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.
What this shows to me, as someone who has committed some of the unholy crimes above, is that people want their system, however esoteric, to come naturally to them.
I think reading docs, understanding a new system which someone else has designed, and fitting one's brain into _their_ organisational structure is the hard part. Harder than designing one's own system. It's the reason many don't stick with an off-the-shelf app. Including Org mode.
> What this shows to me, as someone who has committed some of the unholy crimes above, is that people want their system, however esoteric, to come naturally to them
I think this is a vocal minority. Outside of internet comment sections, most everyone I know doesn’t care that much about their todo list software.
The most productive people I ever worked with all had really minimal productivity software. For one person it was a Google doc with nested lists. I know several people who preferred physical sticky notes or 3x5 note cards.
A lot of the people I’ve worked with who built elaborate productivity systems and custom software weren’t all that productive. They seemingly spent as much time doing productivity rituals and rearranging their productivity software stack as they did doing actual work. I count the really heavy Notion users in this category because I’ve recently been pulling my hair out dealing with a couple PMs who think “reorganizing Notion” and adding more rules for Notion is a good use of their time each week.
The most extreme example I remember was the eccentric coworker who was building an AI-powered productivity tool that was supposed to optimize his todo lists and schedule them according to his daily rhythms. He spent so much time working on it that our manager had to remind him daily to stay on track with his real work. He was obsessed with “productivity tooling” but the productivity was secondary.
I've got to tell you that I don't think people like gwern.net and andymatuschak.org are procrastinating. A lot of these people are very productive in public. Walking through their zettel-sites is like walking through their minds. The best thing zettel-people have done has been to assume that everything that you're writing that was clearly inspired by something else should reference and direct link that thing. I really think we should caching and redistributing our references too, but the law...
The stuff they, and many smart people like them, are putting in their public notes are sometimes becoming the authoritative bibliographies of little specialized subjects. Their notes get referenced in journal articles.
edit: also, as far as I know, the goal of having a Zettel system is to be as lazy as possible. To have all your notes extremely networked so you can find them pretty quick, you can get surprised about what's in them because old stuff gets surfaced, and you can always find a place to add the thought you're having or the notes you're taking. You save all of that time digging though stuff and filing stuff and losing stuff, which you can use to take a walk in the park or something. To accidentally write a few books just because you had all your notes about some goofy subject you're obsessed with in one place and one day you're like "that must be about a quarter million words."
edit2: also, also, this conversation is very quaint. 10-20 years from now we will all have zettelkasten and we will never look at them at all because we will use AI to interface with them. I'm sure thousands are already in that world, I'm certainly working on getting there.
I think it's actually a selection bias. Who is more likely to spend a lot of time on productivity systems -- a person who is on top of their obligations or a person who is drowning in them. A naturally organized person can do with simple txt, they are already doing okay. A chaotic person can build whatever complex process they wish, they will still fail.
That’s been my personal experience. Spend plenty of time looking at all kind of options to optimize my ir my teams workflow. Then just fallback on pen and paper or some very simple excel spreadsheet. Something thinking about being more productive makes you feel productive.
Sounds similar to playing video games: the rules are simple, so once you understand them, you can feel mighty and powerful simply by accomplishing banal tasks. Makes for a great dopamine rush.
Eh, I don't know. I wouldn't paint with such a broad brush here.
Regarding productivity/to-do systems: on one hand I agree -- I know a few people for whom it's clearly a form of procrastination and really just need to get on with it. On the other hand, I myself was one of those people, but in hindsight I just hadn't found the right system yet and had real, legitimate issues with the systems I had been trying. Turns out, YouTrack is damn-near perfect for me. I use it both for work and for my personal life and I really, really love it, even for basic to-do lists. The things I was missing from standard to-do lists was the concept of relationships ("depends on," "blocked by," etc) and the ability to schedule multiple projects together on a Gantt Chart. Put those two features together and what needs to be done when and in what order is pretty much inarguable, which is precisely what helps me stay productive, as looking at a huge list and feeling overwhelmed about what to do next -- especially if I'm trying to be efficient or strategic -- freezes me in my tracks.
Regarding second brains: I completely disagree that they're not useful. My Obsidian vault is genuinely one of the single most useful things I have ever done for myself. There's nothing fancy about it, I don't use most of the features, but having a massive vault full of notes is truly indispensable in knowledge work.
I spent several years trying to make a custom todo system and ended up back where I started using CalDAV and a basic todo app and calendar. Turns out I was always procrastinating because I didn't want to force myself to adapt to something simple.
I used to use caldav but then stopped because there was once a bug on the server side where I couldn't delete events. The main thing I also don't like is there's no encryption or privacy really from the provider unless you go with a more a less proprietary solution like from an encrypted email provider. The closest I saw was EteSync but it requires special apps, and can include special bugs :)
I also don't need my immediate todo list on a calendar. I organize my to-do list simply as "Immediate", "Future", "Distant future", and then put things under heading. Sometimes I add a due date if there is one.
I just had a few markdown documents in a "todo" folder, eg <work>.md <project1>.md etc. Recently I changed it to org-mode because that's a syntax designed for the purpose. https://nvim-orgmode.github.io/ works excellently.
Never been an emacs user in my life. I spent about 5 minutes perusing https://orgmode.org/org.html and was able to do the same.
Using standard CalDAV it should be possible to encrypt parts of it. And just have a local proxy that decodes/encodes. e.g. Having fields like this:
DESCRIPTION: not secret
DTSTART:with week
X-mydata:
ENCODING=Ascii85;FMTTYPE=application/octet-stream
<~6q($A;Fs\a8P`)B+EM+(Eb0>"6r[)a5uLZCGA2/4+D>\9EcVQ~>
and then just decode that and replace the X-mydata with the decoded data:
DESCRIPTION: secret
DTSTART: with hours
perhaps support for removing existing fields that is in the encrypted blob as well, if you do not need state in the encryption it should be good. I do not know how to create a good encryption protocol so I am sure there are lots of stupid ways to mess this up. I only need to encrypt the content of my description and time I never need to hide that I created a meeting when I had a meeting with a Spy from the NSA.
Most of my daily agenda is also stored in my employer's Google Workspace. CalDAV is the common protocol for exchanging and storing events. Most of my task entries don't have a due date, I just sort them by priority.
I understand the privacy concerns, I can host a nextcloud in a secure location if I need it.
Totally agree, but I have learned that exciting isn't necessarily better. I just got busy enough that I had to accept the boring option to stay afloat. Which was a certain kind of excitement in itself.
> Same. I dabbled in the second brain fad for a while, until I realized I already have a first brain.
The way you chose to describe keeping engineering notes as "second brain fad" is telling. It says you mindlessly tried to follow an organization scheme even though you felt no need to adopt an organization scheme.
In other words, you somehow hopped onto a solution searching for a problem you didn't had.
That's perfectly fine. Fads are defined by those who, like you, onboard onto something for all the wrong reasons and without spending any time thinking about what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Of course, those who end up searching for problems that fit a specific solution end up not finding it. That's the fad part.
In the meantime, engineering logs are indeed time tested and a tried-and-true technique. Those who use it to solve problems they have will naturally see their problems solved by them. That's why you see blog posts like this, and people commenting on how they scratched their itch.
There’s a now quite dated comment from Merlin Mann: "Joining a Facebook group about productivity is like buying a chair about jogging.”
It’s fuzzy - but my recollection was Mann was a fairly renown productivity influencer (although I guess we wouldn’t have called it that then), who had an apostasy about it all.
I think he had a blog called LifeHacker and/or 36 folders (I don't know if they were his or just a writer, but I remember following him back in the day).
It's wild to think that was almost 20 years ago when Getting Things Done was going through tech circles as the organization method dujour. (I also equate the same time period with learning Ruby on Rails.)
Merlin ran 43folders.com[1]. That domain name was a reference to GTD's tickler files[2].
Merlin did not have anything to do with Lifehacker.com. Gina Trapani[4] founded Lifehacker[3]. But, Lifehacker often covered and was inspired by Merlin's work.
On managers side the equivalent is making fancy JIRA workflows with all the fancy fields so that everyone is informed. Makes people annoyed with extra work and that time could be spent just talking to people to understand what's actually happening.
Exactly. It takes enormous effort to get product and engineering teams to agree on how to use JIRA properly, because everyone has their own ideas around how and what to organize. It's exhausting.
OR to put is differently - everyone has their own needs they are trying to get done. Each one need individually is simple so it is easy to demand that need is added too. Until the whole system for each different need becomes so complex it collapses under its own weight and you move to a new tool. This cycle seems to repeat every 10-15 years at all companies. JIRA is the tool everyone talking about today, but there were many others in the past, and there will be a different one in a few years.
Generally the tool isn't the problem: NEVER put ticket numbers into long term storage as in a few years you won't be able to reference them. That is version control, design documents, and anything else that isn't the ticket system itself. You can talk about who is working on ticket 12345 and the problems they face, but if anything is going to be written down you need to summarize the ticket without a number.
The real takeaway from your story is that it's easy to stay on task when you're interested in the task. Your coworker just didn't care about his work. But if his work was creating a productivity tool then he'd probably love his work and be productive.
So much of it is empty productivity, all prepping for the work but never actually doing it.
Like the old joke about the programmers spouse who died a virgin because every night all the programmer did was sit at the edge of the bed talking about how awesome it was going to be when they finally did it.
I’m very guilty of trying all sorts of productivity software as a form of procrastination. The best one did, in fact, turn out to be index cards and a pencil.
The phhsical copy served an important purpose: it forces you to admit you will never do something and so give up on is. until I die it is safe to assume I will eat 3 meals per day. (It won't be 100% because of sickness but close enough) thus if I'm out of some food I will need a todo list to replace it. However if I never finish the ukuele I've started it won't matter and it is reasonable for me to give up on it.
> The most productive people I ever worked with all had really minimal productivity software.
What about quality? Often, people are very productive, because they sacrifice quality for speed, especially the "annoying" longterm-values of products/decisions.
> They seemingly spent as much time doing productivity rituals and rearranging their productivity software stack as they did doing actual work
It's a different kind of productivity. Just not as valuable for the company.
The term that comes to mind, and one of my favorite concepts, is "progressive disclosure", which is a concept we really ought to be more mindful of.
One of the perks of just-a-text-file-with-a-bunch-of-addons is that it enables progressive disclosure - it takes no learning curve to just get in and use the tool on a basic level, but additional complexity (and power) can be introduced over time.
The problem with a purpose-built app is that there's a minimum level of new concepts to learn before the tool is even minimally useful, and that's a barrier to adoption.
A good example of this in action is something like Markdown. It's just text and will show up fine without you learning anything, but as you pick up more syntax it builds on top - and if you learn some markup syntax but not others, it doesn't prevent you from using the subset you know. There is a clear path to adding new knowledge and ability.
Right, instead of fomo over not using the extra features of utilizing the right flow - people tend to experience the want/need to incrementally increase complexity when using roll-your-own software
What I gather is people really like the blank whiteboard. There’s something about Notepad and Excel, the freedom, the linitlessness, of having a blank canvas and being able to do anything.
Todo software is too opinionated. It’s not flexible enough to allow you to break rules. You can’t move things around in a way that allows you to control visual white space between entries. Everything “is something” (a task, an event) vs just being (text.)
The whole point of org-mode is that it's so malleable, that you can extend it to be whatever you want it to be, much easier than writing your own, ad-hoc, bug-ridden reimplementation of org-mode.
This makes it so infuriating that the top comment on Todo systems is almost invariably "just org-mode lol". Same as remote editing "just TRAMP lol".
I am not going to completely change my editor and rebuild two decades of optimization just to use two Emacs tools.
On-topic: TickTick or Todoist with a slimmed-down "Getting Things Done" system works really well. Almost no learning curve, and you get to free up so much mental bandwidth vis a vis remembering things and prioritizing things. And you don't have to do hamfisted tricks to make a 'simple' .txt system work. Bliss.
> I am not going to completely change my editor and rebuild two decades of optimization just to use two Emacs tools.
Change your editor and rebuild two decades of optimisation in order to use Emacs, two Emacs tools, and also every other Emacs tool out there. Org Mode, TRAMP, Magit, gptel, eglot, flycheck, elfeed, ERC, Emms, EWW … there are a ton of reasons to use Emacs.
Or you can keep using less-capable systems and being annoyed when folks recommend that you upgrade.
Your argument highlights its own flaw; changing your editor opens up a world of tooling that's certainly adequate for most use cases you can throw at it, but it also requires either discarding or (worse) un-learning all of the tooling that you've learned for your current editor.
For example, I'm perfectly content to use nvim as my primary editor, and this was born out of having to develop for and administer literally tens of thousands of linux servers professionally. I have all the plug-ins and configuration necessary for productivity on my development machines, and when I'm on a remote system ad hoc editing a configuration it already has a built-in lightweight version of the editor I'm already used to.
If I switched to Emacs locally, I'd still have to maintain a working knowledge of vi and context switch when in a remote shell. Changing to Emacs would require more cognitive bandwidth when the whole purpose of "switching for org mode" is to reduce mental load.
> If I switched to Emacs locally, I'd still have to maintain a working knowledge of vi and context switch when in a remote shell.
Even ignoring the possibility of installing Emacs on remote systems, there are still alternatives:
1. You can run remote shells within Emacs, and edit files remotely using TRAMP. When you are editing a remote file, shell commands run from Emacs run on the remote system.
2. You could use Evil, the Emacs implementation of vim. Then you would use the same bindings everywhere.
3. I have been running Emacs locally for literal decades now, but I still remember and use vi frequently, both locally and remotely. It’s really not a problem.
I feel like there must be an editor version of the Blub Paradox.
Agreed on TRAMP. It's great and all, but not worth abandoning your toolong.
org-mode though... It's called Emacs' killer app for a reason. Even if I only used Emacs for org-mode it'd be worth it. And I don't even use the productivity features.
If the tool brings you (you, as in: the one building it) joy and gives you a chance to let your mind float, then yes, it is useful. Just not for others. And that's fine.
Exactly. Most people wish they could customize their Todo app or system to their specific preference or need, but have no way of making it happen. Devs can, so they do.
What's interesting is AI is going to change this. Entering a prompt for an app that has all the features you want is already pretty trivial, and will only get better.
Which is why everyone likes spreadsheets. You learn a few formula and styling rules, and you’ve got a hammer for every nail that’s been bothering you (if it was actually a screw…shrugs).
Yep, at the risk of repeating what you said: I think this is why so many project management / todo apps exist with their own flavor of the very basics. It's a reflection of those wishes that feel natural to us individually, and it just so happens many of these apps mesh well with our model of thinking and organizing.
This is also why it's so difficult to get teams on the same page about project management in their respective workplaces.
I think in part because larger systems aren't typically custom made to the user's exact workflow (especially because users don't typically have one single workflow anyway!). So not only do I have to get into someone else's mind, but it feels ill-fitted to my own mind. Thus, it's also more inefficient.
Note taking and task management are two things which everyone has a slightly different style and need. There is no one size fits all and in a group someone will always find some aspect lacking.
> - having your computer alert you to things that come up
If my own experience is a valid example, alerts are overrated. They don't work for long. I hate getting interrupted by something that actually does not need my attention at that precise moment. I would disable those alerts in no time.
I prefer leaving physical cues in the real world. I think screens are bad UI unless you already spend way too much time in front of them.
The god old in- and out- baskets are great, for example. Or notes on a physical board.
Sometimes when I think of something I want to do in the morning, I just leave an object that does not belong in a place I will definitely have to use in the morning. Seeing that object will remind me of that thought I had just before going to bed. I don't even need to write down what it was.
Physical cues are wonderful! And THAT is what I would want from Augmented Reality (in addition to it no longer requiring cumbersome hardware to wear). A flexible recreation of former physical work places, but using the new flexibility of computer augmentation of what I see. To be able to place digital notes in the real world. To view and touch documents not fixed in a single place in front of me, but anywhere! I put some documents on the left, some on the right, some on the wall, and I move my body around to view and use them.
A purely screen-based app, when I already hate having to stare straight ahead for hours every day just doesn't cut it for me. I want my digital world to be in the real world, and use my entire body, not just very limited arm and hand movements while barely moving the head because the viewport is just one small two-dimensional rectangle in my large reality.
Okay, that went slightly OT, but I made that point because it is relevant for TODOs and most interactions with computers. I think they are much better when tied to our real world, not inside a tiny screen where a lot of stuff is already squeezed in and waiting for our attention, and everything can only be used like a surgeon doing keyhole surgery - indirectly through a tiny port and tools, instead of ones hands. Place TODO hints in the real world on or near appropriate places.
I think the key part is to use alerts for stuff you can't ignore. Time to pick up the kids, fifteen minutes to get ready for a meeting, your compile just failed, etc.
Unfortunately every piece of software seems to think its message about some new feature you don't care about and will never use is worth crapping all the main premise of what alerts are for.
"Little Signals considers new patterns for technology in our daily lives. The six objects in the series keep us in the loop, but softly, moving from the background to foreground as needed.
Each object has its own communication method, like puffs of air or ambient sounds. Additionally, their simple movements and controls bring them to life and respond to changing surroundings and needs."
I've been wanting to build these since the project came out, but never found the time. Has anyone else here built them with success? I'd love to hear your story about how you used them!
I geeked out a bit, after reading another blog post, and used my thermal printer for this. I've been using it for a few weeks now. The little sticky notes it makes are great.
I am starting to collect too many of them though. I kinda like the idea of ops text-file because it is renewed from day to day. I'm still not quite sure how to deal with the items I know I need to get to eventually but that I won't get to today. I'm also not sure how to deal with the pile growing continually.
I have noticed that thermal notes fade relatively quickly. When they do that I have to think about weather I want to reprint them or just throw them out.
The recent HN thread on receipt printers for task tracking had this comment which I wish got some attention and replies:
"The biggest killer for any task tracker I find is an accumulating backlog of items that seem too important to quit but too intractable to make progress on." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44270076
(I suspect that’s part of too many browser tabs hanging around, too)
> "The biggest killer for any task tracker I find is an accumulating backlog of items that seem too important to quit but too intractable to make progress on."
I worked in this space for some time. Solving the backlog problem is the holy grail of To-Do systems. I am convinced it is a solvable problem.
The reason there are a bajillion To-Do apps and strategies right now is because a working UX for a digital task-keeping system is still not figured out. To simply put it, no To-Do app 'works' right now. Many of them work well enough for some people to depend on them to some extent.
One of the major reasons for failure is the backlog problem. It's surprisingly difficult, it's at the crossroads of human psychology and the varying real life tasks and responsibilities of real people. Real world is messy.
You'll see To-Do apps "work" out-of-the-box for most people and be hugely beneficial when:
- You see research papers comparing different strategies for To-Do task scheduling, cognitive load of different UI views, etc.
- Popular To-Do apps converge. They'll likely look nothing like the scheduled-checklist style apps of today.
- People start depending on them in managing most areas of their life.
Right now the To-Do app industry is competing on who has the shiniest UI. Very few players are even acknowledging the backlog problem.
Personally, I tried everything under the sun from using a single .txt file to custom-designed software. I have ADHD. Right now the thing that works best is a physical Bullet Journal. It works because of the friction of paper and pen. It mostly solves the accumulating backlog problem.
I should build one that sends me an SMS message instead. So I stumbled on AT+ plus code for programing GSM devices. I have a MTN HUAWEI E303 modem from back in 2016 and I wrote a server using the npm serialport module.
I just need to write a dmenu script that pipes from every 3 git commits.
```txt SMS from :mtn-E303-sms-server
-------------------------
PROJECT: ppc-v.1.0
-------------------------
Commits: 3
New Features Added!
Bugs Squashed
Code Cleaned Up
-------------------------
Total XP: +150
Keep it up!
-------------------------
```
That should keep my monkey brain hooked for a while he he.
I've seen mention of using the dot matrix printers common in restaurant kitchens as an alternative which doesn't fade; they have the added benefit of two-color printing (most do black and red)
Yeah the thermal printer one made the rounds here too, I've been curious to see how it's been going the last couple months for the people that adopted it.
Taks tracking is different from reminders. There’s actually few things that I want to be reminded of, and they either belongs to a calendar (collaborative items) or a reminder app. The separation is blurry and they can all fits within the agenda concept.
As for tasks tracking, it’s all lists. And a daily/weekly/monthly review is enough for me.
And my calender app is used like a list, i can sort it by setting the time for each list item if i really care. I kind of set a reminder for every item i put in, but not everybody wants that for sure.
It really depends on a person. For a neurospicy person like me, pull is stupidly hard but push works better. That's why I'd rather turn my environment and lists into intelligent auto reminders. Otherwise they may as well just not exist.
If you put non-date-specific TODOs in your calendar, then as soon as the number of TODOs in that system becomes overwhelming, you stop looking at your calendar and start missing appointments & truly date specific reminders.
If you put date-dependent TODOs in your task tracking system, then every time you look at it you see a bunch of stuff you can't move on and you quickly lose effectiveness.
If something is dependent on a specific date or time, either because it is an appointment or because it is nonactionable until then, put it in a calendar or tickler file. If not, keep it the hell away from your calendar and put it on a TODO list (plain text file is fine). This keeps both systems effective.
But if it's AR you can have a cute hamster run up to you and holding an urgent note. Or the hare from Alice in Wonderland. And it can just sit on your desk (virtually) and do cute things while you continue to finish what you were working on. Better than a boring annoying beeping alarm.
We have not even started combining digital an real world, and the last few idea, e.g. from Meta, were devoid of anything useful, showing how little actually useful imagination some super-rich have, putting so many resources into bad or even destructive ideas when sooo much useful stuff needs to happen. We still have this tiny viewport, behind which another world - our digital world - awaits, and people think it's normal that we use this tiny port and awkward indirect devices (mouse) to manipulate things in there. We could do soooo much better soon!
Okay, the access device still is missing. Few people want to wear the current generation of AR devices. But that just shows that neuro-computer interface needs investment on the level of AI, it's not magic (actual neurons are just very complex to work with, never mind finding the right one's to connect to), we could slowly build something there.
Somebody asked what the advantage is of having this computerized instead of actual matter, e.g. physical paper notes. It's all the general computer advantages of course, like sharing stuff. Never mind being able to reorganize everything in an instant.
Imagine having a software project not viewed with one tiny viewport, but like a physical project, even over several rooms. You don't need to click, you go to the place representing some module and physically (virtually physically) take out the code, edit with your fingers. Watch the data flow around you. Have a bunch of flying piranhas show up when something goes wrong. Work with all your body in a real 3D space instead of sitting in a chair all day, all week, all month, all life, watching that vast digital world and/or just your project through that tiny viewport.
Yes, building something new is a lot of effort. And? We have been doing it for a few thousand years, again and again and again. Cities were a lot of work. Irrigation was a lot of work. Farming was a lot of work. Castles were a lot of work. Roads. Aqueducts. International trade. And that was before the even more complex problems of modernity, after the industrial revolution. I don't understand the attitude behind such an argument. I would understand complaints if unwilling people were forced to contribute funds and/or time, but it's not like me or anyone else is forcing you to participate in this idea against your will.
I mean yeah sure but "I'm going to make a brain mesh so I can have an AR cartoon be my to-do buddy!" makes Knuth taking a multi-year detour from writing TAoCP to build TeX look like nothing.
You give a long list of features that I don't want. And then go on to encourage everyone to switch text editors, and adopt a specific plugin that happens to work in the way that you personally like.
As a vim user, this is kind of what I have come to expect from emacs users. Honestly, I'm glad that you've found something that works well for you. But I hope that some day you internalize the fact that other people aren't you, and they shouldn't always be "encouraged" to give up their existing solutions to do things in the way that you've decided is perfect.
Don’t switch text editors, and don’t use a plugin.
For a few years I used Orgmode. I didn’t use Emacs. That is, when I needed to edit text files, I used Vim or macOS TextEdit. I used Orgmode to track my tasks and keep notes. That Emacs was underneath it was purely incidental, and I didn’t use Emacs for anything else. For me, Orgmode was not a plugin. It was the primary software I used, and there was this Emacs thing under it.
Ironically, these days I do actually use Emacs, and I use OmniFocus for tasks, mostly because OmniFocus gets multi-device sync right so it’s worth the price. But don’t hesitate to use Orgmode even if you don’t want Emacs otherwise.
org-mode is basically better Markdown with a bunch of automated things that don't get in your way unless you specifically put them in there.
The only unwanted feature you're likely to encounter is automatic sub/superscript conversion, and that's documented and easy to turn off.
I'm not recommending org-mode. I personally don't care if you use org-mode or not. I never understood that mentality. But the type of software you're describing is crap, and org-mode doesn't fall into that category.
I think the OP is far from saying what you are implying. He is not advocating for changing text editor or installing any plugins. Just recommends trying out org mode. I think is very valid. I’ve known many many people (in the order of hundreds) that use vi for editing in general but emacs for other tasks, e.g. org mode, sbcl repl, etc. I think the suggestion ist just to give org mode a try. No need to feel offended or pushed to leave your favorite editor. At the end, is all about personal preference.
I see this just as someone being genuinely enthusiastic about their own approach, and trying to convince people out of that enthusiasm, to make them experience the same happiness they are getting from it.
I think most of us here are old enough to know not to take recommendations from some dude on the internet as obligations, which, for me, just leaves the enthusiasm between the lines.
To add a different perspective, I love Emacs Org-mode for note taking but gave up on it for task management after a couple of years. Not because the tool is inadequate – my attempts at Todoist or Taskwarrior didn’t fare any better – but because the GTD-style workflow just doesn’t fit my personality.
