I've noticed that the best TODO list for me is almost always one on paper. I keep putting off tasks, but running out of physical space on the page really helps you get through them faster.
Perhaps it's just me though.
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
#692Earlier quoted context omitted.
They blur into each other enough that it's good to use one app/text file that can do all three.
Blurring into each other is exactly the problem.. you become numb to both.
It really depends on a person. For a neurospicy person like me, pull is stupidly hard but push works better. That's why I'd rather turn my environment and lists into intelligent auto reminders. Otherwise they may as well just not exist.
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#693I personally never moved away from the colour coded post-it-note-stuck-to-the-monitor system. Requires little to no thought and has unparalleled security and privacy out the box
But no portability :(
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#694What is a good way to do this but across many devices?
Apple Notes if you're in the ecosystem. Or, a txt file in icloud.
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#695I'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…
I actually don't use custom agenda views at all!
I try to treat my setup more like text files I'm editing in Emacs, rather than me specifically using Org Mode.
I like the extra niceties I get with Org Mode in Emacs, like marking things as done, making checkboxes, etc. I never venture farther than that.
The most complicated thing I do in Org Mode would be making tables and recurring tasks - and I only do recurring tasks because BeOrg makes it very easy to set that up.
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#696Earlier quoted context omitted.
On managers side the equivalent is making fancy JIRA workflows with all the fancy fields so that everyone is informed. Makes people annoyed with extra work and that time could be spent just talking to people to understand what's actually happening.
Exactly. It takes enormous effort to get product and engineering teams to agree on how to use JIRA properly, because everyone has their own ideas around how and what to organize. It's exhausting.
OR to put is differently - everyone has their own needs they are trying to get done. Each one need individually is simple so it is easy to demand that need is added too. Until the whole system for each different need becomes so complex it collapses under its own weight and you move to a new tool. This cycle seems to repeat every 10-15 years at all companies. JIRA is the tool everyone talking about today, but there were many others in the past, and there will be a different one in a few years.
Generally the tool isn't the problem: NEVER put ticket numbers into long term storage as in a few years you won't be able to reference them. That is version control, design documents, and anything else that isn't the ticket system itself. You can talk about who is working on ticket 12345 and the problems they face, but if anything is going to be written down you need to summarize the ticket without a number.
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#697Reading 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…
What I gather is people really like the blank whiteboard. There’s something about Notepad and Excel, the freedom, the linitlessness, of having a blank canvas and being able to do anything.
Todo software is too opinionated. It’s not flexible enough to allow you to break rules. You can’t move things around in a way that allows you to control visual white space between entries. Everything “is something” (a task, an event) vs just being (text.)
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#698I used to have one long .org tasks file. That was great when I was working, because I saw it every day when I logged on my laptop and did org-agenda. But now that I'm retired I don't do that any more. So what I have now is a sheaf of A5 slips (cut from scrap A4) stapled together at one corner. I scribble one-liners to note tasks and score through the lines when completed. When a whole page is complete I rip it off, screw it up, and into the waste basket. Works great!
Plus Apple Reminders for deadlines. The Org file still exists, but for recording history rather than a scheduler.
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#699I went through something similar, Todoist, Wunderlist, etc. We used these also together with my wife for a while. But sooner or later we reverted to paper for ad-hoc lists and some docs, spreadsheet software (Google Drive, Synology Drive, MS OneDrive, LibreOffice - whichever was easier) for more long term or longer content, and have a small board on the fridge serving as the shopping list.
Personally, I have my own "notes" script, a combination of shell and vim script for general note taking. I can organize things in folders, have a todo file, tags and indexing of tags (a folder of tags, each tag is a folder that contains symlinks to the related notes). If I just run it without a file, it opens a new daily note with the current date. I use that also for work tracking and TODO, I create a new note each day, add my tasks, tag it with the sprint. I can freely grep anything, I can quickly create a sprint summary from the tagged files, etc. I can back up or sync with git or any other software that works with plain text files and folders.
This is very simple and hacky, but haven't had to touch for years and it works for me - only me, only on my laptop, I don't need it on mobile. To carry around a list I use post its. For other purpose I have a physical notebook.
It is definitely not for everyone and that's fine. There is no one fits all. This is what I found working for me, minimal overhead, I can change/fix anything anytime, works with standard command line tools.
Re: I tried every todo app and ended up with a .txt file
#700I'd recommend LogSeq, for it's local first approach.