People basically want a life coach, someone by their side who can tell them what the best next thing to do is at any given moment. Everything else are just approximation of that ideal.
The author's .txt file works because its simplicity forces a daily ritual of self-coaching. The tool demands that the user manually review, prioritize, and decide what matters. There are no features to hide behind, only the discipline of the process itself.
The impulse to use complex apps or build custom scripts is the attempt to engineer a better coach. We try to automate the prioritization and reminders, hoping the system can do the coaching for us.
The great trap, of course, is when we fall in love with engineering the system instead of doing the work. This turns productivity into a sophisticated form of procrastination.
Ultimately, the best system is the one that removes the most friction between decision and action. For the author, that meant stripping away everything but the list itself.
The funny thing is, the answer to:
> Why This Actually Works
isn't anything the author lists under that heading. It's actually what he says above:
> Every night, I check tomorrow’s calendar. I dump everything into the next day’s section. Scheduled items get times in front. Sub-bullets hold notes or reminders. Finished tasks? I delete them or add what happened. Still on the list? Not done yet. That’s it.
That's why it works. He can build a simple ritual around it. The medium doesn't matter. The ritual does.
There is a format called todo.txt that works follows very readable syntax (like your own example) and has some minimal bells and whistles if you want it to: http://todotxt.org/
As an alternative: I started using org-mode 5 years ago and have never looked back. This is my workflow (https://karelvo.com/blog/orgmode) although I sync it via Git now, and have an iPhone where I use Plain Org (https://xenodium.com/plain-org-for-ios).
I have a very simple todo list, it's essentially the same every day! - check mail - check calendar - check jira - check azure devops board - check Microsoft Tasks - check confluence - check Teams - check home calendar - check home e-mail - check signal - check whatsapp - check client e-mail - check client jira - renew prescription for benzos
I've gone through this too and came to the same conclusion except for phone.
While on laptop/desktop nothing beats txt (or md or org), it's just so uncomfortable using a text file like that on the phone and relying on dropbox or something.
And I get it, all the note taking apps on the phone have issues: not local first, proprietary, subscriptions, or no encryption, or a thousand features before making sure the full text search works even offline.
Last year I finally sat down and wrote my own PWA out of frustration [1]. There was a SHOW HN too [2]. Yes, shameless plug. There are only a handful of other people using it (and probably never more than that) but I really wrote it for myself and it's been such a relief the past year knowing I always have my notes whenever wherever and works exactly the way I want.
I probably spent <5h fixing a few issues in the past year. As far as I'm concerned, my problem is solved once and for all.
I'm a fan of Org Mode with Emacs [0] and using the app BeOrg [1] on my iPhone.
I have 3 main task files:
- todo.org for things I need to do
- backlog.org for things that I don't have to do now but should do in the future
- inbox.org for any random ideas or notes
The concept of an Inbox was taken straight from Getting Things Done [2].
I have different searches set up in BeOrg so that it is easy to view tasks from each different file.
This is definitely more complicated than a single file, but I like it mainly because it keeps my main task file (todo.org) organized. I also don't go through organizing my files that much either.
inbox.org is just a great place to dump anything, so I usually do a quick scan and either delete everything or refine it to the backlog.org.
For backlog.org, I'll usually just let things sit there and build up. After a while I'll realize that if something has been there for a long time, it probably isn't worth doing - or I already did it, so I delete it.
[0]: https://orgmode.org/
I use Todoist in a very light weight fashion. I add tasks and they sit on my screen until they're done, basically identical to a text file. I've never used the points, projects, labels, etc.
It does one thing a text file struggles at: scheduling recurring tasks and adding notes to a recurring task. I have annual reminders for infrequent, but important stuff. For example, I have a recurring annual task to review my insurance. Each year, I add context and details that are easily forgotten. Then, when the reminder comes up next year, I can refresh my memory and complete the task quickly.
I went through something similar. I do use Logseq now, but for many, many years I found a notes.txt or todo.txt file in my home directory to be an excellent solution. I typically just write the date at the top of the file and put the notes underneath. A huge benefit is that I can trivially keep these under git. I keep them in my dotfiles repo so they can be easily synchronized to all my devices. A couple of shortcuts makes it quite fluid:
A bash alias so I can run `todo` and have the file open:
alias todo='nvim "$HOME/.todo.txt"'
inoremap <Leader>date <C-r>=trim(system('date "+%a %B %e, %Y %H:%M:%S %p"'))<CR>
nnoremap <Leader>date :put=trim(system('date \"+%a %B %e, %Y %H:%M:%S %p\"'))<CR><ESC>I host my own wall calendar. There is an annual subscription cost, but it's so cheap I don't notice. I hacked it together with thumbtack 1.0 and Bic Crystal a very long time ago. Others have used it and find the interface extremely intuitive. Localization is supported. I even have pencil support. If things become tentative, we can switch over to it seamlessly. When I have a todo item, I input it onto the day and time that works best. Highly recommended.
sigh
I've done the text file thing, and it’s fine. Up to a (very small) point.
What the author describes as their “workload” barely registers.
For context, for me, Things on any given day has over 100 individual actions, most of which are recurring.
By doing this, I can stay on top of an extremely broad surface area. There is no way a text file can handle the number of parallel work streams my (or really many) people have.
Broadly, for me these work stream are:
* Self Care
* Relationship
* Children
* Special Needs (IEP, SSI, Conservatorship, GGRC, Medical, Special Needs Trust, etc)
* Professional (BD, etc)
* Investments (Real Estate, Angel Investments, SEP, etc)
* Legal (LLCs, Litigation, Wills, etc)
* Financial (Quarterly and Annual Taxes in 2 countries, Insurance, etc)
* Home (Massive)
* Hobbies
* Vehicles
Without a serious amount of structure in the form of my todo system, there’s no way a person could manage this - certainly not with a text file.
Calendars very rapidly fall down for scheduled tasks that you can’t knock out the day of, they lack reminder functions, etc.
Then, finally you reach the last layer: a 4" x 6" notepad and pen that are always kept at your desk
One useful addition for text file users: on Windows, create hotkey\macro timestamps using something like Autohotkey (https://autohotkey.com/)
3 letter hotkeys seem to work well - long enough to be unique without overlapping real words.
for instance, when I type ddd it automatically stamps this:
20250811 10:57 AM
then I type my note and can look back at what time\date it was.
sometimes I just need the date so that is dds (date-date-short) which gives
20250811
occasionally I just want the time so that's ttt
11:02:02 AM
I have many other 3 letter codes using Autohotkey to bring in frequently typed things too, useful in emails and such.
Since I think through typing, autohotkey has been a QoL helper.
There was a period in my life when, just like OP, I tried many TODO apps. With each new app that I tried, I was filled with immense expectation that this finally is the app that will help me get my life in order. Needless to say, the early high was soon filled with inevitable dread, as the items and lists in the app kept on growing and I struggled to keep up with the brutal requirements of life as it is.
There were certain apps which would give the user a lot of options to customize the lists and the items in them. Customize in ways that would make the TODO item the most unique TODO item in its requirement and its quality. Such apps made me think a lot. Or should I say, overthink a lot. I would spend a lot of time trying to find the ultimate, most specific, custom setting for a TODO item that would make it unique and give it a life of its own. Looking back now, I am not sure how useful it all was. Ultimately, I ended up doing some items and not doing others. I cannot quantify what additional productivity they brought to me.
Now I dont use any TODO app at all. I just try to remember things, and I don't feel any different from the time when I was using those apps. Makes me wonder! Was I trying to invent a problem so that I could use these apps as a solution.
Perhaps that's why so many people come back to the old plain paper or a simple text file approach. Perhaps we all realize that it was perhaps not a problem after all and we would still have achieved most of what we set out to do. And even if we didn't, in the end, it doesn't matter all that much because life still goes on regardless.
One bonus from just using sticky notes or plain paper: you might discover that note, 10 or 15 years later, in a long forgotten jacket pocket. 'Those were the days', you'll muse to yourself, as you crumple up and discard a shopping list: pizza; beer; condoms (12 pack).
I have came to the understanding that the things that we'd like to keep track of as "todos" are more like "issues," than specific and physical actions.
The "tasks" are only meant for the day, maybe drafted daily and be disposed of and forgotten in a post-it notes fashion.
The issues, then are more like a backlog of requirements, a call to duty, like "briefs on the mission."
The "issues" are the question; and neither todos, nor tasks are the answer.
It is robotic to compile and keep track of a set of "actions to be done" several days into the future, but those todo.txt's as a database can be treated as valuable asset, as a "documentation of scope," for a team-of-one, or many.
Hence the treatment of those not as "todos" as issues, with their shifting nature of requirements and many ways of resolution.
Such a database deserves reinventing because nothing else can be as tailored and as diamond-cut as the one that's been built by you.
The problem with productivity apps is that one size does not fit all. Everyone has radically different goals, constraints, interests, and workflows. Many people would benefit from having a "living" app that is personalized to their tastes, and also adapts over time as the characteristics of your life change (e.g. having kids is probably going to change your approach to productivity!)
I recommend finding a framework within which to build your own apps, and then building your own suite of apps that have exactly the features you want (shameless plug, I built a platform that can serve as such a framework : WebWidgets.io. It is basically a way to hook up SQLite databases to JS objects in the browser, which allows wide liberty to build your own simple custom apps).
I've been back and forth on that topic, going to paper and back to a todo manager of some sort.
For the past few years I've been using obsidian for all my note taking, and none of the extensions I tried did what I wanted, so I built myself one[^1]. The initial goal was to take todos right within my notes, so I could keep the context of what the todo was about. Then I started adding stuff like planification and tagging. So it's entirely text based, but with a planner UI on top of it that makes it easy to drag and drop stuff to when I want to do them, and plan my day accordingly.
I think the more you go, the more you get set in your own ways, the harder it is to tag along on someone else's implementation of a system.
Low tech like paper and text files are good because they're maleable, and dont embed stuff you don't actually need.
For work I use Logseq, but I treat it like a .txt file. 90% of my use is the daily journal pages, adding NOW and LATER todos, notes, whatever. The ability to link nodes to other pages or nodes is just good enough to beat out a .txt.
For my personal life I use Things 4. I bought the Mac and iOS versions. Despite the steep price for the Mac version, I think it's worth it. I appreciate how the app is organized. I like that the "Inbox" dumping ground is totally separate from the "Today" queue, that it pulls in calendar events to the Today queue, and the differentiation of Anytime vs Someday. I would forget to check it too, if I hadn't placed a large widget right on my Home Screen. It's the first thing I see any time I unlock my phone, it helps a lot.
I am also an avid user of post-it notes. I like to keep a stack of them on my desk. These are for things I need to complete _today_, if not _up next_. This is how I stay focused when I'm in deep work. "add test for new sort fn", "better name for site/tenant var", "need new fixture for sortables", that kind of thing. When I leave my desk I should have no sticky notes on it, whatever left ends up in Logseq.
I’ve dabbled with todo lists in the past, and keep coming back to — doing nothing.
At least with todo list apps specifically.
I have a pretty bad memory, so I’m the target audience for todo lists. But I think what’s worked for me has been a combination of:
- Keeping things simple. At work I try to only focus on one thing at a time. I have a bug tracker that’s used to track larger items (everyone uses the same tool), but it’s not a personal todo list in a more granular sense.
- Reminders app on the iPhone. I use this just so I don’t forget to do things that aren’t naturally top of mind. Or, at least things that should become a priority, but only at a later point. And I don’t have many times that I need these. Maybe a few times a month, and a few recurring ones.
But other than this, if it’s really that important, I’ll remember it anyway. And if I don’t, and it’s not tracked with a bug (work) or reminder (home), it’s not that important.
So unless you count the occasional use of the Reminders app, or our work bug tracker tool, then I’m currently not using any todo lists, and it’s been working fine.
Shameless plug: I built [1] and use a small magit like interface on top of org-mode.
I love org for all its bells and whistles and use them in various ways. But most of the time I need a small subset of org in a form-factor that allows ease of use.
Sounds to me like you need something simple and quick. If the current system works for you I would suggest to keep using it. If you ever feel like you need something better I would recommend trying microsoft todo or google tasks. Google Tasks syncs with your google calendar so it's a bit more powerful. Apart from them both a pretty simple. If you are looking for something even simpler take a look at google keep. This is what I use personally.
After trying text files and other apps, I wrote my own about ten years ago and have been using it ever since. ( https://famplan.io - I'm starting to turn it into something other people might use.)
I tend to agree with the idea that simpler is better, but a single text file wasn't quite enough. I like being able to see my lists on multiple devices, I tend to like to have multiple lists for different purposes, and it's also very useful to have shared lists for coordinating with my family and others.
The experience of using this has taught me a few things about how to use these lists effectively:
1. Using a list is like writing a journal - you need to be intentional about explicitly working to make it part of your routine. (Part of this is committing to record tasks that need to be done and then committing in some explicit way to actually doing those things.)
