style
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---
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2023-09-01 03:38:49 +00:00
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Many people don't really use a calendar of any sort to manage their lives.
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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2023-09-01 03:38:49 +00:00
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I get it. Putting events into a calendar is kind of a chore. It's a menial relic
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from work and none of us want to even think about creating events during our
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coveted personal hours. We want to live our lives free from the constraints of
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the time boxes on our screens.
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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2023-09-01 03:38:49 +00:00
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On top of that, traditional calendar apps still primarily use email for the most
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part (sending invites, updating times, etc.) and the new generation of calendar
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apps suffer from the social network problem of having to get everyone on the
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same app.
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But to some extent, it's still valuable to have things down in writing rather
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than juggling it in our minds all the time.
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Which is why it's such a shame that the personal management story has always
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been kind of fragmented. Calendars are supposed to manage the entire picture of
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my personal schedule, yet they only see a small slice of your life. The only
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things calendars can see automatically with no intervention on my part are
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emails that are sent from airlines.
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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2023-09-01 15:09:01 +00:00
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> [!NOTE]
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2023-09-01 02:41:52 +00:00
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> I'm sure Google or Apple could probably ritz up their services to scan text
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> and guess events to put on your calendar, but that's missing the point. The vast
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> majority of people I associate with rarely coordinate events over email in the
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> first place.
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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## Journals
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For a while I've always wanted a kind of personal information manager: something
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that would put all my information in one place and make it easy for me to query
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across apps. When I embarked on this search I wouldn't have thought that the
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most promising tool would end up being a journaling app.
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(by journaling app I mean something like [Logseq], [Obsidian], [Notion],
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[Workflowy] or [the][roam] [million][joplin] [other][craft]
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[similar][stdnotes] [apps][bear] that allow you to write some markdown-ish
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content, store it, and then never look back at it again)
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[logseq]: https://logseq.com
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[obsidian]: https://obsidian.md/
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[notion]: https://www.notion.so/
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[workflowy]: https://workflowy.com/
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[roam]: https://roamresearch.com/
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[joplin]: https://joplinapp.org/
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[craft]: https://www.craft.do/
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[stdnotes]: https://standardnotes.com/
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[bear]: https://bear.app/
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2023-09-01 03:25:25 +00:00
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The world of journaling apps is vast but relatively undiverse. Most of the apps
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just have the same features others do, minus one or two gimmicks that makes it a
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ride or die. But there's one important feature that I have started looking out
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for recently: the ability to attach arbitrary metadata to journal entries and be
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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able to query for them.
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2023-09-01 02:41:52 +00:00
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While new apps have been cropping up from time to time for a while now, I think
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2023-09-01 03:29:45 +00:00
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a common trend that's starting to emerge is that these "journals" are really
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more like personal databases. Extracting structured fields is extremely
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important if you want any kind of smart understanding of what is being
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journaled.
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2023-09-01 02:41:52 +00:00
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2023-09-01 03:29:45 +00:00
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For example, I could write "weighed in at 135 pounds today", but if I wanted to
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find previous instances of this or make any kind of history, I would have to
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2023-09-01 02:41:52 +00:00
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essentially do a pure text search. However, with structured data this could be
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different.
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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2023-09-01 02:52:21 +00:00
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[Logseq], the app that I've settled on, is backed by a real database, and most
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importantly exposes a lot of this functionality to you as a user. It allows you
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to query directly on properties that you write into your daily journal or any
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other page, for example like this:
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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2023-09-01 02:52:21 +00:00
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![recording some property in logseq](./minicross.png)
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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2023-09-01 02:52:21 +00:00
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What you're seeing is me using my daily journals to add a todo item for reading
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a paper and tracking how long it takes me to do the [NY Times daily
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crossword][minicross] (which I've shortened to minicross). I just add these to
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my journal as it comes up throughout my day, but Logseq is able to index this
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and serve it back to me in a very structured way:
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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[datascript]: https://github.com/tonsky/datascript
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[minicross]: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/mini
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![performing a query in logseq](./logseqQuery.png)
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2023-09-01 02:52:21 +00:00
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With this, I could go on to construct a graph and see historical data of how I
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did over time. You can see how this could be used for more personal tracking
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2023-09-01 03:25:25 +00:00
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things like workout records or grocery trackers.
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2023-09-01 02:52:21 +00:00
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2023-09-01 02:41:52 +00:00
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The query tool is very simple and easy to learn, and makes it easy to actually
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_use_ the information you wrote down, instead of just burying it into oblivion.
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For example, I can write todo items inline in my journal and find them all at a
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2023-09-01 02:52:21 +00:00
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time as well. Here's all of the todo items that I've tagged specifically with
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the tag `#read`:
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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![reading list in logseq](./readingList.png)
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2023-09-01 02:52:21 +00:00
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Notice how the paper I added as a todo helpfully shows up here. No need for a
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separate todo list or planning tool!
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The fact that it truly is a database means I can just shove all kinds of
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unrelated information into my journal, do some very trivial labeling and get
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some really powerful uses out of it.
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In the future I'd like to do dumps for my sleep and health data as well
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2023-09-01 02:41:52 +00:00
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and have Logseq be my ultimate source of truth. I've started developing a
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[calendar plugin for Logseq][2] that will have the ability to display numerical
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data using various visualizations for this purpose.
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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[2]: https://git.mzhang.io/michael/logseq-calendar
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2023-09-01 15:09:01 +00:00
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> [!NOTE]
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> As an aside, this isn't sponsored in any way. While this post makes me sound
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> like just a Logseq shill, it's actually quite the opposite: they're an
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> open-source project solely funded by donations. I've been donating to them
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> monthly on [Open Collective] and they've been actively developing really cool
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> features!
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2023-08-31 15:33:26 +00:00
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[open collective]: https://opencollective.com/logseq
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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## Privacy
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Because people are dumping so much of their lives into journals, it's absolutely
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crucial that boundaries are clear. Without control, this would be a dream come
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true for any data collection company: rather than having to go out and gather
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the data, users are entering and structuring it all by themselves.
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2023-09-01 03:25:25 +00:00
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**End-to-end encryption** is a technique that ensures data is never able to be
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accessed by your storage or synchronization providers. If you are in the market
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for some kind of personal tracking app, make sure it talks about end-to-end
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encryption as a feature. While it's [not the end-all-be-all of security][1],
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it's certainly a big first step. Do careful research before deciding who to
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trust with your data.
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2023-08-31 15:33:14 +00:00
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[1]: /posts/2021-10-31-e2e-encryption-useless-without-client-freedom
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