Keep a Changelog
Admittedly this is kind of a silly article since there’s nothing fancy about a changelog and I am not the first person to think of doing something like this. At a basic level it’s just a journal and the benefits of journaling have been well known for hundreds if not thousands of years and well covered in plenty of other articles. Despite reading those articles and knowing that journaling is extremely beneficial, I don’t journal, and I never have for longer than probably a week! But recently I’ve started doing something which provides many of the same benefits but is easier to do. I’ve been keeping a changelog for numerous applications in my life! The main ones are car maintenance and my computer. For the cars I just write down any maintenance for them, and when I did it. It lets me easily track oil changes, remember when I replaced the battery, got new tires, etc. I almost didn’t start doing it but it has already been useful to me multiple times. I also write down what part I bought so that next time I don’t have to look it up, or explain it to the NAPA cashier. I can just purchase the part that I already know fits and works!
I’ve also been tracking changes to my computer. I recently switched to Linux (I have no regrets, Microsoft is awful) and I have been tracking any changes I make to my computer so that I can undo any of them that break anything or don’t do anything, and so I don’t have a build up of old stuff that I never used and forgot about. It has helped with trying to solve little things like why my numlock is off by default since in Linux there’s usually 4 or more ways to do everything and half of them don’t work. So I go in, and change my settings, then write down what I did, where, and why! This lets me go back and undo this change if it doesn’t work or certainly breaks something! It also provides a record of things that I did to make my computer work the way that I like, so that I can configure my buddy’s computer or my next computer the same way with less trial and error!
The difference between a changelog and a journal
A changelog is much simpler than a journal. It’s not a daily thing, it’s reactive. When a change occurs you write it down and that’s it! Write down as much info as you can around it since the more info the better when you need to look back on it. Writing down “changed settings” or “worked on car” is of no benefit to you.
Where can you benefit from this in your life
- Computers
- Car maintenance
- Working out
- Explaining small changes in life: Try to write down when you slam your knee into the table, so that in two days when you have an unknown pain or bruise you can check and see that’s why it might be there! Write down when you change the sheets and pay attention if your allergies are better during those next few days. Write down when you get a new chair and then you may have the culprit when your back starts hurting after a week!