2. It needs to be fast, it needs to be easy, and it needs to be present. Anything else gets in the way of point 1.
3. It's important to track when you need/want to do, but lists of things to do can be overwhelming. (It's useful to have at least a few ways to ignore items when you can't or don't want to deal with them. I handle this by having multiple lists, and also having a snooze feature to ignore items for a while.)
4. You need to have a way to handle items or tasks that go on for a while. (You need to make a call, but have to leave a message, and are waiting for a callback... etc. These are places where you need to take action to push something along, but the action doesn't result in a complete task, so you need to revisit it later.)
This is going to sound odd coming from someone who wrote a tool for the purpose, but the key here is really to pick a system (any system) and then actually use it. Spend too much time developing the system, then all you've done is give yourself something else to do.
Same. I use Apple Notes. I have a few notes pinned (regular work, creative work, self-education, travel, chores). I write tasks. Break them up into small tasks with indents. Pick a task from the pool and execute. "Regular Work" tasks get priority. But if I'm not feeling it, I move to the other ones. Once I finish a task, I delete it/replace it with next steps. Nothing fancy. No formatting except for indentation. Been crushing it.
But I will add, there is no right way to do things in life in general. Experiment, and do what works for you.
I've came to a very similar conclusion. Productivity SaaS apps feel exciting to get started but eventually I've abandoned them all. I feel that many others have similar experiences but I'm not exactly sure why. Like the author, I too ended up with a plain text format (org-mode) and I've happily been on it for 7 years. Some questions that came to mind:
- Is it the artificial hype and promises around certain productivity apps (e.g. youtube notion promoters) that ultimately leave one disappointed?
- Does the productization of these apps make the companies feel compelled to change too much, thus alienating users? Is this why Apple notes has such a following, since it's not a monetized product of apple?
- Is the allure of plain text the fact that it doesn't change, analogous to something written on paper?
My simple notes setup that I love since I live in ViM and TMux sessions
```.vimrc
map <leader>x :vs<cr>:e ~/Documents/notepad.txt<cr>
map <leader>X :vs<cr>:e ~/Documents/notes<cr>
map <leader>P :Files ~/Documents/notes<cr>
```
And that's pretty much it. I can pop open a long running file for temporary one offs, or pop open a directory with directories with files which all start with `01-`, `02-`,... to enforce order, with additions to a particular topic doing `01A-`, etc
And since I edit everything I work on in ViM, I have notes available in all my editors which have keyboard short cut quick jump navigation.
It keeps me very organized, can be set up anywhere with just a couple lines in the config file there, and only took me about a decade of steadily refining things down to get to
I've tried so many todo apps and the only thing I've stuck to is Obsidian and a daily morning habit of checking my list (I check it multiple times a day, but I set at least one 'forced' point in the morning to level set.
I also use a notebook that often feeds that obsidian tab because I still often prefer to take notes/diagram by hand. The kinetic action sticks with me better.
Markdown on Obsidian is a prestine setup. Can be used to embed many file types; media, documents, code snippets, graphs, ... all this can be linked and this unlocks so much context. Being able to sync that; My 2nd hand Lenovo running Linux and my Samsung S20 Phone.
I am a tech creative and this is one of my vice. Having a todo is an opportunity to go through your experiences for clarity.
└── Dev well
I use a self-hosting Baïkal CalDAV server with Tasks.org (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.tasks/ ). The advantage of this is that it works with email clients.
I just use Google Keep Note as my todo app. You don't need anything complex than that. I call my notes as DeathNotes where tasks go to die i.e. finish.
I follow something similar automated as:
function todo
vim "$HOME/<todo-directory>/"(date --date=$argv --iso-8601)
end
$ todo # opens the today file
$ todo tomorrow #opens tomorrows file
$ todo '<anything --date command accepts>'
My journey has been identical, and I have a suspicion that this inability to use an app with bells and whistles might have something to do with ADHD.
I actually ended up making an app as a side project which is just todo.txt with one extra feature: if you start a line with a "!", it turns that line to a push notification on your lock screen. just keeps the important things in your list just a bit closer to awareness without overwhelming
https://www.whatistoday.net/2024/06/scratch-paper-minimal-mo...
After using Evernote for 10 years and seeing what they did to it, I'm never switching from plain txt/md files for notes and todos. For simple and daily todos, I just use iPhone notes (They don't have anything long-term or important, and the sync is nice).
For the rest, I just use plain files that are encrypted locally and stored on GitHub and Google Drive.
This flies a bit in the face of the author's "The sync breaks. The company sells out and dies" point and the simple beauty of a text file. I find that Obsidian.md is just one step above a text file.
Simple daily notes, which are automatically organized into year and month folders. (Tip: Set the date format to YYYY/YYYY-MM/YYYY-MM-DD)
The Sync feature works great, but no reason you couldn't do this with just git on your own.
Plenty of built-in features (Plugins, ToDos, etc...)
Cross platform apps.
Markdown
Free. The sync feature is $4/month. Worth it for me.
They also have a one-time $25 payment to get early access to beta versions and a VIP discord channel.
Haha. Been there, done that.
My journey has been like this: Wunderlist -> Microsoft acquired Wunderlist -> Any.DO -> Google Keep -> Todoist -> Trello -> ClickUp -> Obsidian -> todo.md file
(I am probably missing multiple.)
I still use Obsidian, but not as a Todo app, with absolute zero plugins. And Wunderlist remains the most tasteful todo app I have ever seen.
Now I just open up Alacritty and type in `vim todo.md`. It has today's date in H2, and tasks as checkboxes. That's it. Works better than anything else. Why . md over .txt? Because I like the syntax highlighting in vim.
I use a pretty similar setup. At the beginning of my day when I get to my desk at work I open a new .txt and enter all the tasks I'm currently working on (copied from the last day). I then mark them as completed or leave notes as needed. Works perfectly for me - no need for anything more fancy.
Simple is good. For me - apple notes (my life todo temp), apple reminders (more persistent todos / reminders - setup kanban) and then text files + kanban for coding projects.
Todo lists of any kind in a team context usually fall down and kanban is the way forward.
Productivity really doesn’t need “solving”.
The problem is procrastination.
It’s quite ironic the amount of time people sink into these productivity methods and apps. Almost like it was yet another form of procrastination…
> “But what about collaboration?” - I use work tools for work. This is for my life.
I've been experimenting with this at work too. I created a separate internal git repo for the team with 4 never ending files:
- in-progress.md
- up-next.md
- for-future.md
- done.md
So far it's been easier to use than trello or any other project management platform.
Personally I use a single emacs org-mode file for my private work which is 30K lines as of today, but I'm not sure how other people's editors (vscode) handle big files like that.
I actually built the app myself. And for one simple reason - recently started learning to better plan my time. Started with paper version, and up to 5 most important task - my personal goal is to have consistency rather than squeeze every minute of every day.
And paper version is great. However, the vacation came and I wasn't really keen on dragging the book everywhere. Additionally i noticed that while planning, I don't really respect my long term goals - so I build an app for that: Simple thing that does several thing: - 1. Keep only 5 slots for most important tasks. - 2. Have calendar view in the same view (like google tasks) to make sure that I havent' forgotten some important meeting - 3. (Unlike google tasks, or clickup) - have short-term and long term goals in the same view , to make sure that every important task is related to long term goal - Bonus: I see stats on how much of important tasks I have completed. Goal is at least 80% avg for 7 days. - Bonus2: I've added my values to make sure that these are not forgotten in other places.
So single view to address todays work and relate it to long term vision. But I believe it depend on what you're optimising for. Dumping things or makeing sure that signal to noise ratio is better.
My inbox is my todo list. If I want to go nuts I can add a “waiting for them” label. Archive means done. Unread means unprocessed. I can send myself an email or if the task originates from someone else their email thread is the task. For voicemail, call, SMS heavy workflows of the past I routed my sms and voicemail through my inbox as well. This tooling is very personal but the above I’ve found to standup to very large workloads.
I use TickTick.
I saw the author tried it but didn’t actually write about it under “What Actually Happened With Each App”
I use TickTick over Todoist and other apps because it’s basically a .txt file dump for me, but with notifications and reoccurring tasks /shrug
I've been using simple text files too, for 7 years now.
Except I create a new file for each new day, to have peace of mind (as opposed to having a million-line-long file). Instead of Ctrl+F, I use grep. The format is Markdown.
My typical TODO file has 3 sections: TODO, Pending, and DONE. If something is done for the day, I move it to the DONE section. When I create a new file for a new day, I copy over everything except the DONE section. The Pending section is for something I can't act on immediately (say, waiting for a coworker's response). I look there less often.
Every morning I also re-prioritize the items in the TODO section.
The only problem is that if I'm away from the work computer, I have to add items in a separate app on the phone (Notepad Free) and then manually copy them to the PC.
This system is something I naturally came to over those 7 years via trial and error, something that works well for me. I had other formats that didn't catch on.
Just my two cents.
I see that nobody mentions Howm for Emacs. I find it more simple than Org-mode and its task sorting algorithm just works well for my brain. I really recommend it to those interested in a zettlekasten like note system with integrated tasks, all in text files.
The reason why there's always a million reinventings of the todo wheel is because at its core, notes are just databases. A TODO form of note is about as flexible as Redis, and so the use-cases are many, from quick writes/reads (i.e. jotting down TODOs) to sortedset (i.e. priority list TODOs) to full task management (i.e. more data in the value), and everything inbetween.
In the same way we build around Redis for whatever tasks we need, you see engineers build around the concept of the note, complaining every other solution isn't exactly what they're using it for, and they're right, because on the other end is another engineer building for their niche use pattern.
By unpacking the use cases and slicing the right niches there might be a better notes app product somewhere, but I think it takes a very strong product person, not an engineer, to figure that out.
I've been using the Gmail webpage for tracking my TODOs for like 20 years. The idea being, since I always have the webpage open in the first tab of my browser, and since I'm checking the webpage at least once a day, I never forget it. Every time I check my emails I also see my TODOs. And I can check/edit it from my phone when I'm not at home.
If it's a list of TODOs for the current day or week (e.g. work tasks, watering the plants, etc) I just start a draft and keep the draft open in the UI and update it regularly, then delete it when everything is done. If it's more mid-long term (let's say TODOs for the month, like buying some big stuff, etc), I usually send it to myself with "TODO [3-4 words description]" in subject and keep it in the inbox to be visible until I completed it. If I need to add something else I just reply to the same email.
I think Gmail has actually an integrated TODO widget in its webpage, but I just use emails out of habit.
I like the "dopamine hit" of changing a task from TODO to DONE that comes from colors. I use this very simple vim syntax file for that :)
syntax match TODOKey "TODO"
syntax match DONEKey "DONE"
syntax match BLCKKey "BLCK"
syntax match MAYBKey "MAYB"
syntax match Comment "\/\/.*$"
hi def link TODOKey DiagnosticWarn
hi def link DONEKey Type
hi def link BLCKKey DiagnosticError
hi def link MAYBKey Constant
hi def link Comment Comment
I just use a Kanban board for my to-do's, and it has been working amazingly well for years now. I sort stuff based on four columns, starting with the most important that should be done "today".
I love Markdown files with editors such as Obsidian or Logseq, but found them to be suboptimal for to-do's / tasks.
https://workflowy.com is the closest to a text file I've used and that's why I like it. It's like a text file that is synchronized between all your devices and lets you collapse nested bullet lists. That's enough for me.
I've being doing something similar for years. I will say that when life gets busy so do my notes. On the other hand, the other apps did too.
So it is cheap, easy to extend, portable and my only concern is that using it on my phone is not the best.
I have notes for target dates too
I think a more nuanced look at this is:
- he needs to get things done
- checks out some tools
- they don't enforce fundamentals
- he needs self-discipline to do fundamentsls
- uses least-common-denominator
thing is, if the person continues with the .txt file at some point the habits will form and maybe tools will support his goals just fine.
the Getting Things Done book starts with pencil and paper.
A lot of people do this with literal tools. They skip from a manual screwdriver to a power screwdriver before they understand the "mechanics feel"¹ of tightening a screw and make a mess of things.
Then they go back to basics, use a hand screwdriver and learn to properly tighten a screw. At some point in the future a power screwdriver will accelerate what they are doing. And when necessary, use the hand screwdriver or the principles learned with it.
1: zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
I'm quite happy with Apple Notes. I use it all the time, for todo lists, for taking notes during meetings, for anything really. Actually, as a general principle, I try to embrace the tools that are readily available and limit the amount of customization.
Me personally I'm very satisfied by org-mode, but the main point is not org-mode itself but Emacs, or an integrated, end-user programmable environment. Org-agenda handle todos, but in the same notes I handle attachments, runnable live code, links to mails/threads, ... because of that and that's the point: we have a single brain, we need systems who are integrated as well.
