Is it okay if I live life off a notepad?

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Since I often loose track of commands and orders over easily, I decided to try out fixing the problem with a pad to write short-term notes down?

Got the idea of pilots using a whole paper pad to write down radio frequencies for contacting control tower and flight followings..

Of course.

Living off a notepad sounds like a great idea for me, the only problem is, I doubt I can keep up with a notepad and pen.

I use emacs' Org-mode with a giant todo.org file.

I stuff it full of things like birthdays, definitions for idioms, things to do, etc. It lets me keep track of everything: I can search for "Bob kids" and find out when their birthdays are, or quickly note a rule to follow in conversation.

This is not exclusively an aspie thing. Many geeks and hackers have enormous todo files that basically run their lives, often writing many tools for appending/searching/modifying data.

I recall seeing a TED talk wherein a CS professor described the evolution of her todo file from a simple txt file, into a full-blown AI secretary able to automatically send email responses, SMS updates on important events, and such. I'll try to find the link for you.

I don't see why not, it seems like a pretty good idea.

I have yet to found a phone reminder app I'm comfortable with.

ZeroGravitas, could you tell me more about emac and todo files?

Emacs is an open-source text editor which is entirely programmable and customizable through scripts written in Emacs Lisp. Over decades, a huge library of these scripts have been made for almost everything one would like to do.

A common joke is that emacs is a great OS, it just needs a good text editor. The ecosystem of extensions available lets you do pretty much everything within it.

Org-mode is an extension which treats files differently if they are .org files. For instance, it has the ability to deal with collapsible outlines, hyperlinks, checklists, all within plain text.

http://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge ... tive-emacs
http://orgmode.org/

Here's a good news.ycombinator thread on the use of todo lists and tools available:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1836910

Vim's got some great org-mode extensions as well. Vxfold.vim and Vimtodo and VimOutliner come to mind. There's also a Textmate bundle, I think.

But only heathens use vim. Keychords are good for the soul.

Aha, I found the link. It is Gina Trapani I think I was thinking of.

http://ginatrapani.org/

Her tool, todo.sh, is here: http://todotxt.com/

I'm curious about emacs. I'm going to go learn more.

MisterJ: feel free to PM me if you have any questions about setting it up, learning ELisp, and making your own modifications.

It's the only text editor with a window manager, browser, video player, music player, compiler, webserver, psychiatrist, terrorist, Jabber (Gtalk, etc) chat client, and mail client.

Yes, the jokes about it being its own OS are entirely accurate. That is why we love it.

I will almost certainly do that, although it seems like a lot to take in, it seems as if it might be incredibly productive to learn. I'll see if I can't cultivate a desire to learn this. If you could point me out to any especially useful resources, I would be most appreciative.