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Keep a Quick Log File
Posted on July 11th, 2008 by Debra Dalgleish
As I work at my computer, there are lots of things that I want to jot down, to act on later. Most of these are brilliant thoughts, or million dollar ideas, so I don’t want to lose them!
The quickest way that I’ve found to collect these notes is in a log file in Notepad. When I open it, the file adds the current time and date, and the cursor automatically goes to the end of the file.
To create a log file:
- Open Notepad, and at the top of the new blank file, type: .LOG
This MUST be in upper case letters. - Save the file as a Text file, e.g. MyNotes.txt
Note: I save my file to the Desktop, so it’s easy to find and open. - Close the file.
To use the log file:
- Open the log file, and the date and time are automatically added.
- Enter your notes, then save and close the file.
Filed under: Organization, Time Management
Comment from Dave
Time: July 11, 2008, 8:25 pm
I don’t like saving the real files to the desktop.
I’d rather save the .txt file to a nice safe location and then put a shortcut that points to that file on the desktop.
If I delete the shortcut, I can recreate it. If I delete the file, I could be in trouble.
Comment from Debra Dalgleish
Time: July 11, 2008, 10:03 pm
Thanks Dave, the shortcut is a good idea. At least I’ve got the desktop included in the overnight backup, so I can recover the previous day’s work if something goes horribly wrong.
Comment from Ken Puls
Time: July 12, 2008, 12:43 pm
Interesting… I didn’t know you could do that with a log file. Cool!
Re the desktop thing… I agree with Dave on the shortcut, but for a different reason. Adding a shortuct on your desktop only adds a couple of kb to your profile to store it.
In contrast, when you save a file on the desktop, the whole thing saves there, and must be loaded when you log in. Not a big deal for one file, maybe, but when you start noticing your login time slowing down…
The same goes for folders vs shortcuts to folder. I once had a user save a folder of photos on her desktop that contained about 20GB of pictures. It took her ten minutes to log in every day!
I’m a huge advocate of using shortcuts, if you’re prone to putting stuff on the desktop. (Personally, I like to keep mine pretty clean.)
Comment from Debra Dalgleish
Time: July 12, 2008, 1:22 pm
Ken, thanks for the comment. You and Dave have convinced me, so I’ve moved the text file off my Desktop, and created a shortcut instead.
my desktop is pretty clean, just My Computer, Recycle Bin, and shortcuts to the two files I use first thing every morning. The text file was the only thing on my second monitor, and I’ve got the shortcut there now.
In my defence
Pingback from Contextures Blog » Enter the Time in a Notepad File
Time: November 28, 2008, 12:06 am
[...] like to use Notepad to make notes as I work. In July, I described how I type .LOG at the top of the Notepad file, so the date and time are automatically entered when the file [...]