I’ve now happily used a paper-based bullet journal instead, and am about to transition to a Rocketbook for this use.
The problem is that a GTD-style workflow requires a lot of discipline to stick to daily/weekly reviews, where you prune or reschedule tasks, and it requires you to be strict about deleting tasks you’ll never do. If not, you just get an endlessly growing list of stale tasks, and for me personally the list becomes so associated with guilt and stress that I just burn out and get paralyzed unless I regularly throw it all out and start from scratch. (Is "TODO bankruptcy" a thing?)
Surprisingly, this led me to the conclusion that being able to forget tasks is crucial for me to remain focused, productive, and mentally stable. Being able to start each day with a blank page, write or transfer tasks that I can realistically do today, and letting the unimportant ones silently disappear on old pages without having to consciously delete them, somehow works better for me.
For notes however, Org-mode is great. I’ve found great value in rediscovering old ideas and knowledge 5 years later, whereas finding 5 year old undone tasks is rarely something I want.
I found Reminders to be unreliable and foolishly designed. It only works for must-do tasks. It uses repeating-period instead of time-since, so it can't handle repeating tasks that are optional. If you fail to mark off a repeating task, the next instances stack up and crash the notification cycle.
I'm familiar with the pain point you're describing. In general, I would say a recurring calendar event is a better solution for your particular preferences. Personally my mental model is that the act of deciding to not do an optional task constitutes completion of the reminder for that occurrence. And if I forget or deprioritize that decision, the reminder still hangs out in my Today list until I do as a mitigation.
I still use my calendar for routine time-window reminders. But when I tried timeboxing tasks for after work, those don't stick because my daily work hours can shift by as much as 2 hours, depending on how many pre-work-hours meetings I have that day.
I'm a big fan of automation, so half of the fun with that project is setting it all up.
If you work at an office, you can set your reminders to be location-based with daily recurrence so that you get reminded when you leave the office or arrive home. I imagine you can also integrate Reminders with IFTT if you want a "Done with Work" button on your phone if you WFH.
Ironically the Reminders app sucks at reminding. I use the Clock app for my todo list; it makes a pretty loud noise pretty reliably, which makes it pretty good for reminders.
Reminders is not the job of a todo app, it is the job of a calendar app. For a todo there is no now, it is pick the best thing todo next. I need to be interupted for my dentist appointment. However I don't need to be interupted to buy milk, I need a remineer when I'm at the store anyway to also get milk. If the reminder was 'i see you are going in the direction of a store: we need milk if you have time to stop' that would work.
Certain tasks have deadlines - can you really have one of those without some concept of time? Creating a calendar entry for those doesn’t make any sense to me - they are not events happening at a point in time with a given duration, but things that need to be done BEFORE said point in time.
Hence scheduling, which leads to agendas, the midway point between a calendar and Todo list.
I used to use an org agenda view for this, now I just use a caldav calendar and trillium. In the morning, I check my to-do list, which has been being created for this day over the last couple weeks or months, I look at my agenda to see what meetings or appointments I have, and I slot todos in between them. I might even be doing so for the whole week or month, moving tasks around as needed. I take a look at my week and month todos and see that something is due in two days so slot it in for today. Similar to how a project manager might do with sprints and tickets I guess.
I think the critical aspect of any functional Todo system is active review, at least daily if not more so, plus regular weekly and monthly cleanups.
A reminder makes no sense because while there is a deadline there isn't a must do now time. What they need is a regular review so as you go about your day it is still fresh, and maybe in a plan. Often those are things that can be done when you have a free moment as well.
I don't know that app, but I don't want a specific location - milk can be had at hundreds of different stores in my town. While it isn't all the same there are only about 4 different suppliers to all those stores.
> Reminders is not the job of a todo app, it is the job of a calendar app.
Ehh. The thing with a calendar "reminder" is that calendar apps assume that any such reminder is irrelevant once the time you set for the reminder goes by. They exist to remind you that some time-sensitive real-world event is starting, in time to be ready for it; but once that event has ended, you must have either done it or missed it — so either way, the calendar forgets about it.
Whereas a reminder / "todo with a date" object in a reminder/todo app, makes a different assumption: that you still need to do the thing, even if you didn't interact with the reminder when it first popped up. So the reminder is still there, glowing brightly, and often pops back up with further notifications, until you complete it.
Three examples from my own calendar of the type of reminder I'm talking about here, if you can't yet picture what I mean:
• It's time to replace the filter in my cat's water fountain [and take apart and scrub all the parts of the fountain while I'm at it.] (This isn't urgent — there's no particular need to do it exactly when I'm reminded of it — but it grows more urgent the longer it is left undone. The persistence of the reminder helps me to remember to do it, if I was busy when I first saw it.)
• I've gotta either pick the specific meals going into my meal-box subscription service box by midnight Saturday, or skip the week (or the service will pick randomly for me, giving me things I really don't want to eat, and I'll torture myself trying to motivate myself to cook those meals anyway, because I don't want to waste money/food.) I set this one to go off with two explicit "pre-notifications" twice — once at 7PM on Thursday, and again at 9PM on Friday. It then goes off again on its own, a little bit before midnight, and that's the final warning. (And, of course, if I check it off before then, the other notifications associated with that instance of the reminder won't fire.) I also usually just leave the Friday 9PM one unacknowledged + open as a toast on my computer until I've picked it, to ensure I won't get distracted and forget about it.
• Pay my credit card bill. (I have monthly autopay set up, but my understanding is that they still get to charge some minimal amount of interest for any charge that remains posted + not paid down for 21 days. So I set a reminder to pay the card down every 14 days. Again, not urgent per se — the worst that happens is that the 30-day autopay kicks in. But I find it a convenient time to review the last 14 days of charges for any strange activity; and the longer I go without doing that, the more of a schlep that starts to feel like — so biweekly is actually good here.
To be clear, I had all three of these set up as calendar events before — and they didn't work very well that way! Repeating reminders have much better semantics here.
Being pedantic, based on your example, I think the Reminders app does a good job at reminding, but a bad job at alerting. But that’s because a reminder to me is a gentle concept.
I believe the Reminders app, when used alongside Notes and Calendar, is becoming a strong competitor in the productivity space. One feature I'd love to see added is persistent nudging reminders that keep alerting you until you manually dismiss them.
Things 3 is another excellent third-party option in this category. Together, these apps form my essential productivity stack. I honestly can't function without them.
Yeah I think this is a result of the attention economy, there are 75 million notifications per day that someone somewhere wants to push in your face so we've gotten really good at cutting them out. But the counter-swing is also too big and now critical things like calendars and reminders are buried in a list we never look at.
I agree it would be nice to have more alarm-like notification options. Flagging, setting as high priority, and assigning a date/time and getting in the habit of checking the Today category regularly all help mitigate; a bug-me-until-this-is-done feature would be a welcome alternative. (I will note that the GP's emacs stack isn't even close to offering native mobile push notifications, to state the obvious.)
Reminders.app does a great job when I want create lists and inventories! I use it for groceries and webpages too. For example, I've sent many of the Emacs-related links to my Emacs list in Reminders, where I know I'll be able to find them the next time I forget Gall's Law and look for a more-complex system to replace my current one: writing things down; thinking about what I've written; redrafting; and repeating.
I think the reason people use text file + "snowflake software" is that they want just the structure (constraints) they want, and no more. BTW, what people want changes over time and by circumstance.
org mode has a lot of features, including customizability, but imposes some heavy constraints as well. By its nature it's only going to satisfy a sliver of the people who have come around to text file.
It's good you linked that document, though. At a glance it gives a fair idea of what you'd be buying in to.
Too many programmers think they have a unique use case without considering that maybe the existing projects are bloated for a reason. Then they end up just recreating the same bloat.
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.
Gall's Law almost always deserves to be repeated and higher up in HN threads, and this is another instance where I wish I could upvote more than once.
Here, Gall's Law provides an accurate explanation for why so many of us have returned to paper, pencil, and brain cells. It is also apropos of your comment's sibling comment regarding how tech folks frequently and mistakenly believe that they can improve on a solution that has worked well for thousands of years of human civilization (e.g., paper + writing instrument + human thought) in just a few weeks. For all the talk of Emacs's being relatively ancient and mature software, handwriting is orders of magnitude more mature and sanded down.
With software to "solve" the problems of thinking, remembering, linking ideas, or deciding what to do … now you have two problems, as we say.
Do I need to start living in Emacs to get these benefits? Or are you saying I can use Emacs as my todo list app, close it after writing a todo, and have it pop up notifications?
Yes, with a little setup. But never forget that org-mode is the gateway drug of Emacs.
You start using it for the agenda and TODO lists, learn it has spreadsheet functionality that ties in with the arbitrary-precision calculator, start taking notes and exporting them to PDF via LaTeX, writing reports in it with your company letterhead, merging your contacts list, migrating your email into Emacs, and next thing you know you find yourself fifteen pairs of parentheses deep in a custom elisp function that tweaks the date format for that one manager that insists on yy/dd/mm whenever you send your weekly progress report.
Most of this is solved by: todo list in one file. One list. Use markdown. Try Obsidian. Read Randy Pausch last lecture. Look at his todo list. Copy that. Use a calendar if it is time sensitive. Look at your todo list often. Want to be fancy? Have an inbox file that is also a list. Your backlog is stuff that moves down to priorities other than 1. Try the Covey quadrants for your task priorities. Don’t over complicate this.
You can make an art form out of procrastinating on real tasks to create the most perfect todo system ever. We got LLMs now. It can query your text file, categorize, etc.
Todoist does all of that and more, basically any reminders app does most of that.
Just a counterpoint to say, many of us look for a todo app, use one of the many great ones on the market and then don't write blog posts about it. It's worth just trying one of the many existing apps instead of building your own.
I've taken to using an LLM to organize my Todo list (self hosted interface with a little MCP server I wrote and a postgrss db on my network), it's still very simplistic however for someone with ADHD just having fast and unorganized data go in and structured data come out, is a real win.
It isn't perfect, and still lacks a lot of features that other people may consider a must have, but so far it's been the best Todo app I've ever used.
I think one thing that is missing from emacs/org-mode is the mobile integration. There are apps that handle some features of org-mode on mobile, but probably missing features of the desktop version. Currently, I manage my notes only on the desktop because I haven't found a good companion on mobile.
If you have Android, emacs is now officially supported on Android (https://f-droid.org/packages/org.gnu.emacs). Along with https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard, it turns out to be a pretty usable (assuming you are the type that is okay working with emacs in general). I am now in search of a simple way to sync notes between my phone and computer (without using Big Tech solutions).
Combining the feel of plain text with real structure is also exactly why we're building an "IDE but for tasks/notes" [1].
With structured apps (task managers, outliners) you lose the illusion of editing plain text, but plain text alone lacks things like structure, links, dates, and collaboration. We've spent the last few years building an editor completely from scratch to keep the ease of text editing while adding planning and structure.
There's a few bits of information missing on the website that is critical to some people:
- What platforms are supported?
- What is the business model?
- Does the editor support customizable key bindings? Are there presets for Emacs, vi, or others?
> who then build quite a lot of snowflake software
So close! People building snowflake software is a consequence of it not being a generalizable problem, not the cause of it. Everyone organizes their notes/todos differently, and though the variations may seem slight, they are best solved by a blunt and unopinionated tool.
> It takes some time to get used to
Non-starter. A text file is the hammer of the digital world
If people want an excellent todo list system that's essentially infinitely customizable but still approachable for basic productivity, org mode is good.
The mobile experience is somewhat lacking but good enough with Orgzly on Android.
However with org mode I had the same issue I had with all my to-do list systems, wherein I tended to record too many todos. I needed granular prioritization and gtd contexts and scheduled and deadlines and repeaters to keep track of it all. I needed to install org super agenda to get useful views.
I switched to trillium and nuked 90% of my todos in the migration as out of date or just kinda vague things that'd be nice to do and chucked those into a future projects note. Trillium's to-do UX is slightly better than a markdown document because you can click to check the boxes, that's about it. It's high friction. I have to go to today's note, go to the Todo section, and then put my to-do in the list. Or the week Todo section, or month or year.
What I've found is now I actually do all my to-dos because now they're all actually worth doing. I'm not scrabbling down every single thing and cluttering up my list.
I use a plain text app on phone for TODOs. I hate notifications, do not use full text search.
I have been using it for 5 years now and I hate the notes apps with their clunky buttons, limiting software, where you cannot write or do what you want to.
I see apps often as regressions toward freedom of note apps.
You do understand that org-mode is plain text, yes?
You are basically losing nothing, if you write an org mode file. You don't even have to use org syntax. The point is you can and you can do things faster, if you do. Like inserting a new heading, or changing the order of text blocks, or inserting a quote or a table.
I'm in the process of doing most of this via Claude check-ins, using a combination of MCP, Obsidian, and Things. Obsidian is the memory system, context info, and archive, while Things hosts the active lists and desktop widgets. It doesn't work perfectly or even that well, but it's coming along.
So my current pet project is a to-do system with an app that you can look at, edit, or complete tasks in. But I have both a fully agentic interface and simpler LLM powered inputs.
I'm really enjoying it. I think it is a good example of how to leverage LLMs to reduce drudgery.
Things I can do now:
- take a picture of a notice like a license renewal and a task is created and automatically filled with due dates and information extracted from the image and likely from online searches.
- turn a design document into a reasonable task plan.
- create classified and researched tasks with a sentence.
I'm just getting started on it but it already is kind of feature complete. Programmed with Claude Code, about 20k lines.
The key I think is to have something as easy to input as a text file, because it applies intelligence to remove friction.
I still like to implement my own ideas, especially in fun languages like Erlang and Perl. I'm glad I can program, because personal programming in the small is fertile ground and tremendously useful. For starters, this entire site is generated by 269 lines of commented Perl, including the archives and the atom feed (and those 269 lines also include some HTML templates). Why? Because it was pleasant and easy, and I don't have to fight with the formatting and configuration issues of other software. Writing concise to-the-purpose solutions is a primary reason for programming in the twenty-first century.
I feel the same way. I landed on Evernote rather than org-mode, but it similarly provides all these features out of the box, while letting me largely customize my setup. (I basically do GTD with a notebook for each priority level.)
Was regretting it a bit in the 2020-2023 range when Evernote was going downhill, but it's improved a fair amount since the acquisition. Almost (but not quite) to the point where I'd recommend it to others again.
What I would recommend is spending the time to learn some system beyond just a text file. I've ultimately found it well worth it, to the extent that I couldn't imagine going back now. It is definitely an investment up front though.
> I would encourage everyone to try out emacs with org-mode.
You can even do that, _and_ do stuff from your unholy list.
I have my org folder synced via syncthing to every device I care about. I used to do automated git commits on that folder, but eventually stopped it years ago as commit messages like "daily automated commit" are not better than regular backups.
But thanks to LLMs I went back to that - now I have a systemd timer which calls a script that calls Emacs (because I have all the LLM bindings set up in there already) with the git diff to generate a commit message. That does a pretty good job at summarising my changes.
Not so fast my dear, just this year I finally adopted the default home-directory structure of my linux distro (Document, Pictures, Music, Video, etc.) in my workflow. I'm not ready for more big obvious changes like this. ;)
Am i the only one to generally find those directories getting in the way ? I have very few videos or music, or even images worth storing as images and not related to other documents. Downloads and documents might be useful but then, documents is almost everything that is not online so why not put it in $HOME. And I don't like capitalized folders but that's me.
I 'hated' this too for a long time, but I finally gave in. It now also matches my backup workflow perfectly. And now I don't have to tweak that much after installing a new distro. Sometimes my tools have to adapt to me, sometimes I adapt a little to my tools.
I truly just use a plain .txt file. Every "add-on" and layer beyond the .txt happens to run on a complex wetware device that came built-in with my body.
>Every "add-on" and layer beyond the .txt happens to run on a complex wetware device that came built-in with my body.
He was addressing the comments such as mine that determined a txt file without any runtime software layered on was not enough for some people. The built-in wetware was inadequate.
Apparently, you are one of the lucky ones that can just use a txt file. For others, they need a little more support apparatus ("bicycle for the mind") enabled by some type of active app that complements the TODO.txt file.
I think using org mode is way overkill. If someone wants to do pros tastination dressed up as emacs-gardening, it may be a good option.
The best todo app ideally should be a smartphone app, which you'd have always with you. I think Microsoft Todo is a good choice for Android. It is mostly functional, free of cost and does not have any ads.
I have used emacs for more than 30 years, use it as a primary code editor now, and I have never found use of org-mode, despite a few attempts, to become a lasting habit. Of the list of integrations provided here, I only see alert and calendar support being of interest (but because of this, I may give org-mode one more try).
I think a lot of your examples demonstrate the power and low learning curve of a single text file as an organizing tool.
Org mode is one direction you could take your text file in. Feeding your text file into an LLM or committing it to git or formatting with Markdown are others. But starting with a plain text file doesn’t commit you to any of those paths.
Im perfectly happy with markdown in vscode. Right next to my work and with a search function. I guess I could do txt but the syntax highlighting makes things a bit more readable.
I think it works for me because it's mostly just a working memory. I virtually never visit my notes again. It is not some personal knowledge base nor project tracker.
Same and if I need to share a bit often times I just highlight it and tell an LLM to blast out a markdown table, render preview and screenshot it to someone.
This satisfied me for awhile, eventually though I wanted a more comprehensive solution to record todo notes alongside thoughts and project ideas, so I escaped my IDE and got a simple obsidian setup going. I can definitely recommend
Org mode is nice, but ultimately you are adapting someone else's approach. The best is making your own, for which you know all features and which works exactly as you want it to work.
As somone who uses text and paper for todos, happily for years now after spending equally much time procrastinating in search of the perfect task management system I will now do a half-ironic take on answering your points:
> having your computer alert you to things that come up
That's what the calendar or the alarm is for
> being able to tag notes
Write #tag and then grep for it. Not that hard
> being able to add events to a calendar
A event isn't a todo, you add it to the calendar instead
> being able to set priority of tasks
Cut it and paste it up to the top or write "IMPORTANT". If you have so many tasks that you need something better, you probably spend too much time organizing your todos and should start working
> expecting prioritized/currently relevant tasks to be at the top of the agenda
If your todo lists are so long thst you cant read them in 30 seconds they are too long. Split them up and mive them to the relevant project.
> being able to add recurring tasks
Just leave it in the list and add a questionmark at the end. If it is time critical add it to the calendar
> full-text search (grepping)
Yeah, good observation you can grep text pretty fine. If you're annoyed by having to type the filename that is a shell oneliner
- formatting features (markdown)
You can use markdown in text, it is just more or less useless wothout rendering. But I don't see how formatting leads to more productivity
> feeding TODOs to an LLM to filter out the currently relevant ones and send Telegram notifications
Yeah ok, that one is bad.
> hand-copying currently relevant tasks to the top of the TODO list
Get a decent texteditor where you can press modifiers + arrow keys to move lines. Works pretty well. In fact better/faster than dragging with your mouse.
> running a script on a VPS to sync notifications
No need to do that, you have a calendar
> set up cron job with git commit
If you need your todos in a git you either work at a nuclear facility, a space station or you take yourself too seriously
> writing post-it notes by hand
What else would you use, a typewriter? Just kidding. Paper has undeniable strengths for the todo space. It is there and you don't have to remember to open it. Rewriting your todos is doubling as both checking their state, refreshing your memory and cleaning them up. Paper can be read without electricity and by other people without any form of setup. People know how to use it without onboarding. Hackers cannot use a flaw in the the paper has been made to gwin remote code execution (they can however potentially use photographs of paper to do so).
I am not kidding, one of the best work-handoffs I ever had was entirely organized via emails and post its. It worked flawlessly.
And I say that as someone who has spent days on todo systems, task warrior and the likes. Everybody has their own needs, but very often boring and pragmatic wins.
Very well said. People here are interested in poking holes in things, instead of actually being productive. Again, we should just look at what actually productive people tend to do, which in my experience is generally to just use whatever works and not spend too much time thinking about optimising todo systems.
How about having a synced and editable version of your to-do list on all your devices, including mobile? I've found that to be the main filter for note taking setups. You seem to suggest that there's an emacs plug-in that can handle that?
I don't use emacs but vi on all of my devices. This should probably work with emacs stuff if they save it in regular files/directories. I put everything in ~/notes. Quick sync before leaving the house, sync when I return. Can use your desktop as the central location if you don't have a home server. Works with termux on android. I think iphone has iSh or something for alpine.
Swap src and dest as necessary (could use other options but this is compatible with OpenBSD openrsync):
rysnc -rlpt --delete notes/ user@lanip:notes
There are apps for iOS that will read .org files and allow you to edit them and include the ability to sync with iCloud. beorg is one of them. I'm not sure about Android, but I have to imagine they exist there as well.
It's a portable Lisp environment that just happens to have an editor as its default application. I know it's advertised as an editor, but that's like saying a web browser is a website viewer.
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.
I was a really big fan of taskwarrior for the simple reason that it did do an approximation of telling you the best thing by calculating urgency, based on a simple weighting method where "the most urgent tasks" blocked other tasks, were due soon, had extra tags, had dependents, and were the oldest.
But I do feel very strongly that people only jump into "the great trap" because they feel that they were let down by their system, or that it didn't quite model their life accurately. A lot of todo apps are opinionated and those opinions, if incompatible with the the person using them, will lead to frustration. The quest for a more perfect life model often continues when this incompatibility is found.
Everything you are saying was something I suspected to be true - I think you've captured it brilliantly. Really like:
"Ultimately, the best system is the one that removes the most friction between decision and action."
> 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.
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.
One of the biggest insights of David Allen's "Getting Things Done" is the daily review. If you're not reviewing your system isn't working. Build a habit/ritual around that and you're in great shape. Cal Newport also talks about this.
From a "one giant to-do list"-guy, I just have a bi-weekly review. This seems to work for me since I open Things 3 every day. I am considering switching to weekly reviews.
Honestly, I use Things 3 pretty much like the author uses his text-app. One single list for all to-do's. The beauty of Things 3 is that there is no feature bloat and unnecessary complexity like most to-do managers.
The important difference is automatic recurring tasks, and daily task will show up outside the app as that red bubble on its icon indicating how many things "need" to be done today, the rest is optional.
Crucially, you need to commit to it, and use it everyday - even if just a little. The authors notepad works because it's a daily simple thing, like you said.
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/
Can you expand on which org-mode features you like for this use case?
On the top of my head, among the useful features I'm familiar with, you can:
* nest tasks
* set deadlines
* set priorities
* filter ~arbitrarily
* have as much content as you want per item (in comparison with todotxt with is one line per item), including non-text like images
* have statuses other than todo and done (like waiting)
What else do you use that makes you particularly like this setup?
Org-mode is this thing I've been trying to use for a while, but it never sticks because I'm just too used to vim and plain text. Once in a while I look for a killer use-case, hoping it'd make me stick to it, to no avail so far.
If you don't feel like you need the extra bells and whistles don't worry about it. The great thing about org-mode is it _is_ just plain text and all the magic is in the interpretation of the plain text. If you have yourself a table and one day ya want to do some spreadsheet magic on it or pipe it into a script easily, you can just check the manual for how to do it and KO it right there in the same place the data lives. Remembering how to do it afterwards is optional.
Personally, I use lazyvim in neovim and doom emacs in emacs and just kinda switch between the two based on what I feel like in a given day. NeoVim tends to have better treesitter/LSP stuff as well as marginally better performance, doom emacs has way better test running and org-mode and it is only a little behind neovim in that other stuff.
All the above is to suggest I think the question is flawed. BUT! To answer the question literally, my favorite thing in org mode that I've never seen anywhere else is the ability to dump babel blocks in my notes with code samples that are actually runnable and the output is able to be piped somewhere else.
I too have used org-mode for a while and here are some additional features which may pique your interest:
- agenda views let me create custom pages of tasks with certain states or tags
- a robust time tracking system. I use this for my freelancing work
- very nice text tables that are programmable
- a very customizable capturing system
- a huge ecosystem of plugins
- a programmable API: I'm currently working on an importer for the DayOne app as well as a fitness tracking package
- PDF export with LaTeX. I can use this for printing out my weekly plan for example
- in addition to deadlines, a scheduled property for when you intend to start a task
- extensive linking system (https://orgmode.org/guide/Hyperlinks.html#External-Links-1) I often have todos linking to places in code
I think that org-mode could use better learning resources. There's pretty much the manual and blog posts by experienced users, neither are especially aimed towards new users.
There's a great meme with the classic intelligence bell curve setup where the "grug" and the "elite" sides both use a plain text file with their own ideas of how to do things, and only the "midwit" in the middle is using a huge pile of tooling to accomplish roughly the same thing.
I too went through the phase of using Dendron and Obsidian as well as more common todo list tools (and tickets)... and here I am back at Apple Notes, whose sole advantage over a text file is that it has enough capabilities to store a screenshot. That's all I really needed. My notes are like the classic notebook: a lot of the time it's write-only, a lot of the time it only has to be able to be understood for a week or two before the information is too old to matter anyway.
>There's a great meme with the classic intelligence bell curve setup
This meme has taken on the character of the "Einstein was bad at math and school" urban legend. Yes, you can overthink it, but you can also under-think it if you picture yourself to be some romantic-era genius sitting in a heap of notes. If you want to go meta you might as well put the usage of that meme on the middle of the curve.
