
If you have a file called todo.txt on your computer, you're in the right place - morphics
http://todotxt.com/
======
adriand
I've started to feel that todo apps have one major problem: they don't do the
work for you. And this is why we're so obsessed with todo apps - we don't
really want to do the work, we just want to play around with how we prioritize
and organize the work.

In most cases, if we just got a lot of stuff done, we'd have no need for an
app, because the list of stuff to do would be rather short.

~~~
chops
> In most cases, if we just got a lot of stuff done, we'd have no need for an
> app, because the list of stuff to do would be rather short.

I find quite the opposite: The more things I do, and the more productive I am,
the more rapidly things get added to my todo list. It's when I'm less
productive that my todo lists stay short.

It's an interesting phenomenon that (at least my) todo lists are effective
sticks for the carrot in that the size of the todo list scales with productive
output.

~~~
sage_joch
There's a famous quote along these lines: "If you want something done, ask a
busy person to do it."

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idupree
I started using org-mode for text-based notes/todos recently, even though I
wasn't an Emacs user.[1] Org-mode has its own website, and more well-
documented features than most programs I use! ( <http://orgmode.org/> , manual
<http://orgmode.org/manual/> )

[1] It's an Emacs mode. I'm using it happily without knowing much Emacs.

~~~
theanalyst
Agree, Org documentation is very good, and easy for newbies to start as well.
Certain features like Org-agenda, export into multiple formats and its ease of
note-taking are very good features

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btipling
I hope more software comes out that use Dropbox for storage. I want an
Instagram for Dropbox, a music locker with a player for Dropbox, a Skitch for
Dropbox, an Xmarks bookmark sync for Dropbox.

One Password, Hackpad, O'Reilly Media, and now this todo.txt are all doing the
right thing and may they be successful for a thousand years. There is no
reason I should have to pay Evernote, Apple, Amazon or Google any cloud
storage money when I already use Dropbox, and there's no reason why I should
have to deal with ads on "free" services either.

~~~
daniel_levine
I work on Platform at Dropbox and I agree :) We want great developers to build
all of these things and I want to help them. Anyone out there please reach
out!

~~~
walkon
The few apps I've granted access to my Dropbox always get (or take) full
access to all my files, which is disconcerting. Is it possible for apps to be
granted access to only the certain directories or limited areas of my Dropbox?

~~~
iscrewyou
This is one of the reasons I stopped using Todo.txt like a year or so ago.

It needed access to EVERYthing. I understand the developers will not be
accessing other files but I just can't let anyone access my personal photos,
my school work, my statements, etc. There is a reason I have a password on my
computer and letting a program access everything in the folder I love the most
just isn't acceptable.

There has to be a way to grant access to a certain file and I will gladly
start using these Dropbox apps.

~~~
kybernetyk
> but I just can't let anyone access my personal photos, my school work, my
> statements, etc.

They shouldn't be on Dropbox in the first place. What you put on Dropbox is
essentially public - be it for their admins or for law enforcement agencies
who don't need a warrant to access your dropbox.

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bravura
I think Workflowy has an amazing approach to this problem (hierarchical,
collapsable tree) and I simply wish they added date functionality.

Right now, I can't use it for TODO, and use it only for brainstorming. For
TODO, I now use getflow.com

~~~
andrewflnr
I like the idea of Workflowy, but it really needs offline support. I can't
even realistically evaluate it without that. Last I heard they were working on
it.

~~~
jessep
Yeah, we're working on it. Testing it on our phones now, seems to be working
pretty well.

~~~
tommi
That, raw data access and I'm all for it!

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arn
Same general thrust of Taskpaper, which is another to-do list based on a
standard text file format.

\- <http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/taskpaper>

\- <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5B3mTuC2Xg>

It's what I use for my todo list. This one seems a bit more geeky (cli
friendly)

~~~
jrajav
Surely this is geekier than Todo.txt:
<https://github.com/davidoc/taskpaper.vim>

(I prefer it, in any case)

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mtts
The idea behind todo.txt is pretty neat, but in its basic form it's missing a
few features. Luckily it's easily extendable.

I hacked up (and I do mean hacked up) two python scripts that add two bits of
functionality that are essential for me:

\- Timed tasks: add a date to a task and when that date rolls around, the task
gets assigned top priority.

\- Repeating tasks: add a human readable marker to a task that indicates it
needs to be repeated every X days and every X days a copy of that task is
assigned top priority. Another copy of the task is set to pop up in the set X
number of days.

For me, these make the rather simple todo.txt the perfect todo list / note
keeping setup. Unfortunately the todo.txt Android app doesn't work with my
extensions so I have no use for it (I just look through the txt file in the
Dropbox app if I need to see it on the go).

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casca
I'm loving how the trend now seems to have apps using Dropbox to store my
data. Hopefully the next step will be to use a standard self-hosting API (that
does not seem to exist yet) for those who are happy to pay for software but
want to keep our own data.

~~~
10098
> will be to use a standard self-hosting API

What about rsync? It's an open protocol that can be used to synchronize data
across multiple devices.

~~~
StavrosK
It doesn't do two-way sync. Nothing syncs as well as Dropbox does, right now.
Maybe AeroFS is close to it, though.

~~~
Too
Dropbox does not sync well. I always end up with tons of files like _"Person
As copy of file x at date y"_. It only works if you are "working" alone with a
folder and if you only use one device at a time.

