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

> - 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.

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.

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

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 would take this more seriously if the title were: > I tried every todo app and ended up with a .md file