You don't need 15 note taking apps but it does pay off to invest in at least a bit of a system (I'd recommend https://johnnydecimal.com/ because it takes about an hour to set up), because you're not actually the 150 IQ guy and you probably benefit from a bit of structure (as do most very intelligent people in real life)
> it does pay off to invest in at least a bit of a system
Sorry, but the whole point of the meme is that you get stuck in this mindset and you think you're talking to the grug side making your argument, when you might actually be talking to someone who's emerged from the far side of this particular Dunning-Kruger test.
As I said, I've been through the systems, I've been mindful, I've made connections and structure, I wrote my own wiki software half a lifetime ago... and in the end... there's just not that much value to it, I found. I don't really find much in my old notes that ever helps me enough to be worth the additional effort.
For a while, when I had an office, I enjoyed a post-it note based "system" where I'd just stick notes in places around my monitor, which is ugly and I hate seeing them, so they get done in order to help me clean up. I'd do that again if I had an office again...
I'm not the person you're replying to, but I have several TODO items on my current project for fixing HMI screens. Those will be performed by one of my teammates. I could easily embed images into the org-mode document I use.
Unfortunately for him, the HMI is air-gapped so getting screenshots is cumbersome. He'll have to make do with my notes.
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
At that point the todo list isn't so much a plan for the day as it is a daily pre-flight checklist just to make sure no fires are burning in any corner of your life
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.
This right here is, something that probably goes over a lot of peoples heads in here. Understandably so as we are on HackerNews people arr most likely IT people and simialar they view the PC as the prime Working environment. And while i personally concur and think the PC is much more productive than a Phone. One of these two devices you always have in your pocket.
Which is why for jotting done some quick note, or some oh remember to do this later when i am back home is just best done on a phone.
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.
I like Org Mode but I feel like custom agenda views are not really as flexible as they should be, and as soon as you want to do something outside of the bounds of what Org offers with its settings for the built-in agenda views you have to go on a deep dive into the emacs lisp
For example I wanted the global TODO list view to show next to each entry when the TODO was scheduled for, but there's really no way to modify the global TODO list much at all
I try to treat my setup more like text files I'm editing in Emacs, rather than me specifically using Org Mode.
I like the extra niceties I get with Org Mode in Emacs, like marking things as done, making checkboxes, etc. I never venture farther than that.
The most complicated thing I do in Org Mode would be making tables and recurring tasks - and I only do recurring tasks because BeOrg makes it very easy to set that up.
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.
Totally agree, Todoist rocks. Recurring tasks are necessary for any kind of regular maintenance tasks, and Todoist supports all natural language scheduling "every month on the 15th" or "every 8 weeks starting Thursday". Textfile certainly isn't going to do this for you. Article author writes:
> 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.
Why didn't he turn off the points system if it was distracting, instead of migrating to the next shiny new TODO workflow? Not sure I understand, but I guess that might've left nothing to blog about.
Recurring tasks or tasks far into the future is what has me locked into Todoist. I love how comprehensive the plain-English scheduling is, such as "Do task every third Friday of the month". It's clearly got a lot more power than I use too.
While this may work for others replying in support of, you can't use this software without logging in. That's a showstopper for me. It leads me to believe it'll begin syncing my data outside of my local environment. Can you put details about an upcoming employer meeting there without notifying your employer you've shared this data with a third party vendor? Can you put sensitive customer information in it without a governing contract without notifying the customer? ;)
I'm a heavy Todoist user and I think it's great. I used to use org-mode, but all the Android apps I used for it were clunky and had issues with syncing when my file was concurrently edited somewhere else.
Todoist's API is pretty good too, so I've ended up building my own little webapp that fills some of the gaps in Todoist's functionality (e.g. finding a list of the projects that don't have a next action defined).
I have a similar setup in Todoist, it's just a reminder for scheduled recurring tasks like bills.
Funnily enough, I was quite savvy with the features several years ago but as my work changed and things aren't as easy to list down like a routine or in neatly defined projects and such.
And when regular tasks becomes freeform, it's no surprise that a plaintext file is sufficient.
Can you please advise on how to keep it open everyday? Many tasks accumulated there so it became an inconvenience to open it so I just write everything for today on a daily note. In this case using txt is the least resistance path but it's much less effective.
Only thing to add is that I like the "inbox" feature in Todoist (plus a single catchall project). I get overeager during the day and add a bunch of stuff. The inbox makes it easy for me to mostly just remove things I won't actually do but then file away the stuff I might for later.
I've put weekly chores into a single recurring task and do them on Sundays or kick back another day or two (or just skip) if I'm busy.
It’s hypocritical for me to offer personal productivity advice, but here I go.
Weekly chores should be on a printed checklist on a clipboard kept in the kitchen or similar. These are wholly predictable items and are just clutter in a todo application, which should be devoted to making sense of the “everything else” in life.
I must say todoist is the best kind of app for this. Not affiliated. I've been using it since 2010 and it has gone the un-enshitification path ever since. I'm grateful for it and it's everything I want to create as a maker.
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"'
Some vim config so I can run `\date` (from either insert mode or normal mode) and it will print a date line for me:
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.
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)
It sounds like your life requires a manager's schedule. Lots and lots of things to fit into a busy day. Likely without a lot of big blocks of focus time.
Most programmers are far better off with a maker's schedule. Far fewer things in a day. Each with a significant block of time associated with it.
An absolutely minimal productivity system is perfect for anyone on a maker's schedule. You're right that it wouldn't work for your life.
See https://paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html if you're not familiar with the terms "manager's schedule" and "maker's schedule". It also provides context for why those different kinds of schedules are appropriate for different people. (One of the big mistakes that people on manager's schedules often make is to not recognize and respect the impact that a "quick 15 minute meeting" has on employees who need to be on a maker's schedule.)
100% - I read that when it came out, and I point others to it too.
The thing about Maker's schedule for me is that it's easy to get so into what I'm doing that other things in my life don't get the attention they need.
Having a reminder system helps make sure that doesn't happen.
Folks are criticizing this as too much or coming from too much anxiety. I might have agreed before owning a home and having kids. But I totally get it. A typical week involves dozens of random tasks like those you mentioned. Then there's the long backlog of stuff that's important but not urgent.
I've used Todoist for the last few years. It's not perfect. But it's been game-changing in terms of reducing anxiety because I never worry that I'm forgetting something.
Like you, I don't know how folks in similar positions manage. I think a lot of people just drop the ball on a lot of stuff or wait for stuff to become suddenly urgent. I don't think that's a terrible approach -- I still drop a lot of balls because there's just too much. I just try to do it more intentionally.
I'm not knocking folks with other systems, text files or otherwise. Do what works for you!
I have multiple times had the thought that it's not actually possible to "get ahead" because it takes 110% of available time (because no one gets enough sleep) just to tread water.
Investments and Property I see as kind of essential to having much of a retirement, but these things need knowledge and research to get a handle on initially and to closely manage going forwards, such that they could be a part-time job on their own.
How does that fit around a full time job plus kids school and sports plus maintaining a healthy diet and exercise?
The one thing that all of the above does teach a person, though, is: filtering of bullshit; ability to say no.
Can you give some examples of your 100 daily actions? I’m struggling to understand how you’re scheduling so many things, like I’m sure I complete 100 actions in a day but most are going to be things like “brush my teeth” or “clean up the dinner dishes”, which I personally wouldn’t schedule.
Managing the line between daily and long-term tracking is one of the toughest parts. I have a flat list of files in Notes analogous to yours, but I'm not working in every one every day, some will sit dormant for months. Do I maintain a "to buy" or "Home Depot" list in each one, or at the top level?
I like using paper for today's tasks and instant thoughts. I like to avoid cluttering with recurring unless I'm really having trouble (or keep it in calendar). I find that the "oh shit" part of my brain is largely a good enough reminder system as long as I capture the thought before it flies away.
side note: I do like the "Relationship" call-out. I had a past relationship suffer in part because I kept it a bit too much in the back pocket and not up on the proverbial board with the other projects. Workaholics take note - make your relationship part of your workflow.
I’ve tried most of the major systems, and for me Things3 wins hands down. Yes, it costs some money to by the app on my phone and on my Mac, but the cost of missing even one deadline blows those costs out of the water.
I do with Things3 supported nested areas, but I just use Projects that I never complete to achieve the same effect.
I previously developed an open-source alternative to Things3, available on web, Android, and Windows. You can try it out. I posted Show about it before, but not many people paid attention.
Currently, the UI is a bit ugly, but I have hired a professional UI designer to redesign it, and it is currently in development.
I have use a system similar to this guy and TickTick is perfect. I even use shared lists with my girlfriend to track chores which is something we implemented recently and works great.
I do have those, especially for shopping. "Home Depot Trip" for example is a constant, and has 2-10 checklist items on it at any given time based on what I need.
The problem with a once weekly checklist of [all the house things] is how do I track when I last did a specific action so I make sure it doesn't drag on too long?
As a concrete example - I live in a steep, hilly area. So I schedule making sure that my drainage is clear about every 3 months. When I bought the house, drainage was a significant problem because it hadn't been attended to and a lot of stuff needed significant cleanouts. Do I strictly need to do something about it every 3 months? NO, but if I let it go for too long then it becomes a problem.
It's like Rumshpringa for TODO apps. Everyone wants to rebel from the old norms and go do something different, only to end up returning to the reliability, clarity and comfort of a good pen and pocket notebook.
Big fan of the Rite-In-Rain notebooks, myself, and Fisher Space Pen's Cap-o-matic.
> Big fan of the Rite-In-Rain notebooks, myself, and Fisher Space Pen's Click-o-matic.
I carry this combo everywhere I go. Way less friction than taking out my phone, unlocking, and suffering the horrible experience of typing something on a virtual keyboard.
I do enjoy the looks I get from friends and family sometimes, as they all expect me to be high tech everywhere in my life but I'm probably one of the most low-tech people outside of work.
Interestingly enough, this just shows how different people like and hate different things. I personally can’t stand writing with a pen, and am very fluent and fast with a virtual keyboard and would never describe the experience as horrible. I’m writing this on one right now, and it’s great.
I also don’t want to carry an extra thing in my pocket when I already have a phone.
I prefer A4, but yeah. I adopted something roughly based on Bullet Journal about 6 or 7 years ago and now on my 4th book.
There's something about manually writing and copying over TODOs to the next month that makes you really question if you still need to do it, and if you do, gives you a reminder that you still haven't done it.
I use a few basic markers copied from standard bullet journal, which work well as a dot can be promoted to all the others. A dash "-" for informational stuff, a centre dot "·" for a task, which turns into a slash "/" for partially done or a cross "X" for done, ">" if I carry it forward to the next month and "<" if I copy it into the future log (I have pages at the front for about 4 years of future events, 3 months per page). I also have a leftmost column for the date when something needs to be done or for meetings/events.
Surprisingly, even when doing a whole page of notes on something, it's not excessive to leave an inch margin, and sometimes you want to star a key point or attach an action point market.
I've got really used to this way of journaling, and appreciate the ability to do different things, like calendar views - such as 36 week views with one page for weekends and the other for mid week - which are great for planning holidays, weekends and significant events.
I never really got into the monthly reflection aspect, but I do like doing that around end of year and other inflection points through the year.
> There's something about manually writing and copying over TODOs to the next month that makes you really question if you still need to do it, and if you do, gives you a reminder that you still haven't done it.
This is also key for me. Striking through an item that's on my list for some time and that I just decided doesn't matter feels just as good as marking some item as done. Undecided items indeed go to the next list, and just the act of writing down the same item on a new list forces you to reconsider it.
List done? Timestamp it and throw it in the archive box.
If there's really a hyperlink I need, I might e-mail it to myself, add it to a text file in an appropriate place in the appropriate project, leave the tab open in my browser, or just do the task now.
But IMHO none of that is related to the todo list, which is stuff like "7 · Fred's birthday". It's about remembering things that I need/want to do, and in a way that's tactile and I can reflect on it whether I'm using the computer or not, not trying to maintain a knowledge base of everything.
I recently tried out Task Warrior for tasks and this is why I switched back to Obsidian + DataView.
Forgetting to check TW is the big reason it didn't work, but the secondary reason is that I take a lot dev logs on context and the `annotate` command is too clumsy to be practical for that.
I like the idea of a CLI tool for todos, but it needs to integrate with my notes.
A4 maxi. surprised to find this here - and yea, you can 1) take photo 2) easily index later via vision llm types cheap now etc even local (99% time never do, essence of todo lists ie ack wont ever need to index most items)
If we're being fair here then this must be the place to list the problems with the note card/pad system. For me, I ultimately settled on using a GitHub repo of todo lists w markdown as my solution, viewable on desktop & mobile.
The problems with a physical note card system are:
- I have to use the computer & mobile phone to enter and receive all my work, so it makes sense to consolidate the todo list(s) into those systems, instead of adding a third one. Having to remember to keep a physical bundle near me all the time, with a working pen, feels clunky.
- My handwriting is messy and this causes various problems. I can't really read it at a glance; longer messages take longer to decode; something about the non-uniformity of it also throws me off. I don't relish the thought of consulting a pile of my handwriting multiple times in an hour.
- I frequently cross off old items and add and/or modify new items. This is very easily done with a text file but sounds like a mess with note cards: keeping the empty cards around, scratching off or erasing existing ones, etc. With GitHub's commit history, I can even get a holistic view of how it's changed over the day, not possible with physical cards.
- A LOT of the value of my system comes from being able to view past days todo lists, to see what's getting done and what isn't; I do this daily. Obviously keeping up w/today's tasks stretches the physical card system to its limits; extending that to the past 7 days sounds like a nightmare.
I do this. I love good old fashioned pen and paper.
I've tried, many many times to use digital for both Todos and note taking and nothing ever stuck. Even tried using an iPad with GoodNotes & the Apple Pencil. Pen and paper is the only thing that has ever worked for me still. Plus I enjoy the physical sensation of writing things down physically, with a really nice pen and a high quality notebook.
So I always keep a notebook open on my desk, I intermix Todos and notes on sort of a "daily page" format, and I also carry a little field notes flip pad notebook with me everywhere I go. On the go it's also, oddly enough, less friction to write in my field notes book than it is to take out my phone, unlock it, and suffer through the horrible experience of typing anything out on a virtual keyboard.
OCR is readily available everywhere now so digitizing your handwritten notes, if you have to, is trivial.
Even so, I feel that much of the point of writing things down in the first place is to put the information into the mind (where the subconscious mind can work with it and do its jobs) and, ultimately, so you won't need to be reminded about it later.
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.
> 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.
That resonates with me.
I also think that OP tried to use his TODO app for habits:
>> 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.
I use a very simple habit tracker to track the things I want to do regularly, it has no gamification, just a simple notification once per day per habit.
These days I don't use a TODO app regularly; everyday tasks such as groceries, household tasks etc. work fine without it. When lots of tasks pile up and I struggle to keep track, I use a text file. Those are usually short-lived.
I also have a shared Todoist list with my wife, but we mostly use it for as a shopping list, not really a TODO app.
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.
Your approach on "issues" is fascinating! It certainly sounds like you're talking about almost tracking tickets...you know like for a dev or tech support team...Because my experience is that often tickets are not a one-and-done thing. Often enough, they require a little more folow-up, and i myself like to add comments along way towards the progress of completion...so, yeah, your approach sounds alot like tracking tickets...which in itself is NOT bad at all. The only concern is that tracking tickets often requires some pretty robust software/tool...so unless we're talking a kanban, the fear i would have is that the software/tool to use for tracking tickets might be too unwieldy for quick, let's say mobile tracking of progress...though i admit that may wrong on all thre above.
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.
I’ve been using obsidian also, I just use the daily note with some tweaks. Works great with todo’s autopopulated in new notes until they are checked off, deadlines, etc. Only downside is that I do pay for their sync functionality since iOS makes it very annoying otherwise. I’ll check out your plugin though, sounds useful.
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.
Totally agreed - Things for Mac/iOS/iPad/Watch is a great ecosystem and Just Works™.
I started by reading the GTD book, and then tried lots of different apps, but Things for Mac by Cultured Code requires the least work and conforms roughly to the GTD approach. I don't use the strict GTD approach, but its approach to quickly writing down ideas and thoughts has shaped a lot of how I operate at work and even in my personal life.
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.
My to-do list just helps a bit with my ability to be productive. If I'm at a loose end, I can refer to it and remind myself of X, Y, or Z that either should be done or that I'd like to have a bash at.
Without it, I'd 'float unproductively' more.
(And it's not necessarily about productivity, more about purpose, where I'll feel much better having completed a task that I'd previously set myself - like mulching the dead leaves or tidying the study or weeding the vege patch that I'd otherwise have not done in favour of 'floating' scrolling HN or whatever).
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.
I'm sympathetic to the text file, but for me the problem comes when you have todo lists that you are sharing with someone else, like a spouse. Then you have/want to share and edit them collaboratively.
Simple enough, there's ways to do that, but by the time you set that up to work across multiple devices of your own and someone else's, it's simpler from a UX perspective to just use an app dedicated to that task. I suppose we could use a Google doc or something but there's Keep.
I'd be interested in trying something else — I have tried other things — but keep going back to Google Keep.
Especially for Android users, Google Tasks is dead simple to use and works seamlessly with voice prompting. The less I have to manually write or type out my reminders, the better.
My oldest todo app that I can think of was just a microsoft sticky note[1] on my desktop. It always stayed on my desktop. It lacked sync between other devices so that sucked but my pc was the only device I had at that time so it worked for me. After I got a phone; google keep has kept me company. It's dead simple, cross platform, and gets work done. The only fault? It's by google, and they have a long history of killing products.
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.
Thanks for trying. (It expects mixed-case, which I need to actually say in the messaging.)
The codebase started out as something I used entirely myself, so the aspects of the workflow that relate to new user onboarding (most important for actually getting customers) are the ones that are the weakest. So this part of the codebase is where I'm working now to clean it up and it's probably also the most rough.
Why does it require mixed-case? It's for TODOs, not healthcare. If I want to use my insecure password to try out your service, please let me! It took extra code here for you to try to be secure, when it's now generally known that password requirements are security theatre at best and anti-security at worst.
Thank you for the feedback. A month ago, it didn't need any text in the password field at all. I may have overshot the mark a bit when I added validation.
Longer term, I mainly want it to just use external auth (Google, etc.) and not use passwords at all.
> Longer term, I mainly want it to just use external auth (Google, etc.) and not use passwords at all.
I usually avoid services that do this because I don't want any issues to my Google account (or any other service) to affect other services I use. Good luck trying to talk with someone at Google if some automated system flags and blocks your account.
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.
Same as well, Apple Notes. It works really great. I've also fully adopted the smart notes now with tags so that I can more easily organize stuff. I give the folders names with emojis to make it a bit more "fun".
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
I love Obsidian and the sync is worth it, but I wouldn't say it's one step above a text file. It's miles away. Never-ending features and customisations. If you want simplicity, a text file really can't be beaten.
The point is, you don't need to play with extra features and customizations if you don't want to, so you can keep it "a step above a text file". That said, having those additional features is nice when you want just a little bit more, or you want to link a note file with your todo file, etc.
I use Obsidian as basically just a markdown editor that I can throw images into. I find that all of the bells and whistles stay out of your way if you don't want them.
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.
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.
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.
> “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.
It reminds me of the developers I know who spend 6 hours out of every 8 hour day tinkering with their obscure toolsets and crazy build systems to avoid writing code.
I've seen folks using vim get way more done than some of these Youtube addicted professional tool testers.
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 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.
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.
This worked really well for me at work. A new text file for each day, so I could explain what I did/plan to do during standup.
I struggle at home though. Because there's not as much pressure to do one task until it's done... so my text file gets forgotten about. Then I start a paper list. Then I forget that... rinse and repeat.
+1 for TickTick. It gets the job done and I love that I can set reminders for my tasks that I can snooze from my Apple Watch or computer desktops instead of having to rely on Apple Reminders.
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.
Something I miss with modern UI design is the location persistence of items. Like the old windows desktop widgets or the OSX dashboard. You should show the desktop or bring up the dashboard and the todo list would always be in the same location and show up or hide with a quick key strokes.
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.
There actually is a Kanban plugin for Obsidian [1]. I've been using it for a while and think it's pretty good. Each Kanban "card" can also be turned into a full note.
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.
Came to say this. It's not exactly a todo list, and it certainly isn't "yours", but it's very close to a text file, with just about the right amount of additional functionality, and it's free.
I don't use it all that often but it's a good companion, for example to make checklists for packing, etc.
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.
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.
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 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.
Funny enough, not exactly this, but when i review new apps - either desktop or mobile (but especially mobile!) - besides ensuring that the desired features are present and will do the trick...i try to see if i can understand where/how the files are saved...This started years ago when i was interested in exporting stuff from proprietary apps...and now i've biased myself...so whenever i can not view/access/understand how or where files are stored for an app, then i almost immediately have a negative sentiment towards said app. Sadly, for mobile apps, the obfuscation of files and how/where they're stored is too much of a prevalent thing and for me so annoying.
This started out in my quest to be sure that i can not trapped by an app, and so i can safely export my data...but, nowadays, it has extended a little into the tinfoil hat thinking - fairly or not - where i ask myself: "why does this app not disclose where its files are stored, *what do they have to hide!?!*" ...which feels like the universe is nudging me more and more towards either text-centric methods, or the simplest, open source style apps, etc. :-)
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.
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...
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.
Taskmator is a third party app and it's a bit shaky with buggy selection, but it does the job in a pinch. If choose, given that they're text files you can edit them manually in any editor.
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 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 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...)
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 different model of Palm and miss it. It is simple and just works. Ironically, with the current much more powerful smartphone, I have yet to find something similar to the Palm. The only downside of Palm was its frustrating touchscreen.
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 see no need to sugar coat it when it's my reality and there's no labor disputes. If you want to be outraged by what works in my relationship have at it, meanwhile we'll continue our 20 years and counting... but if it makes you feel better, I fully realize it's self-deprecating and I'm basically a Homer Simpson of an oaf. I'd invite you to consider that some women/wives actually enjoy traditional home-making and more traditional roles which we have followed as it comes natural to us based our similar values. While you're at it, you should consider that I have a pretty high stress job and she doesn't. I also make about 8x what she makes and while she chooses to work, she's the one with the bandwidth for maintaining the house/kid's schedule. Need I continue?
I think @mock-possum was responding negatively to the tone of your post, not the content of it. The division of labor within your relationship is nobody's business but your own. If it works for you and your partner, nobody has a right to question it. However, when you say this:
> At work, I use my calendar. At home, I have a wife.
Then you're talking about your partner as if they were an appliance of piece of software rather than a person. You're objectifying them, even if in jest. This is the sort of language that makes many people feel unwelcome on HN.
To be clear, I don't believe you meant for your remark to be malicious! I just wanted to point out why it might make some people feel like outsiders in this community.
There was no tone. It was just concise. The problem is people online read things so literally they'd rather take offense than consider they're reading it wrongly. Such a lack of critical thinking in a world that is so heavily text based, lacking in context of body language and actual tone.
> This is the sort of language that makes many people feel unwelcome on HN
Really? How do you navigate as a functional person IRL if your sensibilities are so easily disrupted? I feel like if that's the case, you need to work on yourself first. Expecting the world to alter their stance and sugarcoat every word or POV is insanity. You're literally living life in hard mode by choice. I'm not a big fan of appeasing fragile people, I'm sure this is a generational thing but here's the thing, that cohort is going to live a majority of their life alongside my cohort and they're choosing to bring friction into the mix.
I think HN is a place for adults to talk maturely and generally "we" read past this stuff. Places like Reddit are places for kids (or immature adults) to talk, they would gladly turn the entire conversation into a dissection of word choice based on whatever is trending in the offends-me-today cult. This is a what keeps HN community, and our discourse, high quality.
You're being unfairly combative. I was supplying a different perspective you may not have considered, and you assumed it was a personal attack. It wasn't.
I don't think this will be a productive conversation. Let's just agree we feel differently about how words affect people and move on.
Didn't mean it that way, I knew you were not attacking me and I understood you were mediating perspectives and not really advocating for any. My response wasn't targeted at you just the generalities being discussed. But you're right that I just really do not like that the world in general has decided to grovel for the approval of the lowest common denominator. I shouldn't have to mince my words to that degree. I was just expressing how I feel like someone being affect in the way the GP was, amounts to a lack of reading comprehension if they read into my comment the way they did.
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)
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 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.
! 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
Been using it for the past 35 years, once I start a project I create a todo.txt file and start adding items, create logo, create database, etc
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).
I don't use a to do file, but I do keep notes in (mostly) a single text file, and I just have them on a server exposed to the internet. When I need to read/write something I SSH to the box and use Vim to update the note.
I wouldn't recommend this if you didn't already have a server set up for other reasons, but it might be a useful option for some commenters here.
How about writing new things at the top of the file? If you use dates as sections you can still add new things at the bottom of the current day, but you always have current day at top.
Just add new notes and tasks at the top? I find that it means less important tasks tend to settle towards the bottom, and I’ll periodically go and reshuffle things as required.
Okay, so there are people who do this? I've actually considered it on several occasions, but it always felt a bit 'wrong', like prepending rather than appending to an array.
I like the idea though of less important things being farther down, like sediment, whereas current/important things stay closer to the surface. There's a fun metaphor in there.
Obsidian is great but it's a productivity trap for me. The last time I got into it I went too far in designing the 'perfect' PKM system, while not actually using it all that much. Turns out I just really like designing systems. =p
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
... 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.
It's a big upfront investment but it's one of the things that Org mode with its built in agenda view is fantastic for. I've really never needed anything else for note taking and scheduling.