Not a gazillion of independent apps lacking also unix CLI IPCs (only cut&paste), but a single integrate, moldable one. Modern software have ERPs as best integrated solution, Emacs is the most integrated one still alive and kicking, Smalltalk workstations and LispM was the best from the past.
Maybe in some more decades, a step at a time, we will be back at such evolutive levels...
My requirements were: - ability to sync the TODO lists between devices (web and android). - ability to have sub-items, so that I can organise my complex lists into magnificent trees of tasks. I sometimes have 5 levels of details on some travel checklists. - ability to handle periodic tasks, and ability to create a task and hide it until a specific date (topics for my future self) - ability to be self-hosted.
I'm now using Vikunja, and Tasks.org for the Android side. That setup has worked for me wonderfully for a couple years now. Vikunja has a ton of features I don't use, and that's fine. They don't get in the way.
I actually find Obsidian is better than using a todo.txt.
In Obsidian, open the daily file amd copy the contents from yesterday. Anything big gets its own folder.
Screenshots...etc can be dumped into the Obsidian document.
OneSync app can sync files to OneDrive so I can read it on my phone.
I essentially did the same thing... wrote a program, tried them all, went to emacs, back to a text file, then i started just writing down the 6 most important things for me to do that day. If i don't finish them, I write them back down at the start of the day. It was incredibly liberated because only after i finished those 6 things could i think about doing any other thing besides those 6 things.
Now i just prompt ChatGPT to recall my todo list and usually am working with the model to do whatever coding task, call prep, random analysis anyways, so it knows when i complete the task.
tried Everything -> emacs/ .txt -> top 6 on paper -> top 6 through an LLM.
My professor once said: the only thing that we'll still have in 80 years is the file system. Always bet on the file system.
I used to have one long .org tasks file. That was great when I was working, because I saw it every day when I logged on my laptop and did org-agenda. But now that I'm retired I don't do that any more. So what I have now is a sheaf of A5 slips (cut from scrap A4) stapled together at one corner. I scribble one-liners to note tasks and score through the lines when completed. When a whole page is complete I rip it off, screw it up, and into the waste basket. Works great!
Plus Apple Reminders for deadlines. The Org file still exists, but for recording history rather than a scheduler.
I've also tried many things over the years.
The problem was always about finding a process that fit with my needs, a process that worked for me, and then having the discipline to stick with it.
I finally settled on bullet journaling. I like books, I like writing, I like journaling, the simplicity and adaptability worked for me. There was value for me in being able to tailor the system to my needs, rather than me trying to fight with UIs that forced me to change, or didn't quite do what I wanted.
If you are resisting or fighting your system, it will fail, regardless of the tools involved. Go with what works for you.
I've always liked https://www.taskpaper.com/
It's one step up from a single txt file. You only need to use one text file with it. It's like a nice UI for a single todo text file.
I use todo.txt on steroids. In fact, the file is called todo.org and is best used in Emacs' org-mode, which does the best of all worlds for decades now. I can have a plain ASCII todo list and some algorithmic magic that understands it, if I want that.
I just switched to printing my todo tasks on a receipt printer. I have an arduino connected to a receipt printer and a Python script that can send commands to the arduino to print tasks. Also just finished adding barcode scanning so the task gets printed with a barcode and I use an iOS Shortcut to mark the task as complete. Actually works so well! Having the tasks in physical form helps me stay more focused and scanning the barcode to mark a task as complete feels so satisfying. I have the code if anyone wants to delve into this but it does require arduino + receipt printer + a TTL to RS232 module, though! And BPA-free receipt paper if you are concerned about that.
I have a "never-ending .txt file" too. About 4100 pages' worth, at the moment, across 25 volumes and counting, over the span of now nearly eight years.
I don't intend particularly to advocate the format here, but I will say that of all my many bookshelves, in a certain way there's none I find more satisfying than the one I work to fill myself. Is that worth more than being able to use grep(1) on their contents? Or are those contents worth more to me because I can't? Who could say, but it's fun to think about, at least. (And for those young enough to be easily swayed by vanity, if you think performative reading is in fashion right now...)
I went through something similar, Todoist, Wunderlist, etc. We used these also together with my wife for a while. But sooner or later we reverted to paper for ad-hoc lists and some docs, spreadsheet software (Google Drive, Synology Drive, MS OneDrive, LibreOffice - whichever was easier) for more long term or longer content, and have a small board on the fridge serving as the shopping list.
Personally, I have my own "notes" script, a combination of shell and vim script for general note taking. I can organize things in folders, have a todo file, tags and indexing of tags (a folder of tags, each tag is a folder that contains symlinks to the related notes). If I just run it without a file, it opens a new daily note with the current date. I use that also for work tracking and TODO, I create a new note each day, add my tasks, tag it with the sprint. I can freely grep anything, I can quickly create a sprint summary from the tagged files, etc. I can back up or sync with git or any other software that works with plain text files and folders.
This is very simple and hacky, but haven't had to touch for years and it works for me - only me, only on my laptop, I don't need it on mobile. To carry around a list I use post its. For other purpose I have a physical notebook.
It is definitely not for everyone and that's fine. There is no one fits all. This is what I found working for me, minimal overhead, I can change/fix anything anytime, works with standard command line tools.
The pinnacle of notes and task lists was achieved in 1997 by the Palm Pilot. It’s been downhill ever since. I realize some people need or want something more integrated and elegant, but simple really does suffice for the vast majority of cases.
I used a wip.md for ~16 years. Every day, I move the done items to a new file with yesterday's date.
One of the most productive project managers I ever worked with did this. He’s easily top decile.
In addition to my own text file I use the Clear app for quick lists. Recommended.
I made my own. I needed to have a calendar that showed every todo item per day, and a text editor to edit the tasks just like in a todo.txt. Used it all day every day for over 15 years. I still have it installed on nearly all my Win systems, just because it opens instantly, has priority and colors. I also used it to produce reports for work, so I eventually added export options for HTML to paste directly into an email.
What I need TODO for is just to come up with a plan for the day. I don't really look at it after that. I don't look at it after today except maybe tomorrow. So yeah, a text file works.
I have a lot of longer term notes that are just ideas (a.k.a "genius ideas") but written in "to-do" format. I found using different solutions for different notes is the best IMO.
MS OneNote* for all longer term to-dos, or writings I wish to archive.
Paper or notepad.exe for ephemeral to-dos.
: one large synced notebook with folders, sub-folders, and w/e nested levels it offers, but I use search anyway.* *: this can totally be replicated with documents/files, folders, and a git repo. (and maybe some markdown editor)
At work, I use my calendar. At home, I have a wife.
It's a joke but there's a lot of truth to it. She maintains our social calendar (which is mostly our kids social calendar and we tag along tbh) and I just ask what's happening tomorrow each night. For anything she's not telling me where to be, I have a Post It or just remember it. If there's something I want to do, I make sure she pencils it in well in advance or I look for gaps in the day plan she's built.
I use the same application for my to-do list as I use for my "scattered everything" documentation: Noteself[0] (not affiliated, just a happy user for many years). It's a modification to TiddlyWiki that allows for the use of couchDB for essentially 'cloud hosting' (which I self-host).
I have a Calendar for appointments, which provides reminders as notifications and or email. That's outside my scope for a to-do app, although it's complementary.
I have two 'tiddlers' that open up front by default, one is the regular weekly schedule of things (with some calendar overlap) and the other is my (now very long) bullet pointed to-do list. It doesn't matter (to me) how long the to-do list is because the more important things are very near the top - merely by the passage of time if they haven't been done yet then they weren't important enough. But I keep them on the list as reminders of things I wanted to do and may still pursue at some point in the future (retirement perhaps?).
It's essentially a text file, but I can access the current version from any browser anywhere in the world (maybe not China) as long as I remember the URL, username and password. (It's more like multiple organised text files)
I personally never moved away from the colour coded post-it-note-stuck-to-the-monitor system.
Requires little to no thought and has unparalleled security and privacy out the box
I prefer keeping everything in one file as well, since even the act of creating a new file is sometimes enough of a hassle for me to skip jotting something important down.
Question for fellow one-file'ers: what do you on mobile? My problem in the past was that all plain text editor apps on iOS open files at the top, which meant scrolling all the way down every time I opened my notes file.
These days I use NotePlan, but I don't really use enough of its features to justify continuing my subscription (the dev is really great though).
Many years ago, I standardized on Journal in Microsoft Outlook.
Well guess what. Microsoft created Notes and Journal bceame a "legacy app." It was not possible to migrate. The deprecation of the .PST file in Exchange Server left me no way to transfer when I lease-rolled to a new laptop.
Enter Notes. As in, "notes.txt", which is exactly the same idea as todo.txt described here. Works. If this text file ever becomes machine unreadable, file compatibility will be the least of our worries.
I'll share with the world my own txt todo list:
! important thing to do
~ something already started but not finished
- thing to do
- another thing to do
x something done
x already done
? needs more thought
* Don't forget to add your todo.txt to .gitignore
John Watson's "writer" webapp/website is an extremely useful and aesthetically pleasing tool that is free but has various perks for its' paid tiers. The "lifetime" purchase cost of $149.00 USD is totally worth it though.
https://writer.bighugelabs.com/welcome
Everything before the "no annoying banner ads" is included in the "free" tier:
-fast and distraction-free fullscreen writing environment -Saves automatically as you write -All writing is private, secure, and backed up regularly -Save an unlimited number of documents -Works online and off -Customize colors, fonts, and line spacing -Optional typewriter sounds -Automatic word count and writing goals -PDF and text export -Markdown formatting -No annoying banner ads
--- paid↓
-Export to Dropbox, Google Docs, Evernote, WordPress, and more -Built-in thesaurus -Word count updates as you type -Hemingway mode (backspace disabled) -Revision history -Create downloadable eBooks -Organize your writing with folders -Track your productivity with writing statistics -Downloadable archive of all your writing -Premium support
100% worth $149 for the "pro/lifetime" license. Been using it regularly since December 2021.
John Watson's website: https://johnwatsonllc.com/
I use a simple process based on Jira. I added a custom workflow that easily allows me to create tickets with all the mandatory fields I want, such as business priority, criticality and risks.
Then I plan my todos semi-yearly using epics and backlogs. I spent a whole lot of time carefully deciding what I'll do day by day in 4 months, so that I can use it as a baseline I can ignore and re-adjust it day by day.
Every week I review all my todos and assign them point. I usually involve my partner so we can have a healthy discussion on how many points a todo is worth, and whether we should switch to tshirt sizing instead. I usually plan between 1.5 and 2x the amount of todo I'm actually capable of doing, because I like stretch goals. Then I spend the week working on the todos. I built an automation that sends me messages to ask why such and such todos are not moving fast enough. I also built automation to spice things up a little and ask me to get a privacy review on some of the items, or to start the process on those todos again because I forgot a step or something.
I start every day with a 1/2h to 1h meeting where I explain what I didn't do the day before, and what I won't do today either because I'm blocked for some reason. I used to do it with my dog but nowadays I use copilot chat because its reassuring tone gives me the impression that it matters.
At the end of the week I put back the todos I didn't do in the backlog. At the end of the week I build a status report that I then present to my partner. She's usually asleep when I do that but she insists that I go on and give that weekly status, that she usually closes with "bottom line, you underachieved again". Helps keeping me humble.
Funny coincidence, I just published an offline infinity-scroll notes app[0] today to replace my long txt file. Desktop version probably in a couple of days. Last time I published an app for myself, my friends (and ~1k others!) loved it so trying doing it again.
I've used a .txt pretty much my whole life from my old Vaio running Ubuntu to my Mac books after, especially as a heavy terminal/nano enjoyer. I always saved it as do.txt in my base dir. Thousands of lines which was always nice to look at and more importantly easy to reference links I used during debugging or troubleshooting from months ago. It's a weird mix of a bookmarking list, daily to dos and quickly jotting down phone numbers or details while on the phone with someone (if I'm not on my personal laptop, I usually type the thing while I'm on the phone in the PC browser address bar then copy it over which is not ideal because auto-search).
Another strategy I've used is iMessaging myself with links or notes, which in my opinion is the best way since it auto syncs AND you can pin yourself in the iMessage app for quick access.
[0] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/infinote-single-page-notes/id6...
I still have the same .txt file I've been keeping my notes in since Windows Vista. Here's what's at the bottom:
- Ideas for businesses I never started
- My eyeglass frame measurements
- Tips for maintaining battery health
- Concepts for tattoos I never got
- Specs for my ThinkPad T400
- Passwords to websites I don't use anymore
- Rough calculations for home solar buyback time
- Instructions on how to edit a video for a seamless loop
- Inside jokes
- List of antivirus tools
- List of browser extension
- Motivational quotes and bits of personal wisdom
- Dimensions for small subwoofers
For short term tasks (task-cache) I have ended up with essentially the same thing, just using *.md file + Notepad++ because of markdown syntax highlighting + snappiness of Notepad++ and I can then see it as a webpage using Markdown Viewer extension on Firefox.
