Suggestions below are our learnings from using Recodin.

• Write like an accountant, not a novelist Day by day an accountant keeps recording financial accounts, logging what has happened instead of what he thinks has happened. He may note down his findings and opinions. But it’s not what matters most. You should, as well, be serious about logging everyday. Take care of the grammar anytime later (or never).

• Your life and your work is richer than you think When you first sit down to try, you think life is boring and there's nothing to put in your journal, but as you start thinking harder, you’ll realize how much you see and experience each day. It's best to log right after something happens (keywords first, details later). Just like programmers commit their code after finishing a task.

• Write about your decisions. “The process is more important than the result.” True or not, your daily journal is here to help you record the process. Why did I buy the expensive and small air purifier instead of the cheap and large one? Why did I use padding instead of margin? People can be really forgetful. You’ll come back and reunderstand why you made that decision. That’s when you find your journal so useful and even…valuable.

• Leave as many clues as possible Even if you do write down your decisions. You’ll still at times find yourself in a puzzle. So, like Hansel and Gretel, you need enough breadcrumbs. Instead of pulling them from memories. You should utilize readily available data (ex: task details assigned from your boss in Asana, the solution to a bug from Git repo). You’ve already made a bunch of trails. Don’t waste them and make your journaling easier.

• There should not be a project called “Work”…or “Life” Unlike normal journal apps, Recodin is project-based. Because we can only manage something when it’s not too big. A project, as we call it, is a small enough gathering of related files, tasks, and goals that are manageable as a group. “Life” alone as a project is too much for anyone to handle. You’ll be overwhelmed and give up journaling soon.

• It’s no magic. You are planting a tree. Though a fast-growing one. “It takes 66 days on average to build a new habit.”, as the book “The One Thing (opens new window)” says. Just a little over 2 months and it’ll become natural to you. And you know, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years 66 days ago. The second best time is now.

BTW, Recodin helps you gather breadcrumbs by integrating code commits from Github and BitBucket. And we're adding more integrations (any suggestion? (opens new window)).