

Importantly: If you are using todo.txt across multiple devices, Dropbox takes care of syncing this file. But ultimately it's just a text file that you just edit (using an app, a command line tool, or just a text editor). This file can be accessed in different ways and from different devices.

The way todo.txt works is that there is a todo.txt file that contains all my tasks, and this file lives on Dropbox. This gets a little technical, so bear with me. The main reason I am migrating away from todo.txt is a serious issue with syncing the todo.txt file itself across different devices. I wanted to explain why, and discuss some things that I learned about GTD systems in the process.

But in the end, I had some issues with todo.txt that made me rethink my choice, and I have decided to go back to using ToDoist. So I used todo.txt all summer long and my initial impressions of it were very positive. While it's not good to tinker with a GTD system that works - because you end up spending time thinking about the sytem itself rather than using the system to Get Things Done - I had a light summer, and so if I were going to experiment, this would be the time. So I switched to a purely text-based system using the todo.txt format that uses only plain text files. Briefly: My setup up to that point was to use ToDoist for all of my task lists, but I was beginning to be concerned about the control and flexibility that a proprietary system provided. Back in July, I reported on a switch I was making in the tools I use to implement Getting Things Done.
