[nickledave]

Write down whatever helps you.

Sounds like your approach works for you.

Here's a similar post with more concrete advice on what to write: https://jamesmckay.net/2017/02/how-to-keep-lab-notes-as-a-so...

1. Choose the most low-friction solution you can get your hands on. 2. Write down everything you do, as you do it. 3. You can not be too detailed. 4. Write down your train of thought when you’re planning and designing your code. 5. Don't worry too much about making your notes look good. 6. Use a searchable text format. 7. Make your notes append-only. 8. Use your notes as a source for documentation, commit summaries and pull request descriptions. 9. Share your notes with your whole team. 10. Don’t make your notes public. 11. Learn from your mistakes.

I used to use HackMD but I have found Obsidian helps me better meet the criteria above (low-friction yet searchable).

I have learned the hard way, repeatedly, that forcing myself to write down a to-do list and notes on what I did actually makes me a better developer, even when I am in software engineering mode, not research mode. I make myself prioritize what to do, I retain better what I've learned, and I converge on solutions faster.