Tasks and projects in one text file

Updated: October 29, 2026

You can keep tasks in the same text file as your notes. For personal work, a date, a few simple markers, and a calendar for time-bound tasks are often enough. An app becomes useful later, when collaboration, recurring work, and dependencies appear.

Tasks are not notes

A note holds context. A task needs an action, a deadline, and a clear next step. They are different things, and mixing them in one list without rules is easy.

In a text file, a task is a line with a marker and a project. The calendar holds only what is tied to time. Everything else stays in the file and is found by search.

This approach does not require a separate service. It does require a short review, or the list turns into a pile of old work.

A minimal format

The fewer rules, the more likely you are to follow them. A few markers and one convention for projects are enough.

──────────────────────────────
2026-10-29 Thu
──────────────────────────────
TODO: [work] prepare the report for Friday
TODO: [home] book a doctor appointment, due Nov 5
WAIT: [work] reply from the accountant
DONE: [home] pay the internet bill
Idea: [work] clean up old tasks at the end of the month

• TODO: a task to do.
• DONE: a completed task.
• WAIT: a task waiting for someone else.
• [project] a short label for the project.
• A date or deadline in the task text when it matters.

You do not need a priority for every line. If everything is important, nothing is. Pick three tasks for the day and do them in order.

The daily loop

In the morning, open the file and choose a few tasks for the day. Do not move the whole list. Pick what can actually move today.

During the day, add new tasks at the top. If a task comes from a conversation or an email, write it down immediately. Do not try to classify it right away.

In the evening, mark finished tasks with DONE: or move them to the archive. Move the rest to the next day only if they are still needed. If a task has been hanging for weeks, it probably needs to be deleted or split into smaller steps.

The weekly review

Once a week, spend ten or fifteen minutes on a review. This is the most important part of the system. Without it, tasks pile up and the file stops being useful.

1. Look through open tasks.
2. Close what is already done but not marked.
3. Find tasks older than two weeks. Delete them or split them into concrete steps.
4. Check tasks with deadlines and move the dates into the calendar.
5. Write down the three main tasks for next week.
6. Archive old completed tasks if the list has become too large.

The review should not take an hour. If it does, there are too many tasks or too many rules.

Projects

A project in a text file does not need a separate database. One line with the name, current state, and next action is enough.

PROJECT: [work] new website
State: waiting for the designer's mockup
Next action: approve the homepage structure
Waiting: contractor reply by Friday

If a project grows, give it a separate block in the file. Do not turn every project into a small app with dozens of fields. A project exists to show the next step, not to look serious.

Calendar and reminders

The calendar is for tasks tied to time: meetings, calls, trips, and deadlines. The text file holds the task and its context. The calendar reminds you when to do it.

Recurring actions also belong in the calendar: monthly bills, weekly cleaning, regular backup checks. In the file they only need a note that the obligation exists.

Do not turn the calendar into a list of all tasks. If a task is not tied to time, it does not need a calendar slot. Otherwise the calendar becomes another list you stop reading.

When an app is actually needed

For personal tasks, a file and a calendar are often enough. An app becomes useful when one of these conditions appears.

• Collaboration. Several people, shared access, and comments.
• Recurring tasks. Regular actions with reminders.
• Dependencies. Tasks that cannot start before others finish.
• Mobile reminders. When a task must reach you away from the computer.
• Reporting. You need statuses, deadlines, and team workload.

Without these conditions, an app often adds work instead of removing it. There is a closer look in the article on overrated note-taking and to-do apps.

Common mistakes

• Giving every task a priority. Then everything is a priority.
• Giving every task a deadline. A deadline loses meaning when everything has one.
• Building a huge backlog without a review.
• Writing a task without a verb and a next action.
• Using the file as a diary and the calendar as a task dump.
• Moving tasks from day to day without deciding to delete them.

Checklist

• Tasks have simple markers and one way to label a project.
• The day has a few real tasks, not the whole list.
• Tasks with deadlines live in the calendar.
• A short review happens once a week.
• Old tasks are deleted or archived.
• An app is used only where it is actually needed.

If you want a ready-made example, download the starter file. If your task list grows, read about syncing across devices and searching with grep and rg.