The problem is that this is the only way to handle sync safely unless you want
to manually merge as in a SCM. This is why every attempt at syncing since the
dawn of IT has always sucked.

~~~
StavrosK
That means that Dropbox syncs as well as it's possible for a program to sync,
though, doesn't it?

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up_and_up
Laughed when I saw this post. Since I had just been looking at my TODO file
for next steps on a project.

I like being able to include a TODO file in a project, commit it to git and
then sync across platforms/machines etc. Low tech, free task management.

~~~
andrewflnr
Hard to get and update from your phone, though. That's where I usually want to
get my todo list together.

~~~
0x006A
you can commit code from your phone but not change the TODO list?

~~~
andrewflnr
Well, my point was that I can't commit from my phone. At least I don't know
how, but it may be easier than I think.

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stewbrew
Well, the last time I tried todo.txt-touch (for android), synchronization
didn't really work and I lost information after a few days of trial.
Development also seems to have rather stalled. There are only very few commits
(other than cosmetic changes) to the git repo while the app feels rather
unfinished. So, I don't think, todo.txt changes much in its present form.

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shakeel_mohamed
I just have a notebook on Evernote called bucket lists. I have notes like:
_Movies [movies I want to watch]_ Music [...] _Books [...]_ Shopping list
[things to buy online or in-store]

I think the system works well enough for me. After all, the best
organizational system is the one that keeps YOU organized - not one that
satisfies others.

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tsahyt
I've just had a look at the CLI functionality. About a year ago I've been
looking for something similar and couldn't find anything light enough which
just let me add TODOs on the command line. I ended up writing my own in about
a hundred lines of Python which implemented the most important functionality.
It had no way to filter or anything (that's what grep is for though) but it
worked well. By now I have abandoned todo-lists completely after realizing
that merely organizing my work won't get the job done. The best way to deal
with work is to actually get it done, rather than procrastinate by just
thinking about it.

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chimeracoder
The #1 problem I have with most to-do list applications is that they don't
support (or have bad support for) subtasks. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem
like this is a main feature of todo.txt either....

~~~
gman99
Google Tasks supports sub-tasks. I use "Tasks" on android for phone sync
(weird that android has no native task app to sync with google tasks --
atleast I've not found one)

------
HorizonXP
Personally, I started using Steve Losh's t for my tasks recently, and I love
it.

<http://stevelosh.com/projects/t/>

If I ever want/need to, I can always access/modify my tasks file via Dropbox
on any machine or phone. But I don't. Fact is, if I'm ever actually doing
work, I'm usually on my Chromebook and have access to the terminal. Moreover,
that's when I'm actually completing tasks, or adding new ones.

It's honestly a great, simple, no-bullshit system. You should give it a shot.

------
ecspike
I've been using Todo.txt for about 8 months now.

I don't think it's a question of what makes it better that another product but
what makes it right for you.

I like the CLI properties of it and the ability to extend it with new features
in any language you want.

Entry of new tasks and completion of done ones is really fast. The Android app
isn't as beautiful as it could be but it does the job. My hard requirement was
that my tool be available on Mac/Linux/Android. Having a Dropbox backed
service made that a bit easier.

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nshankar
I would like to yet see a todo list software that sits on the neck on the user
to complete the task he himself has entered. I need an outliner with following
abilities: Expected result with a deadline Actions to complete the expected
result Next review date/time

The software should pop up in the middle of anything to shout out the action
after the review time has expired.

That completes all the to do list software has to offer.

------
zaidf
The iPhone equivalent of Todo.txt for me is the Notes app. Ironically the
reason Todo.txt behavior exists is because all the other Todo apps _try_ to be
Todo apps, including this one.

Sometimes I just want a blank sheet with no Todo magic. That is why I use
Notepad and the Notes app.

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mahesh_rm
Site is Text [and image and Video] heavy. Download link is down, and it should
have much more prominence within the page. I would take down video and produce
a minimal page, more in line with a minimal CLI todolist. Bit it looks nice,
may really try it out.

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IgorPartola
I have a TODO.yaml. At my previous job I used to serve it over HTTP to the LAN
for my co-workers to see. I don't think many of them used it but I was hoping
that we could all do that and then I could have a structured view of what
people were working on.

------
nshankar
Todo lists are a great utility for people like me who are obsessed with
exploring ideas and forget rudimentary tasks like paying bills

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drewmck
Nice. I'm wrapping a text-based todo/note taker now. I think there's still a
lot of people who use these.

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xarien
I have a todo.txt on my google drive.

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hk__2
How is it different from Org mode?

~~~
martinced
Well it's way less advanced and less standardized than org-mode but apparently
it uses DropBox to automagically sync with your shiny smartphone/tablet.

Pretty sure there are solutions out there to add this functionality to org-
mode that said ; )

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jgeralnik

      joey@j-comp:~$ locate todo.txt
      /usr/share/vim/vim73/doc/todo.txt
    

Does that count?

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gloryless
Mine's called ShitToDo.rtf

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cyberchor
Site is down.

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LurkingStrnager
$ cat ~todo.txt

Things to do:

fill out this list

everything else

$

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smegel
The problem was solved by Google Docs years ago. It already gives me access
from any browser and all my devices via Drive. Just import your todo.txt as a
Docs document and your done. Full change/revision log. Completely free form -
zero imposition of a format or task flow beyond what you impose on yourself,
which may be nothing more than dumping down your thoughts and reviewing them
occasionally. IMO its the only viable solution and i wouldn't consider using
anything else.

~~~
greggman
Agreed. Does todotxt.com handle the fact that I might have the document open
on 3 or 4 computers and a tablet or 2 and a phone and handle the potential for
conflicts etc...?

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belbn
Site is a bit text heavy. How's it better than wunderlist?