For structured documentation of my projects + searching + writing notes down on the go via phone I am using Joplin.
For tasks to be done on a specific date I have calendar
For project management I have Redmine behind VPN so I can get on it from anywhere.
I've had a plain TODO.txt file for over 20 years so I agree with all the benefits the author mentioned. However, I don't like it because without an app, there's no runtime loop to notify and alert me of what's coming up.
This means I don't have "ambient awareness" of what's going on unless... I open the TODO.txt file ... manually scan it... then rescan it again and again multiple times per day. It's really tedious and inefficient to manually re-read the same items again. Offloading repetition like that is what computers are good for. I just don't have a good app at the moment to turn my TODO.txt into something I don't have to manually eyeball all the time.
So even though I have a tasks in my TODO.txt, a lot of things still falls through the cracks because I forget I need to do them.
If you have the type of brain that has a built-in "6th sense" of tasks that need to get done, a lightweight-no-runtime TODO.TXT will work fine for you. But it's definitely inadequate for me and I need to fix that.
EDIT replies to "use calendar for reminders" : Yes, that's a workaround but I've resisted doing that because I wanted the utopia of my TODO.TXT file being the Single-Source-Of-Truth instead of manually copying items to Google Calendar. (Yes, I know that "perfection is the enemy of the good" and all that.) The way other people do it is they make Google Calendar itself the SSOT. But that defeats the purpose of the freeform flexibility of the TODO.TXT that has all the notes, etc in addition to tasks.
I want my TODO.TXT to be a unified view of everything I want to do in life and splitting some items off into Google Calendar is just more digital housekeeping I wanted to avoid.
The way I'd prefer to use Google Calendar is via the developer API to programmatically add entries that's based off of my TODO.TXT. E.g. : (https://developers.google.com/workspace/calendar/api/guides/...)
... but that requires an active runtime loop ... like a Python script constantly scanning my TODO.TXT and then automatically populating the Google Calendar. I just haven't gotten around to coding that yet. Yes, the irony is that meta-task to enhance my TODO.txt is already in my TODO.txt.
I totally wrote my own TODO system. It's actually quite featureful, and it works as a command-line program that stores its data in a human-readable text file. And can produce graphs. Admittedly, it's more of a time-tracking system with an attached TODO list than anything else, and it doesn't pop up reminders for anything - I have an annoying calendar for that instead. Maybe one day I'll pop it on github and see if anyone else likes it.
New todo apps have absolutely amazing UIs because people think the frustration of todo apps has to do with the UI. The thing is YOU WANT FRICTION in your todo app. There is something rewarding and satisfying about a UX where you've accomplished a task and you get to check it off.
The perceived holy grail of todo apps is the one that automatically creates tasks and then checks them off when we complete the task with zero interaction. This is wrong.
In a typical todo list, I expect the following features (explained with examples of a typical school timetable:
What, When, Where, Who, Color, Some Notes, Completion checkmark.
1. Name of the event/task e.g. Chemistry
2. Day/Date/Time of the task (can either be specific weekdays or a specific date with time) e.g. Monday at 9:30am, Thursday at 4pm.
3. Person who the task will be with (professor name) e.g. John Doe
4. Location of task e.g. McKenzie Hall Room 504
5. Color e.g. red or hex code #FF0000
6. Some extra notes
7. Maybe ability to add checkmark before the task when it's done. This can be done using the unicode character.
We also need nested tasks (think Lab for Chemistry or some Assignment due for Chemistry). This can be done by adding tabs or hyphens before the line.
The format which works best is a text file containing:
-------------
Chemistry on Monday at 9:30am, Thursday at 4pm #green @McKenzie Hall Room 504 by John Doe //this comment can be a note
- Lab on Wednesday at 2pm by 8am #blue //don't forget to bring lab coat
- Assignment on Mar 9 at 8am #red
Dentist appointment on April 5 at 11am
/* Full block comment which is multiline. Lorem ipsum is placeholder text commonly used in the graphic, print, and publishing industries for previewing layouts and visual mockups. */
I've found that a lot of apps try to micromanage me, my workflow, or how I use my computer.
I've grown to appreciate using simple tools, (spreadsheet, document) without the structure of an app.
I manage my 10-house HOA with spreadsheets, because the tools cost so much that I'd have to raise HOA rates.
Shopping lists are on whatever document app I'm using. (Currently Word, used to be Google Drive, used to be iPhone notes.)
I've used a TODO.md for years. I prefer it to a .txt as I can get some syntax highlighting in Vim.
About a year ago I merged my TODO with my work journal. So now, instead of two files I just have LOG.md with the TODO stuff at the top, a horizonal line and the journal of what I've been doing each day below.
I also copy the file (e.g. LOG-2024.md) each year and clear out the journal to keep the number of lines down.
Every developer:
'Wow there are a 1000 of ToDo apps. I can't possibly try them all. So I will write my own ToDo app that does exactly what I want!'
Result:
There are now 1001 ToDo apps.
ToDo/productivity apps is a very tough market. I know because I wrote a visual task planner for Windows and Mac (hyperplan.com) and struggled to get enough visibility to make it commercially viable, despite a lot of rave feedback.
Tangent, I've written many note taking apps (Chrome extension, Android widget, desktop app, web app, PWA, mobile app, etc...) my central local API (running on an RPi) the MySQL db went down and also my node pm2 error-log file grew to like 14GB taking up my whole 16GB sd card... later had to move this tc.log file to get MySQL running again, pretty funny. Otherwise been running solid, it's an htmlcontenteditable type so you can drag/drop images and it renders them. Issue is the caret position that can be problematic when you lose your position same for a regular textarea input.
I was lazy the images are converted to base64/stored as such so like 30% growth in storage vs. hosting/url.
What I still have to setup is a centralized store/preferably statically encrypted and remote/syncing.
I’m using code server running on a VPS so that my .md todo list is accessible from all my devices through a browser. I use the vim plugin for editing.
I have two categories, todo and done. I separate them by project. I use markdown checkboxes. A checked item on todo means doing. Moving it to the done section means… well… done. Git is used from time to time to have a copy elsewhere. Basically kanban on a text file.
Sometimes I’m doing lots of small tasks and need it to keep track, sometimes I’m doing tasks that span for days and don’t look at it. I’ll look at it when I want to think of the next step.
Around once per month I remove things from it, cleaning up and consolidating tasks. I think it’s important to let go of tasks that are there but never done, they can be a source of stress. If they are that important they will find their way back there.
I also use an online calendar for tasks that have a clear start and end time. I consider it separate.
Other benefits of plain text notetaking: perfect versioning, using favorite text editor (therefore spell checking and various tools), amazing integration with unix programs, support on any platform/device.
Two shortcomings are: figure out cross-device sync (ssh/nfs are good options), reinventing the wheel for rich text (tags, references, data tables, etc.)
I have tried multiple of those mentioned in the article and also text files. Ended uo with Tasks.org foss android app which syncs over webdav with nextcloud and similar. Works wonderfully even offline and in my opinionnis more convenient than a text file.
I made a dumb command-line tool that sends a 1-line email to my work email or to my personal email. The tool is in my PATH on 2 computers. I use paper when I'm not at my computer and I have small pen and small paper with me at all times. Occasionally I send texts to my email address. I'm considering giving this tool to my coworkers.
A simple plain text file
˜/todo.txt
My system has a few minor differences:
- I don't use dates/time in TO DO lists (anything with times or deadline are what calendars are for).
- Done items are never deleted, they are merely moved from the TO DO section to the DONE section.
- I use the todo.txt from one machine only (main laptop). While I use many other machines, I don't bother with synchronization, I just open it on the main laptop if I need it. [It's tempting to implement some distributed P2P or C/S sync protocol somehow, but I view this as procrastination, because in the same time I could generate more value in other ways.]
Good man. Everyone eventually reaches the same year zero: a text file.
Then adds structure back, as it suits their persona. Not too much, not too little, just right - goldilocks. It's very personal, even more than a smartphone.
For me - $ githome add logBook to git $HOME solves versioning and replication:
giho() { (cd "$HOME" && git --git-dir="$HOME"/.githome/ --work-tree="$HOME" "$@";) } # prior must $ git init --bare $HOME/.githome
And in the logBook structure currently at:
1. Sections FIXME, TODO, DONE, DONTDO. Keep them vi searchable /^SECTION$.
2. Entry start searchable /^-(space).
3. Entry end separator from next is empty line searchable /^$.
4. New items add at the top, push old items down.
5. Items move wholesale, no change on between sections move.
6. Items spending too long in TODO moved into DONTDO.
7. No new items added in TODO if FIXME is not empty.
8. If really really need to add to TODO - then move blocking FIXME entries to TODO.
9. Above are rules of thumb - break them with a reason, don't break them without reasons.
For personal stuff I ended up with https://mytasksapp.com/
It's simple enough for me to understand but has the following features I want:
nice simple UI where I can add stuff without too many clicks
syncs between phone and browser (requires $1.49/mo which I'm fine with)
Can make multiple lists
Can drag items around in the list
Can add a longer description and reminders
For tech side projects I use GitHub issues as TODO/wish lists
For work I use a Google Doc to plan out the days tasks and meetings (similar to todo.txt). Google docs is really nice for this because I can collapse headers to shorten yesterdays work and use checklists that I check off as the day passes. I can also scribble notes in a freeform fashion at the bottom. I dedicate a whole browser (Safari) just to this page so I can easily tab to it.
For work I use MSFT Todo for stuff I'd like to do "at some point when I get time" (it's approved by my company, unlike my personal Todo app)
I've been through the same problems as the author, but in the end, I managed to find something that is like an augmented TXT file: https://wiseowl.cat.
It has exactly what the author was saying:
"Every night, I check tomorrow’s calendar. I dump everything into the next day’s section. Scheduled items get times in front. Sub-bullets hold notes or reminders. Finished tasks? I delete them or add what happened. Still on the list? Not done yet. That’s it."
This app automatically moves what hasn't been done to the next day, it's pretty good to manage work and it doesn't add any extra workload to manage the TODOs. Can't recommend it enough for just 1 buck a month!!
I feel the pain of this, I use obsidian for my day to day note taking and tasks to do as a general plan, I push tasks from Slack into Trello inbox as people chat me things that I need to look into, I make reminders for myself while away from a computer on my iPhone via Siri.
Apple reminders has a kanban now that is actually pretty okay, but I dont have a great way to get things from slack into it - manually copying all the text/attachments/url is super annoying.
There is an app that syncs your reminders with an obsidian task list, but I ran into too many bugs with it resetting and taking too long to clean all the old shit up that just got archived due to not being required.
I could probably get away with a bunch of MCP servers that query my local reminders, trello, and obsidian daily notes, outlook calendar, gmail calendar.... but it feels like such a bad way of going about aggregating everything.
Try as I might, the best to-do/task list I can come up with is a legal pad. Mixed with notes of the day for meetings or ad-hoc remembering-of-things.
Closest to that is a .txt file in my specific format, but even that is not quite as good.
The days/weeks I can maintain discipline with a legal pad are much more productive. It works well if you work out of an office or a single location, but breaks down quickly if you are moving around.
A notebook is a close second, just not quite as easy to go page through quickly to figure out wtf you were doing 3 weeks ago or find that one note you're pretty sure you have but not quite sure where or when.
I've tried pretty much every electronic form out there, but have never been able to maintain it. The Remarkable 2 comes the closest, but I've found it tends to be very much "write only" compared to a legal pad. Hard to go through it and reference past notes quickly.
Markdown with Obsidian is a good mix. Let's you add context and you could figure a way to sync with phone from my 2nd hand lenovo running linux to view; code snippets, documents, media, graphs, ...all due to the - in my own view the universal document format.
I am a tech creative so I am okay with this vice. Trying to finetune the above setup btw.
└── Dey well
Notebook + pen. Checkboxes. A mix of half-hour timeblocks ala the Pomodoro method, and plain checklists for shopping tasks. For stuff that’s extra important or is happening in the next few days I slap a post-it on my desktop monitor somewhere I’ll have to constantly move it when I’m using the whole screen to work.
If I want to get fancy then I have a couple of bookmarks to custom myNoise.net multi gens configured to run for 25min.
I also have some pretty notebooks and a cheap fountain pen, this combo makes me feel like a witch when I write in them and that’s fun.
I have tried a ton of apps and they all fall by the wayside. I have to buy a new bottle of ink once or twice a year and the occasional notebook. Simple. Gets out of the way and never requires me to open up the Attention Sink and lose a half an hour getting distracted by a Telegram message or whatever.
Suggestion for Android: Tasks — I’ve been using this (free) to-do list, planner and reminders app for probably more than ten years now, mostly as a shopping list app. Be aware that there are other apps with very similar names and icons.
cheers
me, too, then https://godspeedapp.com/, and it finally stuck.
