folder structure
- a folder for each semester
- then a folder for each subject. has to be in short form, for reasons i'll explain later
├── school
│ ├── 5
│ │ ├── DSF
│ │ ├── IAI
│ │ ├── JP
│ │ └── SDP
command line config
- since i use vscode to take notes, i can just use ctrl + ` to open up the built-in terminal
- install any of those "smarter cd" tools.
- i personally use zoxide
- i personally alias it to
cd. i feel like most people prolly wouldn't want this. - make sure to cd to each of the folders once so that zoxide(or whatever) remembers it
- this is why the files need to be short - to avoid ambiguity when zoxide chooses a file from your history
- make an alias or abbreviation for
xdg-open- it opens the file using the defaults you set. identical to clicking on a file in a normal gui file manager
- i personally made it an abbreviation and set it to
xo - for those who don't know, abbreviation is a feature in Fish shell. instead of replacing the command entirely like aliases, it replaces the abbreviation with the command once you press space. it's pretty much what aliases are meant to be.
why
here's my previous "workflow" of opening up some lecture slide:
- open up the file manager. luckily i already have a shortcut for this.
- use the trackpad to click "School" from the sidebar, because Dolphin doesn't allow you to navigate the sidebar with a keyboard
- click the main ui to change the focus back to the files.
- use the keyboard to navigate the rest
- you have to remember your current semester and the module that you want to select.
this is probably nothing to most people, but im not "most people". i'm constantly tired as hell. i cannot do all of that while i'm barely awake and listening to the lectures. the split second that you usually need to remember what class you're in can escalate to me completely losing track of, urm, literally everything. yeah I have no idea how I'm even alive right now.
anyways, here's a complete example of how I do it nowadays:
- ctrl + `
cd dsfcd assignmentif there's a subfolderxothen use tab completion to choose the file
it's entirely keyboard-only, and it only takes a couple of seconds. the only two things I need to remember are my subject and the file I want.
Hopefully this post is helpful to anyone with a similar issue (lemme know if you do because I have never seen anyone talk about this). And if anyone has any similar or better workflows, lemme know too.