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I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

al3rez.com

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Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#71

Post by al3rez »

jasode wrote: post #25

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 an…

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 # #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.

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#72

Post by hiq »

xz18r wrote: post #39

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-…

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.

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#74

Post by al3rez »

freedomben wrote: post #21

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…

I have this in tmux opening a flaoting window with neovim and g to search by tags which opens quickfix pane

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#75

Post by petepete »

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.

    ww         = go to diary home
    ww = go to today
    wd = go to list of days
https://github.com/peteryates/dotfiles/blob/master/nvim/.con...

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#76

Post by AstroBen »

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?

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#77

Post by mulhoon »

ericcholis wrote: post #29

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 yo…

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.

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#78

Post by treetalker »

motiw wrote: post #44

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)

Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file

#79

Post by carlosjobim »

Kokouane wrote: post #51
jasode wrote: post #25

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 an…

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 :)
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