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I do all my writing in a text file. Not any text file or “text files.” I mean one single .txt file.

All my notes, blog posts, ideas, essays - anything not written in pen or pencil - live in or begin life in this document and its copies. Everything I post online is just a copy-paste.

Sounds chaotic, right? Maybe it is, a little. But not as much as you might think. Personally, I think it’s removed the distractions and fuss of previous workflows I’ve tried.

But to be clear, what I’m about to share is not some productivity hack. It won’t automate your workflow, “link your thinking,” or make writing easy. You could think of it as a lazy man’s PKM. Though it’s more for knowledge dumping than “knowledge management.”

For the record, I think the most “powerful” note-taking and writing system is the one that you find enjoyable to use, allows you to retrieve old ideas, and inspires you to write and think every day. Anything more is superfluous and might actually get in the way.

To this end, a notebook with an index (which I also use) is perfectly viable. As is a folder on your desktop or the note software on your phone.

And so is One Big Text File (OBTF).

What is OBTF?

Using OBTF is not a new idea. It was relatively popular among niche blogosphere circles in the mid-2000s. As far as I can tell from the surviving posts, the concept can be traced back to some observations by tech journalist Danny O’Brien regarding how technologists work.

In any case, the premise behind OBTF is simple. It is the idea of keeping everything - or nearly everything - in one .txt (or .md) file. You might use it to store to-do lists, URLs, meeting notes, a reading log, a calendar, blog entries, essays, or pretty much anything else. However, I wouldn’t suggest using it to store sensitive information like passwords, your darkest secrets or bank details.

Now, you might ask why anyone would remove all the categorization benefits of having separate files and folders. And wouldn’t the result be an unwieldy mess? Well, in my experience, finding things in OBTF is blazingly fast.

To be clear, I don’t scroll through my OBTF looking for things. That really would be hell. I don’t even touch a keypad or a mouse. Instead, I use tags and search. The latter of which can be done using hotkeys found on pretty much any modern text editor.

The base of my daily workflow is reading, thinking, and dumping thoughts that I think are worth remembering or writing (because a note is not always something you need to remember, but often something you need to write to think about) into my file. When there’s something I want to talk about more extensively, I look over my previous notes on the subject and start writing right there in said file.

Once I’ve written and am relatively happy with a long-form piece of writing, I’ll copy it over into a new .md file, run a few grammar-checking scripts (largely pinched from here), convert the .md file into an HTML file using a program called pandoc and upload it to my site (or copy-paste it to wherever I need).

The above may sound like a lot of work, but it mostly happens from my OS’s terminal with a handful of commands. I’m sure a similar workflow could be achieved just as easily using GUI tools.

Again, if the system sounds imperfect, that’s because it is. The appeal is not perfect “knowledge management.” It’s about removing any friction from my workflow.

OBTF lets me throw in knowledge, forget about it, and maybe retrieve it later. It’s kind of like a notebook in that sense. And as far as I’m aware, no one has yet proven there to be a better system than a notebook. So, why not replicate that?

Why would I do this?

What are the benefits of working like this? For me, a few points come to mind:

Zero distractions (no fiddling with formatting, fonts, plug-ins, or shiny new productivity tools - markdown formatting handles everything)
Miniscule storage and processing. Even a massive .txt file will run nicely on relatively ancient hardware and lightweight operating systems
Easy to sync data between computers
Can “dump” notes without worrying about where they “fit” in a system
Works with any text editor with search functionality (so, all of them), meaning there’s no fear of client lock-in, software enshittification, or losing access to your data. .txt will always be platform, system, and application-independent
Everything can be found in one place with relative ease. That means no logging into the cloud or switching between software to find stuff
Basically, zero task-switching
It works well with a mouse/keypad-free workflow
As the text file grows, you can look back at your progress (all those ticked to-do lists) and the progression of your thinking.

Of course, there are potential drawbacks to OBTF as well. If you don’t use tags, things will get lost (I’d argue some things are meant to be lost, but I digress). Also, if you’re not used to working with .txt files or text editors, the lack of inline formatting could be a little disorientating at first.

Nonetheless, I feel like OBTF manages to achieve a lot of the things PKM software promises with none of the fuss, set-up, or anxiety about using the “right” methodology (I probably couldn’t sell you a course on the “right way” to use a One Big Text File. Don’t worry, I don’t want to either). In any case, it works for me.

Final thoughts

I have an inkling that very few people who read this will attempt to implement their own OBTF. This is okay. Despite my personal love for the idea, I don’t want your big takeaway to be that using a big text file is the future. It isn’t.

What I will say is that whatever works, works. And it doesn’t need to be fancy.

Of course, you can keep your notes, ideas, and writing in a cutting-edge PKM program if that works for you. You can also use a notebook, index cards, a big f’n text file, a blog, or just keep a bunch of files in a folder. The truth is that the medium and the tools don’t matter. What matters is that you get that stuff in your head down. Tomorrow’s revelation might just be the fleeting thought you had today.

Tag: 写作

My One Big Text File

What is OBTF?

Why would I do this?

Final thoughts

Further reading