Still very sad about no Android, but it's good enough from my computers that I've managed to work around it with a few cloudflare-worker based mobile affordances.
I use Apple Notes and Reminders for work.
- Reminders: I just have a few simple lists: TODO, WIP, and BLOCKED (for stuff I'm waiting on others for).
- Notes: I keep daily, weekly, and monthly notes. At the end of each day, I clean up my daily note and move anything important to the weekly one, and then do the same into monthly.
I like that the author mentions making a post it and actually achieving all the stuff on the post-it.
I have a portable whiteboard on my desk, around the size of a sheet of printer paper. I use it only to write the things I want to accomplish today. I have found that very effective for me personally.
I strongly believe using just a plain text files or overly basic tools makes your life more complicated, not less. I get a tonne of value out of OmniFocus
> “But what about mobile?” - The file syncs through Dropbox
Yup now you have to handle conflicts, or keep in mind which device you last edited on
> I use my calendar for time-specific stuff
Cool, the app I use just has a due date field that reminds me. I don't want the thing spread out over multiple places. I don't need to check my calendar every night for due dates and then add them to my list because it's already.. in my list.. with due dates..
> It’s searchable
Kind of? For basic searches I guess.. and only on a computer. Searching plain text files on mobile is hell
They seem to be inventing problems and then implementing a solution that doesn't actually solve them. Kept forgetting to check Things? How does a plain text file solve that?
The author claims to have tried all Todo apps, and the lists only a fraction of the Todo apps available on the market. There's a reason why there are so many apps available, and without actually trying them all any conclusion is based on partial data.
Same, but my text files are .md and synched for free between mobile/workstantion using Joplin + OneDrive.
I too have tried many things over the years and the only thing that truly works for me and my adhd (diagnosed) brain are post it notes and calendar alarms, unless of course I forget and accidentally put my phone on DND where it can stay for many days.
I’ve been using a text file for years.
I wanted to make my own todo app. One thing that I would want is to reorder things, group and rank them etc.
For example, in my text file I usually put the number of minutes or hours something would take, and then order things by easiest first, to get things done. That way I have less things to carry over for the next day.
I also found that if I keep procrastinating on important but long things, it probably means I need to hire someone, or partner with someone, who is better than me in that thing. I don't believe in pushing myself more than I already am, or optimizing personal productivity, I think it's actually a sign that I need to work on recruiting people to a startup or join an existing project. I believe in optimizing the organization and its systems, not people.
> “But what about collaboration?” - I use work tools for work. This is for my life.
I'm working on local-first collaboration for Obsidian (https://relay.md), and there's something so nice about editors and then collaboration as layers of "progressive enhancement" over files on my own machine.
I want me-centric software that treats life and work as just folders on my device. IMO git/github is a model experience for this kind of thing.
It's great to have text files that I can use vim, rg, fzf, etc on my laptop, then switch to use the best writing tool (Obsidian IMO) on any of my devices, and then sync the content and collaborate in-real time with my team.
This would be amazing if obsidian mobile did not take 10 seconds to start or even recover from being in the background and lose scroll position every time. For the desktop I would be absolutely happy with all todos in a simple markdown file. There can also be any number of UIs on top of markdown that people use over the years and grow out of but as long as the base system is markdown files you get the best of both worlds. I would never consider using an app for notes or todos that does not persist like that and no: ability export is not the same as native persistence in a human readable format. (Discovered the heard way multiple times when apps advertising with export failed or just lied.)
I have (re)discovered paper todo-lists, but not in a notebook but just a single A6 paper that I keep in my pocket the whole day.
Since it's always in my pocket, I see it spontaneously during the day, and as a result, I manage to focus on it more. Have tried apps, but the fact I had to click the app would make me easily forget it, and get distracted on other things on the phone.
I look at it every evening and write the one for the next day, and have the last few lying around near my bed. As one of the other comments mentioned, this ritual may be more important than the medium but I find keeping a ritual with paper has been easier.
Todo apps or lists in text files are great until collaboration are needed.
If your'e after more for yourself across more than one device, 2do was one of the dozens that worked well for me - one of the few that used text files on a drive share to get maximum fields and functionalities instead of being limited by a caldav or something.
Beyond this Logseq is starting to be a quick capture champion. Technically text files.
The question comes down to how many areas of life, major initiatives, projects, tasks / sub tasks you might have on the go at any time, and how much you are waiting on whom.
Having something that could start as simple as a text list and absorb complexity as it comes up (dates, context, follow ups, etc) is really valuable.
This is what I do with my "Daily Brain Dump". I use Apple Notes bc it syncs up nicely with my phone. Every day I add a new entry to the top of the note. Mix of TODO's and a journal. Actually have two files, one for my life in general and one for work.
I believe todo apps run into the challenge that "to do" is way too broad a concept. Personally I track in-progress tasks (on a giant roll of paper), recurring and schedule tasks (especially where I coordinate with my spouse; on a dedicated Skylight smart-calendar), long term ideas and goals (as issues in a dedicated GitHub repo), meeting follow-ups (as .txt), groceries (on scrap paper), etc. The UX I want for each of these is quite different so I've never been able to make a generic todo app work. Worse, I'd hate to accidentally see my work list when I'm trying to do housework as I'm liable to start a side quest. So I need dedicated tools for each type of list.
I use a TODO.md within Obsidian, synced across devices with SyncThing. That's the sweet spot
I had Claude Sonnet make me a text-based notes/todo app.
I write all of my notes in plain text, but I can add things like:
#Note: title
This is a note
--
And the text editor will highlight the note and show it in another window that shows all notes.
I can edit this in any standard text editor if I'm on a device without my custom app.
I can also convert them into sticky notes that are each "always on top" windows that can be dragged/dropped to set their position.
The notes also have tags for background color, border color, font color, due by, etc... that are all set in the text. When shown as sticky notes or in the note list, markdown content can be rendered.
Using text for the raw content and having a tool that will parse and display the content in a way that works for me has really made for a great note taking experience.
Shameless plug of my journey of logging diary/todos:
I had tried a diary script that does the simple act of opening today's diary in vim: https://github.com/Aperocky/diaryman
Once things became overwhelming, it was less trackable across time and became messy - so I created tascli: https://crates.io/crates/tascli to centrally manage tasks and records with sqlite in a CLI app.
Think I'm in a sweet spot now having both of these minimal version logging - the lack of functionality is exactly why they are great.
I used a lot of Todo and Note taking APP over the years.
My last and the one that ended up working more for me was Microsoft TODO because it was simple and synced with my phone, and actually worked seamless with IOs Reminder app. I sticked with it for a lot of time, but in the end, after a hell week, most my tasks where red with due dates long passed. It just added to my stress seeing all that red.
Today I just carry a small notebook and a pen I like in my back pocket. If I have to do something I start with a task like
- do something.
After done
+ do something
Every start of day, I just grab some coffee, sit for 5 min and go through the last day, what I done, what I could not finish, and create a new todo list for the day.
I also now just carry the notebook for quick notes. Notebook for temporary stuff. If is something more permanent stuff that I need to remember, I just add an entry in my OneNote. If is a event, in goes to my outlook Calendar.
OneNote is hardly ideal, I used to run my life on Notion, but it works well enough, but there where some problems.
* Too much cluter. I did not use 1/3 of what it could do
* I run out of space, and I did not wanted another monthly payment to get premium stuff
* The search in One is reasonable, and does the job
* I can draw in my tablet, for simple diagrams
* Tt syncs with my phone independent if I'm using Android of IOs without me have to think much about it
* is already included in my Office 365 family plan.
* works offline, different from Notion.
My only grip is OneNote don't have a Linux desktop app, just wrappers for the web app, and pasting code on it is a fucking disaster. Other than that, it does the job.
The only thing now that would make me switch is Obsidian, but the IOs app is a fucking disaster. you cannot open vaults outside the Obsidian folder, and I was using git to sync it, but IOs dont have a good free Git app that can sync folders anywhere I want it.
Also, having to sync manually and solving merge conflits for my notes is kinda a pain in the ass.
People say "this is the one best system for every human", but if you want to learn how to design a system that's right for you (regardless of which app), read Francis Wade's Perfect Time Based Productivity[1]. (I have no affiliation, it's just one of the best productivity books I ever read)
[1] https://productivitycast.net/2020/07/07/080-perfect-time-bas...
I came to the same conclusion - nothing beats a simple text file.
But I've also built a simple chooser program for multiple todo files and notes. A very simple cli program that does basic fuzzy search over file names.
For example, I can type `mem mov` to open a `movies.note` file in notes directory. If I use a full name with `.note` extension and it doesn't exist - it will create a new note with that name and open it in editor immediately. It makes it easy to create new notes on the fly and open them in a few keystrokes.
For editing I use neovim with auto-save enabled, so I can keep editor open all the time without forgetting to save.
Best compromise is a markdown file. You can read with it with Obsidian if you want a better gui, but you can also just treat it like a simple text file if you prefer. No lock-in to an app.
I agree that complex todo apps are a bit of a waste of time.
Amazing. It doesn't surprise me that the most simple workflows are the ones that work best. Probably because there is not a lot of resistance (keyboard shortcut instead of searching through a list of apps / no tutorial on how to use it; it's just a text file / it's easily readable and you get to choose the formatting and structure of your text).
As a developer, however, I have to scratch the itch of always having "wrangleable" data, and yet again text files are the best at it. I am already thinking of doing this and just follow a set of writing "guidelines" so I can parse the txt if I wanted to do some visualization stuff.
I found todo apps to be clunky and bloated. I decided to use github issues (of a private repository) as my notes. I even made a little script around it (via gh-cli) to edit it from the command line [1]. I don't update TODO very often from my phone, but in case I want to, I use the Github mobile app. I am finally content with this solution (although I don't know for how long).
TODOs with org-mode in Simplenote is the best for me.
Since we're sharing our setups, I self-host https://github.com/nanawel/our-shopping-list, which is a nice clean, simple list keeper that can install as a PWA, and https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy for recurring notifications; every morning a shell script runs over a text file full of reminders (mostly birthdays) and sends me a notification about them.
I swear by Mindmapping Applications (e.g. Xmind, Mindmanager) - one file every month (extractable with a python library for LLM evaluation).
One top-level branch is a prioritized Inbox with a Pending branch at the top (Item half-completed, but awaits external action, e.g. an order has to arrive).
One top-level branch with Done, which is a folder with a branch for each week, then day, where I dump completed items into
One top-level branch for ongoing subscriptions with alerts
Collapsed top-level branches for Hobbies and Family Ideas and things-to-do
With xmind, you can easily tag the task progress of each item.
Took me 8 years, including a really beautiful Android ToDo Concept which I build and ended up abandoning :D
I've never found that emailing to a todo.txt file works very well. Seriously, though, if your only goal is to make a long list of things you don't want to forget, use a text file, paper, or any system you want. I get a boatload of things to do in my email. Forwarding the message to a task manager reduces a lot of stress.
Another thing for me is the ability to capture files or take pictures. I just can't do that with todo.txt in an efficient way. Being able to grab my phone and snap a picture or create a new task and upload a file is hard to beat. I can later come back and add some comments.
The author's complaints about the various solutions hit home. My wife and I tried a bunch of solutions for shared tasks and lists. Finally I found vikunja, put it on my home cluster, and it's been a game changer. We never run out of milk due to a lack of communication, and I have no excuse to forget the chore she asked me to get around to last week.
There really is a sweet spot between helping productivity and overcomplicating life, and most of these applications go for the latter. Glad we finally found something that works for us. I'm just sharing here hoping it'll help someone else.
Ironically, I ignored Apple’s Reminders app as an options for years. It’s now my daily operating system. Lots of simple table-stakes features out of the box that elevate the experience above just using a simple Notes app
The only thing that ever really worked for me is taskwarrior.org. It is super easy to get started and can be made more sophisticated as you. I live in the terminal most of the time anyway so that makes it a natural fit.
Has anyone tried https://organice.200ok.ch/ ? It can be a good solution if you survive the learning curve.
I solved my problem with a todo stack, stored in a text file.
Basically it's a TUI app that operates on new line separated text.
Insanely simple. can only operate on the top 3 todo items. All one shot keypresses to manipulate.
But I absolutely love it. Use it every day. Those one shot keypresses to manipulate may not sound like much, but it's always 1-4 less keypresses than I'd need in vim, and the limitations free up a lot of mental space.
(I'd give a link but it's posix only and I you'd have to compile it yourself, and also I don't want to implement your features).
I do this too, but with a text file per day.
I have my 3 favourite bindings from vimwiki in my config and have used this 'system' for years without any problems.
<leader>ww = go to diary home
<leader>w<leader>w = go to today
<leader>w<leader>d = go to list of days
I use Todoist and I like it for repeating tasks:
* A list of daily tasks small and quick too many to remember
* Tasks to do or check every three or four days ie about twice a week
* Tasks to do about once a week eg hoovering.
