I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file • Hacker News Board

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

#171

Post by ChromaticPanic » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:11 PM UTC

Igrom wrote: post #92

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 prioriti…

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.

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

#172

Post by skydhash » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:12 PM UTC

ralferoo wrote: post #138

douglee650 wrote: post #99

Then, finally you reach the last layer: a 4" x 6" notepad and pen that are always kept at your desk

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 c…

The only issue with paper is links. Hyperlinks are nice and makes notes (and task list) a true knowledge base.

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

#173

Post by dugmartin » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:12 PM UTC

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.

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

#174

Post by tlhunter » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

Is this a joke?

    AI helps but isn’t needed: With Cursor/Claude Code or Neovim + Supermaven, I can write my entire day’s schedule in 5 minutes. The AI completes my sentences, predicts meeting times, memorizes how I write tasks.

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

#175

Post by aidenn0 » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:13 PM UTC

benchly wrote: post #126

douglee650 wrote: post #99

Then, finally you reach the last layer: a 4" x 6" notepad and pen that are always kept at your desk

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.

Did you mean Cap-o-matic?

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

#176

Post by ChromaticPanic » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:14 PM UTC

brap wrote: post #147

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.

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

#177

Post by don_neufeld » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:14 PM UTC

radlad wrote: post #156

don_neufeld wrote: post #150

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…

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.

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

#178

Post by not_kurt_godel » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

koakuma-chan wrote: post #118

not_kurt_godel wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's Reminders app does all of those things and many more without having to learn emacs

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.

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.)

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

#179

Post by radley » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

not_kurt_godel wrote: post #105

Igrom wrote: post #92

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 prioriti…

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.

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

#180

Post by EGreg » Mon, Aug 11, 2025, 4:15 PM UTC

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.