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title: "Use simple .txt files for organizing tasks" date: 2024-02-28 draft: false tags:
- code
I am so sick and tried of changing task management systems, I will just be using plain .txt files from now on.
In the last 10 years, I have tried so many different systems for organizing my work and my personal life. I have tried so many task trackers, and after all this time I think I've finally come to the realization that they all suffer from the same inadequacies. I have used; RememberTheMilk (~2011), Trello, Google Keep (~2015), Google Tasks (~2022), Todoist (~2018 I think, but again in ~2023), and of course, because I am developer with a hammer (ie: the ability to write code), I had to write my own - wacky-tracky. I have probably had the most all around success with TaskWarrior.
All of these options have the following flaws and limitations;
- Most of them allow a level of nesting, or sub-tasks, or dependencies, but it's so often clunky to be able to cross references tasks between different projects, or when projects have the same dependency. Most complex tasks are difficult to break down into next steps (yes, looking at you, GTD), and sometimes it's useful to store reference material (ie, notes about a task) alongside the place where you'll next work on that task.
- Sharing tasks from your tasks system, to copy into an email, or similar, is a pain. Many friends or co-workers are not using the same task tracking tool as you (this is one of my biggest problems), or task tracking tools don't offer a simple copy and paste out of their format for sharing in emails, etc.
- Most task tracking apps do have have clients on Android, and some have the web too (this is important, as most of my tasks are done in front of a computer, not my phone). However the web version and the mobile app just don't work nicely together, or have slow syncing, or don't have the same feature parity. Sure, a web-app works on any web browser, but I do I want to go searching browser tabs to find my task app? No. So many weppapps don't have good shortcut key support, or are bloated, too.
- So many of the app publishers lose interest. Google is noutiorios for dropping support for their projects and tools. Trello hasn't had any new functionality in at least the last 5 years. RememberTheMilk went out of business.
Text files, literally