Comment by kgeist

I've been using simple text files too, for 7 years now.

Except I create a new file for each new day, to have peace of mind (as opposed to having a million-line-long file). Instead of Ctrl+F, I use grep. The format is Markdown.

My typical TODO file has 3 sections: TODO, Pending, and DONE. If something is done for the day, I move it to the DONE section. When I create a new file for a new day, I copy over everything except the DONE section. The Pending section is for something I can't act on immediately (say, waiting for a coworker's response). I look there less often.

Every morning I also re-prioritize the items in the TODO section.

The only problem is that if I'm away from the work computer, I have to add items in a separate app on the phone (Notepad Free) and then manually copy them to the PC.

This system is something I naturally came to over those 7 years via trial and error, something that works well for me. I had other formats that didn't catch on.

Just my two cents.