Technofriends

Productivity: Quick-Log Your Work in a Plain Text File
If you often need to jot down quick notes or are taking meeting minutes, this awesome Lifehacker.org productivity hack could well be the thing for you. Rather than opening up an application, the Quick Logger VB script displays a single input box prompt (see below) where you can enter text (e.g. the description of your current task) and append it to your work log. When you press Enter (or click OK), the text you entered is added to your work log file with the current date and time.
Here’s how to get Quick Logger set up:

1. Using your favorite text editor, create a new text file called worklog.txt in your documents folder. Save this file.
2. Create a second new text file called quicklogger.vbs. Enter the following code into the file:

Option Explicit

Dim filename
filename = “C:\Documents and Settings\…\worklog.txt”
Dim text
text = InputBox(“Add to “&filename&”:”, “Quick Logger”)
WriteToFile(text)Sub WriteToFile(text)
Dim fso
Dim textFile
Set fso = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set textFile = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 8, True)
textFile.WriteLine Now & ” ” & text
textFile.Close
End Sub

1. Save the .vbs file to your documents (or scripts) folder
2. Edit the line in quicklogger.vbs that reads: filename = “C:\Documents and Settings\…\worklog.txt”, replacing with the path to your worklog.txt file
3. Right-click on quicklogger.vbs and select Send To > Desktop (Create Shortcut)
4. Right-click the quicklogger.vbs shortcut on your Desktop and select Properties. In the Properties panel, set the Shortcut Key to Ctrl+Alt+L by simply typing L (Windows fills in Ctrl+Alt for you) and press OK.

Now, to append an item to your work log, just press Ctrl+Alt+L, enter your current task in the text box, and press Enter.

Cheers,

Vaibhav

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