* Tasks to do every three months like wash house windows etc
Sometimes I ask ChatGPT to order my todo list by importance.
A few years back a friend approached me with an idea to track todos in Google Calendar directly by adding #todo to event titles. If you don't mark them as done they will roll forward to the next day. We ended up shutting it down as a product, but I recently vibe coded it back as a Google Apps Script so it's free to run on your own. It works super well for people who live off of their calendar - https://github.com/slackpad/hashtagtodo-redux.
In my experience of trying dozens of todo apps and systems over the years, they become a reflection of some theoretical ideal version of myself and inevitably fail because I am not someone who is inherently organised and disciplined with task completion.
Turns out this was my problem. I just wasn't serious about keeping track of things to do, and doing them. No app in the world could solve that. Once I started to take it seriously, it doesn't really matter what you use to keep track of things. If it's there, you'll do it.
I am completely in love with tasks.org, foss, synced via nextcloud.
I feel exactly the same as the OP and went on a long journey to build something better. 5 versions and many years later I think have something. It's remarkably similar to a text editor.
I just kept peeling back to that because for each product I tried to build I still ended up reverting back to a big ass text file to manage my building of my product!
Only the current version is the one I have been able to stick with. It starts with text editor as the foundation and then adds features (that are hidden) on top of that.
Hoping to release to some friends in Sep.
Real shame that CalDAV didn't dominate the way SSH/email/whatever dominates.
I use Todoist which is the only one that actually works IMO, kicks ass, but I wish it wasn't one someone else's backend.
There was a curses-based todo program that was totally awesome MANY years ago, source code posted to usenet I believe back in the day, but I have never been able to find it again. Anyone have a pointer?
There‘s text based and there‘s text based.
I keep my tasks in textfiles (markdown) as well. Not one, but several, for all kinds of projects. And I view my files in Obsidian, although I open them in neovim as well, searching via ripgrep, finding via fd, fzf, viewing via bat. All in terminal.
Textfiles are great.
Emacs + orgmode is also an excellent choice, but that’s all tied to Emacs. And Orgmode files do not render nicely in other editors/viewers. Besides it‘s overkill. Trying to do everything in one app. I prefer the Unix way. Do one thing and do it good.
I went through the same process and now use a text file, or more accurately, I use a "canvas" in slack which is essentially a free-form text page with Markdown formatting (including check boxes that I can check). I make one page per month, with H1 headings for each day.
The reason I use this in Slack is that I already have Slack open all day and don't want to have YetAnotherWindowOpen. Also, I get sync between computers/devices for free.
This is just for the work I need to do that day. Otherwise we have YouTrack tickets; any meetings I set in Google Calendar.
I'm also a fan of the minimalist approach, having settled on a combination of Notes app and temporary paper lists. When I'm feeling overwhelmed and really need to knock out some tasks, nothing beats pencil and paper for me.
I recently came across the Analog product from Ugmonk and I love it. It's basically just a dedicated little wood holder for you desk, and different types of cards. I use the blank lined cards.
I also do the text file thing. I use EditPad Pro. The only additional thing I've done is create syntax coloring in any file named 'tasks-*.txt'.
I added simple things like: - Color anything ending in a ? green, so when looking at a list of notes, so I know where the questions were. - Any line beginning with an all caps word is highlighted (e.g. TODO: ) - Any line ending in a : is highlighted light blue (e.g. title) - Any Line Containing "Error" is red
I do suppose I could be using Markdown, but I've had this going for 20 years now.
I created an app to deal with that and quickly add my todos/thoughts from anywhere on my Mac https://usetype.app
There is definitely something to be said for simple file formats augmented with tooling like LLMs and such. I am one of the people who also ended up writing my own todo list app. It really started as a journaling system, but it was super simple to add TODOs. I basically created my own clone of Logseq if anyone is familiar with that. I've basically got what the author has got, but I've automated the part where a fresh page is created each day, and a feature to quickly move undone TODOs to any day.
> The file sits on my desktop. It stares at me every time I open my laptop. No app to launch, no subscription to manage.
Yeah that’s my problem here, I never see my desktop :)
Taskwarrior is my go to Software if I'm not currently in the piece of paper mode. Its good for Automatic priotization and by using from terminal close enough to a text file
I started using a text todo list at work just last February. I'd tried various things over the years and this has been the best so far. It's a combination of things to do, a record of what has been done since I started, in some cases a filling in of historical important things that have happened, and as a simple way of keeping track of different steps of individual processes, or individual items that need the same fix.
The top part is the todo list and the bottom portion is a list of days and what was done beneath each.
Org-mode is life changing, check it out.
I use Joplin. I made a little extension which generates a file with Monday's date and then the days + dates as headers.
On Monday I copy anything I still want from the previous week and then just jot down notes as I go.
---
# Monday - 11
# Tuesday - 12
# Wednesday - 13
# Thursday - 14
# Friday - 15
I love this article. The magic of todos is that it's really about the process, not the apps. An app can facilitate the process, but it's not required. I personally use Things and an ongoing Google doc. It requires me to copy between them every day, but I find that forces me to do the process of prioritizing and paring down, which is the magic part. A text file would work as well.
There are a few things I wish I could magically add to the text doc, though, like inline alarms and calendar events.
I've built Wren (https://github.com/bjesus/wren) with a pretty similar idea of simplicity in mind — a task is just a file — but, it can also be whatever kind of file you want:
1. Drag an email to ~/Notes and it's a task
2. touch ~/Notes/get\ milk and it's a task
3. ln -s ~/Documents/something-i-need-to-finish-writing.doc ~/Notes/complete\ writing and it's task
Wren doesn't care about the format.
Very true. I never got used to any of the todo apps
You just need these three things.
- A Text Editor - A Calendar - A Cloud Sync for easy access
If you need to history just backup to any cloud drives or git or home backup.
I find it most interesting that despite Notions appeal and fanbase, it continues to lead to failure of this function. I am one of those who has built not just one, but two two apps for this! But, for todo management, I still use a Notes file (.txt on iOS is hard). I suspect that the upcoming integration with AI/calendar in iOS 26 will make it less appealing to me however, because it will take away the control and simplicity of managing things myself manually.
If you live in VS Code there is a notes plugin that lets you create and manage Markdown notes in the sidebar. I usually create one note per repo and then pin the tab in that repo. If you work on a lot of projects it is a great way to segregate your todos by project so you don’t get overloaded. I also have a todo folder that has multiple notes pinned (today, scratchpad and long term notes) that I keep open in my main workspace window. It works for me, YMMV.
My favorite todo app is "NotePlan.co" which actually uses .txt files for its data storage. The file is synced on icloud and can be used on iOS and mac OS apps.
Interesting here the author states
> Things 3: Beautiful. Expensive. Tricked me into thinking I had my life together. But I kept forgetting to check it.
Followed by
> The Secret Sauce… Checking the list regularly…
Everyone thinks I’m crazy for saying this, but I like Microsoft ToDo. And I’ve tried dozens of them. I’ve been using the Microsoft one for the past two years every day.
I've cycled between a few low tech. solutions and have finally settled on Emacs org-mode. I don't use my phone to track TODOs and this works fine for me.
I'm a big fan of Adam Savage's TODO system:
- Ordinary dot points (on a 5x3 lined card, for me)
- But instead of dots, you draw a little square
- When the task if part way done, you colour in half the square, corner to corner
- When the task is completely done, you colour the whole square
It gives you partial progress, and the same satisfaction of crossing something off when done, but without obscuring the text you originally wrote.
Shoutout to checkvist.com use them for years. Exactly enough bells and whistles.
It fits my brain of an endless deep list.
Have no affiliate with them apart from paying them each and every year.
[Windows Only] - Just create a .txt file, add `.LOG` at the top and save it. Next time you open it on `Notepad`, it will automatically add a timestamp.
Similar to this idea to increase accessibility:
Just use tasks.google.com
Add your todos, when finished, type DONE in front of it, this way it' a journal and you get to feel good about all the things you've done since you're always looking at your list. Anything without a DONE needs to be done. You can write details in each entry, too.
No subscriptions, no fees, accessible from your phone, computer. etc. Keep it simple, folks.
I suppose I'm boring and already in the Apple ecosystem, but Notes app has checkbox and indent support, works between laptop and phone nicely. Just works
I think the key point here is that you made a solution for yourself. If you would've finished the one you started, you would've known all it's features and could've customized it to your liking. Personally I just use AI to spin up a quick HTML file that solves any personal productivity needs I have.
For nearly 30 years I have been using a combination of a .txt file, the Mac stickies app and my calendar app. Works like a charm.
The author might enjoy my todo app:
https://github.com/arendtio/witfocus
Ultimately, it is simply a folder containing text files. The witfocus script helps manage those files.
I don't think it is for everybody, but if you enjoy having your todos in a text file, it might be for you.
> I’m back to where I started: a plain text file called todo.txt.
Nice, mine is called todo.doc, as I can easily copy screenshots in it.
For short-term (next few days), TODO.txt on my desktop is superior to every fancy solution I've tried.
For longer term stuff/backburner items, I use Google tasks.
Precious few task/todo apps have this exact combination of features I’m looking for:
* Native Mac, iOS, and Android apps, plus access via web
* Reminder notifications for native apps
* Start/defer dates AND due dates
* Option to recur from start/due dates or completed date
Todoist doesn’t support start dates. Things and OmniFocus support nearly all of these things, but aren’t available on Android. Nirvana doesn’t support notifications on desktop.
The only note taking app I've been able to use is "Reflect" (https://reflect.app/) because it gives me a calendar view and allows linking with tags and backlinks. Plus it's encrypted and I can always export my notes.
The only downside is that it's only on OSX/IOS but the webapp is good enough for my use cases.
ToDo apps are a perfect example of coming up with solutions for a non-existent problem. Most of the tech solutions fall into this category.
When the consumer gets to take a hard look at their needs and gives a thrashing for sales pitch and doesn't give a damn to peer pressure, and demands for a bare-bones functional solutions only for their real and immediate needs, 90% of these solutions vanish into thin air.
I prefer a markdown because of formatting. Latex also good but needs more tooling.
I used for years M$$$ todo, but I am afraid of lock-in.
Migration is WIP.
I just vim ~/.todo.txt or more recently, just having claude code act as a middle man for it asking to generate what (should) be done then asking it what I need to do to finish x, has mcp integration to my IDE's so it can see what I am doing update the todo automatically, basically, a real life assistant which I now see why nearly every CEO has one.
I gave up on to-do apps as well. I have a text file I started in 2017. It's on my desktop and always open in a text editor. I just add the following at the top for a new entry:
20250811 - Core API - deploy to production 20250810 - Customer X - call about upgrading to new version
Every day I move items I have not yet done to the top of the list. Order in the list is the priority.
Old or done tasks naturally fall down the list.
It's challenging. I struggle with the mismatch between work and personal in particular. They run both on different software stack and different cadence. On work side I'm constrained by whatever corporate thingie they give us, and on personal side I prefer selfhost FOSS...so fundamentally incompatible
No idea except knowing if I can crack this my life would be better
I spent my 20s searching for the perfect todo solution but my search ended when I discovered org-mode. It's not that I'm the most productive person you'll meet, it's just that there's nothing further to look for. Should I decide to be my productive self for a while, I know org-mode will support me and not stand in my way :)
Oh, and I love the Denote package.
For me it's still Trello. I used to have a .txt file, and once went back to it. But somehow, having these task cards is easier for me.
I tried a bunch of todo apps, task trackers etc and also tried a txt file. None of it really worked for me. I tried bullet journals, I couldn’t stick to it.
What did end up working for me is a clipboard with a sheet of paper that I replace every few days. I write my todo list on it and I cross done tasks off in red marker. I guess it’s kinda like the bullet journal but even more lite.
Use a single .txt file for a todo list and set up a cron job to do a git commit on it every 5 min. This way you have some history if needed.
I tried 'todo.txt' and gave up when I needed more control over recurrency and other small details (I also missed being able to attach files to tasks for quick reference).
Currently setting up [DAVx5](https://www.davx5.com/tested-with) to be used with [jtx Board](https://jtx.techbee.at/sync-with-davx5#setup) and [Radicale](https://radicale.org/v3.html). It's quite a bit of overhead at first but then I can trivially manage my calendar and contacts afterwards.
CalDAV has provisions for [vTODO](https://icalendar.org/iCalendar-RFC-5545/3-6-2-to-do-compone...) and [vJOURNAL](https://icalendar.org/iCalendar-RFC-5545/3-6-3-journal-compo...) so my hope is that this is a durable FOSS solution to aid in getting out of some Google services.
While I am slowly moving in the same direction, I have one big blocker:. here do I put it? On my cellphone is really annoying to type and I put it off. Text to speech is barely working unless I speak English. On my real computer it is only available at home. Moments like this, I miss my palm pilot.
