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

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

#231

Post by bowsamic »

cyrialize wrote: post #46

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…

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

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

#232

Post by ukFxqnLa2sBSBf6 »

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 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.

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

#233

Post by benreesman »

barbazoo wrote: post #216
fmbb wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ;)

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

#234

Post by astrobe_ »

block_dagger wrote: post #157
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…

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.

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

#236

Post by potatolicious »

pancakemouse wrote: post #198
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…

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…

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.

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

#237

Post by makapuf »

rambambram wrote: post #230
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…

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.

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

#239

Post by alankarmisra »

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.

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

#240

Post by LocalPCGuy »

mulhoon wrote: post #77
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.

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.
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