I want to address the underlying philosophy behind your edit (and also your original comment). "Perfect is the enemy of good" is not just "all that." It is the thing, the critical design constraint. Computers are a hundred years old. If you believe all repetition should be offloaded to computers -- it sounds like that isn't working for you? I'm in the same boat, and I reacted by.. reducing my standards. I have a tool. It isn't perfect and there are no signs it's going to get perfect in my lifetime. So I don't wait for perfection. I get on with my life. Even if computers will be suitable for all repetitive tasks in another hundred years.
I do have a single source of truth, and it's my todo list. However, I manualate to keep it thus. When I add something to the calendar, I copy it over to my todo list as well.
I don't do this for everything, only stuff that improves my decision making. So an appointment with a barber can just be on my calendar. Long todo lists intimidate me anyway, so it would do more harm than good cluttering up my view of critical decisions I need to make. Stuff like, "what should I make next," or "how should this thing be designed?"
So if manualating seems like too much work, I'd suggest that maybe you're taking on too much in the critical decision category, in which case you might make better decisions by focusing on fewer things. But yeah, YMMV. This is how I think about it and it works well for me.
For event-based things I tend to have a reminder on my calendar. If things are relatively important, you'd assign them some kind of priority; in a simple .txt file, I'd expect them to be at the top for instance.
If the file has too many important tasks (such that I lose track of them), it means that at least some of them are not actually important and they should be revisited. IIRC that's the point of the weekly review mentioned in the GTD book: don't assume your workflow keeps working as you use it, there is some regular maintenance involving taking a step back and revisitings tasks, prioritizations 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 vastly superior options with almost no effort.
I've been running a text based todo/status doc for about that long and my hack for that particular problem is to occasionally do a scan and copy anything 'active' to the top (or bottom if you append to the end :) of the file. Yeah, there's a bit of duplication there (I usually just copy a short description and a pointer back to the date of the original so not so bad..), but it works for me.
Surely this would be easy to fix with a simple script that runs on a VPS to alert you on a platform of your choice, maybe using something like Apprise (https://github.com/caronc/apprise). Get the notification as an email, on Discord, Signal, etc.
This does complicate the system a bit, but still low overhead in my opinion.
I use a very basic system similar to this idea of running TODO.txt, but they are notecards i write every day. I sit them Infront of me and any timed tasks go onto the calendar. Outlook Calendar has notifications so those are my prompts for time based activities.
i realized either it's pen & or paper or .txt this was a 10+ year experiement and i wasted alot of time finding and building workflows and none of them sticks more than .txt file (i also had a more automated version of it in macos using .txt file and macros that time blocked my calendar but it was too restrict)
nothing falls my mind i can just add #note #<project> #idea or whatever consistent tagging or subnotes i can do the todo.txt and it'd be easier to even feed it to chatgpt/or what everllm to even remind of my most important ones in the future and send me notification in telegram or something.
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. */
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 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'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.
'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.
The same is true for group apps (manage a team; organize events with random people, etc. apps)... so many options... and so far every single season my kids have participated in a sport I've been privileged to try a new one... :-\
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.
and either Emacs or Sublime are hard to beat. I've been following the same system, also after experimenting with multiple systems.
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.]
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!!
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 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.
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:
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.
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)
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.
I use a notebook with ideas borrowed from bullet journaling, like an index at the start. That solves the “figure out where that one note is” problem. Each page is numbered (by me) so it’s easy to refer to other places in the notebook.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
i honestly don't think the author is claiming that /literally/ - it's often a figure of speech in English. My kids say it "all the kids at school <insert thing here>" - doesn't mean they meant literally every single student who attends.
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 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.
- 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 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?
> Kept forgetting to check Things? How does a plain text file solve that?
This. It just doesn’t. My bet is that some people just need to change their tools from time to time. And tbh I think it’s totally fine, no need to explain yourself. Just buy another todo list app and don’t feel bad about it. Or this expensive paper notebook. Or this “dumb phone” that will make you productive. Maybe just don’t try to find a deeper meaning in it or try to convince everyone that you finally solved some big mistery
Probably. Whatever method I use, physical or digital, it tends to fade into the background after a while and I stop noticing it. My best bet might be to switch to a new method every few weeks, in which case it's probably best to keep them simple and cheap. Maybe a whiteboard for a while, then a notebook, then a text file, and so on looping through a few basic methods.
The best part about a new app is that you have to transfer (or update, if you oscillate between apps on regular basis) the tasks and projects and will inevitably do a deep review.
> “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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
Exactly this. I realized that full featured tools like OmniPlan made increased my anxiety because it is too easy the build up to do items that you would never do. Having a simple note pad forces me to delete unnecessary cruft every week since I have to manually copy it. Also the notes approach gives me one place to look for and summarize all of my activities.
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 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.
I am right now on Apple Reminders, which has its advantages, but I've also used OmniFocus a lot, as well as org-mode. And I switch between them from time to time.
Org-mode could be perfect, but sync and mobile apps are PITA. Reminders are good, but limited. However, they are well integrated with calendar. OmniFocus is somehow in between, has own scripting engine, complex, limited at some places, but will surely get it done.
As much as I am with the idea of writing, bringing the pen and notebook with you me all the time get old pretty soon. And, such are the details of modern life, a lot of information arrives per mail or links. Also, no meaningful context can be saved with task. What would happen is that I would have to maintain 2 system - short written tasks and digital information storage for them, and somehow link between them.
But why I commented here: indeed, in the end the system itself does not matter that much. The regular review, in GTD terms, does. Cleaning up junk tasks, plan the day, process the inbox - it can be done with anything.
and just a quick resume:
What I find that independent of your note taking system, what really makes the different is that 5 min I told, that I sit and process what was done in the previous day. The discipline to rethink your day, apply again what it works, and do a little different what it did not worked, thats whats really makes the different.
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)
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
* 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
Most days I put my todo list into ChatGPT and get it to put my todo list in order from quickest to longest.
Sometimes I ask ChatGPT to order my todo list by importance.
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
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).
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
What perspective are you coming from where that is a crazy amount? If it works for one it will become a part of their daily life. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Most pairs of pants cost at least that much unless you're of the "I only shop at Costco/Target" mindset.
I'm sure you could get a knockoff or DIY and save a few bucks but I appreciate the thought that's gone into their designs.
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 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.
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
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.
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.
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
Yeah - I mean I haven't been adding any new features recently, but mostly because the system just works. I'm using it daily and definitely fixing stuff if they break.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Microsoft ToDo has native apps for Mac and Windows, and a third-party one for Linux (https://itsfoss.com/kuro-to-do-app/). It has apps on iOS and Android and you can access it via the web.
It works very well. It even _finally_ (in 2023) made me switch from paper grocery lists to electronic ones.
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.
TruTruth! I've been paying them for a couple years too, and am still in the camp of "take my money".
Such an efficient to-do list that has progressive enhancement of some sorts where you start out with a list and if you want more features they just kind of are there but they don't get in the way unless you want them. I love how I can do everything with keyboard shortcuts with Checkvist!
[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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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).
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 :)
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.
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.
I like Tasks.org for Android and I think it syncs with CalDAV that comes with my e-mail provider. That should just about do the trick, even with Thunderbird.
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.
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.
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
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
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 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
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 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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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...
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
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.
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!
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
> 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.
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 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.
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.
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 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
I tried both Org and taskwarrior, still for me it takes more actions, more frictions and formatless nature of txt file suits me otherwise I will end up optmizing my org mode workflow lol
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.
House projects: Probably over 20 distinct chores over the course of a week, plus currently two maintenance things that I can't do myself and have to call people repeatedly because 90% of contractors just don't show up unless you remind them to.
Kids: most things can be handled immediately (e.g. sign a form), but there are always at least half-a-dozen things in the air that can't for one reason or another.
Other: Resubmitting medical bills to insurance (can only be done during business hours, I typically open my mail after business hours). Contacting bank about something. &c.
Here's a fraction of what I'm doing today, including one from each category (except calling a contractor because my wife is doing that):
- I have to contact my bank during business hours because they sent me the wrong form (discovered while I was filling it out this weekend).
- I need to call a coworker because one project is blocked on them regarding an issue that they haven't replied to my e-mail sent Thursday afternoon.
- I need to pickup my daughter from a day-camp on the way home from work. Before dark, I need to weed part of the front yard.
- Tonight the trash (but not the recycling) goes out to the curb for a pickup tomorrow morning.
Yes, I have met people who can keep track of these things in their head. I am not one of them.
You have too many things on the go at once. Do less at work, delegate all your chores to your wife, and send the kids to boriding school. Problem solved.
For someone with ADD, it can be extremely difficult to keep track of even 3-4 relatively simple items that need completed in a day. They will get distracted by something minor, and 8 hours later have completed 20 things in a highly productive manner, but 0 of the 3-4 important items they were supposed to do (and most likely, they will have forgotten those items existed entirely). For me what works is starting each day with a list of 3 items that need done that day, and to check that list about every 30 minutes all day long.
That's a fair point - but most of these threads focus on comparing systems rather than discussing whether they are necessary in the first place. I can see how folks with ADHD or similar challenges would benefit from a TODO app (or similar).
I'm more curious about a broader question: at what point does life complexity actually require a formal system versus just mental tracking? Tech people are, for the most part, the only people I encounter actively using and iterating on their TODO solutions, and I am skeptical that in general they lead more complex lives.
Maybe virtual tasks need better organization or reminders than physical tasks. I rarely forget to wash my dishes because the dishes are right there. I don't forget to go gather the eggs because I have to shut up the chickens every night and check their food and water, or living creatures could die. There are physical consequences and reminders of those things.
The need to update a piece of software doesn't give me any physical cues, and if I have a couple dozen tasks like that waiting on me, I'm never going to remember them all unless they're all popping into my head throughout the day. That pretty much is how I used to try to do it, and it wasn't good.
You’re not alone. Like many in this thread, I have kids and a house, etc. etc. Never needed anything like this. Maybe jotting down a note with pen and paper now and then, or at most, e-mail myself a reminder of something.
I have to wonder if some people use these systems to make themselves feel more important than they actually are.
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 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.
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)
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.
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 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.
exactly. i, too, have tried many of the pieces of software mentioned and my problem is one of executive function, not of tools lacking some quality. currently i'm settled on apple reminders (so i can say "siri, remind me to do x tomorrow at 11am) and then a physical notebook to actually schedule and write checkboxes
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.
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
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.
If the person you're replying to indicated they are very happy with their setup ("it could not be better"), why suggest they try something else?
There's finite time in life, and productivity tool "improvements" have a diminishing ROI, why waste time improving what they already said is very good for them?
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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)
I use Obsidian on my phone, and I use syncthing to sync it, and then I just edit it with vscode on my computer.
I have Obsidian set up to create a new week file every week, and then I add things to do there, I also move things from previous weeks if I still feel they are relevant.
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)
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
BONUS - take a PHOTO as soon as you write it (so you can check later if needed, 99% never. just cognitive safety). but BODY as POST-IT is FASTEST, TIMELESS
> 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".
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.
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.
nvUltra is destined to become another Terpstra vaporware, I fear. The longer it's "almost done, I swear", the less likely anything will happen with it for the general public.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Things3 has also worked incredibly well for me for the past 4 years. My only wish is that they would roll out a version for Windows. I have been in the Apple ecosystem for quite some time so it was never a problem until I built a gaming PC that I also started using for work. As a result of this switch, I have to rely heavily on my phone to manage tasks. I still think this beats a todo.txt file that I would have to put quite a bit of effort in to manage every day and set up exactly how I want it, but is a big pain point for sure.
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”.
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.
Yeah I also noticed that even though I can accept a calendar invite from gnus in emacs, and the person inviting me sees that I've accepted, my own provider (fastmail) doesn't register me as having accepted in my fastmail calendar.
I've never tried debugging C# from within emacs (though eglot with omnisharp solves all the other IDE needs like goto, see references, renaming and such). I think you're more likely to find help on r/emacs or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79516308/how-to-debug-c-... or something for that.
I've been using GNU emacs since the beginning, when I switched from Gosling emacs. The first few years had crashes, but since it's been one of the most stable pieces of software I've ever used.
Your claims are just preposterous, especially without any substantiation.
Next, next version, just commit everything to working memory, as in one's brain. To help with this, simply tell others what you are doing and give them updates. Practice can be gained by doing things such as shopping without a list. Hacks can also be used, so a list of code fixes can be called 'updating the specs', even though it is a list of things to do.
As for pen and paper, writing things down is a way of committing todos to working memory, the paper does not have to be referred to, just the act of writing means that it gets noted.
Forgetfulness is a feature. If it wasn't important and it gets forgotten, then forgetfulness has worked.
Joking aside, todo lists, in whatever form, are rarely going to be forever solutions, and, depending on the task and who you are working with, the solution is going to vary.
What is fascinating is working with someone that has all the tools for the day job and to work on another project, for instance DIY. They might have all of these fancy project management tools for work, but do they use them for renovating the house?
Of course not! They are back to either pen and paper or just working memory.
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.
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.
This is a good question, and at least for me the answer is: because it generates more trash, and also because I'm in front of the computer for work anyway, so I might as well just have my TODO there.
But sure, a physical notebook or post-its would work just as well.
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.
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
My advice to anyone, is to start tracking stuff on paper, and once you've got some workflow nailed down, search for digital tools to augment it (or be fine with the current workflow). I prefer digital and have settled on org mode. It has the structure that I would need to implement if I was starting with .txt files.
Another tool I like is Things.app. But it's Apple only and I'm moving away from that ecosystem.
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.
What this shows to me, as someone who has committed some of the unholy crimes above, is that people want their system, however esoteric, to come naturally to them.
I think reading docs, understanding a new system which someone else has designed, and fitting one's brain into _their_ organisational structure is the hard part. Harder than designing one's own system. It's the reason many don't stick with an off-the-shelf app. Including Org mode.
> What this shows to me, as someone who has committed some of the unholy crimes above, is that people want their system, however esoteric, to come naturally to them
I think this is a vocal minority. Outside of internet comment sections, most everyone I know doesn’t care that much about their todo list software.
The most productive people I ever worked with all had really minimal productivity software. For one person it was a Google doc with nested lists. I know several people who preferred physical sticky notes or 3x5 note cards.
A lot of the people I’ve worked with who built elaborate productivity systems and custom software weren’t all that productive. They seemingly spent as much time doing productivity rituals and rearranging their productivity software stack as they did doing actual work. I count the really heavy Notion users in this category because I’ve recently been pulling my hair out dealing with a couple PMs who think “reorganizing Notion” and adding more rules for Notion is a good use of their time each week.
The most extreme example I remember was the eccentric coworker who was building an AI-powered productivity tool that was supposed to optimize his todo lists and schedule them according to his daily rhythms. He spent so much time working on it that our manager had to remind him daily to stay on track with his real work. He was obsessed with “productivity tooling” but the productivity was secondary.
Not everyone is like this, but it happens a lot.
I strongly agree. I think it's a form of procrastinating.
I read about all these complex systems for notes and second brains and whatnot.
All procrastinating imho.
I've got to tell you that I don't think people like gwern.net and andymatuschak.org are procrastinating. A lot of these people are very productive in public. Walking through their zettel-sites is like walking through their minds. The best thing zettel-people have done has been to assume that everything that you're writing that was clearly inspired by something else should reference and direct link that thing. I really think we should caching and redistributing our references too, but the law...
The stuff they, and many smart people like them, are putting in their public notes are sometimes becoming the authoritative bibliographies of little specialized subjects. Their notes get referenced in journal articles.
edit: also, as far as I know, the goal of having a Zettel system is to be as lazy as possible. To have all your notes extremely networked so you can find them pretty quick, you can get surprised about what's in them because old stuff gets surfaced, and you can always find a place to add the thought you're having or the notes you're taking. You save all of that time digging though stuff and filing stuff and losing stuff, which you can use to take a walk in the park or something. To accidentally write a few books just because you had all your notes about some goofy subject you're obsessed with in one place and one day you're like "that must be about a quarter million words."
edit2: also, also, this conversation is very quaint. 10-20 years from now we will all have zettelkasten and we will never look at them at all because we will use AI to interface with them. I'm sure thousands are already in that world, I'm certainly working on getting there.
I think it's actually a selection bias. Who is more likely to spend a lot of time on productivity systems -- a person who is on top of their obligations or a person who is drowning in them. A naturally organized person can do with simple txt, they are already doing okay. A chaotic person can build whatever complex process they wish, they will still fail.
That’s been my personal experience. Spend plenty of time looking at all kind of options to optimize my ir my teams workflow. Then just fallback on pen and paper or some very simple excel spreadsheet. Something thinking about being more productive makes you feel productive.
Sounds similar to playing video games: the rules are simple, so once you understand them, you can feel mighty and powerful simply by accomplishing banal tasks. Makes for a great dopamine rush.
Someone on here once called it craftsmanship cosplaying.
Eh, I don't know. I wouldn't paint with such a broad brush here.
Regarding productivity/to-do systems: on one hand I agree -- I know a few people for whom it's clearly a form of procrastination and really just need to get on with it. On the other hand, I myself was one of those people, but in hindsight I just hadn't found the right system yet and had real, legitimate issues with the systems I had been trying. Turns out, YouTrack is damn-near perfect for me. I use it both for work and for my personal life and I really, really love it, even for basic to-do lists. The things I was missing from standard to-do lists was the concept of relationships ("depends on," "blocked by," etc) and the ability to schedule multiple projects together on a Gantt Chart. Put those two features together and what needs to be done when and in what order is pretty much inarguable, which is precisely what helps me stay productive, as looking at a huge list and feeling overwhelmed about what to do next -- especially if I'm trying to be efficient or strategic -- freezes me in my tracks.
Regarding second brains: I completely disagree that they're not useful. My Obsidian vault is genuinely one of the single most useful things I have ever done for myself. There's nothing fancy about it, I don't use most of the features, but having a massive vault full of notes is truly indispensable in knowledge work.
I spent several years trying to make a custom todo system and ended up back where I started using CalDAV and a basic todo app and calendar. Turns out I was always procrastinating because I didn't want to force myself to adapt to something simple.
I used to use caldav but then stopped because there was once a bug on the server side where I couldn't delete events. The main thing I also don't like is there's no encryption or privacy really from the provider unless you go with a more a less proprietary solution like from an encrypted email provider. The closest I saw was EteSync but it requires special apps, and can include special bugs :)
I also don't need my immediate todo list on a calendar. I organize my to-do list simply as "Immediate", "Future", "Distant future", and then put things under heading. Sometimes I add a due date if there is one.
I just had a few markdown documents in a "todo" folder, eg <work>.md <project1>.md etc. Recently I changed it to org-mode because that's a syntax designed for the purpose. https://nvim-orgmode.github.io/ works excellently.
Never been an emacs user in my life. I spent about 5 minutes perusing https://orgmode.org/org.html and was able to do the same.
I use syncthing to sync it between my devices. https://www.orgzlyrevived.com/ works great on android.
Using standard CalDAV it should be possible to encrypt parts of it. And just have a local proxy that decodes/encodes. e.g. Having fields like this:
and then just decode that and replace the X-mydata with the decoded data: perhaps support for removing existing fields that is in the encrypted blob as well, if you do not need state in the encryption it should be good. I do not know how to create a good encryption protocol so I am sure there are lots of stupid ways to mess this up. I only need to encrypt the content of my description and time I never need to hide that I created a meeting when I had a meeting with a Spy from the NSA.Most of my daily agenda is also stored in my employer's Google Workspace. CalDAV is the common protocol for exchanging and storing events. Most of my task entries don't have a due date, I just sort them by priority.
I understand the privacy concerns, I can host a nextcloud in a secure location if I need it.
Simple can be boring. Sometimes we seek better solution, so we can procrastinate more. It's really more about how you are wired.
Totally agree, but I have learned that exciting isn't necessarily better. I just got busy enough that I had to accept the boring option to stay afloat. Which was a certain kind of excitement in itself.
Same. I dabbled in the second brain fad for a while, until I realized I already have a first brain.
It was helpful to create new mental models, but I now much prefer using my actual brain to organize my thoughts.
> Same. I dabbled in the second brain fad for a while, until I realized I already have a first brain.
The way you chose to describe keeping engineering notes as "second brain fad" is telling. It says you mindlessly tried to follow an organization scheme even though you felt no need to adopt an organization scheme.
In other words, you somehow hopped onto a solution searching for a problem you didn't had.
That's perfectly fine. Fads are defined by those who, like you, onboard onto something for all the wrong reasons and without spending any time thinking about what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Of course, those who end up searching for problems that fit a specific solution end up not finding it. That's the fad part.
In the meantime, engineering logs are indeed time tested and a tried-and-true technique. Those who use it to solve problems they have will naturally see their problems solved by them. That's why you see blog posts like this, and people commenting on how they scratched their itch.
My first brain forgets things quite often. My second brain which is a terribly organized Obsidian Vault does not.
There’s a now quite dated comment from Merlin Mann: "Joining a Facebook group about productivity is like buying a chair about jogging.”
It’s fuzzy - but my recollection was Mann was a fairly renown productivity influencer (although I guess we wouldn’t have called it that then), who had an apostasy about it all.
I think he had a blog called LifeHacker and/or 36 folders (I don't know if they were his or just a writer, but I remember following him back in the day).
It's wild to think that was almost 20 years ago when Getting Things Done was going through tech circles as the organization method dujour. (I also equate the same time period with learning Ruby on Rails.)
Merlin ran 43folders.com[1]. That domain name was a reference to GTD's tickler files[2].
Merlin did not have anything to do with Lifehacker.com. Gina Trapani[4] founded Lifehacker[3]. But, Lifehacker often covered and was inspired by Merlin's work.
1. http://www.43folders.com/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickler_file
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehacker#History
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Trapani
Cool, thanks for clarifying. It was just all jumpled in my AMAZING RSS reader. I miss those days.
On managers side the equivalent is making fancy JIRA workflows with all the fancy fields so that everyone is informed. Makes people annoyed with extra work and that time could be spent just talking to people to understand what's actually happening.
Exactly. It takes enormous effort to get product and engineering teams to agree on how to use JIRA properly, because everyone has their own ideas around how and what to organize. It's exhausting.
OR to put is differently - everyone has their own needs they are trying to get done. Each one need individually is simple so it is easy to demand that need is added too. Until the whole system for each different need becomes so complex it collapses under its own weight and you move to a new tool. This cycle seems to repeat every 10-15 years at all companies. JIRA is the tool everyone talking about today, but there were many others in the past, and there will be a different one in a few years.
Generally the tool isn't the problem: NEVER put ticket numbers into long term storage as in a few years you won't be able to reference them. That is version control, design documents, and anything else that isn't the ticket system itself. You can talk about who is working on ticket 12345 and the problems they face, but if anything is going to be written down you need to summarize the ticket without a number.
I don’t know if anyone has done so, but why not export a static html version of the old tool data and have an archive that way?
Because all the bookmarks/links are still worthless since they point to a server not there.
The real takeaway from your story is that it's easy to stay on task when you're interested in the task. Your coworker just didn't care about his work. But if his work was creating a productivity tool then he'd probably love his work and be productive.
So much of it is empty productivity, all prepping for the work but never actually doing it.
Like the old joke about the programmers spouse who died a virgin because every night all the programmer did was sit at the edge of the bed talking about how awesome it was going to be when they finally did it.
I’m very guilty of trying all sorts of productivity software as a form of procrastination. The best one did, in fact, turn out to be index cards and a pencil.
The phhsical copy served an important purpose: it forces you to admit you will never do something and so give up on is. until I die it is safe to assume I will eat 3 meals per day. (It won't be 100% because of sickness but close enough) thus if I'm out of some food I will need a todo list to replace it. However if I never finish the ukuele I've started it won't matter and it is reasonable for me to give up on it.
> The most productive people I ever worked with all had really minimal productivity software.
What about quality? Often, people are very productive, because they sacrifice quality for speed, especially the "annoying" longterm-values of products/decisions.
> They seemingly spent as much time doing productivity rituals and rearranging their productivity software stack as they did doing actual work
It's a different kind of productivity. Just not as valuable for the company.
The term that comes to mind, and one of my favorite concepts, is "progressive disclosure", which is a concept we really ought to be more mindful of.
One of the perks of just-a-text-file-with-a-bunch-of-addons is that it enables progressive disclosure - it takes no learning curve to just get in and use the tool on a basic level, but additional complexity (and power) can be introduced over time.
The problem with a purpose-built app is that there's a minimum level of new concepts to learn before the tool is even minimally useful, and that's a barrier to adoption.
A good example of this in action is something like Markdown. It's just text and will show up fine without you learning anything, but as you pick up more syntax it builds on top - and if you learn some markup syntax but not others, it doesn't prevent you from using the subset you know. There is a clear path to adding new knowledge and ability.
Right, instead of fomo over not using the extra features of utilizing the right flow - people tend to experience the want/need to incrementally increase complexity when using roll-your-own software
Markdown is a perfect analogy
What I gather is people really like the blank whiteboard. There’s something about Notepad and Excel, the freedom, the linitlessness, of having a blank canvas and being able to do anything.
Todo software is too opinionated. It’s not flexible enough to allow you to break rules. You can’t move things around in a way that allows you to control visual white space between entries. Everything “is something” (a task, an event) vs just being (text.)
The whole point of org-mode is that it's so malleable, that you can extend it to be whatever you want it to be, much easier than writing your own, ad-hoc, bug-ridden reimplementation of org-mode.
