: Re: How should I organize my journal as plain-text files? I want to keep a digital journal on my computer. I keep a physical journal in notebooks and on pieces of sheets, but I now want to back

@Lee1909368

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One file per year, fixed entry header format so that you don't have to guess, was that 4.Jul or July the 4th or 4.07 or 07.04 - pick any format you want but stick to it.

Why one massive file instead of many smaller ones? That way finding given entry is trivial using find tool. Appending at the end is less hassle than creating new files. But above all, searching is much easier. I mean: you have a keyword that repeats roughly 40 times across all your entries. You know the entry you look for contains it. If you use multiple files, you'll have to click every single file found that contains that word, read, close, open another, read, close... 40 times. With single file it's as simple as "find next" or F3. Also, with more advanced tools you can do more advanced searches, say, you remember 2 days in sequence, in one you wrote about a camera, in another you mentioned visit to your mother. There are hundreds of entries mentioning your mother and at least 40 about cameras. grep for camera including 40 context lines around each match, then find 'mother' within the found context. With one full line with specific sentence containing 'mother' you should be able to pinpoint the entry easily. You can still easily narrow down to "roughly end of spring" by scrolling to some halfway the length.

Oh, and plain reading, entry by entry, will be much smoother too.

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