[xz18r]

There is a format called todo.txt that works follows very readable syntax (like your own example) and has some minimal bells and whistles if you want it to: http://todotxt.org/

As an alternative: I started using org-mode 5 years ago and have never looked back. This is my workflow (https://karelvo.com/blog/orgmode) although I sync it via Git now, and have an iPhone where I use Plain Org (https://xenodium.com/plain-org-for-ios).

[hiq]

Can you expand on which org-mode features you like for this use case?

On the top of my head, among the useful features I'm familiar with, you can:

* nest tasks

* set deadlines

* set priorities

* filter ~arbitrarily

* have as much content as you want per item (in comparison with todotxt with is one line per item), including non-text like images

* have statuses other than todo and done (like waiting)

What else do you use that makes you particularly like this setup?

Org-mode is this thing I've been trying to use for a while, but it never sticks because I'm just too used to vim and plain text. Once in a while I look for a killer use-case, hoping it'd make me stick to it, to no avail so far.

[powersurge360]

If you don't feel like you need the extra bells and whistles don't worry about it. The great thing about org-mode is it _is_ just plain text and all the magic is in the interpretation of the plain text. If you have yourself a table and one day ya want to do some spreadsheet magic on it or pipe it into a script easily, you can just check the manual for how to do it and KO it right there in the same place the data lives. Remembering how to do it afterwards is optional.

Personally, I use lazyvim in neovim and doom emacs in emacs and just kinda switch between the two based on what I feel like in a given day. NeoVim tends to have better treesitter/LSP stuff as well as marginally better performance, doom emacs has way better test running and org-mode and it is only a little behind neovim in that other stuff.

All the above is to suggest I think the question is flawed. BUT! To answer the question literally, my favorite thing in org mode that I've never seen anywhere else is the ability to dump babel blocks in my notes with code samples that are actually runnable and the output is able to be piped somewhere else.

[uludag]

I too have used org-mode for a while and here are some additional features which may pique your interest:

- agenda views let me create custom pages of tasks with certain states or tags - a robust time tracking system. I use this for my freelancing work - very nice text tables that are programmable - a very customizable capturing system - a huge ecosystem of plugins - a programmable API: I'm currently working on an importer for the DayOne app as well as a fitness tracking package - PDF export with LaTeX. I can use this for printing out my weekly plan for example - in addition to deadlines, a scheduled property for when you intend to start a task - extensive linking system (https://orgmode.org/guide/Hyperlinks.html#External-Links-1) I often have todos linking to places in code

I think that org-mode could use better learning resources. There's pretty much the manual and blog posts by experienced users, neither are especially aimed towards new users.

[BrtByte]

Org-mode is obviously in a whole different league, but I think both scratch the same itch for different types of people

[ghostly_s]

Lost me at "But it's not easy to open todo.txt, make a change, and save it"—huh??

Clicked around a bit and found nothing describing how "todo.txt" is better than todo.txt (great branding), and seems to offer no solutions for iOS.

[mikestorrent]

There's a great meme with the classic intelligence bell curve setup where the "grug" and the "elite" sides both use a plain text file with their own ideas of how to do things, and only the "midwit" in the middle is using a huge pile of tooling to accomplish roughly the same thing.

I too went through the phase of using Dendron and Obsidian as well as more common todo list tools (and tickets)... and here I am back at Apple Notes, whose sole advantage over a text file is that it has enough capabilities to store a screenshot. That's all I really needed. My notes are like the classic notebook: a lot of the time it's write-only, a lot of the time it only has to be able to be understood for a week or two before the information is too old to matter anyway.

Don't overthink it.