33 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
33 lines
1.2 KiB
Markdown
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---
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date: 2025-07-18
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title: The John Carmack plan
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permalink: /daily/2025/07/18/john-carmack-plan
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---
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Earlier this year, I wrote about [text files being the simplest project management tool][0].
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Whist watching a video by Nick Janetakis about his [notes application][1], I learned about a repository of [John Carmack's plain text notes][2].
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These are a collection of plain text files that he wrote to plan and track his tasks.
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He uses a simple format to represent different types of tasks.
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- Lines without a prefix are to be done or in progress.
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- Lines prefixed with `*` were completed that day.
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- Lines prefixed with `+` were completed on a later day.
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- Lines prefixed with `-` were decided against on a later day.
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I love the simplicity of this system, and how easy it is to add new entries.
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Plain text files are also easy to search with tools like `grep`.
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To find all open tasks, you can run a command like `grep '^[^*+-]'`, and run similar commands to show different types of entries.
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The simpler a system is to use, the more likely you are to stick with it.
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This explains why there are 394 daily plan notes in that repository.
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[0]: /daily/2025/01/03/todotxt
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[1]: https://github.com/nickjj/notes
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[2]: https://github.com/ESWAT/john-carmack-plan-archive
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