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In the spirit of a fresh start for the new year,[^1] I’ve transitioned my to do list from Taskpaper format to todo.txt. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages so as I always say, you just need to pick a set of faults you can live with.
The biggest difference between Taskpaper and todo.txt isn’t in the format (they’re very similar), but in how I’m setting up the file. Previously I tried to move tasks under project headings, or at least group them into broad areas. It might look nice, and yes, you can navigate even a large file with the help of Markdown headers, but I wasn’t motivated to keep up with the housekeeping side of things. Pretty soon my inbox was huge and growing.
Granted, this was due to how I was using the Taskpaper format, not due to the format itself.
Now my file is ordered solely by the order in which tasks were added. Seems like a small thing, but it feels like a weight off my shoulders! This type of simplicity is definitely a distraction buster.
As you read about how I’ve made todo.txt work in Obsidian, keep in mind that I’m well aware there are far more complex ways than these to surface targeted information in a file. This is a rabbit hole I’m actively choosing to avoid because of my propensity for falling in and forgetting to actually do the work!
To work with a todo.txt file in Obsidian you’ll need to change the file type to Markdown. todo.md and todo.txt.md are equally valid options.
Here’s a quick primer of the todo.txt format (source):
Incomplete tasks:
Complete tasks:
E.g.
I add the date to the front of tasks as they’re entered not because I’ve actively started a task, but so I can see how long it’s been sitting there.
Obsidian has a couple of todo.txt plugins to choose from but I prefer to rely on queries to show useful subsets of tasks.[^2] Here are some that I use to show—
All incomplete tasks in the +HOME area with priority (B): file:"2025-todo.txt" line:("(B)" +home -x)
All (C) priority incomplete tasks in each of my four areas: file:"2025-todo.txt" line:(+church "(C)" -x OR +work "(C)" -x OR +home "(C)" -x OR +emw "(C)" -x)
All (A) priority incomplete tasks in either my task file or current OBTF: file:"2025-todo.txt" line:("(A)" -x) OR file:"2025 OBTF" line:("(A)" -x)
These strings can be entered into the search box, saved as Bookmarks, or embedded into other pages in the form of a query.
E.g.
file:"2025-todo.txt" line:("(B)" +home -x)Note that queries in Obsidian aren’t case sensitive (sometimes I wish they were!). You can see that not all tasks have a project or a date and they don’t need to have a priority. Rather than using priorities to represent importance of a task, I use them for when I intend to do the work.
The letters A–E in my system therefore represent Today, This Week, This Month, This Quarter, and Long Term. Here’s how I remember them:
Projects each have their own page, so I only use projects in todo.txt to represent broad areas like +home and +work.
As soon as a task needs to have another task completed before it can be started, I either add them both to a dedicated project page, or piggy back the tasks together by removing the line breaks between them. As the front task is completed, it’s separated from the rest by a line break.
E.g.
A task with a dependency:
(A) Open account at XYZ (B) Transfer $50 into XYZ account
First task done, second task ready 2 seconds later:
_x (A) Open account at XYZ
Keeping a todo.txt formatted task file in Obsidian has several advantages:
Queries in Obsidian work well for the todo.txt format, but sadly there’s no custom sorting. Results display in the order in which they appear in the list of tasks.
Next week I’ll cover ways of interacting with a todo.txt file outside of Obsidian. Custom sorting and other useful features await!
[^1] Fresh starts can take place as often as you like, as long as they don’t distract from whatever the ‘start’ is supposed to be leading you towards. I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I do like a fresh way of looking at my files every now and then.
[^2] I’m not a coding or query expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I’ve found some that seem to work okay. Let me know if you have a better way of doing it!
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