PLAIN TEXT; PAPER, LESS — PRODUCTIVITY DIGEST
PTPL 116: Plain Text Accounting Level 1, Complete!
Plus how and why I edit my .journal files in Obsidian
This week: However you track your financial records, I hope you’ll be inspired by the fact that doing so in plain text is possible, and powerful! Read on to see how I edit my .journal file in Obsidian, an app that’s only designed for .md (Markdown) files.
No AI here; all words, ideas, and faults 100% human made. While paid subscribers are enormously encouraging and help me to keep writing, non-subscribers are always welcome to read for free.
Plain Text Accounting — It works! It balances!
My personal finances are entered and balanced in plain text accounting, and I’m chuffed as a kid who’s finally tall enough to ride the roller coaster at the fun fair!
To make navigating and generating reports easier (and until I learn a better way to do it), I’ve created shortcuts in Keyboard Maestro, my text expander of choice.
It’s nice to be able to type ;p11e and have it instantly expand into hledger -f 2024-ellane.journal -M incomestatement, followed by a ⏎. It’s even nicer that I finally know what all the components of it…
