Keep a Quick Log File

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:

  1. Open Notepad, and at the top of the new blank file, type: .LOG
    This MUST be in upper case letters.
  2. 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.
  3. Close the file.

To use the log file:

  1. Open the log file, and the date and time are automatically added.
  2. Enter your notes, then save and close the file.

5 thoughts on “Keep a Quick Log File”

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.) 🙂

  4. 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.
    In my defence 😉 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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.