Did you try todoman (which I wrote, like a decade ago)?
It stores todos in icalendar files, so it’s easy to sync onto a CalDav server and onto your phone.
shameless plug: I also got fed up with todo apps (and note-taking apps in general), so I built "Zettel"[1]. It's a simple piece of paper, but on your phone. It's amazing what you can get done with such a simple tool.
The only feature I need that would accelerate my workflow that text file editors don't currently have is a column with the last modified timestamp of that particular line, and maybe some color indication to show which lines were modified the most recently compared to others. And this would be based on change, not based on save or commit.
Too much organization never helps, I've learned this with both note taking and with todo apps.
My workflow with ticktick is largely based on having all my to-dos in one "next actions" list. Tags are the one feature I can't throw away though, most of my to-do lists is tagged with a project name. My day to day view of Ticktick is usually some tag
I came to the same conclusion. Except I decided I could make a simpler software. I'm still in the "one more feature bro" phase, but if this blog post resonates for anyone and you're open to a simple saas -- would love feedback https://grugnotes.com
I guess the more organised you are, the better off with just a textfile. I'm not, so I use layers: - postit notes - google (I know!) calendar if it's time sensitive - paper or text file notes - if it's a longer thing, maybe obsidian (I know!)
The point is, I don't think one app, any app can solve all mankind's all scheduling problems.
I have stuck with my todo app, that I wrote 15 years ago. Writing something as fundamental as this helps with both the features as well as the using it for my own benefit. My app is available at https://beaver.learntosolveit.com
for doing laboratory work in my PhD, I've found no better app than OmniFocus. It's particularly valuable in its ability to create tasks via a templating system. This is crucial, for example, for managing 10+ genetic crosses at a time. Each cross takes weeks to move to the next step, but when that next step occurs, I need to be on top of the cross 2x / day. Juggling different crosses at different stages would be impossible for my brain without a system I can rely on. Other lab work follows similar workflows.
Simple is best. I prefer writing it down on paper. I write my todos for the day, and if I write too many things, I rewrite a stripped down version below.
The more things I have in my todo list, the less things I accomplish. If I'm in a rut, I just write down a single thing. It works for me.
I’ve never found a productivity tool/to-do list app I use more than just sending myself a barely comprehensible email.
I record stuff I want to have around in TXT files, by week every week over 10 years. The files lived on OneDrive for a time, but now on my desktop, backed up daily. Advantage is I can search.
My to-do list was sticky notes forever, moved to new ones when the old was getting too worn out to read. Now it's Rite notebooks as needed.
Zim is actually exactly what you need. Txt files created with a really simple possibility of mark down like style added.
I was also used evernote, then onenote, then notion and obsidian to track my TODO items and personal knowledge base, finally settled using pure local markdown file and edit it using emacs, for syncing i just init a git repo and sync to private github repo, so far so good.
For those interested, you can do some cool stuff with notes using just apple shortcuts on both Mac and iOS
I have a shortcut for example on my Home Screen that opens a text dialogue - anything that I type is appended to a text file I specify with a timestamp, for example
Highly recommend for this type of stuff
Somewhat similar situation here, but I use a .diff file:
! heading here
+ item to do here
- item completed here
the !+- prefixes auto-highlight/colorize in editors. I use Sublime Text.
Love this idea! Everyone else seems to be comparing the end functionality, but from a purely neuropsychological perspective, this is powerful because it takes out all alternative sources of dopamine. It focuses the brain's dopamine pathways on the task that needs to be done
For work I use pen and paper now. Sometimes a notepad on the Mac and every few days I sum everything up on paper. For iOS the best tool I found is Goodtask, a lot a customization, build upon Reminders from Apple so a single source of truth, integrates with calendar and Siri. Awesome app.
I've got loads of Notepad++ tabs open for various things. No concerns about having to save them as they auto save, and they persist if the system reboots for whatever reason. Other than that, I just use indentation to organize related items.
Like the simplicity ... but this would never work for me ... I literally have thousands of tasks and ideas and notes and possible tasks and checklists and ...
The key is being able to filter all of your tasks down quickly to what's essential today. No way in hell I can visual-scan everything that's important to me.
I use Microsoft TODO as a reminder and to not lose thoughts, but I primarly use text files to organise work backlog.
This is a concept I tried to sell many years ago, it is not available, but I still use it and believe this is the most flexibility in todo list. Will be happy for feedback
Same here. I have Writeroom (in a terminal-like theme) always open next to Gmail on my mac, and I keep all my notes and to-dos there – for some years now. The only challenge is that Writeroom has proven to be a bit sluggish with the latest MacOS versions.
This certainly doesn't apply to all cases, and version control / history is very complicated, but I use a notepad and a felt tip pen and I just couldn't use anything else to keep track of my TODOs for the day! It has been my goto ever since my first job, and it's never failed me!
Same, same. However I have more of Markdown file where I have different headings for different projects and then use the "check" function of Markdown.
I've created a very rudimentary bash tool for extracting todos out of markdown (GFM) files. People might like it and contribute: https://github.com/hkdobrev/notetaker
I tried plain-text task management too since I use plain-text formats for various things in my life anyway, but I could not get it working as good as a to-do app. My final outcomes are: - capturing tasks/todos on the go is a huge problem with plain-text. - never syncs properly. - proprietary apps (unfortunately) works out of the box and without a hassle or personal infrastructure concerns. - being able to capture using a web browser makes things very easy because sometimes you are not even allowed to install some kind of syncing solution to company PCs.
Maybe I'm dumb but another thing I never understand is how the hell you think org-mode is the best way to do this? An org document is one of the worst things I have seen in my life in terms of readability. How do you read this and properly interact with that mess? I am really eager to understand...
> Todoist: Great until I realized I was gaming the points system instead of doing actual work. Turns out completing “drink water” 8 times a day doesn’t make you productive.
OP was drinking 2+ liters of water per day. It may not be productive work-wise, but it's productive health-wise.
So... win?
Checkvist is pretty decent, entirely keyboard shortcut driven. I'm a beast when it comes to making and editing lists with Checkvist, so fast.
I can rearrange, nest, denest, move up or down in hierarchy, just focus in on one hierarchy, mark as completed, filter search.
All with keyboard shortcuts!
Couldn't agree with this more! Obsidian is my go-to. I essentially do the same thing but make look a little better with Obsidian's markdown theming/formatting. I keep a Priorities.md file and review that at the start of each day, making needed updates as I go.
I've noticed that the best TODO list for me is almost always one on paper. I keep putting off tasks, but running out of physical space on the page really helps you get through them faster. Perhaps it's just me though.
I use Google Calendar tasks. Why? Because I'm always in Google Calendar anyway. They are actually a bit shit UI wise but good enough.
It's less work than dealing with a text file and available anywhere. I could drop box a text file but editing on a phone would be fiddly.
A txt (rtf in my case) is a notebook that doesn't get messy. Deepest parts go back to 2007. Cell phone alarm for reminders, also acts as a clotting agent for time. After you do what the alarm is for you have choice of setting alarm again or proceeding into the next item.
If the author of the article is here, do try out org-mode. That is exactly what you need. It is designed to be a simple text file format, but tooling on top of it (simple editor plugins, mostly in emacs, but there are equivalent plugins in vim/neovim; I'm sure there must be something in today's kool-aid VSCode editors) make it so so much more powerful.
Org-mode has TODOs, Agendas, tables, nested/collapsible headings, mind-maps etc. You can also generate richly formatted PDFs/HTML/DOC files as well.
I had a similar journey, settled on a todo app that actually uses text files too https://www.taskpaper.com Save the text file to a cloud sync provider and you can check it on every device
A bit hyperbolic. He tried very few Todo applications.
No org mode? No Taskwarrior? Both are apps backed by plain text.
To be honest, I have never understood the TODO "industry." Do people really have so many things to do, and is it really that difficult to keep track of them all? I do not know if it's just me but I feel completely alienated by these apps and articles.
I put the top 250 lines from my unwieldy todo.txt into an AI and asked for advice, and I could jump for joy with the simplified list of priorities it generated. I think this could become my daily habit.
In my case, I ended up using a simple note in Apple Notes, for each month/quarter, having a collapsible day heading and just adding tasks there. Bold indicates a bit of a higher priority, and I can move things that I don't complete from previous days.
I have a draft of a similar post to this one about lists https://gist.github.com/breadchris/683202bffd4463e517335ab3f...
I was also dissatisfied with existing task tracking apps, and built my own:
t-do.com
There are still many rough edges, but it’s extremely useful. One of the best features that a text file has that very few apps support is unlimited sub-task nesting, and that’s a core feature of T-Do.
Apple notes app works well for me. I just keep top 3 things to do everyday. not to me mention these top 3 are for everything - personal work and everything else. just top 3 things. that's it.
I echo the authors sentiment except for one thing: mobile-native editing experience. This is where Google Keep shines for me personally. I need to also be able to modify my notes immediately and with an intuitive note taking interface.
I had the same problem and then built https://crom.ai/
—> htts://app.crom.ai/register
Side project - so don’t really actively market it, but it’s been my daily driver for over a year now
This works. The only thing I see missing is accessing it on a phone await from THE computer, so some kind of syncing would help me. I use Joplin to sync notes (and ignore it’s special task related features)
Lol @ "every todo app" . There must be literally tens of thousands.
The best one is https://taskwarrior.org/ , which was missing from this list.
The best native app IMO is 2Do. I have tried literally everything for years, not found anything better. One cost, no subscriptions, sync never failed me (caldav), android/iphone apps, android widgets. Also has GTD options
I use Apple's native Notes.app
It is easy to create text with checkbox you can click on, and on macbook you can type fn + Q to open the floating Notes window, or use hot corners. It is automatically available on your iPhone as well, since it syncs.
"It's mine, no company can kill it"
+ it's low friction, no special knowledge, no special tools, works offline is what does it for me.
Of course we use something bulkier at work, but for my own personal TODO I keep a .txt file, and It Just Works (tm).
This is the best thing in a long time. Made me feel productive just by reading it. I've made my own list and plan to attack it diligently today. Most of the highly productive people I've made are just militant about
On similar note, I tested every grocery list app and ended up with papers and pencil
>I’ve tried them all. Notion, Todoist, Things 3, OmniFocus, Asana, Trello, Any.do, TickTick.
There are hundreds of todo apps. Possibly 1000s. Including mine, which isn't mentioned. ;0) So all is something of an exaggeration.
I have found the the secret to a Todo list is to create the habit to keep it up to date and actually use it to prioritize your time. The list tool itself is much less important.
I use markdown files in vs code. Supports folding of sections, combined with a few keyword/char patterns that I highlight different colors. Also get code highlighting in properly labeled code sections.
This. Working with plain notes during the last 10 years and it could not be better.
I use the tasks that come with my email account/calendar. It integrates well with thunderbird and android-apps.
I am surpised, that no one here seems to use it, since it seems like an obvious choice.
This app is similar in concept (but Markdown): https://github.com/unvalley/ephe
Taskwarrior is perfect. Give it a try.
> t stats | grep -E 'Oldest|Total' \n
Total 7675
Oldest task 2014-07-24I had the same issue and came to a similar conclusion:
I can't imagine using a to-do app that isn't Obsidian+tasks. You can link notes for infinite subtasking and for describing/logging to your heart's desire. Just better version of txt
I currently have three editors open: nvim (because I've been using it since it was vi), VS Code (because that's what work mandates) and Emacs (for org mode only). Horses for courses, and all that.
I use Inkdrop for this, it's a really nice notetaker I use for other stuff. I pin one note to the top for my todo.txt.
Syncs the notes across devices without forcing how you structure
MS Onenote? I have a page called "todo" but it never really took off. I suppose if the lesson here is "extreme simplification", then MS Onenote--> todo.txt represents an improvement.
That's exactly my workflow but I use markdown txt file, and use vim + macros for auto inserting a new entry with date or marking things done. Plus some custom syntax highlighting for done tasks.
I built a simple app a while ago to learn programming and it works for me
https://Simpletaskmanager.vercel.app
All the info is locally hosted.
I use google doc as my todo, coming from notion and obsidian. It just works and syncs to all devices (even offline). Can link to documents in the drive easily. Track changes.
Similar experience here, except I'm using the built in notes app on my phone and keep nothing more than a list. When I used various todo apps, I felt as if I was fighting against them.
So real, I use a Sublime Text because I don't even need to save the file, and it keeps track of what i write in the tab after computer restart.
I have an always running session of Notepad++ with (currently) 356 tabs open. I can search through all of them if needed. This worked for me after also piloting several solutions.
I was also frustrated with the current app offerings, so I wrote my own. Feel free to try: https://checkoff.ai
The funniest part is how this "low-tech" method ends up feeling faster than all the "productivity boosters" out there
I never used fancy productivity and todo apps. I saved Everything in .txt files, sticky notes and writing on papers. No need to go for a few extra miles.