Org-mode is the most appropriate answer. It is as simple or as sophisticated as we want it to be.
Obviously one needs to be an Emacs user first
> Obviously one needs to be an Emacs user first
Not true I use the Neovim plugin https://nvim-orgmode.github.io/. It supports everything I tried from the official org manual. https://orgmode.org/org.html
I use syncthing to sync it between my devices. https://www.orgzlyrevived.com/ works great on android.
> Obviously one needs to be an Emacs user first
This makes it so infuriating that the top comment on Todo systems is almost invariably "just org-mode lol". Same as remote editing "just TRAMP lol".
I am not going to completely change my editor and rebuild two decades of optimization just to use two Emacs tools.
On-topic: TickTick or Todoist with a slimmed-down "Getting Things Done" system works really well. Almost no learning curve, and you get to free up so much mental bandwidth vis a vis remembering things and prioritizing things. And you don't have to do hamfisted tricks to make a 'simple' .txt system work. Bliss.
> I am not going to completely change my editor and rebuild two decades of optimization just to use two Emacs tools.
Change your editor and rebuild two decades of optimisation in order to use Emacs, two Emacs tools, and also every other Emacs tool out there. Org Mode, TRAMP, Magit, gptel, eglot, flycheck, elfeed, ERC, Emms, EWW … there are a ton of reasons to use Emacs.
Or you can keep using less-capable systems and being annoyed when folks recommend that you upgrade.
Your argument highlights its own flaw; changing your editor opens up a world of tooling that's certainly adequate for most use cases you can throw at it, but it also requires either discarding or (worse) un-learning all of the tooling that you've learned for your current editor.
For example, I'm perfectly content to use nvim as my primary editor, and this was born out of having to develop for and administer literally tens of thousands of linux servers professionally. I have all the plug-ins and configuration necessary for productivity on my development machines, and when I'm on a remote system ad hoc editing a configuration it already has a built-in lightweight version of the editor I'm already used to.
If I switched to Emacs locally, I'd still have to maintain a working knowledge of vi and context switch when in a remote shell. Changing to Emacs would require more cognitive bandwidth when the whole purpose of "switching for org mode" is to reduce mental load.
> If I switched to Emacs locally, I'd still have to maintain a working knowledge of vi and context switch when in a remote shell.
Even ignoring the possibility of installing Emacs on remote systems, there are still alternatives:
1. You can run remote shells within Emacs, and edit files remotely using TRAMP. When you are editing a remote file, shell commands run from Emacs run on the remote system.
2. You could use Evil, the Emacs implementation of vim. Then you would use the same bindings everywhere.
3. I have been running Emacs locally for literal decades now, but I still remember and use vi frequently, both locally and remotely. It’s really not a problem.
I feel like there must be an editor version of the Blub Paradox.
> Or you can keep using less-capable systems and being annoyed when folks recommend that you upgrade.
Or I get to choose the most logical option yet: keep being annoyed when haughty people keep trying to push a downgrade on me as a supposed 'upgrade'.
You are just living in your own world and forcing others to move there. Thats not how it works.
Who’s forcing? I’m recommending.
Agreed on TRAMP. It's great and all, but not worth abandoning your toolong.
org-mode though... It's called Emacs' killer app for a reason. Even if I only used Emacs for org-mode it'd be worth it. And I don't even use the productivity features.
> Obviously one needs to be an Emacs user first
The only reason why I still use Emacs daily is org-mode.
Also, if you are a developer by trade a lot of these features are quick and easy to implement.
And might even be fun to implement and maintain.
I think we have a winner. This sort of personal toolsmithing is fun, and you can try out some new programming language or whatever.
We all love a good excuse to build something small-to-medium sized for our own perfect "tailor fit" preferences.
All the excuses about other tools not being adequate are just what we need to say to ourselves to justify the time ;)
This starts to sound like something someone might waste time building instead of actually being productive…
In terms of earning money, but surely that's not what's it's all about, is it?
in terms of actually building something useful
Does everything you build must be useful? What if it's just really fun?
If the tool brings you (you, as in: the one building it) joy and gives you a chance to let your mind float, then yes, it is useful. Just not for others. And that's fine.
Define useful and who it has to be useful to? If building it helps me improve my craft, let's me decompress and have so fun. That's useful
Exactly. Most people wish they could customize their Todo app or system to their specific preference or need, but have no way of making it happen. Devs can, so they do.
What's interesting is AI is going to change this. Entering a prompt for an app that has all the features you want is already pretty trivial, and will only get better.
Which is why everyone likes spreadsheets. You learn a few formula and styling rules, and you’ve got a hammer for every nail that’s been bothering you (if it was actually a screw…shrugs).
Systems you design yourself for yourself naturally will come easier to us.
When you start structuring your TODO list, you will miss adding stuff that isn't easy to fit into the structure to said list.
And possibly regret it 3 months later...
Yep, at the risk of repeating what you said: I think this is why so many project management / todo apps exist with their own flavor of the very basics. It's a reflection of those wishes that feel natural to us individually, and it just so happens many of these apps mesh well with our model of thinking and organizing.
This is also why it's so difficult to get teams on the same page about project management in their respective workplaces.
I think in part because larger systems aren't typically custom made to the user's exact workflow (especially because users don't typically have one single workflow anyway!). So not only do I have to get into someone else's mind, but it feels ill-fitted to my own mind. Thus, it's also more inefficient.
Note taking and task management are two things which everyone has a slightly different style and need. There is no one size fits all and in a group someone will always find some aspect lacking.
Ya, I don't need my todo list to have "docs" at all.
> - having your computer alert you to things that come up
If my own experience is a valid example, alerts are overrated. They don't work for long. I hate getting interrupted by something that actually does not need my attention at that precise moment. I would disable those alerts in no time.
I prefer leaving physical cues in the real world. I think screens are bad UI unless you already spend way too much time in front of them.
The god old in- and out- baskets are great, for example. Or notes on a physical board.
Sometimes when I think of something I want to do in the morning, I just leave an object that does not belong in a place I will definitely have to use in the morning. Seeing that object will remind me of that thought I had just before going to bed. I don't even need to write down what it was.
Physical cues are wonderful! And THAT is what I would want from Augmented Reality (in addition to it no longer requiring cumbersome hardware to wear). A flexible recreation of former physical work places, but using the new flexibility of computer augmentation of what I see. To be able to place digital notes in the real world. To view and touch documents not fixed in a single place in front of me, but anywhere! I put some documents on the left, some on the right, some on the wall, and I move my body around to view and use them.
A purely screen-based app, when I already hate having to stare straight ahead for hours every day just doesn't cut it for me. I want my digital world to be in the real world, and use my entire body, not just very limited arm and hand movements while barely moving the head because the viewport is just one small two-dimensional rectangle in my large reality.
Okay, that went slightly OT, but I made that point because it is relevant for TODOs and most interactions with computers. I think they are much better when tied to our real world, not inside a tiny screen where a lot of stuff is already squeezed in and waiting for our attention, and everything can only be used like a surgeon doing keyhole surgery - indirectly through a tiny port and tools, instead of ones hands. Place TODO hints in the real world on or near appropriate places.
I think the key part is to use alerts for stuff you can't ignore. Time to pick up the kids, fifteen minutes to get ready for a meeting, your compile just failed, etc.
Unfortunately every piece of software seems to think its message about some new feature you don't care about and will never use is worth crapping all the main premise of what alerts are for.
> Physical cues are wonderful!
You would love this project! https://littlesignals.withgoogle.com/
"Little Signals considers new patterns for technology in our daily lives. The six objects in the series keep us in the loop, but softly, moving from the background to foreground as needed.
Each object has its own communication method, like puffs of air or ambient sounds. Additionally, their simple movements and controls bring them to life and respond to changing surroundings and needs."
I've been wanting to build these since the project came out, but never found the time. Has anyone else here built them with success? I'd love to hear your story about how you used them!
I geeked out a bit, after reading another blog post, and used my thermal printer for this. I've been using it for a few weeks now. The little sticky notes it makes are great.
https://joeldare.com/trying-to-stop-procrastination-with-my-...
I am starting to collect too many of them though. I kinda like the idea of ops text-file because it is renewed from day to day. I'm still not quite sure how to deal with the items I know I need to get to eventually but that I won't get to today. I'm also not sure how to deal with the pile growing continually.
I have noticed that thermal notes fade relatively quickly. When they do that I have to think about weather I want to reprint them or just throw them out.
The recent HN thread on receipt printers for task tracking had this comment which I wish got some attention and replies:
"The biggest killer for any task tracker I find is an accumulating backlog of items that seem too important to quit but too intractable to make progress on." - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44270076
(I suspect that’s part of too many browser tabs hanging around, too)
> "The biggest killer for any task tracker I find is an accumulating backlog of items that seem too important to quit but too intractable to make progress on."
I worked in this space for some time. Solving the backlog problem is the holy grail of To-Do systems. I am convinced it is a solvable problem.
The reason there are a bajillion To-Do apps and strategies right now is because a working UX for a digital task-keeping system is still not figured out. To simply put it, no To-Do app 'works' right now. Many of them work well enough for some people to depend on them to some extent.
One of the major reasons for failure is the backlog problem. It's surprisingly difficult, it's at the crossroads of human psychology and the varying real life tasks and responsibilities of real people. Real world is messy.
You'll see To-Do apps "work" out-of-the-box for most people and be hugely beneficial when:
- You see research papers comparing different strategies for To-Do task scheduling, cognitive load of different UI views, etc.
- Popular To-Do apps converge. They'll likely look nothing like the scheduled-checklist style apps of today.
- People start depending on them in managing most areas of their life.
Right now the To-Do app industry is competing on who has the shiniest UI. Very few players are even acknowledging the backlog problem.
Personally, I tried everything under the sun from using a single .txt file to custom-designed software. I have ADHD. Right now the thing that works best is a physical Bullet Journal. It works because of the friction of paper and pen. It mostly solves the accumulating backlog problem.
I came across a similar post on YouTube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg45b8UXoZI - it's titled "I Fixed My ADHD with a Receipt Printer".
I should build one that sends me an SMS message instead. So I stumbled on AT+ plus code for programing GSM devices. I have a MTN HUAWEI E303 modem from back in 2016 and I wrote a server using the npm serialport module.
I just need to write a dmenu script that pipes from every 3 git commits.
That should keep my monkey brain hooked for a while he he.└── Dey well
How do you (or do you plan to) use SMS as a todo list? I can't even remember to reply to someone who texted me when I as busy.
I've seen mention of using the dot matrix printers common in restaurant kitchens as an alternative which doesn't fade; they have the added benefit of two-color printing (most do black and red)
Yeah the thermal printer one made the rounds here too, I've been curious to see how it's been going the last couple months for the people that adopted it.
Digitizing your real world environment sounds similar to using a special TODO app instead of a text file.
What benefit does your digital sticky note have over a physical one?
It’s readable. My handwriting is awful.
Alerts are most important, that's why paper doesn't work for me. I just write everything in my calender app in my phone.
Taks tracking is different from reminders. There’s actually few things that I want to be reminded of, and they either belongs to a calendar (collaborative items) or a reminder app. The separation is blurry and they can all fits within the agenda concept.
As for tasks tracking, it’s all lists. And a daily/weekly/monthly review is enough for me.
They blur into each other enough that it's good to use one app/text file that can do all three.
And my calender app is used like a list, i can sort it by setting the time for each list item if i really care. I kind of set a reminder for every item i put in, but not everybody wants that for sure.
Blurring into each other is exactly the problem.. you become numb to both.
It really depends on a person. For a neurospicy person like me, pull is stupidly hard but push works better. That's why I'd rather turn my environment and lists into intelligent auto reminders. Otherwise they may as well just not exist.
Yes this! Numb to both and the notification/reminders from both and it starts becoming like furniture in the room (it's there but ignored)
To expand:
If you put non-date-specific TODOs in your calendar, then as soon as the number of TODOs in that system becomes overwhelming, you stop looking at your calendar and start missing appointments & truly date specific reminders.
If you put date-dependent TODOs in your task tracking system, then every time you look at it you see a bunch of stuff you can't move on and you quickly lose effectiveness.
If something is dependent on a specific date or time, either because it is an appointment or because it is nonactionable until then, put it in a calendar or tickler file. If not, keep it the hell away from your calendar and put it on a TODO list (plain text file is fine). This keeps both systems effective.
not really. it just means that during the lifetime of a note it could transition from "just a note" to "a todo" to "a scheduled event" and vice versa.
Hence it makes it easier if theyre all under the same roof.
But if it's AR you can have a cute hamster run up to you and holding an urgent note. Or the hare from Alice in Wonderland. And it can just sit on your desk (virtually) and do cute things while you continue to finish what you were working on. Better than a boring annoying beeping alarm.
We have not even started combining digital an real world, and the last few idea, e.g. from Meta, were devoid of anything useful, showing how little actually useful imagination some super-rich have, putting so many resources into bad or even destructive ideas when sooo much useful stuff needs to happen. We still have this tiny viewport, behind which another world - our digital world - awaits, and people think it's normal that we use this tiny port and awkward indirect devices (mouse) to manipulate things in there. We could do soooo much better soon!
Okay, the access device still is missing. Few people want to wear the current generation of AR devices. But that just shows that neuro-computer interface needs investment on the level of AI, it's not magic (actual neurons are just very complex to work with, never mind finding the right one's to connect to), we could slowly build something there.
Somebody asked what the advantage is of having this computerized instead of actual matter, e.g. physical paper notes. It's all the general computer advantages of course, like sharing stuff. Never mind being able to reorganize everything in an instant.
Imagine having a software project not viewed with one tiny viewport, but like a physical project, even over several rooms. You don't need to click, you go to the place representing some module and physically (virtually physically) take out the code, edit with your fingers. Watch the data flow around you. Have a bunch of flying piranhas show up when something goes wrong. Work with all your body in a real 3D space instead of sitting in a chair all day, all week, all month, all life, watching that vast digital world and/or just your project through that tiny viewport.
Alright mate settle down
this sounds like an apocalyptic amount of work to set up
I think that guy might have had one too many coffees if you know what I mean…
Yes, building something new is a lot of effort. And? We have been doing it for a few thousand years, again and again and again. Cities were a lot of work. Irrigation was a lot of work. Farming was a lot of work. Castles were a lot of work. Roads. Aqueducts. International trade. And that was before the even more complex problems of modernity, after the industrial revolution. I don't understand the attitude behind such an argument. I would understand complaints if unwilling people were forced to contribute funds and/or time, but it's not like me or anyone else is forcing you to participate in this idea against your will.
I mean yeah sure but "I'm going to make a brain mesh so I can have an AR cartoon be my to-do buddy!" makes Knuth taking a multi-year detour from writing TAoCP to build TeX look like nothing.
You give a long list of features that I don't want. And then go on to encourage everyone to switch text editors, and adopt a specific plugin that happens to work in the way that you personally like.
As a vim user, this is kind of what I have come to expect from emacs users. Honestly, I'm glad that you've found something that works well for you. But I hope that some day you internalize the fact that other people aren't you, and they shouldn't always be "encouraged" to give up their existing solutions to do things in the way that you've decided is perfect.
Don’t switch text editors, and don’t use a plugin.
For a few years I used Orgmode. I didn’t use Emacs. That is, when I needed to edit text files, I used Vim or macOS TextEdit. I used Orgmode to track my tasks and keep notes. That Emacs was underneath it was purely incidental, and I didn’t use Emacs for anything else. For me, Orgmode was not a plugin. It was the primary software I used, and there was this Emacs thing under it.
Ironically, these days I do actually use Emacs, and I use OmniFocus for tasks, mostly because OmniFocus gets multi-device sync right so it’s worth the price. But don’t hesitate to use Orgmode even if you don’t want Emacs otherwise.
And now you encounter the issue of, "a long list of features that I don't want".
It is hard to sell someone on a solution to a problem that they don't have.
org-mode is basically better Markdown with a bunch of automated things that don't get in your way unless you specifically put them in there.
The only unwanted feature you're likely to encounter is automatic sub/superscript conversion, and that's documented and easy to turn off.
I'm not recommending org-mode. I personally don't care if you use org-mode or not. I never understood that mentality. But the type of software you're describing is crap, and org-mode doesn't fall into that category.
> As a vim user, this is kind of what I have come to expect from emacs users.
I'm a vim user, with two exceptions:
1. SLIME
2. Org mode
There's a vim plugin for org mode that I used to use, but TBH, Emacs excels at org mode.
> There's a vim plugin for org mode that I used to use, but TBH, Emacs excels at org mode.
Which one did you use? I use https://nvim-orgmode.github.io/ and am happy with it, it's fairly modern written as a lua script.
I did see an older one https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode but i don't think that's maintained anymore.
Probably the one that is not maintained anymore. I stopped using the plugin in 2018 or thereabouts.
I think the OP is far from saying what you are implying. He is not advocating for changing text editor or installing any plugins. Just recommends trying out org mode. I think is very valid. I’ve known many many people (in the order of hundreds) that use vi for editing in general but emacs for other tasks, e.g. org mode, sbcl repl, etc. I think the suggestion ist just to give org mode a try. No need to feel offended or pushed to leave your favorite editor. At the end, is all about personal preference.
To quote the OP:
I would encourage everyone to try out emacs with org-mode. It takes some time to get used to the editor and its keybindings...
He's literally recommending that everyone who doesn't use emacs should install and use a different text editor.
I see this just as someone being genuinely enthusiastic about their own approach, and trying to convince people out of that enthusiasm, to make them experience the same happiness they are getting from it. I think most of us here are old enough to know not to take recommendations from some dude on the internet as obligations, which, for me, just leaves the enthusiasm between the lines.
He says we should try it out. He doesn't say anything about long-term use.
You didn’t need to go all tribalistic mate.
A lot of this is solved by todo.txt format ( https://github.com/todotxt/todo.txt )
There are apps that support it on many platforms and it is easy to sync across devices.
Sometimes I like to imagine early people inventing, forgetting about and inventing the wheel again.
Now that I think about it that probably actually happened, considering the large distances between groups.
To add a different perspective, I love Emacs Org-mode for note taking but gave up on it for task management after a couple of years. Not because the tool is inadequate – my attempts at Todoist or Taskwarrior didn’t fare any better – but because the GTD-style workflow just doesn’t fit my personality.
I’ve now happily used a paper-based bullet journal instead, and am about to transition to a Rocketbook for this use.
The problem is that a GTD-style workflow requires a lot of discipline to stick to daily/weekly reviews, where you prune or reschedule tasks, and it requires you to be strict about deleting tasks you’ll never do. If not, you just get an endlessly growing list of stale tasks, and for me personally the list becomes so associated with guilt and stress that I just burn out and get paralyzed unless I regularly throw it all out and start from scratch. (Is "TODO bankruptcy" a thing?)
Surprisingly, this led me to the conclusion that being able to forget tasks is crucial for me to remain focused, productive, and mentally stable. Being able to start each day with a blank page, write or transfer tasks that I can realistically do today, and letting the unimportant ones silently disappear on old pages without having to consciously delete them, somehow works better for me.
For notes however, Org-mode is great. I’ve found great value in rediscovering old ideas and knowledge 5 years later, whereas finding 5 year old undone tasks is rarely something I want.
Apple's Reminders app does all of those things and many more without having to learn emacs
I found Reminders to be unreliable and foolishly designed. It only works for must-do tasks. It uses repeating-period instead of time-since, so it can't handle repeating tasks that are optional. If you fail to mark off a repeating task, the next instances stack up and crash the notification cycle.
I'm familiar with the pain point you're describing. In general, I would say a recurring calendar event is a better solution for your particular preferences. Personally my mental model is that the act of deciding to not do an optional task constitutes completion of the reminder for that occurrence. And if I forget or deprioritize that decision, the reminder still hangs out in my Today list until I do as a mitigation.
I still use my calendar for routine time-window reminders. But when I tried timeboxing tasks for after work, those don't stick because my daily work hours can shift by as much as 2 hours, depending on how many pre-work-hours meetings I have that day.
I'm a big fan of automation, so half of the fun with that project is setting it all up.
If you work at an office, you can set your reminders to be location-based with daily recurrence so that you get reminded when you leave the office or arrive home. I imagine you can also integrate Reminders with IFTT if you want a "Done with Work" button on your phone if you WFH.
Ironically the Reminders app sucks at reminding. I use the Clock app for my todo list; it makes a pretty loud noise pretty reliably, which makes it pretty good for reminders.
Reminders is not the job of a todo app, it is the job of a calendar app. For a todo there is no now, it is pick the best thing todo next. I need to be interupted for my dentist appointment. However I don't need to be interupted to buy milk, I need a remineer when I'm at the store anyway to also get milk. If the reminder was 'i see you are going in the direction of a store: we need milk if you have time to stop' that would work.
Certain tasks have deadlines - can you really have one of those without some concept of time? Creating a calendar entry for those doesn’t make any sense to me - they are not events happening at a point in time with a given duration, but things that need to be done BEFORE said point in time.
Hence scheduling, which leads to agendas, the midway point between a calendar and Todo list.
I used to use an org agenda view for this, now I just use a caldav calendar and trillium. In the morning, I check my to-do list, which has been being created for this day over the last couple weeks or months, I look at my agenda to see what meetings or appointments I have, and I slot todos in between them. I might even be doing so for the whole week or month, moving tasks around as needed. I take a look at my week and month todos and see that something is due in two days so slot it in for today. Similar to how a project manager might do with sprints and tickets I guess.
I think the critical aspect of any functional Todo system is active review, at least daily if not more so, plus regular weekly and monthly cleanups.
A reminder makes no sense because while there is a deadline there isn't a must do now time. What they need is a regular review so as you go about your day it is still fresh, and maybe in a plan. Often those are things that can be done when you have a free moment as well.
> If the reminder was 'i see you are going in the direction of a store: we need milk if you have time to stop' that would work.
Reminders basically does have this: you can set a given item to alert when you are arriving/leaving from a specific location.
I don't know that app, but I don't want a specific location - milk can be had at hundreds of different stores in my town. While it isn't all the same there are only about 4 different suppliers to all those stores.
It's not so bad when out of those hundreds of stores, you only shop at one or two. Few, if any of us, show at all the possible stores in town.
god I dunno what I'm doing wrong but Apple Calendar never tells me about shit in a timely fashion.
> Reminders is not the job of a todo app, it is the job of a calendar app.
Ehh. The thing with a calendar "reminder" is that calendar apps assume that any such reminder is irrelevant once the time you set for the reminder goes by. They exist to remind you that some time-sensitive real-world event is starting, in time to be ready for it; but once that event has ended, you must have either done it or missed it — so either way, the calendar forgets about it.
Whereas a reminder / "todo with a date" object in a reminder/todo app, makes a different assumption: that you still need to do the thing, even if you didn't interact with the reminder when it first popped up. So the reminder is still there, glowing brightly, and often pops back up with further notifications, until you complete it.
Three examples from my own calendar of the type of reminder I'm talking about here, if you can't yet picture what I mean:
• It's time to replace the filter in my cat's water fountain [and take apart and scrub all the parts of the fountain while I'm at it.] (This isn't urgent — there's no particular need to do it exactly when I'm reminded of it — but it grows more urgent the longer it is left undone. The persistence of the reminder helps me to remember to do it, if I was busy when I first saw it.)
• I've gotta either pick the specific meals going into my meal-box subscription service box by midnight Saturday, or skip the week (or the service will pick randomly for me, giving me things I really don't want to eat, and I'll torture myself trying to motivate myself to cook those meals anyway, because I don't want to waste money/food.) I set this one to go off with two explicit "pre-notifications" twice — once at 7PM on Thursday, and again at 9PM on Friday. It then goes off again on its own, a little bit before midnight, and that's the final warning. (And, of course, if I check it off before then, the other notifications associated with that instance of the reminder won't fire.) I also usually just leave the Friday 9PM one unacknowledged + open as a toast on my computer until I've picked it, to ensure I won't get distracted and forget about it.
• Pay my credit card bill. (I have monthly autopay set up, but my understanding is that they still get to charge some minimal amount of interest for any charge that remains posted + not paid down for 21 days. So I set a reminder to pay the card down every 14 days. Again, not urgent per se — the worst that happens is that the 30-day autopay kicks in. But I find it a convenient time to review the last 14 days of charges for any strange activity; and the longer I go without doing that, the more of a schlep that starts to feel like — so biweekly is actually good here.
To be clear, I had all three of these set up as calendar events before — and they didn't work very well that way! Repeating reminders have much better semantics here.
A proper todo handels that by making you review everhthing - if you don't clean that water filter today you have to look at it tommorow.
Being pedantic, based on your example, I think the Reminders app does a good job at reminding, but a bad job at alerting. But that’s because a reminder to me is a gentle concept.
I believe the Reminders app, when used alongside Notes and Calendar, is becoming a strong competitor in the productivity space. One feature I'd love to see added is persistent nudging reminders that keep alerting you until you manually dismiss them.
Things 3 is another excellent third-party option in this category. Together, these apps form my essential productivity stack. I honestly can't function without them.
Yeah I think this is a result of the attention economy, there are 75 million notifications per day that someone somewhere wants to push in your face so we've gotten really good at cutting them out. But the counter-swing is also too big and now critical things like calendars and reminders are buried in a list we never look at.
I agree it would be nice to have more alarm-like notification options. Flagging, setting as high priority, and assigning a date/time and getting in the habit of checking the Today category regularly all help mitigate; a bug-me-until-this-is-done feature would be a welcome alternative. (I will note that the GP's emacs stack isn't even close to offering native mobile push notifications, to state the obvious.)
