I track my work with a plain text file called today.txt. No app, no sync, no notifications. Here's the full system and why something so simple has lasted longer than any fancy productivity tool I've tried.
The File
today.txt lives on my desktop. It's a plain text file. I open it in whatever text editor is already open — usually VS Code, sometimes Notepad.
At the start of each day, I add today's date and three specific outcomes I want to achieve before lunch:
2026-10-26
--- outcomes ---
1. Finish section 3 of the client proposal
2. Review and respond to pending code review
3. Ship the button spacing fix
--- notes ---
The notes section is freeform — anything I want to remember during the day: meeting notes, things to follow up on, ideas that come up.
Why Plain Text
Every app-based task system I've used has eventually failed for one of these reasons:
- Too much friction to capture quick thoughts
- Review became a chore (too many fields, too much structure)
- App updated and broke something
- I stopped using it, tasks accumulated, I felt guilty, stopped checking entirely
A text file has none of these problems. It opens instantly, requires no account, doesn't send notifications, can't break in an update, and doesn't generate guilt from neglect (I just start a new section for the new day).
The Three Outcomes Rule
Three outcomes, not tasks. Not "update the design doc" but "finish the redesign section that covers mobile flows." Outcomes are completable. Tasks can expand forever.
I also limit it to three before lunch. This constraint forces prioritization. If something doesn't make the three, it goes to the notes section as "later" or it gets bumped to tomorrow.
The Connection to Browser Setup
This ties to how I start the browser. I open Firefox, open a new tab — Weather & Clock Dashboard shows me current weather and the time in my team's time zones — and then I open today.txt and write the three outcomes.
The weather check + outcome writing happens before I open Slack or email. It takes under 5 minutes and means my first actions of the day are oriented around what I decided to do, not what arrived in my inbox.
The Review
At end of day, I check the three outcomes:
- Done: note that next to the item
- Not done: note why (meeting came up, scope changed, estimate was wrong)
That's the entire review. I don't maintain projects, priorities, or areas — those live elsewhere. today.txt is just a daily snapshot.
Durability
I've used this for about 18 months. The file is now 400+ lines. I've never lost anything important from it (version control is paranoid — the file is in a Dropbox folder). The system has never "broken."
The test for any productivity system: does it still work when you're having a bad week and can barely function? today.txt passes this test. The bar to maintain it — add a date, write three words — is low enough that even on difficult days, I usually do it.
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