职业与工作方法jeffhuang.com
过去 12 年，我的生产力工具是一个 .txt 文件
My productivity app for the past 12 years has been a single .txt file
2020 — 2025，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
这篇页面介绍作者过去 12 年一直用一个纯文本 .txt 文件作为自己的生产力应用，分享他如何用这种极简方式管理日常记录，以及为什么它足够好用。文章引发了 Hacker News 上关于“一个大文本文件”（OBTF）、Org-mode 和生产力习惯的长期讨论。
为什么经久不衰：它用极低成本证明：生产力系统能否奏效，关键往往在低摩擦和可持续的习惯，而不是复杂工具。
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几十年单文本文件加一个快捷命令，实现近乎无摩擦的记录与检索，也便于回顾和写年度总结。
我用单个文本文件，已经几十年了。我把所有东西都丢进去，不太担心结构，它对记住细枝末节是极好的资源，比如“去年八月我觉得可能有问题的那个服务器是哪个？”快速 Ctrl-S 就能找到。我现在这个 7 年多的笔记文件大约有 10 万行，能在几秒内告诉你去年或前年今天我在做什么。我只需输入 note（可能带一些文字），它就会在笔记文件上打开 Emacs，加上时间戳，追加可选文字，然后我就可以输入或粘贴内容。几乎无摩擦，这很关键。写年度总结也很好用。我试过 EverNote/OneNote 等应用，没有一个像它那样方便、易用或便携。
kabdib查看英文原文
I use a single text file, have done this for decades. I dump everything into it and don't worry too much about structure, it's an incredible resource for "remembering" minutia, things like "what was that server that i thought might have had some issues last August?" Just a quick control-S and I'm there. My current 7+ year old notes file has about 100K lines in it right now. I can tell you what I was doing last year, or the year before, on this day, in seconds. I just type note (maybe some text here) and it cracks open Emacs on the notes file, adds a timestamp, appends the optional text, and then I can just type or paste something in. Nearly frictionless, that's key. Great for writing those miserable annual reviews, too (easy answers to "what have I worked on in the past year?") I use plain old notebooks (simple blank sketchpads, or something bound like a Moleskin/Lecchturm) for meetings, interviews, walking around datacenters and so forth where a keyboard is awkward and anyway, drawings. I've tried the EverNote/OneNote/etc. apps and none of them were as convenient or as easy to use, or as portable.
单文本文件方法可以追溯到 1985 年，并且能用 vim 的 gf 命令在多个文件之间快速跳转。
我 1985 年第一份工作就开始这么做。这个文件直接延续到我今天使用的几个文本文件：todo.txt、address.txt、dates.txt 已经连续演变 35 年。除了怀旧，我想提醒 vim 用户一个功能，可以像超文本系统一样在文本文件间导航：“gf”键序列（助记：go file）。输入 gf 会让 vim 提取光标下的文本（不必在字符串开头）并打开同名文件；如果设置了 ':set path=..'，它还会按路径顺序搜索。例如在我的主 TODO 里，我可以把光标放在某个网站 todo 的路径上，按 gf 就跳到那个文档。
tasty_freeze查看英文原文
I started doing this at my first job in 1985. There is a direct lineage of the file to a few of the text files I use today. "todo.txt", "address.txt", and "dates.txt" have morphed continuously for 35 years. Besides this reminiscence, I wanted remind vim users of a particular feature that allows easily navigating between text files like a hypertext system. The "gf" key sequence (mnemonic: go file). Typing "gf" will cause vim to extract the text under the cursor (it doesn't have to be at the head of the string) and open the file of that name. If you have ':set path=..' established, it also searches for the named file using that path order. For example, in my main TODO I have a section like this for notes on things I want to attend to for various websites I maintain: ---------- websites todos ----------- family website: c:/path/to/this/todo.txt personal website: c:/path/to/that/todo.txt resume: c:/path/to/other/todo.txt emulator: c:/path/to/emulator/todo.txt Just place the cursor over one I wanted to visit, hit 'gf' then I'm teleported to that document.
关键不是工具本身，而是把记录变成自动习惯并融入日常工作流。
这个方案的关键其实不是 .txt 文件或格式，而是仪式。任何生产力系统一旦成为习惯并因此成为你的默认行动，就能起作用。我认为 .txt 文件或 Org mode 对开发者有吸引力，因为它们感觉像我们日常本来就会做的事。同样的系统用纸质日记甚至每天早上一张白纸也行，只要它能作为自动习惯融入你的自然日常工作流。我个人发现纸更好，因为我解锁电脑前就能拿到它，不必面对工作、通信和通知的竞争；但我有很多同行如果尝试的话，白天根本坚持不了纸质日记或待办清单，所以数字格式胜出。真正的关键是养成习惯并坚持。
PragmaticPulp查看英文原文
The key to this solution isn’t really the .txt file or the formatting. It’s the ritual. Any productivity system can be made to work once it becomes a habit and therefore your default action. I think .txt files or Org mode are attractive to devs because they feel like something we’d be doing anyway during our day. the same system will work with a paper journal or even a fresh piece of paper every morning if, and only if, it can be integrated into your natural daily workflow as an automatic habit. I personally found that paper is better for me because I get to it before unlocking my computer and being confronted with work and communications and notifications that compete with it. However, I have a lot of peers who couldn’t hang on to a paper journal or TODO list during the day if they tried, so digital formats win. The real key is to make it a habit and learn to stick with it.
OBTF 历史悠久且实际有效，松散扁平文件常常胜过更复杂的知识管理系统。
“一个大文本文件”（OBTF）这个梗在 10 到 15 年前流行过。我出于好奇试了其他系统，放弃了我的，但我仍然惊讶它实际上运作得那么好。日历、链接、我写的东西的草稿——全都在里面。当我的文件 brain.txt 达到 1MB 时我还有点自豪。我给 OBTF 的新人分享一些旧链接，也提到它和 Zettelkasten 的对比。我多次尝试建立 Zettelkasten，但实践中，松散结构的扁平文件，也许利用操作系统文件系统（文件夹）和偶尔的临时层级，仍然胜过其他一切。
marttt查看英文原文
Ah, the OBTF or "One big text file" meme was making rounds 10-15 years ago. I ditched mine out of curiosity for other systems -- but I'm still surprised how well it actually worked. Calendar, links, drafts of stuff I wrote -- it was all there. I was kind of proud when, at one point, my file (brain.txt) reached 1 MB. I'll just share some of those old links for new kids on the OBTF block. Probably one of the discussion starters in 2005: https://web.archive.org/web/20060101001857/http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7567 Which apparently got inspiration from this: https://craphound.com/lifehacks2.txt And was passionately discussed by the 43 Folders crowd: https://www.43folders.com/2005/08/17/life-inside-one-big-text-file Me, I essentially stole and fine-tuned the syntax exlained here: http://www.matthewcornell.org/blog/2005/8/21/my-big-arse-text-file-a-poor-mans-wikiblogpim.html OBTF vs Zettelkasten (from 2020): https://forum.zettelkasten.de/discussion/1508/zettelkasten-vs-one-big-text-file I've tried to set up a Zettelkasten many times, but in practice, loosely structured flat files, maybe utilizing the OS' file system (folders) and occasional ad-hoc hierarchies, still beats everything else for me.
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