"Reminders" is maybe the most poorly named app of all time. The last thing it does is remind you of anything.
Reminders.app does a great job when I want create lists and inventories! I use it for groceries and webpages too. For example, I've sent many of the Emacs-related links to my Emacs list in Reminders, where I know I'll be able to find them the next time I forget Gall's Law and look for a more-complex system to replace my current one: writing things down; thinking about what I've written; redrafting; and repeating.
I think the reason people use text file + "snowflake software" is that they want just the structure (constraints) they want, and no more. BTW, what people want changes over time and by circumstance.
org mode has a lot of features, including customizability, but imposes some heavy constraints as well. By its nature it's only going to satisfy a sliver of the people who have come around to text file.
It's good you linked that document, though. At a glance it gives a fair idea of what you'd be buying in to.
Too many programmers think they have a unique use case without considering that maybe the existing projects are bloated for a reason. Then they end up just recreating the same bloat.
Gall's Law:
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system.
Gall's Law almost always deserves to be repeated and higher up in HN threads, and this is another instance where I wish I could upvote more than once.
Here, Gall's Law provides an accurate explanation for why so many of us have returned to paper, pencil, and brain cells. It is also apropos of your comment's sibling comment regarding how tech folks frequently and mistakenly believe that they can improve on a solution that has worked well for thousands of years of human civilization (e.g., paper + writing instrument + human thought) in just a few weeks. For all the talk of Emacs's being relatively ancient and mature software, handwriting is orders of magnitude more mature and sanded down.
With software to "solve" the problems of thinking, remembering, linking ideas, or deciding what to do … now you have two problems, as we say.
"Surely I can do it better in a few weeks than all preceding civilizational knowledge" is probably the most popular tech entrepreneur stereotype.
The existing projects probably have crap docs then. If I build it myself at least I’m likely to understand it.
Do I need to start living in Emacs to get these benefits? Or are you saying I can use Emacs as my todo list app, close it after writing a todo, and have it pop up notifications?
Yes, with a little setup. But never forget that org-mode is the gateway drug of Emacs.
You start using it for the agenda and TODO lists, learn it has spreadsheet functionality that ties in with the arbitrary-precision calculator, start taking notes and exporting them to PDF via LaTeX, writing reports in it with your company letterhead, merging your contacts list, migrating your email into Emacs, and next thing you know you find yourself fifteen pairs of parentheses deep in a custom elisp function that tweaks the date format for that one manager that insists on yy/dd/mm whenever you send your weekly progress report.
Not that I'd know anything about that.
https://github.com/doppelc/org-notifications is a thing if you want that.
Emacs will happily run in the background.
I've known folks who used Emacs for writing and org-mode, but didn't live in it otherwise.
But living in Emacs is more the sort of thing you get to do, not the sort of thing you'd need to do ;)
No. I hate emacs but orgmode is still a good file format.
I use orgzly revived with it.
Org mode could do with a bigger non emacs ecosystem, though.
Most of this is solved by: todo list in one file. One list. Use markdown. Try Obsidian. Read Randy Pausch last lecture. Look at his todo list. Copy that. Use a calendar if it is time sensitive. Look at your todo list often. Want to be fancy? Have an inbox file that is also a list. Your backlog is stuff that moves down to priorities other than 1. Try the Covey quadrants for your task priorities. Don’t over complicate this.
You can make an art form out of procrastinating on real tasks to create the most perfect todo system ever. We got LLMs now. It can query your text file, categorize, etc.
Todoist does all of that and more, basically any reminders app does most of that.
Just a counterpoint to say, many of us look for a todo app, use one of the many great ones on the market and then don't write blog posts about it. It's worth just trying one of the many existing apps instead of building your own.
"Copy-pasting tasks is laborious"
"I recommend people read this 30,000 word technical guide"
Lmao
I've taken to using an LLM to organize my Todo list (self hosted interface with a little MCP server I wrote and a postgrss db on my network), it's still very simplistic however for someone with ADHD just having fast and unorganized data go in and structured data come out, is a real win.
It isn't perfect, and still lacks a lot of features that other people may consider a must have, but so far it's been the best Todo app I've ever used.
I think one thing that is missing from emacs/org-mode is the mobile integration. There are apps that handle some features of org-mode on mobile, but probably missing features of the desktop version. Currently, I manage my notes only on the desktop because I haven't found a good companion on mobile.
If you have Android, emacs is now officially supported on Android (https://f-droid.org/packages/org.gnu.emacs). Along with https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard, it turns out to be a pretty usable (assuming you are the type that is okay working with emacs in general). I am now in search of a simple way to sync notes between my phone and computer (without using Big Tech solutions).
> I am now in search of a simple way to sync notes between my phone and computer (without using Big Tech solutions).
Syncthing?
Combining the feel of plain text with real structure is also exactly why we're building an "IDE but for tasks/notes" [1].
With structured apps (task managers, outliners) you lose the illusion of editing plain text, but plain text alone lacks things like structure, links, dates, and collaboration. We've spent the last few years building an editor completely from scratch to keep the ease of text editing while adding planning and structure.
[1] https://thymer.com
There's a few bits of information missing on the website that is critical to some people:
- What platforms are supported? - What is the business model? - Does the editor support customizable key bindings? Are there presets for Emacs, vi, or others?
> who then build quite a lot of snowflake software
So close! People building snowflake software is a consequence of it not being a generalizable problem, not the cause of it. Everyone organizes their notes/todos differently, and though the variations may seem slight, they are best solved by a blunt and unopinionated tool.
> It takes some time to get used to
Non-starter. A text file is the hammer of the digital world
If people want an excellent todo list system that's essentially infinitely customizable but still approachable for basic productivity, org mode is good.
The mobile experience is somewhat lacking but good enough with Orgzly on Android.
However with org mode I had the same issue I had with all my to-do list systems, wherein I tended to record too many todos. I needed granular prioritization and gtd contexts and scheduled and deadlines and repeaters to keep track of it all. I needed to install org super agenda to get useful views.
I switched to trillium and nuked 90% of my todos in the migration as out of date or just kinda vague things that'd be nice to do and chucked those into a future projects note. Trillium's to-do UX is slightly better than a markdown document because you can click to check the boxes, that's about it. It's high friction. I have to go to today's note, go to the Todo section, and then put my to-do in the list. Or the week Todo section, or month or year.
What I've found is now I actually do all my to-dos because now they're all actually worth doing. I'm not scrabbling down every single thing and cluttering up my list.
All that you write is not necessary for me.
I use a plain text app on phone for TODOs. I hate notifications, do not use full text search.
I have been using it for 5 years now and I hate the notes apps with their clunky buttons, limiting software, where you cannot write or do what you want to.
I see apps often as regressions toward freedom of note apps.
You do understand that org-mode is plain text, yes? You are basically losing nothing, if you write an org mode file. You don't even have to use org syntax. The point is you can and you can do things faster, if you do. Like inserting a new heading, or changing the order of text blocks, or inserting a quote or a table.
I'm in the process of doing most of this via Claude check-ins, using a combination of MCP, Obsidian, and Things. Obsidian is the memory system, context info, and archive, while Things hosts the active lists and desktop widgets. It doesn't work perfectly or even that well, but it's coming along.
- Not everyone like EMacs , i am not going to open up another editor just to use orgmode .. it needs a lot of preparations.
- Orgmode format itself is a mess , it only good because Emacs's orgmode extension is very good working with Orgmode.
What would be really good is a Markdown-Compatible Todo System , with notes linking and tagging , and status/progress integration.
There was Dandrite, it was quite close to what needed but that project was abandoned.
Check Obsidian: https://obsidian.md
Not opensource. If you checked dendrite it had features of obsidian
So my current pet project is a to-do system with an app that you can look at, edit, or complete tasks in. But I have both a fully agentic interface and simpler LLM powered inputs.
I'm really enjoying it. I think it is a good example of how to leverage LLMs to reduce drudgery.
Things I can do now: - take a picture of a notice like a license renewal and a task is created and automatically filled with due dates and information extracted from the image and likely from online searches.
- turn a design document into a reasonable task plan.
- create classified and researched tasks with a sentence.
I'm just getting started on it but it already is kind of feature complete. Programmed with Claude Code, about 20k lines.
The key I think is to have something as easy to input as a text file, because it applies intelligence to remove friction.
from James Hague's blog https://prog21.dadgum.com/56.html:
8<---------------------
I still like to implement my own ideas, especially in fun languages like Erlang and Perl. I'm glad I can program, because personal programming in the small is fertile ground and tremendously useful. For starters, this entire site is generated by 269 lines of commented Perl, including the archives and the atom feed (and those 269 lines also include some HTML templates). Why? Because it was pleasant and easy, and I don't have to fight with the formatting and configuration issues of other software. Writing concise to-the-purpose solutions is a primary reason for programming in the twenty-first century.
I feel the same way. I landed on Evernote rather than org-mode, but it similarly provides all these features out of the box, while letting me largely customize my setup. (I basically do GTD with a notebook for each priority level.)
Was regretting it a bit in the 2020-2023 range when Evernote was going downhill, but it's improved a fair amount since the acquisition. Almost (but not quite) to the point where I'd recommend it to others again.
What I would recommend is spending the time to learn some system beyond just a text file. I've ultimately found it well worth it, to the extent that I couldn't imagine going back now. It is definitely an investment up front though.
> I would encourage everyone to try out emacs with org-mode.
You can even do that, _and_ do stuff from your unholy list.
I have my org folder synced via syncthing to every device I care about. I used to do automated git commits on that folder, but eventually stopped it years ago as commit messages like "daily automated commit" are not better than regular backups.
But thanks to LLMs I went back to that - now I have a systemd timer which calls a script that calls Emacs (because I have all the LLM bindings set up in there already) with the git diff to generate a commit message. That does a pretty good job at summarising my changes.
Not so fast my dear, just this year I finally adopted the default home-directory structure of my linux distro (Document, Pictures, Music, Video, etc.) in my workflow. I'm not ready for more big obvious changes like this. ;)
Am i the only one to generally find those directories getting in the way ? I have very few videos or music, or even images worth storing as images and not related to other documents. Downloads and documents might be useful but then, documents is almost everything that is not online so why not put it in $HOME. And I don't like capitalized folders but that's me.
I 'hated' this too for a long time, but I finally gave in. It now also matches my backup workflow perfectly. And now I don't have to tweak that much after installing a new distro. Sometimes my tools have to adapt to me, sometimes I adapt a little to my tools.
Nope, I've hated those for years. Seriously, capitalized directory names?
Thanks. But then, starting discussion, what would be a sensible directory choice? downloads, backups ? Nothing?
I put my media files in other folders, just to spite Microsoft
please accept that some of us need to re-invent emacs with org-mode from first principles, to fully appreciate it
I don't do anything that you mentioned.
I truly just use a plain .txt file. Every "add-on" and layer beyond the .txt happens to run on a complex wetware device that came built-in with my body.
>Every "add-on" and layer beyond the .txt happens to run on a complex wetware device that came built-in with my body.
He was addressing the comments such as mine that determined a txt file without any runtime software layered on was not enough for some people. The built-in wetware was inadequate.
Apparently, you are one of the lucky ones that can just use a txt file. For others, they need a little more support apparatus ("bicycle for the mind") enabled by some type of active app that complements the TODO.txt file.
I think using org mode is way overkill. If someone wants to do pros tastination dressed up as emacs-gardening, it may be a good option.
The best todo app ideally should be a smartphone app, which you'd have always with you. I think Microsoft Todo is a good choice for Android. It is mostly functional, free of cost and does not have any ads.
I have used emacs for more than 30 years, use it as a primary code editor now, and I have never found use of org-mode, despite a few attempts, to become a lasting habit. Of the list of integrations provided here, I only see alert and calendar support being of interest (but because of this, I may give org-mode one more try).
I think a lot of your examples demonstrate the power and low learning curve of a single text file as an organizing tool.
Org mode is one direction you could take your text file in. Feeding your text file into an LLM or committing it to git or formatting with Markdown are others. But starting with a plain text file doesn’t commit you to any of those paths.
Obsidian is my happy medium. Does many of the above while also doubling as my journalling tool.
Im perfectly happy with markdown in vscode. Right next to my work and with a search function. I guess I could do txt but the syntax highlighting makes things a bit more readable.
I think it works for me because it's mostly just a working memory. I virtually never visit my notes again. It is not some personal knowledge base nor project tracker.
Same and if I need to share a bit often times I just highlight it and tell an LLM to blast out a markdown table, render preview and screenshot it to someone.
This satisfied me for awhile, eventually though I wanted a more comprehensive solution to record todo notes alongside thoughts and project ideas, so I escaped my IDE and got a simple obsidian setup going. I can definitely recommend
Yeah it definitely doesnt scale for every use case. It has been enough for me.
> many users who swear by a plain text file, but who then build quite a lot of snowflake software
The most robust, stable solution for me has been to use foundational tools with proven longevity:
= bash
= git
= ncal
https://github.com/viviparous/showcal.git
Org mode is nice, but ultimately you are adapting someone else's approach. The best is making your own, for which you know all features and which works exactly as you want it to work.
As somone who uses text and paper for todos, happily for years now after spending equally much time procrastinating in search of the perfect task management system I will now do a half-ironic take on answering your points:
> having your computer alert you to things that come up
That's what the calendar or the alarm is for
> being able to tag notes
Write #tag and then grep for it. Not that hard
> being able to add events to a calendar
A event isn't a todo, you add it to the calendar instead
> being able to set priority of tasks
Cut it and paste it up to the top or write "IMPORTANT". If you have so many tasks that you need something better, you probably spend too much time organizing your todos and should start working
> expecting prioritized/currently relevant tasks to be at the top of the agenda
If your todo lists are so long thst you cant read them in 30 seconds they are too long. Split them up and mive them to the relevant project.
> being able to add recurring tasks
Just leave it in the list and add a questionmark at the end. If it is time critical add it to the calendar
> full-text search (grepping)
Yeah, good observation you can grep text pretty fine. If you're annoyed by having to type the filename that is a shell oneliner
- formatting features (markdown)
You can use markdown in text, it is just more or less useless wothout rendering. But I don't see how formatting leads to more productivity
> feeding TODOs to an LLM to filter out the currently relevant ones and send Telegram notifications
Yeah ok, that one is bad.
> hand-copying currently relevant tasks to the top of the TODO list
Get a decent texteditor where you can press modifiers + arrow keys to move lines. Works pretty well. In fact better/faster than dragging with your mouse.
> running a script on a VPS to sync notifications
No need to do that, you have a calendar
> set up cron job with git commit
If you need your todos in a git you either work at a nuclear facility, a space station or you take yourself too seriously
> writing post-it notes by hand
What else would you use, a typewriter? Just kidding. Paper has undeniable strengths for the todo space. It is there and you don't have to remember to open it. Rewriting your todos is doubling as both checking their state, refreshing your memory and cleaning them up. Paper can be read without electricity and by other people without any form of setup. People know how to use it without onboarding. Hackers cannot use a flaw in the the paper has been made to gwin remote code execution (they can however potentially use photographs of paper to do so).
I am not kidding, one of the best work-handoffs I ever had was entirely organized via emails and post its. It worked flawlessly.
And I say that as someone who has spent days on todo systems, task warrior and the likes. Everybody has their own needs, but very often boring and pragmatic wins.
Very well said. People here are interested in poking holes in things, instead of actually being productive. Again, we should just look at what actually productive people tend to do, which in my experience is generally to just use whatever works and not spend too much time thinking about optimising todo systems.
In my experience the most productive people I've met have secretaries.
I finally hired one two months ago for 500 bucks a month and it was a life changing increase in productivity and decrease in stress.
That may be putting the chicken before the egg somewhat, but sure.
How about having a synced and editable version of your to-do list on all your devices, including mobile? I've found that to be the main filter for note taking setups. You seem to suggest that there's an emacs plug-in that can handle that?
I don't use emacs but vi on all of my devices. This should probably work with emacs stuff if they save it in regular files/directories. I put everything in ~/notes. Quick sync before leaving the house, sync when I return. Can use your desktop as the central location if you don't have a home server. Works with termux on android. I think iphone has iSh or something for alpine.
Swap src and dest as necessary (could use other options but this is compatible with OpenBSD openrsync): rysnc -rlpt --delete notes/ user@lanip:notes
There are apps for iOS that will read .org files and allow you to edit them and include the ability to sync with iCloud. beorg is one of them. I'm not sure about Android, but I have to imagine they exist there as well.
How do you check your todo list on mobile?
Text files are too basic, I'm a spreadsheet TODO fella
I like caldav instead with todoman. Allows me to use reminder/whatever on my phone, sync with fastmail and also have my CLI todo list.
> but _every_ item on the list above is handled out of the box, or is offered through a free and maintained plugin.
Which one writes post-it notes for you?
Because it’s never about finding the good or good enough or even the perfect system of something. It’s about the itch!
All of this is BS and not important. No one goes through 20 high priority meetings or tasks a day. It's one and maximum 3.
If you need an ALERT for something important, it likely isn't important in the first place.
how exactly is a .txt not greppable?
Emacs is the unholiest of them all.
Just wait until I tell you that the reason people have done all of that work is because it is a satisfying form of procrastination.
But I think part of the OP's point was about deliberately not chasing extra features, even if they're free and
That's more because Emacs is an OS-within-an-editor, which imho is not a good thing.
It's a portable Lisp environment that just happens to have an editor as its default application. I know it's advertised as an editor, but that's like saying a web browser is a website viewer.
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.
I was a really big fan of taskwarrior for the simple reason that it did do an approximation of telling you the best thing by calculating urgency, based on a simple weighting method where "the most urgent tasks" blocked other tasks, were due soon, had extra tags, had dependents, and were the oldest.
But I do feel very strongly that people only jump into "the great trap" because they feel that they were let down by their system, or that it didn't quite model their life accurately. A lot of todo apps are opinionated and those opinions, if incompatible with the the person using them, will lead to frustration. The quest for a more perfect life model often continues when this incompatibility is found.
This is accurate. It's about having something that works with your specific personality type.
That's why I personally just give some instructions to an LLM and create a simple scrapy HTML app that does exactly what I need.
Everything you are saying was something I suspected to be true - I think you've captured it brilliantly. Really like: "Ultimately, the best system is the one that removes the most friction between decision and action."
> 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.
this ↑ a 1000x ↑
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.
One of the biggest insights of David Allen's "Getting Things Done" is the daily review. If you're not reviewing your system isn't working. Build a habit/ritual around that and you're in great shape. Cal Newport also talks about this.
From a "one giant to-do list"-guy, I just have a bi-weekly review. This seems to work for me since I open Things 3 every day. I am considering switching to weekly reviews.
Honestly, I use Things 3 pretty much like the author uses his text-app. One single list for all to-do's. The beauty of Things 3 is that there is no feature bloat and unnecessary complexity like most to-do managers.
The important difference is automatic recurring tasks, and daily task will show up outside the app as that red bubble on its icon indicating how many things "need" to be done today, the rest is optional.
Crucially, you need to commit to it, and use it everyday - even if just a little. The authors notepad works because it's a daily simple thing, like you said.
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).
Can you expand on which org-mode features you like for this use case?
On the top of my head, among the useful features I'm familiar with, you can:
* nest tasks
* set deadlines
* set priorities
* filter ~arbitrarily
* have as much content as you want per item (in comparison with todotxt with is one line per item), including non-text like images
* have statuses other than todo and done (like waiting)
What else do you use that makes you particularly like this setup?
Org-mode is this thing I've been trying to use for a while, but it never sticks because I'm just too used to vim and plain text. Once in a while I look for a killer use-case, hoping it'd make me stick to it, to no avail so far.
If you don't feel like you need the extra bells and whistles don't worry about it. The great thing about org-mode is it _is_ just plain text and all the magic is in the interpretation of the plain text. If you have yourself a table and one day ya want to do some spreadsheet magic on it or pipe it into a script easily, you can just check the manual for how to do it and KO it right there in the same place the data lives. Remembering how to do it afterwards is optional.
Personally, I use lazyvim in neovim and doom emacs in emacs and just kinda switch between the two based on what I feel like in a given day. NeoVim tends to have better treesitter/LSP stuff as well as marginally better performance, doom emacs has way better test running and org-mode and it is only a little behind neovim in that other stuff.
All the above is to suggest I think the question is flawed. BUT! To answer the question literally, my favorite thing in org mode that I've never seen anywhere else is the ability to dump babel blocks in my notes with code samples that are actually runnable and the output is able to be piped somewhere else.
I too have used org-mode for a while and here are some additional features which may pique your interest:
- agenda views let me create custom pages of tasks with certain states or tags - a robust time tracking system. I use this for my freelancing work - very nice text tables that are programmable - a very customizable capturing system - a huge ecosystem of plugins - a programmable API: I'm currently working on an importer for the DayOne app as well as a fitness tracking package - PDF export with LaTeX. I can use this for printing out my weekly plan for example - in addition to deadlines, a scheduled property for when you intend to start a task - extensive linking system (https://orgmode.org/guide/Hyperlinks.html#External-Links-1) I often have todos linking to places in code
I think that org-mode could use better learning resources. There's pretty much the manual and blog posts by experienced users, neither are especially aimed towards new users.
Org-mode is obviously in a whole different league, but I think both scratch the same itch for different types of people
Lost me at "But it's not easy to open todo.txt, make a change, and save it"—huh??
Clicked around a bit and found nothing describing how "todo.txt" is better than todo.txt (great branding), and seems to offer no solutions for iOS.
There's a great meme with the classic intelligence bell curve setup where the "grug" and the "elite" sides both use a plain text file with their own ideas of how to do things, and only the "midwit" in the middle is using a huge pile of tooling to accomplish roughly the same thing.
I too went through the phase of using Dendron and Obsidian as well as more common todo list tools (and tickets)... and here I am back at Apple Notes, whose sole advantage over a text file is that it has enough capabilities to store a screenshot. That's all I really needed. My notes are like the classic notebook: a lot of the time it's write-only, a lot of the time it only has to be able to be understood for a week or two before the information is too old to matter anyway.
Don't overthink it.
>There's a great meme with the classic intelligence bell curve setup
This meme has taken on the character of the "Einstein was bad at math and school" urban legend. Yes, you can overthink it, but you can also under-think it if you picture yourself to be some romantic-era genius sitting in a heap of notes. If you want to go meta you might as well put the usage of that meme on the middle of the curve.
You don't need 15 note taking apps but it does pay off to invest in at least a bit of a system (I'd recommend https://johnnydecimal.com/ because it takes about an hour to set up), because you're not actually the 150 IQ guy and you probably benefit from a bit of structure (as do most very intelligent people in real life)
> it does pay off to invest in at least a bit of a system
Sorry, but the whole point of the meme is that you get stuck in this mindset and you think you're talking to the grug side making your argument, when you might actually be talking to someone who's emerged from the far side of this particular Dunning-Kruger test.
As I said, I've been through the systems, I've been mindful, I've made connections and structure, I wrote my own wiki software half a lifetime ago... and in the end... there's just not that much value to it, I found. I don't really find much in my old notes that ever helps me enough to be worth the additional effort.
For a while, when I had an office, I enjoyed a post-it note based "system" where I'd just stick notes in places around my monitor, which is ugly and I hate seeing them, so they get done in order to help me clean up. I'd do that again if I had an office again...
Why is capability to store a screenshot useful in a to-do list?
I'm not the person you're replying to, but I have several TODO items on my current project for fixing HMI screens. Those will be performed by one of my teammates. I could easily embed images into the org-mode document I use.
Unfortunately for him, the HMI is air-gapped so getting screenshots is cumbersome. He'll have to make do with my notes.
TODO: Fix this <screenshot of thing>
Takes like two or three seconds to add; then I continue doing what was more important, and flip back to this with a decent context jumpstart later.
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
Scottish accent: I chose something else...
I was thinking "oh boy that's miserable" and then you got me in the end...
At that point the todo list isn't so much a plan for the day as it is a daily pre-flight checklist just to make sure no fires are burning in any corner of your life
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.
[1] https://unforget.computing-den.com/demo
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40645743
This right here is, something that probably goes over a lot of peoples heads in here. Understandably so as we are on HackerNews people arr most likely IT people and simialar they view the PC as the prime Working environment. And while i personally concur and think the PC is much more productive than a Phone. One of these two devices you always have in your pocket.
Which is why for jotting done some quick note, or some oh remember to do this later when i am back home is just best done on a phone.
I tackled this years ago but found that having a todo list was too limiting.
I ended up building a very simple scratchpad [1] (initially iOS and MacOS, then of late, a PWA version for everyone else...).
[1] https://klipped.com
this is really nice. Really as simple as it gets.
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/
[1]: https://www.beorgapp.com/
[2]: https://hamberg.no/gtd
I like Org Mode but I feel like custom agenda views are not really as flexible as they should be, and as soon as you want to do something outside of the bounds of what Org offers with its settings for the built-in agenda views you have to go on a deep dive into the emacs lisp
For example I wanted the global TODO list view to show next to each entry when the TODO was scheduled for, but there's really no way to modify the global TODO list much at all
I actually don't use custom agenda views at all!
I try to treat my setup more like text files I'm editing in Emacs, rather than me specifically using Org Mode.
I like the extra niceties I get with Org Mode in Emacs, like marking things as done, making checkboxes, etc. I never venture farther than that.
The most complicated thing I do in Org Mode would be making tables and recurring tasks - and I only do recurring tasks because BeOrg makes it very easy to set that up.
there is also https://github.com/alphapapa/org-super-agenda
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.
