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

Half the value of a todo app lies in the act of writing tasks down in the first place, and the other half lies in reading, revisiting, and revising them. In this, a .txt file works as well as anything, and is much cheaper. For me, a proud skinflint, the low cost has of a .txt file a side effect: I’m tickled to use it, reinforcing the memory that any todo app is meant to create.

Logseq actually supports orgmode files on android (and desktop) in some extent, for me it works better than orgzly.

Woah... gonna be honest I really thought I was using a v4. Well, Things 3 is fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Hey!!

You can get everything I've got here: https://github.com/gerardocardenasgomez/printed-tasks

For my setup, I have a couple of different components. I have a very mediocre and super vibe coded HTTP server running on my Arduino which is connected to the receipt printer. It just has /print and /barcode endpoints. I'd like to improve on this by using an ESP32 instead of my Arduino so I can get MicroPython instead of C++. The Arduino is connected via serial to the receipt printer with this: NOYITO TTL to RS232 Module.

I then have a Python script which will send requests to the /print and /barcode endpoint to actually print out the tasks, and it hooks into Supabase to get the task into a DB and Google's AI Studio to also print a little encouraging message. Both should fit in their free tier for this kind of project.

And then I have a small API written in Typescript which hooks up to Supabase and marks a task complete when my iOS shortcut sends it a message.

The whole workflow for me is: Print receipt with the Python script, mark it complete with an iOS Shortcut. I have a whiteboard for the receipts themselves and magnets to stick them on there. Get fairly strong magnets because the ones I got start to lose their hold at the end of the day once I've got a number of tickets stacked up.

Honestly the barcode part is the key IMO. It makes completing a task so fun and rewarding. If you / your family has iPhones you can create an iOS Shortcut that will scan the task when you complete it. I was also going to go with a usb barcode scanner because that sounds really satisfying too! For this you might need a dedicated machine hooked up to the usb barcode scanner because they typically act as a keyboard and just type in whatever they scan, so you'll need a script running constantly that's just waiting for input.

I'm not too familiar with Homeassistant and it looks like donetick would work better for you as well than most of the stuff I've got but I'd be happy to help with anything if you'd like. My contact info is in the GitHub where I have the printed-tasks code.

Lastly, I've been using this manual for the ESC/POS stuff: https://pos-x.com/download/escpos-programming-manual/ Just in case you end up wanting to manually print yours. There are some libraries already that do this, but I can't use most of them because of the Arduino situation.

OH! Get BPA-Free receipt printer paper.

> I am not going to completely change my editor and rebuild two decades of optimization just to use two Emacs tools.

Fair point on the surface, it's missing the key aspect of what Emacs actually is. Emacs is not just an editor - to a degree it's philosophy is that your computing environment should be malleable. Those two decades of optimization don't get thrown away; they get encoded directly into the system. Instead of learning to work around the limitations of separate tools, you're investing in a platform that can absorb and amplify all that accumulated knowledge. The question isn't whether you want to abandon your workflows, but whether you want to be limited by them forever.

The key insight is reframing it from "starting over" to "finally having a place where all that expertise can compound indefinitely."

I mean, I get it - not everyone wants their editor to be infinitely customizable; sometimes you just want something that works out of the box. Yet I do honestly think every programmer should give Emacs a serious try at some point in their career - not because they'll necessarily stick with it, but for the same reason why everyone should learn at least one OOP language and get introduced to an FP language. It expands your thinking about what's possible.

Even if you go back to your previous tools, you'll understand computing differently, having seen what a truly malleable environment looks like, the idea of a truly personal computing environment - one that grows with you rather than constraining you. Dismissing Emacs as "just another editor" misses what makes it fundamentally different.

I completely understand your impulse (been there myself), but I'd encourage you to keep an open mind about what Emacs actually offers. When you get a chance maybe explore the philosophy behind it. You might discover something unexpectedly rewarding.