My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)

Same. Ever since I had my proprietary rich text note taking application/database corrupt and become inaccessible in the early 2000s I've used a single notes.txt file with filepaths for noting images and other rich media. It is super simple to search within; everything is in one place. And it'll never become corrupted or inaccessible.

I've had pretty decent luck with `todo.txt` style tracking, but also tend to run into issues with tasks or notes "going stale" so came up with this system. `today` basically opens `~/Desktop/$YYYY_MM_DD-todo.txt`, but it'll start you off with a copy of the most recent (previous) file.

This lets me have "durable" files (I can grep for pretty much anything and get a date-specific hit for it, similar to doing a `git log -S`), and also lets me declare "task-bankruptcy" without any worry (I can always "rewind" to any particular point in time).

The addition of `report` (aka: `diff $YESTERDAY $TODAY`) is helpful to see what I've added/removed. Yeah, there's better ways to do things, but the degenerate simplicity of `open ~/Desktop/todo.txt` is fantastic. Having the equivalent of `open ~/Desktop/$TODAY.txt` (with no ceremony) has been very valuable to me!

   $ cat ~/bin/today
   #!/bin/bash
   TODO_HOME="$HOME/Desktop"
   TODAY="$( date "+%Y-%m-%d" )"
   TODAY_FILE="$TODO_HOME/todo-$TODAY-todo.txt"
   PREVIOUS_FILE="$( ~/bin/previous )"
   if [[ ! -f "$TODAY_FILE" ]]; then
     cp "$PREVIOUS_FILE" "$TODAY_FILE"
   fi
   report "$TODAY_FILE"
   printf "Press Enter to Continue, Ctrl-C to exit." && read -r PROMPT
   open "$TODAY_FILE"
   echo "$TODAY"

   $ cat ~/bin/previous
   #!/bin/bash
   TODO_HOME="$HOME/Desktop/"
   TODAYS_DATE="$( date "+%Y-%m-%d" )"
   MOST_RECENT="$( ls "$TODO_HOME"/todo-*-todo.txt | sed 's/^.*todo-//g' | sed 's/-todo.txt//g' ; echo "$TODAYS_DATE" | sort )"
   PREVIOUS="$( echo "$MOST_RECENT" | awk -- "BEGIN { YET=0 } /^$TODAYS_DATE/ { YET=1 } { if ( !YET ) PREV=\$0 } END { print( PREV ) }" )"
   PREVIOUS_FILE="$( echo "$TODO_HOME/todo-$PREVIOUS-todo.txt" )"
   echo "$( realpath "$PREVIOUS_FILE" )"

   $ cat ~/bin/report
   #!/bin/bash
   TODO_HOME="$HOME/Desktop"
   TODAY_FILE="$TODO_HOME/todo-$( date "+%Y-%m-%d" )-todo.txt"
   PREVIOUS_FILE="$( ~/bin/previous )"
   echo "${PREVIOUS_FILE}...${TODAY_FILE}"
   diff -U0 "$PREVIOUS_FILE" "$TODAY_FILE" | grep -v ^@@

I've been using what is essentially a single sticky note (Raycast floating notes feature) for a year now and it works great. I put todos, meeting notes, ideas, and everything else in there with zero organization. When I want to remember stuff I read it. When I finish stuff I delete it. Has worked for me better than Notion, Obsidian, Reminders, Tick Tick, etc.

I've found that for productivity tools, there is an inverse correlation between time it takes to setup and how effective it is.

Obligatory reference to Emacs Org-Mode [1].

Author's approach is basically Org-Mode with fewer helpers.

Org-mode's power is that, at core, it's just a text file, with gradual augmentation.

Then again, Org-Mode is a tool you must install, accessible through a limited list of clients (Emacs originally, but also VSCode), and the power of OP's approach is that it requires no external tools.

[1] https://orgmode.org

I ended up using plain text files because it's the most efficient editing experience with my editor.

Although I have multiple files for different things: work reminders, abstract ideas, bookmarks, etc.

For time sensitive events I use stock calendar app on my phone because it's the only thing I need notifications for (except email).