Totally agree, Todoist rocks. Recurring tasks are necessary for any kind of regular maintenance tasks, and Todoist supports all natural language scheduling "every month on the 15th" or "every 8 weeks starting Thursday". Textfile certainly isn't going to do this for you. Article author writes:
> 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.
Why didn't he turn off the points system if it was distracting, instead of migrating to the next shiny new TODO workflow? Not sure I understand, but I guess that might've left nothing to blog about.
Recurring tasks or tasks far into the future is what has me locked into Todoist. I love how comprehensive the plain-English scheduling is, such as "Do task every third Friday of the month". It's clearly got a lot more power than I use too.
While this may work for others replying in support of, you can't use this software without logging in. That's a showstopper for me. It leads me to believe it'll begin syncing my data outside of my local environment. Can you put details about an upcoming employer meeting there without notifying your employer you've shared this data with a third party vendor? Can you put sensitive customer information in it without a governing contract without notifying the customer? ;)
I'm a heavy Todoist user and I think it's great. I used to use org-mode, but all the Android apps I used for it were clunky and had issues with syncing when my file was concurrently edited somewhere else.
Todoist's API is pretty good too, so I've ended up building my own little webapp that fills some of the gaps in Todoist's functionality (e.g. finding a list of the projects that don't have a next action defined).
I have a similar setup in Todoist, it's just a reminder for scheduled recurring tasks like bills.
Funnily enough, I was quite savvy with the features several years ago but as my work changed and things aren't as easy to list down like a routine or in neatly defined projects and such.
And when regular tasks becomes freeform, it's no surprise that a plaintext file is sufficient.
Can you please advise on how to keep it open everyday? Many tasks accumulated there so it became an inconvenience to open it so I just write everything for today on a daily note. In this case using txt is the least resistance path but it's much less effective.
Came here to say this, thanks.
Only thing to add is that I like the "inbox" feature in Todoist (plus a single catchall project). I get overeager during the day and add a bunch of stuff. The inbox makes it easy for me to mostly just remove things I won't actually do but then file away the stuff I might for later.
I've put weekly chores into a single recurring task and do them on Sundays or kick back another day or two (or just skip) if I'm busy.
It’s hypocritical for me to offer personal productivity advice, but here I go.
Weekly chores should be on a printed checklist on a clipboard kept in the kitchen or similar. These are wholly predictable items and are just clutter in a todo application, which should be devoted to making sense of the “everything else” in life.
I must say todoist is the best kind of app for this. Not affiliated. I've been using it since 2010 and it has gone the un-enshitification path ever since. I'm grateful for it and it's everything I want to create as a maker.
Well said.
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 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:
Some vim config so I can run `\date` (from either insert mode or normal mode) and it will print a date line for me:You can perhaps use `strftime` instead of `trim(system('date ..))`:
I am also not sure if an `<esc>` is really necessary at the end of your normal mode map.I have this in tmux opening a flaoting window with neovim and <leader>g to search by tags which opens quickfix pane
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 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.
The real curveball is sending smoke signals to request pricing info.
How do you deal with multi tenancy? What's your back up strategy?
to back it up just take a photo of it.
"vi TODO" has worked great for decades. cant be beat for flexibility and efficiency, portability, interop etc
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
* Friends* 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.
It sounds like your life requires a manager's schedule. Lots and lots of things to fit into a busy day. Likely without a lot of big blocks of focus time.
Most programmers are far better off with a maker's schedule. Far fewer things in a day. Each with a significant block of time associated with it.
An absolutely minimal productivity system is perfect for anyone on a maker's schedule. You're right that it wouldn't work for your life.
See https://paulgraham.com/makersschedule.html if you're not familiar with the terms "manager's schedule" and "maker's schedule". It also provides context for why those different kinds of schedules are appropriate for different people. (One of the big mistakes that people on manager's schedules often make is to not recognize and respect the impact that a "quick 15 minute meeting" has on employees who need to be on a maker's schedule.)
100% - I read that when it came out, and I point others to it too.
The thing about Maker's schedule for me is that it's easy to get so into what I'm doing that other things in my life don't get the attention they need.
Having a reminder system helps make sure that doesn't happen.
Folks are criticizing this as too much or coming from too much anxiety. I might have agreed before owning a home and having kids. But I totally get it. A typical week involves dozens of random tasks like those you mentioned. Then there's the long backlog of stuff that's important but not urgent.
I've used Todoist for the last few years. It's not perfect. But it's been game-changing in terms of reducing anxiety because I never worry that I'm forgetting something.
Like you, I don't know how folks in similar positions manage. I think a lot of people just drop the ball on a lot of stuff or wait for stuff to become suddenly urgent. I don't think that's a terrible approach -- I still drop a lot of balls because there's just too much. I just try to do it more intentionally.
I'm not knocking folks with other systems, text files or otherwise. Do what works for you!
Yuuuup.
I remember the days before I had this much complexity. Frankly, it’s forced me to get a lot better at stuff.
Back to school was a blizzard of forms, meetings, drop offs, etc. each with their own unique timelines. Sandwiched between all the rest of life.
I have multiple times had the thought that it's not actually possible to "get ahead" because it takes 110% of available time (because no one gets enough sleep) just to tread water.
Investments and Property I see as kind of essential to having much of a retirement, but these things need knowledge and research to get a handle on initially and to closely manage going forwards, such that they could be a part-time job on their own.
How does that fit around a full time job plus kids school and sports plus maintaining a healthy diet and exercise?
The one thing that all of the above does teach a person, though, is: filtering of bullshit; ability to say no.
Can you give some examples of your 100 daily actions? I’m struggling to understand how you’re scheduling so many things, like I’m sure I complete 100 actions in a day but most are going to be things like “brush my teeth” or “clean up the dinner dishes”, which I personally wouldn’t schedule.
It's definitely detailed. Here are a few from today:
Call PG&E about medical baseline allowance
Check SM Court website re: Conservancy ruling
Expect next invoice from [redacted]
Order refill of [medication]
Book service for [vehicle]
Various financial transfers associated with agreements.
Tons of project related tasks for work I can't share
etc, etc.
Sounds like you need an assistant haha. I’m glad your system is working though.
Just in case it wasn’t obvious, there are a bunch of “Expect X to have happened by now” type tasks in there.
These are basically dead man’s switches to remind me to check on someone else’s progress vs a timeline - ala @patio11’s “dangerous professional”
GTD (Getting Things Done) has a similar concept called "Waiting for".
Thanks, it’s grown organically over the 10+ years I’ve used it.
I’ve also used a variety of EAs over the years, and in my experience reliability is highly variable. The great ones are amazing.
Managing the line between daily and long-term tracking is one of the toughest parts. I have a flat list of files in Notes analogous to yours, but I'm not working in every one every day, some will sit dormant for months. Do I maintain a "to buy" or "Home Depot" list in each one, or at the top level?
I like using paper for today's tasks and instant thoughts. I like to avoid cluttering with recurring unless I'm really having trouble (or keep it in calendar). I find that the "oh shit" part of my brain is largely a good enough reminder system as long as I capture the thought before it flies away.
side note: I do like the "Relationship" call-out. I had a past relationship suffer in part because I kept it a bit too much in the back pocket and not up on the proverbial board with the other projects. Workaholics take note - make your relationship part of your workflow.
Maybe you can talk a bit about what does work for you?
I’ve tried most of the major systems, and for me Things3 wins hands down. Yes, it costs some money to by the app on my phone and on my Mac, but the cost of missing even one deadline blows those costs out of the water.
I do with Things3 supported nested areas, but I just use Projects that I never complete to achieve the same effect.
I previously developed an open-source alternative to Things3, available on web, Android, and Windows. You can try it out. I posted Show about it before, but not many people paid attention.
Currently, the UI is a bit ugly, but I have hired a professional UI designer to redesign it, and it is currently in development.
I have use a system similar to this guy and TickTick is perfect. I even use shared lists with my girlfriend to track chores which is something we implemented recently and works great.
This looks like anxiety
Some of this sounds like it could benefit from check-lists (probably you are?).
20 home todos could be wrapped into a single check list that you do once a week.
The master todo says "do 1 hour home checklist".
Then in that hour you analyse what you will prioritise, drop, defer and delegate.
The idea being your mind is then free of "repair the gutter" in general life, but you know you'll visit that on Sunday at 4pm.
I do have those, especially for shopping. "Home Depot Trip" for example is a constant, and has 2-10 checklist items on it at any given time based on what I need.
The problem with a once weekly checklist of [all the house things] is how do I track when I last did a specific action so I make sure it doesn't drag on too long?
As a concrete example - I live in a steep, hilly area. So I schedule making sure that my drainage is clear about every 3 months. When I bought the house, drainage was a significant problem because it hadn't been attended to and a lot of stuff needed significant cleanouts. Do I strictly need to do something about it every 3 months? NO, but if I let it go for too long then it becomes a problem.
I would argue that it would be trivial to have a todo.txt for each area you mentioned. Put them in a folder labeled “todo” and you’re all set.
"Things on any given day has over 100 individual actions, most of which are recurring" looks more like checklist(s) to me.
Sure, but I would lose a ton of reminder and repeating action functionality.
I’d also have to scan across a dozen or more files to figure out what my day looks like.
Seems strictly worse to me.
There’s a reason pilots don’t use text files for their checklists. Sometimes people need better features.
Then, finally you reach the last layer: a 4" x 6" notepad and pen that are always kept at your desk
Hipster PDAs (a stack of index cards with a binder clip) were all the rage before people even had smartphones. I used something like it for a decade.
My extravagance was a corner punch.
Even more hipster: A nicely machined piece of walnut and bespoke pre-rounded cards:
https://ugmonk.com/collections/analog
I love it! There's a disc-bound version for on-the-go as well.
Love how the French clips ("discbound") version is "only" $29.
I get them at my local stationery shop for €0.80, but theirs don't have brass discs.
It's like Rumshpringa for TODO apps. Everyone wants to rebel from the old norms and go do something different, only to end up returning to the reliability, clarity and comfort of a good pen and pocket notebook.
Big fan of the Rite-In-Rain notebooks, myself, and Fisher Space Pen's Cap-o-matic.
Meme on why Rite-in-Rain is de rigeur: https://www.reddit.com/r/tacticalgear/comments/u6dq3i/fuck_y...
I'm a pencil person, though.
> Big fan of the Rite-In-Rain notebooks, myself, and Fisher Space Pen's Click-o-matic.
I carry this combo everywhere I go. Way less friction than taking out my phone, unlocking, and suffering the horrible experience of typing something on a virtual keyboard.
I do enjoy the looks I get from friends and family sometimes, as they all expect me to be high tech everywhere in my life but I'm probably one of the most low-tech people outside of work.
Interestingly enough, this just shows how different people like and hate different things. I personally can’t stand writing with a pen, and am very fluent and fast with a virtual keyboard and would never describe the experience as horrible. I’m writing this on one right now, and it’s great.
I also don’t want to carry an extra thing in my pocket when I already have a phone.
But I’m glad what works for you works for you!
The only productivity I do from my phone is reminder alerts.
Did you mean Cap-o-matic?
Yep, thanks for the correction
Just making sure I didn't miss a new pen coming out of Fisher.
I prefer A4, but yeah. I adopted something roughly based on Bullet Journal about 6 or 7 years ago and now on my 4th book.
There's something about manually writing and copying over TODOs to the next month that makes you really question if you still need to do it, and if you do, gives you a reminder that you still haven't done it.
I use a few basic markers copied from standard bullet journal, which work well as a dot can be promoted to all the others. A dash "-" for informational stuff, a centre dot "·" for a task, which turns into a slash "/" for partially done or a cross "X" for done, ">" if I carry it forward to the next month and "<" if I copy it into the future log (I have pages at the front for about 4 years of future events, 3 months per page). I also have a leftmost column for the date when something needs to be done or for meetings/events.
Surprisingly, even when doing a whole page of notes on something, it's not excessive to leave an inch margin, and sometimes you want to star a key point or attach an action point market.
I've got really used to this way of journaling, and appreciate the ability to do different things, like calendar views - such as 36 week views with one page for weekends and the other for mid week - which are great for planning holidays, weekends and significant events.
I never really got into the monthly reflection aspect, but I do like doing that around end of year and other inflection points through the year.
> There's something about manually writing and copying over TODOs to the next month that makes you really question if you still need to do it, and if you do, gives you a reminder that you still haven't done it.
This is also key for me. Striking through an item that's on my list for some time and that I just decided doesn't matter feels just as good as marking some item as done. Undecided items indeed go to the next list, and just the act of writing down the same item on a new list forces you to reconsider it.
List done? Timestamp it and throw it in the archive box.
The only issue with paper is links. Hyperlinks are nice and makes notes (and task list) a true knowledge base.
If there's really a hyperlink I need, I might e-mail it to myself, add it to a text file in an appropriate place in the appropriate project, leave the tab open in my browser, or just do the task now.
But IMHO none of that is related to the todo list, which is stuff like "7 · Fred's birthday". It's about remembering things that I need/want to do, and in a way that's tactile and I can reflect on it whether I'm using the computer or not, not trying to maintain a knowledge base of everything.
For me, it’s not about remembering what I have to do. It’s mostly about capturing the context and track what I have done.
I recently tried out Task Warrior for tasks and this is why I switched back to Obsidian + DataView.
Forgetting to check TW is the big reason it didn't work, but the secondary reason is that I take a lot dev logs on context and the `annotate` command is too clumsy to be practical for that.
I like the idea of a CLI tool for todos, but it needs to integrate with my notes.
A4 maxi. surprised to find this here - and yea, you can 1) take photo 2) easily index later via vision llm types cheap now etc even local (99% time never do, essence of todo lists ie ack wont ever need to index most items)
If we're being fair here then this must be the place to list the problems with the note card/pad system. For me, I ultimately settled on using a GitHub repo of todo lists w markdown as my solution, viewable on desktop & mobile.
The problems with a physical note card system are:
- I have to use the computer & mobile phone to enter and receive all my work, so it makes sense to consolidate the todo list(s) into those systems, instead of adding a third one. Having to remember to keep a physical bundle near me all the time, with a working pen, feels clunky.
- My handwriting is messy and this causes various problems. I can't really read it at a glance; longer messages take longer to decode; something about the non-uniformity of it also throws me off. I don't relish the thought of consulting a pile of my handwriting multiple times in an hour.
- I frequently cross off old items and add and/or modify new items. This is very easily done with a text file but sounds like a mess with note cards: keeping the empty cards around, scratching off or erasing existing ones, etc. With GitHub's commit history, I can even get a holistic view of how it's changed over the day, not possible with physical cards.
- A LOT of the value of my system comes from being able to view past days todo lists, to see what's getting done and what isn't; I do this daily. Obviously keeping up w/today's tasks stretches the physical card system to its limits; extending that to the past 7 days sounds like a nightmare.
I do this. I love good old fashioned pen and paper.
I've tried, many many times to use digital for both Todos and note taking and nothing ever stuck. Even tried using an iPad with GoodNotes & the Apple Pencil. Pen and paper is the only thing that has ever worked for me still. Plus I enjoy the physical sensation of writing things down physically, with a really nice pen and a high quality notebook.
So I always keep a notebook open on my desk, I intermix Todos and notes on sort of a "daily page" format, and I also carry a little field notes flip pad notebook with me everywhere I go. On the go it's also, oddly enough, less friction to write in my field notes book than it is to take out my phone, unlock it, and suffer through the horrible experience of typing anything out on a virtual keyboard.
OCR is readily available everywhere now so digitizing your handwritten notes, if you have to, is trivial.
I prefer scraps of paper that eventually get spontaneously disposed of, regardless of whether I crossed all of the items from them.
> scraps of paper that eventually get spontaneously disposed of
Where "spontaneously disposed of" is sometimes abbreviated L-O-S-T, right? <g>
Even so, I feel that much of the point of writing things down in the first place is to put the information into the mind (where the subconscious mind can work with it and do its jobs) and, ultimately, so you won't need to be reminded about it later.
Yeah... that's really weird, I very rarely read what I wrote down on the TODO list ... I just write it there and cross it off later.
Very true; I've noticed the same thing myself.
The moment you will start burying old tasks in new tasks, you will find out that it is not a good idea.
If only I could read my own writting. (Dysgraphia - slowing down does not help)
Are people not doing Hipster PDA on 3x5 cards??
Don’t forget scissors, glue and a photocopier!
FriXion erasable pens FTW
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.
> 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.
That resonates with me.
I also think that OP tried to use his TODO app for habits:
>> 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.
I use a very simple habit tracker to track the things I want to do regularly, it has no gamification, just a simple notification once per day per habit.
These days I don't use a TODO app regularly; everyday tasks such as groceries, household tasks etc. work fine without it. When lots of tasks pile up and I struggle to keep track, I use a text file. Those are usually short-lived.
I also have a shared Todoist list with my wife, but we mostly use it for as a shopping list, not really a TODO app.
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.
Your approach on "issues" is fascinating! It certainly sounds like you're talking about almost tracking tickets...you know like for a dev or tech support team...Because my experience is that often tickets are not a one-and-done thing. Often enough, they require a little more folow-up, and i myself like to add comments along way towards the progress of completion...so, yeah, your approach sounds alot like tracking tickets...which in itself is NOT bad at all. The only concern is that tracking tickets often requires some pretty robust software/tool...so unless we're talking a kanban, the fear i would have is that the software/tool to use for tracking tickets might be too unwieldy for quick, let's say mobile tracking of progress...though i admit that may wrong on all thre above.
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.
On MacOS, TextExpander or Keyboard Maestro are great for this.
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.
^1: https://obsidian.md/plugins?id=proletarian-wizard
I’ve been using obsidian also, I just use the daily note with some tweaks. Works great with todo’s autopopulated in new notes until they are checked off, deadlines, etc. Only downside is that I do pay for their sync functionality since iOS makes it very annoying otherwise. I’ll check out your plugin though, sounds useful.
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.
You got me, I thought I had missed a Things release!
Totally agreed - Things for Mac/iOS/iPad/Watch is a great ecosystem and Just Works™.
I started by reading the GTD book, and then tried lots of different apps, but Things for Mac by Cultured Code requires the least work and conforms roughly to the GTD approach. I don't use the strict GTD approach, but its approach to quickly writing down ideas and thoughts has shaped a lot of how I operate at work and even in my personal life.
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.
I think I could also survive in a similar way.
My to-do list just helps a bit with my ability to be productive. If I'm at a loose end, I can refer to it and remind myself of X, Y, or Z that either should be done or that I'd like to have a bash at.
Without it, I'd 'float unproductively' more.
(And it's not necessarily about productivity, more about purpose, where I'll feel much better having completed a task that I'd previously set myself - like mulching the dead leaves or tidying the study or weeding the vege patch that I'd otherwise have not done in favour of 'floating' scrolling HN or whatever).
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.
[1] https://github.com/ChanderG/toodoo.el
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.
I'm sympathetic to the text file, but for me the problem comes when you have todo lists that you are sharing with someone else, like a spouse. Then you have/want to share and edit them collaboratively.
Simple enough, there's ways to do that, but by the time you set that up to work across multiple devices of your own and someone else's, it's simpler from a UX perspective to just use an app dedicated to that task. I suppose we could use a Google doc or something but there's Keep.
I'd be interested in trying something else — I have tried other things — but keep going back to Google Keep.
Especially for Android users, Google Tasks is dead simple to use and works seamlessly with voice prompting. The less I have to manually write or type out my reminders, the better.
My oldest todo app that I can think of was just a microsoft sticky note[1] on my desktop. It always stayed on my desktop. It lacked sync between other devices so that sucked but my pc was the only device I had at that time so it worked for me. After I got a phone; google keep has kept me company. It's dead simple, cross platform, and gets work done. The only fault? It's by google, and they have a long history of killing products.
[1] https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nblggh4qghw
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.
I tried '4famplan4' as my password just to try it, and it said password insufficiently complex so I backed out. :(
Thanks for trying. (It expects mixed-case, which I need to actually say in the messaging.)
The codebase started out as something I used entirely myself, so the aspects of the workflow that relate to new user onboarding (most important for actually getting customers) are the ones that are the weakest. So this part of the codebase is where I'm working now to clean it up and it's probably also the most rough.
Why does it require mixed-case? It's for TODOs, not healthcare. If I want to use my insecure password to try out your service, please let me! It took extra code here for you to try to be secure, when it's now generally known that password requirements are security theatre at best and anti-security at worst.
Thank you for the feedback. A month ago, it didn't need any text in the password field at all. I may have overshot the mark a bit when I added validation.
Longer term, I mainly want it to just use external auth (Google, etc.) and not use passwords at all.
> Longer term, I mainly want it to just use external auth (Google, etc.) and not use passwords at all.
I usually avoid services that do this because I don't want any issues to my Google account (or any other service) to affect other services I use. Good luck trying to talk with someone at Google if some automated system flags and blocks your account.
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.
Same as well, Apple Notes. It works really great. I've also fully adopted the smart notes now with tags so that I can more easily organize stuff. I give the folders names with emojis to make it a bit more "fun".
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:
So I can do.: And silver searcher for full text search.Or you could use a Google doc. Everything is backed up online and has all kinds of formatting and security baked in these days.
I'm not sure why you'd propose google docs to someone who uses CLI to handle their todo. Sounds like the polar opposite to that solution.
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.
I love Obsidian and the sync is worth it, but I wouldn't say it's one step above a text file. It's miles away. Never-ending features and customisations. If you want simplicity, a text file really can't be beaten.
The point is, you don't need to play with extra features and customizations if you don't want to, so you can keep it "a step above a text file". That said, having those additional features is nice when you want just a little bit more, or you want to link a note file with your todo file, etc.
I use Obsidian as basically just a markdown editor that I can throw images into. I find that all of the bells and whistles stay out of your way if you don't want them.
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.
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.
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.
I do the same and I also find that it greatly improves how rapidly I can context-switch back into the work, even after a weekend away.
> “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.
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…
Checking things off might give that small endorphin drip enough to break the procrastination habit.
It reminds me of the developers I know who spend 6 hours out of every 8 hour day tinkering with their obscure toolsets and crazy build systems to avoid writing code.
I've seen folks using vim get way more done than some of these Youtube addicted professional tool testers.
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 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.
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.
This worked really well for me at work. A new text file for each day, so I could explain what I did/plan to do during standup.
I struggle at home though. Because there's not as much pressure to do one task until it's done... so my text file gets forgotten about. Then I start a paper list. Then I forget that... rinse and repeat.
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
+1 for TickTick. It gets the job done and I love that I can set reminders for my tasks that I can snooze from my Apple Watch or computer desktops instead of having to rely on Apple Reminders.
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.
https://kaorahi.github.io/howm/
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.
Something I miss with modern UI design is the location persistence of items. Like the old windows desktop widgets or the OSX dashboard. You should show the desktop or bring up the dashboard and the todo list would always be in the same location and show up or hide with a quick key strokes.
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.
There actually is a Kanban plugin for Obsidian [1]. I've been using it for a while and think it's pretty good. Each Kanban "card" can also be turned into a full note.
[1] https://github.com/mgmeyers/obsidian-kanban
I have it installed as well, but for me it's missing many things I'd expect from a Kanban board, it also doesn't work that well on mobile.
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
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.
Came to say this. It's not exactly a todo list, and it certainly isn't "yours", but it's very close to a text file, with just about the right amount of additional functionality, and it's free.
I don't use it all that often but it's a good companion, for example to make checklists for packing, etc.
Oh yeah, sharing is another nice feature it offers for things like packing checklists. You can share part of your bullet list with collaborators.
Workflowy is a text file until you need it to be a little more than a text file.
It's the best out there for sure.
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.
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 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 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.
> In Obsidian, open the daily file amd copy the contents from yesterday
What's the point of this? Isn't it easier to just keep reusing the same note?
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.
Funny enough, not exactly this, but when i review new apps - either desktop or mobile (but especially mobile!) - besides ensuring that the desired features are present and will do the trick...i try to see if i can understand where/how the files are saved...This started years ago when i was interested in exporting stuff from proprietary apps...and now i've biased myself...so whenever i can not view/access/understand how or where files are stored for an app, then i almost immediately have a negative sentiment towards said app. Sadly, for mobile apps, the obfuscation of files and how/where they're stored is too much of a prevalent thing and for me so annoying.
This started out in my quest to be sure that i can not trapped by an app, and so i can safely export my data...but, nowadays, it has extended a little into the tinfoil hat thinking - fairly or not - where i ask myself: "why does this app not disclose where its files are stored, *what do they have to hide!?!*" ...which feels like the universe is nudging me more and more towards either text-centric methods, or the simplest, open source style apps, etc. :-)
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.
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...
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.
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.
The real shame is it has no iOS app
it has and it's called taskmator, used it for years, but now run linux.
Taskmator is a third party app and it's a bit shaky with buggy selection, but it does the job in a pinch. If choose, given that they're text files you can edit them manually in any editor.
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 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 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...)
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 different model of Palm and miss it. It is simple and just works. Ironically, with the current much more powerful smartphone, I have yet to find something similar to the Palm. The only downside of Palm was its frustrating touchscreen.
I mostly use text(markdown) these days.
I used a wip.md for ~16 years. Every day, I move the done items to a new file with yesterday's date.
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
But no portability :(
This is the one great downfall of the system :(
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.
That… sounds kind of fucked up.
You’re saying you have an unpaid secretary?
Surely there’s a better way you could present this?
