I Tried Every Todo App and Ended Up With a .txt File

I’ve tried them all. Notion, Todoist, Things 3, OmniFocus, Asana, Trello, Any.do, TickTick. I even built my own todo app once (spoiler: I never finished it). After years of productivity app hopping, I’m back to where I started: a plain text file called todo.txt.

I’m not alone in this. Jeff Huang wrote about his “never-ending .txt file” that he’s used for over 14 years. Reading his post validated everything I’d discovered on my own.

The Endless Search

My productivity journey started like everyone else’s. I’d devour blog posts about getting things done or spot a cool app and think “this is it, this will finally organize me.” I’d burn hours building the perfect system, creating categories, tags, projects, labels. Setting it up felt like work.

Then reality hits. The app wants $9.99/month. The sync breaks. The company sells out and dies. Or worse - I waste more time managing the system than working.

What Actually Happened With Each App

Notion: Built an entire life operating system. Spent three weeks perfecting it. Used it for two days. Now it’s a graveyard of abandoned databases.

Todoist: Great until I realized I was gaming the points system instead of doing actual work. Turns out completing “drink water” 8 times a day doesn’t make you productive.

Things 3: Beautiful. Expensive. Tricked me into thinking I had my life together. But I kept forgetting to check it.

Trello: Turned my todo list into a board with columns. Realized I’m not a startup. I’m just one person trying to remember to buy milk.

OmniFocus: So powerful I needed a manual to use it. Spent more time learning OmniFocus than finishing my actual projects.

The Breaking Point

One day my phone died and I couldn’t check my tasks. I grabbed a sticky note and scribbled:

- finish report
- call mom
- gym
- buy groceries

And you know what? I crushed all four things. No tags, no priorities, no due dates. Just four things written down.

My Current System: One Text File

Now I run everything through a single text file. That’s it. Here’s what it looks like:

2025-08-11
10am review pull requests
- check the auth changes specifically
write blog post about todo apps
2pm meeting with team
- discuss sprint planning
- bring up the deployment issue
3:30pm call with client
figure out dinner plans
read that article Sarah sent
fix that annoying bug in the navbar

Every night, I check tomorrow’s calendar. I dump everything into the next day’s section. Scheduled items get times in front. Sub-bullets hold notes or reminders. Finished tasks? I delete them or add what happened. Still on the list? Not done yet. That’s it.

This transforms into a living document throughout the day. I scribble notes right next to tasks as I work:

2025-08-11
10am review pull requests
- check the auth changes specifically
- merged 3 PRs, waiting on Bob for the 4th
write blog post about todo apps - drafted, need to proofread
2pm meeting with team
- discuss sprint planning
- bring up the deployment issue
- decided to push release to Thursday
3:30pm call with client - rescheduled to tomorrow
figure out dinner plans - ordered pizza
read that article Sarah sent
fix that annoying bug in the navbar - was a CSS specificity issue

Every few days I start fresh with a new date. The old sections stay. They transform into my journal. I search back to find when I did something, who I met, what we decided. Todo list and work log in one file.

Why This Actually Works

It’s always there: The file sits on my desktop. It stares at me every time I open my laptop. No app to launch, no subscription to manage.

It’s instant: My keyboard shortcut launches my todo.txt in a floating window. Doesn’t matter what I’m doing, my todos are one key press away. No switching between apps, no waiting for things to load, just boom - there’s my list.

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. But if all these AI companies disappear tomorrow, my system still works. It’s just a text file. The AI makes it faster, not required.

It’s fast: Adding a task burns 2 seconds. No clicking through menus or selecting projects.

It’s searchable: Cmd+F and I find anything instantly. “When did I last call the dentist?” Search for “dentist”. Done.

It’s mine: No company can kill it. No updates can destroy it. No algorithm decides what I should see.

It’s honest: I can’t hide behind fancy features. Either I did the thing or I didn’t.

It lasts forever: A text file is the most basic thing a computer can read. It’ll work after every software update, every company shutdown, every app that stops working. Text files from 20 years ago still open perfectly. Try that with your Notion workspace.

The Secret Sauce

Productivity isn’t about finding the perfect app. It’s about:

Dumping things onto paper so your brain can forget them
Checking the list regularly
Executing the tasks

That’s it. Everything else is procrastination dressed up as organization.

What About [Insert Feature Here]?

“But what about reminders?” - I use my calendar for time-specific stuff.

“But what about projects?” - I add a note like [PROJECT] if I need to.

“But what about collaboration?” - I use work tools for work. This is for my life.

“But what about mobile?” - The file syncs through Dropbox. Any text editor works.

The Plot Twist

I’m more productive now than when I had all those fancy apps. Turns out the best productivity system is the one you actually use. And I use this one because there’s nothing to figure out. It’s just a list.

Try It Yourself

Ready to ditch the productivity app hamster wheel? Do this:

Create a file called todo.txt
Write down what you need to do tomorrow
Do those things
Add notes as you work
Start a new date section when needed

Give it a week. Simple beats sophisticated every time.

And if it doesn’t work? Well, there’s always another shiny new app launching next week.