I have an alias called "notes" which opens a file called "notes" where I write everything, including upcoming todos.
I never look back more than a day or two worth of notes.
Same experience, but ending up with .md, sync-ed on Nextcloud.
Use SeaTable.
Rows can be very flexible and I've been using it for years for my to-do list (also issue tracker on smaller projects) and it works very well.
Works well on mobile as well.
I do a combined TODO + Log in pure text. So the stuff at the bottom of the list is todo, and the stop above is a log of stuff I've done. I do one list per year.
emacs enjoyer here. I don't even open org files any more. Just text in the temporary buffer. If I happen to lose the temp buffer oh well.
I send an email to myself. Monday todo, Tuesday todo etc..
Read this and you clearly want something like Obsidian.
Get obsidian and then set up - Syncthing for free open source syncing that doesn't go to any cloud, just replicates across your own devices
- You can just do a single markdown file instead of a single txt file if you really want to smoosh everything into one file (gross but you do you). markdown is portable and many software can render it easily, if they can't markdown is still readable raw plaintext
- But I would get some cool plugins like Periodic Notes and then set up either a Monthly or a Weekly periodic note. Basically the idea is the same as what you are doing, but instead of one lifetime markdown file, you split them up into monthly or weekly chunks. I do weekly (one note for each week), but its really your preference.
Now you get pretty rendering of your notes, generate sharable links to your notes, password protect them, all still free, open source, syncing, and portable (markdown plaintext)
Yes, oh yes, it's so refreshing. You have got 217 points but you deserve more. One million. Let's not engineer things that don't need it.
Why do these types of blog posts always blow up on hacker news?
"I tried every new zany method but our tried and true classic is what I selected!"
Like many others here, I recommend giving org-mode a try. The main drawback is endlessly yak shaving it to your taste.
If you sit in the browser most of the day, https://momentumdash.com
my slightly next gen todo is a notebook on my remarkable. added features are sharing between devices, and since it's eink its a good paper like alternative to sticky-notes. For me beating procrastination can be more important than organizing many subtasks.
FWIW, i only use this for work todos and differentiate todo with calendar(paper calendar and dry erase board for home, outlook for work calendar)
Obsidian + folders (done, wip, todo, trash) + one file per task (and all details and notes inside each file). That's been really good for me.
I wrote a super simple matrix-style todo check: https://4to.do
I just have a git repo of todo files and a simple upload script.
Also, the Scratches feature in jetbrains ides is great.
you are forgetting the most goat/clutch better than .txt - pen on back of hand :) (being completely serious/earnest here. great article, read thru the whole thing. same experience, tho i do love things), but ultimately back to my tried true high school days, timeless, eternal: WRITE IT ON THE BACK OF YOUR HAND THEN WASH IT OFF
TXT files are good. Scribing notes with a pen in plain paper notebook beats .txt files.
I use Google Reminders and Tasks all in my calendar. Sometimes I'll use notepad or Google notes though.
> Todoist: Great until I realized I was gaming the points system instead of doing actual work. Turns out completing “drink water” 8 times a day doesn’t make you productive.
This is such a strange conclusion. Just... stop using the points system? I've been using Todoist for years and I've never intentionally done anything with the points or looked at them. That said, I've learned about myself that checking things off is surprisingly motivating. Having a discrete task, even for a tiny thing, makes it much more likely that I will do it.
If a text file works for you, great! But it's strange for the bar to be "the tool must not have any features I find useless".
For personal, I've got the nirvana life plan. It's great, for work, it's TODO.txt on a network drive.
i like text files for day to day lists that are easily discarded. what am i trying to do for work today, who do i need to call, other reminders
for longer term planning i’ve found todoist to be indispensable. UI and features haven’t changed much in years, great cross platform, pretty enable to different styles of planning, etc
Another way to solve this is to use Fossil. Fossil has a built-in wiki. You can launch Fossil UI and use the built-in wiki with Markdown. Have legacy txt files? Just open a new fossil project and add them to it. And if you set up the admin and user correctly, you can mirror your notes to GitHub. So, it's not that text files are not a good option. There are many vastly superior options with almost no effort.
Spreadsheet programs such as LibreOffice are the next level. These are the most advanced and easily customized text files yet. Think of these as multidimensional text files that are all connected in an endless grid. Text files may seem ok, but managing tens of thousands of pages across sheets and books seems more straightforward with the spreadsheet format. But Vim is a great fallback when sheets are overkill.
I found Asana's TO DO app the best for me. Great for mobile, ipad, Mac app and web based.
nvAlt must surely have been mentioned somewhere. It’s the best by far. Very simple markdown, searchable notes etc. there’s a new version in the works (and has been for some time) but the original is still great. The best thing is that the notes are just a folder of .txt files.
The shopping_list integration in homeassistant is really good and is uses json.
I guess the real workhorse here is Neovim and the custom hotkey for launching todo.txt
"vi TODO" has worked great for decades. cant be beat for flexibility and efficiency, portability, interop etc
I use typora which is a markdown edior with folder structure. And AI to make the checkable lists.
This blog post is wonderful and so accurately sums up my own journey through TODO productivity.
I always use paper and pen to record my todo tasks.
Same here. No need for any bloat. Simple text file in Notepad4 (Notepad2⨯2, Notepad2++).
Yep. I lost all my notes to a proprietary format back in 2004. I've been 100% a notes.txt person ever since and it's never failed me nor been not enough.
I don't know what people are talking about not having notification or not being aware. Just make a habit of looking at it and put important stuff near the top with attention grabbing characters by it.
Just go 1 step up to a set of .md files and Obsidian; that's what I did, anyway.
Let’s wait till the author hears about physical paper notebooks
I tried every todo app and ended up with a small stack of flash cards and pen.
I dunno, I've been using Todoist for years and it works just fine for me.
I also tried a lot of todo apps and ended up with a sheet of paper :D
I’ve always circled back to a shirt-pocket sized spiral notebook. A7 size, I think.
What about Power outage?
I'd be happy if I could define my own notification system on top of a text file tbh.
I can't tell you how many times I would have forgotten something if I had not made it a timestamped reminder.
That said, most apps all suck in various ways. So I feel the urge to just use text.
I'm currently using Reminders.app (the default on iOS) and it's nice that it's somewhat lightweight. But organizing things is clunky and the experience feels flimsy.
All throughout college I used Trello, and frankly it was better that way. I should go back, except every time I log in something new is different and I don't like change.
the simpler the better ! how I was thinking starting TiddlyWiki which then turned into a little beast :) but still works for me
things 3 is fantastic and access to it is an actual factor in what devices i buy
Would people consider obsidian juat a note taking app and not a todo app?
yeah, this is basically all i use Obsidian for...
A daily note, with a bunch of checkbox items
theres a plugin that automatically rolls every unchecked item into the next day's daily note.
these two features fulfill 99% of my 'todo list' needs.
My 3 rules of a TODO list ( a txt file obviousl ).
1. Done in the morning before starting work. Helps to take glance at yesterdays todo before it. 2. It only covers task achievable at the end of the day. Gets updated through the day with twists and turns and possible completion notes. 3. Very important! It gets evaluated at the end of the day: pass-fail.
The goal is not to pass or fail at the end of the day, is to help tomorrow's todo list creation.
Done diligently. Sharpens my brain.
There once was an app called “Do It (Tomorrow)“: https://www.tomorrow.do/
I believe it has been discontinued.
It simply has two list: the “inbox“ where you would add anything that should be done, and then a “tomorrow” list.
As you went through your day you would either swipe to delete any done task, or you would swipe it to the “tomorrow” list. At the end of the day, the “tomorrow” list would be merged with the “inbox”.
Simple and effective.
Google Keep is a nice concept. Text and available on all devices.
What is a good way to do this but across many devices?
Legit. Especially with the rise of LLM.
But I use .md files stored in a private git.
I’ve been using the same OneNote for like 20 years now. It is backed up, synced and available no matter what device I’m on. Hundreds of lists, notes, references, thoughts, all fully searchable and quick to access.
I write them on my hand
Don't use a ToDo list. Just put stuff on your calendar!
I also just so checkbox in a txt file like:
[X] Task 1 [] Task 2
Its enough for me
I’d need markdown otherwise I’ll just use a small notebook
This is the way. Markdown does improve it a bit, though!
try iPhone app RTM - it is almost as simple as text file. It has more features, but I use it only as simple list of TODOs
> Create a file called todo.txt yes, thank you.
I use a single markdown file. todos.md.
I use notepad ++
Yea tho I prefet nested markdown check-lists
The best option in the end is to just do what professionals have been doing for a decade - use your phone's calendar. That's it.
congratulations on the sane side
i use whatever notes app my phone has and sync that on my laptop. Sometimes my email apps have that feature.
Can I ask why you abandoned TickTick?
I use obsidian with the tasklist plugin
I am not a fan of Emacs whatsoever (I find it a buggy mess where everything works only 80%), but org mode is absolutely fantastic for this.
Reinventing the plan file!
I mostly do this too for personal stuff. Although on solo projects I have a neverending TODO.md I check in...
...and on multi-person projects I end up using github issues/projects and/or Forgejo's equivalent
My text file is called todo.org
> tried every
Mentions just 5
Does not mention Markdown once.
what about emacs org mode)
Next version, a pen and paper!
just use google tasks? hello? it has notification and calendar integration
Add using ripgrep with it.
For simple TODOs honestly using the Reminders app for Mac is the easiest.
For more complex TODOs and lists, I have my own bespoke note taking web app that syncs with S3.
Either way I'm not paying for a TODO app!
yeah...i have one neverending Evernote note...called "To do"
I also just began experimenting with plaintext. At the moment, I create regular apple reminders when I want to receive a notification, and for everything else I keep a markdown file `quicknotes-YYYYMM.md`, which I use also for some some throwaway notes.
Every month, I duplicate the file, remove what's been completed and the things I don't want to do anymore. The file is on iCloud Drive in the obsidian folder, so I can edit it also from my phone.
An example:
# TODO - [ ] todo ...
# NOTES
multiline note 1
---
multiline note 2
Gtask works good for me
You should try org-mode
I tried a bunch of different shoe styles, but decided that cheap sandals are really all you need. You people wearing boots, sneakers or loafers should really consider going back to basics.
I mean, we all have feet, right? And we all want to protect the soles of our feet, so there's really no need for all the bells and whistles like laces or padding.
Todoist. Unaffiliated but love the product and believe they deserve a shotuout.
why not use just a pen and a notebook then :) ?
Obsidian.
For years now I have a simple file where my topmost priority is always at the top, since I can focus only on one thing at the time anyway
I respect using plain text for everything so kudos to OP. That said, I use Things by Cultured Code because I really like it. Does everything I want on my various computing devices.
I would take this more seriously if the title were: > I tried every todo app and ended up with a .md file
it's actualy simpler to text yourself a note and keep the "conversation" as a file would be nice if basic andriod allowed for a long press, and then create a file/document, like *** gasp*** a word processor
I can't believe this is what hackernews has become. This kind of stuff is at the top.
I'd recommend LogSeq, for it's local first approach.
Didn't try Workflowy though! (YC S10 and still not enshittified) (!!!)
"Todo?"
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tl;dr
Ready to ditch the productivity app hamster wheel? Do this:
Create a file called todo.txt
Write down what you need to do tomorrow
Do those things
Add notes as you work
Start a new date section when needed[dead]
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Is this a joke?
AI helps but isn’t needed: With Cursor/Claude Code or Neovim + Supermaven, I can write my entire day’s schedule in 5 minutes. The AI completes my sentences, predicts meeting times, memorizes how I write tasks.
Reading through the comments under this thread, there are many users who swear by a plain text file, but who then build quite a lot of snowflake software to regain functionality offered by more structured TODO applications. That includes:
- having your computer alert you to things that come up
- being able to tag notes
- being able to add events to a calendar
- being able to set priority of tasks
- expecting prioritized/currently relevant tasks to be at the top of the agenda
- being able to add recurring tasks
- full-text search (grepping)
- formatting features (markdown)
Some of the laborious (or, in my opinion, plain unholy) solutions include:
- feeding TODOs to an LLM to filter for the currently relevant ones and send Telegram notifications
- hand-copying currently relevant tasks to the top of the TODO list
- running a script on a VPS to sync notifications
- set up cron job with git commit
- writing post-it notes by hand
I would encourage everyone to try out emacs with org-mode. It takes some time to get used to the editor and its keybindings (though provisions exist for vim users), but _every_ item on the list above is handled out of the box, or is offered through a free and maintained plugin.
The author of the OP claims to have tried _every_ todo app, and has afterwards moved (regressed?) to writing notes in a plain text file, but there is a path extending from this point that the author has not walked yet. I strongly suggest that, especially for people with a computing or technical background, it is an undisputed upgrade. https://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html being the bible, of course.