I see no need to sugar coat it when it's my reality and there's no labor disputes. If you want to be outraged by what works in my relationship have at it, meanwhile we'll continue our 20 years and counting... but if it makes you feel better, I fully realize it's self-deprecating and I'm basically a Homer Simpson of an oaf. I'd invite you to consider that some women/wives actually enjoy traditional home-making and more traditional roles which we have followed as it comes natural to us based our similar values. While you're at it, you should consider that I have a pretty high stress job and she doesn't. I also make about 8x what she makes and while she chooses to work, she's the one with the bandwidth for maintaining the house/kid's schedule. Need I continue?
I think @mock-possum was responding negatively to the tone of your post, not the content of it. The division of labor within your relationship is nobody's business but your own. If it works for you and your partner, nobody has a right to question it. However, when you say this:
> At work, I use my calendar. At home, I have a wife.
Then you're talking about your partner as if they were an appliance of piece of software rather than a person. You're objectifying them, even if in jest. This is the sort of language that makes many people feel unwelcome on HN.
To be clear, I don't believe you meant for your remark to be malicious! I just wanted to point out why it might make some people feel like outsiders in this community.
There was no tone. It was just concise. The problem is people online read things so literally they'd rather take offense than consider they're reading it wrongly. Such a lack of critical thinking in a world that is so heavily text based, lacking in context of body language and actual tone.
> This is the sort of language that makes many people feel unwelcome on HN
Really? How do you navigate as a functional person IRL if your sensibilities are so easily disrupted? I feel like if that's the case, you need to work on yourself first. Expecting the world to alter their stance and sugarcoat every word or POV is insanity. You're literally living life in hard mode by choice. I'm not a big fan of appeasing fragile people, I'm sure this is a generational thing but here's the thing, that cohort is going to live a majority of their life alongside my cohort and they're choosing to bring friction into the mix.
I think HN is a place for adults to talk maturely and generally "we" read past this stuff. Places like Reddit are places for kids (or immature adults) to talk, they would gladly turn the entire conversation into a dissection of word choice based on whatever is trending in the offends-me-today cult. This is a what keeps HN community, and our discourse, high quality.
You're being unfairly combative. I was supplying a different perspective you may not have considered, and you assumed it was a personal attack. It wasn't.
I don't think this will be a productive conversation. Let's just agree we feel differently about how words affect people and move on.
Didn't mean it that way, I knew you were not attacking me and I understood you were mediating perspectives and not really advocating for any. My response wasn't targeted at you just the generalities being discussed. But you're right that I just really do not like that the world in general has decided to grovel for the approval of the lowest common denominator. I shouldn't have to mince my words to that degree. I was just expressing how I feel like someone being affect in the way the GP was, amounts to a lack of reading comprehension if they read into my comment the way they did.
I'll never understand how someone gets offended by other people's working relationship
This type of edgy Gen-Z sarcasm is turning HN into Reddit. Please don't bring it here.
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)
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)
[0]: https://noteself.org/
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.
https://github.com/DexterLagan/todo-master
No source code?
This is a Xojo project, you can load the source code and all the UI objects by opening the binary project in Xojo (free).
I'll share with the world my own txt todo list:
Been using it for the past 35 years, once I start a project I create a todo.txt file and start adding items, create logo, create database, etc* Don't forget to add your todo.txt to .gitignore
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).
I don't use a to do file, but I do keep notes in (mostly) a single text file, and I just have them on a server exposed to the internet. When I need to read/write something I SSH to the box and use Vim to update the note.
I wouldn't recommend this if you didn't already have a server set up for other reasons, but it might be a useful option for some commenters here.
How about writing new things at the top of the file? If you use dates as sections you can still add new things at the bottom of the current day, but you always have current day at top.
Just add new notes and tasks at the top? I find that it means less important tasks tend to settle towards the bottom, and I’ll periodically go and reshuffle things as required.
Okay, so there are people who do this? I've actually considered it on several occasions, but it always felt a bit 'wrong', like prepending rather than appending to an array.
I like the idea though of less important things being farther down, like sediment, whereas current/important things stay closer to the surface. There's a fun metaphor in there.
Might try your way, after all!
I use obsidian. It's markdown, and can sync across devices.
Obsidian is great but it's a productivity trap for me. The last time I got into it I went too far in designing the 'perfect' PKM system, while not actually using it all that much. Turns out I just really like designing systems. =p
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 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.
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 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
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...
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 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.
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.
It's a big upfront investment but it's one of the things that Org mode with its built in agenda view is fantastic for. I've really never needed anything else for note taking and scheduling.
I want to address the underlying philosophy behind your edit (and also your original comment). "Perfect is the enemy of good" is not just "all that." It is the thing, the critical design constraint. Computers are a hundred years old. If you believe all repetition should be offloaded to computers -- it sounds like that isn't working for you? I'm in the same boat, and I reacted by.. reducing my standards. I have a tool. It isn't perfect and there are no signs it's going to get perfect in my lifetime. So I don't wait for perfection. I get on with my life. Even if computers will be suitable for all repetitive tasks in another hundred years.
I do have a single source of truth, and it's my todo list. However, I manualate to keep it thus. When I add something to the calendar, I copy it over to my todo list as well.
I don't do this for everything, only stuff that improves my decision making. So an appointment with a barber can just be on my calendar. Long todo lists intimidate me anyway, so it would do more harm than good cluttering up my view of critical decisions I need to make. Stuff like, "what should I make next," or "how should this thing be designed?"
So if manualating seems like too much work, I'd suggest that maybe you're taking on too much in the critical decision category, in which case you might make better decisions by focusing on fewer things. But yeah, YMMV. This is how I think about it and it works well for me.
What do you mean by coming up? Like a deadline?
For event-based things I tend to have a reminder on my calendar. If things are relatively important, you'd assign them some kind of priority; in a simple .txt file, I'd expect them to be at the top for instance.
If the file has too many important tasks (such that I lose track of them), it means that at least some of them are not actually important and they should be revisited. IIRC that's the point of the weekly review mentioned in the GTD book: don't assume your workflow keeps working as you use it, there is some regular maintenance involving taking a step back and revisitings tasks, prioritizations 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 vastly superior options with almost no effort.
Fwiw, this is pretty much a slam dunk usecase for current LLMs.
Vibe code a script that parses your existing text file and creates events in your chosen calendar app. Then run this script on a schedule
Explicitly tell it to add a tag or anything else identifiable so it can Auto remove/update the events on changes etc.
You'll have a PoC in minutes and will likely be happy with the result within an hour, if you're using Claude Code
I've been running a text based todo/status doc for about that long and my hack for that particular problem is to occasionally do a scan and copy anything 'active' to the top (or bottom if you append to the end :) of the file. Yeah, there's a bit of duplication there (I usually just copy a short description and a pointer back to the date of the original so not so bad..), but it works for me.
Surely this would be easy to fix with a simple script that runs on a VPS to alert you on a platform of your choice, maybe using something like Apprise (https://github.com/caronc/apprise). Get the notification as an email, on Discord, Signal, etc.
This does complicate the system a bit, but still low overhead in my opinion.
Congratulations you invented a calendar with notifications. Which already exists on every digital device, it existed on Nokia phones 30 years ago :)
I use the Unix way and multiple tools.
If something has a date attached, put it on the calendar.
If something is time sensitive add alarms as needed (calendar notifications have not been doing it for me in the last 5+ years)
20 years ago it was text file + Unix calendar + crontab + something custom.
These days it's text file + calendar + clock app + something custom.
I use a very basic system similar to this idea of running TODO.txt, but they are notecards i write every day. I sit them Infront of me and any timed tasks go onto the calendar. Outlook Calendar has notifications so those are my prompts for time based activities.
i realized either it's pen & or paper or .txt this was a 10+ year experiement and i wasted alot of time finding and building workflows and none of them sticks more than .txt file (i also had a more automated version of it in macos using .txt file and macros that time blocked my calendar but it was too restrict)
nothing falls my mind i can just add #note #<project> #idea or whatever consistent tagging or subnotes i can do the todo.txt and it'd be easier to even feed it to chatgpt/or what everllm to even remind of my most important ones in the future and send me notification in telegram or something.
All you need is cron.
<to the tune of "all you need is love">
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.)
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 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'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.
The same is true for group apps (manage a team; organize events with random people, etc. apps)... so many options... and so far every single season my kids have participated in a sport I've been privileged to try a new one... :-\
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.
A simple plain text file
and either Emacs or Sublime are hard to beat. I've been following the same system, also after experimenting with multiple systems.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.]
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!!
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 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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
I use a notebook with ideas borrowed from bullet journaling, like an index at the start. That solves the “figure out where that one note is” problem. Each page is numbered (by me) so it’s easy to refer to other places in the notebook.
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.
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
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.
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.
https://mytasksapp.com/
cheers
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.
i honestly don't think the author is claiming that /literally/ - it's often a figure of speech in English. My kids say it "all the kids at school <insert thing here>" - doesn't mean they meant literally every single student who attends.
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 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 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 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?
> Kept forgetting to check Things? How does a plain text file solve that?
This. It just doesn’t. My bet is that some people just need to change their tools from time to time. And tbh I think it’s totally fine, no need to explain yourself. Just buy another todo list app and don’t feel bad about it. Or this expensive paper notebook. Or this “dumb phone” that will make you productive. Maybe just don’t try to find a deeper meaning in it or try to convince everyone that you finally solved some big mistery
Probably. Whatever method I use, physical or digital, it tends to fade into the background after a while and I stop noticing it. My best bet might be to switch to a new method every few weeks, in which case it's probably best to keep them simple and cheap. Maybe a whiteboard for a while, then a notebook, then a text file, and so on looping through a few basic methods.
The best part about a new app is that you have to transfer (or update, if you oscillate between apps on regular basis) the tasks and projects and will inevitably do a deep review.
Same, but my text files are .md and synched for free between mobile/workstantion using Joplin + OneDrive.
> “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.
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.
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.
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.)
Where does the author talk about obsidian?
He did not. I just pointed out if obsidian mobile would not have these flaws i could live in the reality he describes.
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.
Exactly this. I realized that full featured tools like OmniPlan made increased my anxiety because it is too easy the build up to do items that you would never do. Having a simple note pad forces me to delete unnecessary cruft every week since I have to manually copy it. Also the notes approach gives me one place to look for and summarize all of my activities.
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 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.
I am right now on Apple Reminders, which has its advantages, but I've also used OmniFocus a lot, as well as org-mode. And I switch between them from time to time.
Org-mode could be perfect, but sync and mobile apps are PITA. Reminders are good, but limited. However, they are well integrated with calendar. OmniFocus is somehow in between, has own scripting engine, complex, limited at some places, but will surely get it done.
As much as I am with the idea of writing, bringing the pen and notebook with you me all the time get old pretty soon. And, such are the details of modern life, a lot of information arrives per mail or links. Also, no meaningful context can be saved with task. What would happen is that I would have to maintain 2 system - short written tasks and digital information storage for them, and somehow link between them.
But why I commented here: indeed, in the end the system itself does not matter that much. The regular review, in GTD terms, does. Cleaning up junk tasks, plan the day, process the inbox - it can be done with anything.
and just a quick resume: What I find that independent of your note taking system, what really makes the different is that 5 min I told, that I sit and process what was done in the previous day. The discipline to rethink your day, apply again what it works, and do a little different what it did not worked, thats whats really makes the different.
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 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.
I use a TODO.md within Obsidian, synced across devices with SyncThing. That's the sweet spot
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.
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).
[1] https://github.com/bojle/note.py
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.
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.
Markdown + Vim-wiki plugin is a really powerful combo, that is still all only markdown underneath.
And yes, you can combine that with something like Obsididan at any 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.
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 use Todoist and I like it for repeating tasks:
Most days I put my todo list into ChatGPT and get it to put my todo list in order from quickest to longest.Sometimes I ask ChatGPT to order my todo list by importance.
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
Has anyone tried https://organice.200ok.ch/ ? It can be a good solution if you survive the learning curve.
I am completely in love with tasks.org, foss, synced via nextcloud.
https://github.com/tasks/tasks
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).
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.
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 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.
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.
https://github.com/peteryates/dotfiles/blob/master/nvim/.con...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.
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‘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.
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?
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.
https://ugmonk.com/collections/analog
$70 for a cute wooden card holder. Holy moly!
What perspective are you coming from where that is a crazy amount? If it works for one it will become a part of their daily life. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Most pairs of pants cost at least that much unless you're of the "I only shop at Costco/Target" mindset.
I'm sure you could get a knockoff or DIY and save a few bucks but I appreciate the thought that's gone into their designs.
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.
> 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 :)
I created an app to deal with that and quickly add my todos/thoughts from anywhere on my Mac https://usetype.app
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.
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
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.
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
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 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.
This is pretty cool! Is it still in active development?
Yeah - I mean I haven't been adding any new features recently, but mostly because the system just works. I'm using it daily and definitely fixing stuff if they break.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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 liked that one when it was still called "Wunderlist". I'm still mad the owner sold it. He now makes "Superlist" but it's simply not the same :/
Microsoft ToDo has native apps for Mac and Windows, and a third-party one for Linux (https://itsfoss.com/kuro-to-do-app/). It has apps on iOS and Android and you can access it via the web.
It works very well. It even _finally_ (in 2023) made me switch from paper grocery lists to electronic ones.
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 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.
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.
TruTruth! I've been paying them for a couple years too, and am still in the camp of "take my money".
Such an efficient to-do list that has progressive enhancement of some sorts where you start out with a list and if you want more features they just kind of are there but they don't get in the way unless you want them. I love how I can do everything with keyboard shortcuts with Checkvist!
[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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Do you not have a note app on your phone you can also interact with on your computer? I mean, that's a solved problem, right?
Google Keep
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 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.
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
Personally I like that my work and personal life is being clearly separated. Some device ale work only, some are personal only. Same with software
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trello here too. Has a web and mobile app so its slightly better than .txt file in that I can add to it on the run.
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.
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.
I like Tasks.org for Android and I think it syncs with CalDAV that comes with my e-mail provider. That should just about do the trick, even with Thunderbird.
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.
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.
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.
[1]: https://github.com/AlexW00/Zettel
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
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
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 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
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 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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
I am stealing this.
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.
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.
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...
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
https://youtu.be/RBBPbIkgWUU?si=S_JoNr4FLbqPMo5D
Kinda like a combination of OmniFocus and Hook (Hookmark)
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.
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!
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
> 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 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.
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.
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 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
I ended up there, too. Taskpaper Mac app is great.
A bit hyperbolic. He tried very few Todo applications.
No org mode? No Taskwarrior? Both are apps backed by plain text.
I tried both Org and taskwarrior, still for me it takes more actions, more frictions and formatless nature of txt file suits me otherwise I will end up optmizing my org mode workflow lol
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.
What I have:
Work projects: typically on the order of a dozen
House projects: Probably over 20 distinct chores over the course of a week, plus currently two maintenance things that I can't do myself and have to call people repeatedly because 90% of contractors just don't show up unless you remind them to.
Kids: most things can be handled immediately (e.g. sign a form), but there are always at least half-a-dozen things in the air that can't for one reason or another.
Other: Resubmitting medical bills to insurance (can only be done during business hours, I typically open my mail after business hours). Contacting bank about something. &c.
Here's a fraction of what I'm doing today, including one from each category (except calling a contractor because my wife is doing that):
- I have to contact my bank during business hours because they sent me the wrong form (discovered while I was filling it out this weekend).
- I need to call a coworker because one project is blocked on them regarding an issue that they haven't replied to my e-mail sent Thursday afternoon.
- I need to pickup my daughter from a day-camp on the way home from work. Before dark, I need to weed part of the front yard.
- Tonight the trash (but not the recycling) goes out to the curb for a pickup tomorrow morning.
Yes, I have met people who can keep track of these things in their head. I am not one of them.
You have too many things on the go at once. Do less at work, delegate all your chores to your wife, and send the kids to boriding school. Problem solved.
For someone with ADD, it can be extremely difficult to keep track of even 3-4 relatively simple items that need completed in a day. They will get distracted by something minor, and 8 hours later have completed 20 things in a highly productive manner, but 0 of the 3-4 important items they were supposed to do (and most likely, they will have forgotten those items existed entirely). For me what works is starting each day with a list of 3 items that need done that day, and to check that list about every 30 minutes all day long.
>Do people really have so many things to do, and is it really that difficult to keep track of them all?
I think you can find the answer to this question by looking at the comment thread of any TODO/notes/task-tracking submission on HN.
That's a fair point - but most of these threads focus on comparing systems rather than discussing whether they are necessary in the first place. I can see how folks with ADHD or similar challenges would benefit from a TODO app (or similar).
I'm more curious about a broader question: at what point does life complexity actually require a formal system versus just mental tracking? Tech people are, for the most part, the only people I encounter actively using and iterating on their TODO solutions, and I am skeptical that in general they lead more complex lives.
Maybe virtual tasks need better organization or reminders than physical tasks. I rarely forget to wash my dishes because the dishes are right there. I don't forget to go gather the eggs because I have to shut up the chickens every night and check their food and water, or living creatures could die. There are physical consequences and reminders of those things.
The need to update a piece of software doesn't give me any physical cues, and if I have a couple dozen tasks like that waiting on me, I'm never going to remember them all unless they're all popping into my head throughout the day. That pretty much is how I used to try to do it, and it wasn't good.
You’re not alone. Like many in this thread, I have kids and a house, etc. etc. Never needed anything like this. Maybe jotting down a note with pen and paper now and then, or at most, e-mail myself a reminder of something.
I have to wonder if some people use these systems to make themselves feel more important than they actually are.
Same. There are tons of people are spend more time organizing 'TODOs' than actually doing them.
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.
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)
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
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 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.
exactly. i, too, have tried many of the pieces of software mentioned and my problem is one of executive function, not of tools lacking some quality. currently i'm settled on apple reminders (so i can say "siri, remind me to do x tomorrow at 11am) and then a physical notebook to actually schedule and write checkboxes
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
This app is similar in concept (but Markdown): https://github.com/unvalley/ephe
>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 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.
privacy is an issue with e-mail and calendar apps that integrate with your e-mail account.
On similar note, I tested every grocery list app and ended up with papers and pencil
Taskwarrior is perfect. Give it a try.
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.
I had the same issue and came to a similar conclusion:
https://github.com/enthus1ast/nimTodo
This. Working with plain notes during the last 10 years and it could not be better.
Did you try org-mode?
If the person you're replying to indicated they are very happy with their setup ("it could not be better"), why suggest they try something else?
There's finite time in life, and productivity tool "improvements" have a diminishing ROI, why waste time improving what they already said is very good for them?
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
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.
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.
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.
The funniest part is how this "low-tech" method ends up feeling faster than all the "productivity boosters" out there
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.
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 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.
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.
I was also frustrated with the current app offerings, so I wrote my own. Feel free to try: https://checkoff.ai
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.
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 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.
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)
I use Obsidian on my phone, and I use syncthing to sync it, and then I just edit it with vscode on my computer.
I have Obsidian set up to create a new week file every week, and then I add things to do there, I also move things from previous weeks if I still feel they are relevant.
Works like a charm.
Like many others here, I recommend giving org-mode a try. The main drawback is endlessly yak shaving it to your taste.
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!"
Because it tickles our brains with validation that others have come to the same conclusion as us. To the front page!
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)
I wrote a super simple matrix-style todo check: https://4to.do
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.
TXT files are good. Scribing notes with a pen in plain paper notebook beats .txt files.
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
BONUS - take a PHOTO as soon as you write it (so you can check later if needed, 99% never. just cognitive safety). but BODY as POST-IT is FASTEST, TIMELESS
related meme : https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/1epgj1e/im...
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".
I always use paper and pen to record my todo tasks.
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
The shopping_list integration in homeassistant is really good and is uses json.
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.
I found Asana's TO DO app the best for me. Great for mobile, ipad, Mac app and web based.
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 guess the real workhorse here is Neovim and the custom hotkey for launching todo.txt
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.
nvUltra is destined to become another Terpstra vaporware, I fear. The longer it's "almost done, I swear", the less likely anything will happen with it for the general public.
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.
Same here. No need for any bloat. Simple text file in Notepad4 (Notepad2⨯2, Notepad2++).
This blog post is wonderful and so accurately sums up my own journey through TODO productivity.
I use typora which is a markdown edior with folder structure. And AI to make the checkable lists.
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
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.
the simpler the better ! how I was thinking starting TiddlyWiki which then turned into a little beast :) but still works for me
What about Power outage?
I also tried a lot of todo apps and ended up with a sheet of paper :D
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’ve always circled back to a shirt-pocket sized spiral notebook. A7 size, I think.
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.
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.
things 3 is fantastic and access to it is an actual factor in what devices i buy
Things3 has also worked incredibly well for me for the past 4 years. My only wish is that they would roll out a version for Windows. I have been in the Apple ecosystem for quite some time so it was never a problem until I built a gaming PC that I also started using for work. As a result of this switch, I have to rely heavily on my phone to manage tasks. I still think this beats a todo.txt file that I would have to put quite a bit of effort in to manage every day and set up exactly how I want it, but is a big pain point for sure.
Yep same here- moved to an android phone and been kicking myself over access, now i have to use it on my macbook
Would people consider obsidian juat a note taking app and not a todo app?
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.
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.
Google Keep is a nice concept. Text and available on all devices.
I moved out of keep. It's an HTML backend.
What is a good way to do this but across many devices?
Apple Notes if you're in the ecosystem. Or, a txt file in icloud.
Not a bad idea, but…
Can Apple read the notes?
Can Apple switch you off?
Is it easy to edit from a non-Apple device?
- No
- Presumably yes, but unlikely
- No
So you definitely have to be in the ecosystem, like I alluded to.
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.
Don't use a ToDo list. Just put stuff on your calendar!
I write them on my hand
Nice. How do you filter?
Folding fingers over the ones you want to hide, obviously!
if I get really overwhelmed I get sweaty and my list completes itself
I think that's referred to as "handTodo Zero" :-)
I also just so checkbox in a txt file like:
[X] Task 1 [] Task 2
Its enough for me
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
I use a single markdown file. todos.md.
I’d need markdown otherwise I’ll just use a small notebook
> Create a file called todo.txt yes, thank you.
This is the way. Markdown does improve it a bit, though!
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.
Can I ask why you abandoned TickTick?
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.
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.
Calling one of the most mature software projects on the planet a buggy mess is something, but yes, I would opt for TODO.org instead of .txt
>I find it a buggy mess where everything works only 80%
I don't want to be mean but calling Emacs a buggy mess sounds like a skill issue.
Probably. Cant get a good IDE with debugging for c#, can’t get emails with events etc to sync two way with all my providers, same with calendars, etc.
Yeah I also noticed that even though I can accept a calendar invite from gnus in emacs, and the person inviting me sees that I've accepted, my own provider (fastmail) doesn't register me as having accepted in my fastmail calendar.
I've never tried debugging C# from within emacs (though eglot with omnisharp solves all the other IDE needs like goto, see references, renaming and such). I think you're more likely to find help on r/emacs or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79516308/how-to-debug-c-... or something for that.
One of the most absurd comments I’ve seen here in a long time.
Please tell me how to accomplish my use cases in emacs then :)
Do you expect us to read your mind?
I've been using GNU emacs since the beginning, when I switched from Gosling emacs. The first few years had crashes, but since it's been one of the most stable pieces of software I've ever used.
Your claims are just preposterous, especially without any substantiation.
No, just read my comment literally one above you?
My text file is called todo.org
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
> tried every
Mentions just 5
Does not mention Markdown once.
I’m confused. Markdown is not a todo list app or system.
what about emacs org mode)
Next version, a pen and paper!
Next, next version, just commit everything to working memory, as in one's brain. To help with this, simply tell others what you are doing and give them updates. Practice can be gained by doing things such as shopping without a list. Hacks can also be used, so a list of code fixes can be called 'updating the specs', even though it is a list of things to do.
As for pen and paper, writing things down is a way of committing todos to working memory, the paper does not have to be referred to, just the act of writing means that it gets noted.
Forgetfulness is a feature. If it wasn't important and it gets forgotten, then forgetfulness has worked.
Joking aside, todo lists, in whatever form, are rarely going to be forever solutions, and, depending on the task and who you are working with, the solution is going to vary.
What is fascinating is working with someone that has all the tools for the day job and to work on another project, for instance DIY. They might have all of these fancy project management tools for work, but do they use them for renovating the house?
Of course not! They are back to either pen and paper or just working memory.
Add using ripgrep with it.
just use google tasks? hello? it has notification and calendar integration
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 :) ?
This is a good question, and at least for me the answer is: because it generates more trash, and also because I'm in front of the computer for work anyway, so I might as well just have my TODO there.
But sure, a physical notebook or post-its would work just as well.
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
Obsidian.
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 often use telegram saved messages for this
I'd recommend LogSeq, for it's local first approach.
I can't believe this is what hackernews has become. This kind of stuff is at the top.
Didn't try Workflowy though! (YC S10 and still not enshittified) (!!!)
"Todo?"
tl;dr
Ready to ditch the productivity app hamster wheel? Do this:
My advice to anyone, is to start tracking stuff on paper, and once you've got some workflow nailed down, search for digital tools to augment it (or be fine with the current workflow). I prefer digital and have settled on org mode. It has the structure that I would need to implement if I was starting with .txt files.
Another tool I like is Things.app. But it's Apple only and I'm moving away from that ecosystem.
And it works really, really well.
We tend to overcomplicate things when it's not needed. Sometimes I think we like playing with tools more than doing actual work.
Is this a joke?