Tired of Cluttered Productivity Apps? This One’s Just a Text Document

厌倦了臃肿的生产力应用？试试这个纯文本待办清单

I’ve spent decades testing, reviewing, and (most importantly) using different to-do list applications. It’s a career, yes, but it’s also a bit of an obsession. 我花了数十年时间测试、评测，最重要的是，一直在使用各种待办事项应用程序。这不仅是我的职业，也算是一种执念。

And I think we can all admit that most of these apps are way too complicated. A to-do list is just a list. Humans have been making lists for thousands of years, long before computers existed. Paper works well, but so does a stone slate if that’s what you’ve got handy. 我想我们都得承认，大多数这类应用实在太复杂了。待办清单本质上就是一个清单。人类在计算机出现之前的几千年里就已经在列清单了。纸张很好用，如果你手头只有石板，它也同样管用。

It’s possible that you, a modern human, absolutely need a to-do list application with bells and whistles—due dates, recurring tasks, sharing features, and maybe even an AI integration. But there’s a good chance all you need is the digital equivalent of a piece of paper: A simple list of things that need to get done. 作为现代人，你可能确实需要一款功能齐全的待办事项应用——包含截止日期、重复任务、共享功能，甚至可能还需要 AI 集成。但很有可能，你真正需要的只是数字版的“一张纸”：一个简单的待办事项清单。

And that’s what Tasks.txt, a totally free Mac app, offers. From Ukrainian programmer Yevhen Kharkivskyi, this tool is based on the todo.txt system developed by Gina Trapani. It’s a complete alternative to a to-do list app that is based on a single text file. 这就是 Tasks.txt 所提供的，这是一款完全免费的 Mac 应用。该工具由乌克兰程序员 Yevhen Kharkivskyi 开发，基于 Gina Trapani 开发的 todo.txt 系统。它是一个基于单一文本文件的待办事项应用，是一个彻底的替代方案。

The important thing here, though, is that it offers more than just a text file. This is a well-executed app. Open Tasks.txt and you’ll see a simple list broken down into three categories: Done, Next, and Backlog. 不过，重点在于它不仅仅是一个文本文件，更是一款执行得非常出色的应用。打开 Tasks.txt，你会看到一个简单的列表，分为三个类别：已完成 (Done)、接下来 (Next) 和待办储备 (Backlog)。

The general idea is to use “Next” for the tasks you want to accomplish today and “Backlog” for the things you want to do later. The “Done” section is populated as you check things off, then cleared out at the beginning of every day. 其核心理念是：用“Next”存放你今天想完成的任务，用“Backlog”存放以后想做的任务。“Done”部分会随着你勾选任务而填充，并在每天开始时清空。

It’s possible to use this application using only the keyboard, which I love. Open the window and you can just start typing tasks—your cursor is already active in the text box at the bottom. Hit Enter and your task will be added either to Backlog or Next, depending on what you choose in the drop-down menu to the right of your text box. Press the Tab key to switch from the text box to your task list. You can use the arrows to change which task is currently selected. Pressing the Enter key adds a note below the name of a task, and Cmd+Enter marks a task complete. You can also move tasks up and down the list using Cmd+Up/Down. 我非常喜欢这款应用的一点是，它完全可以通过键盘操作。打开窗口即可直接输入任务——光标会自动激活底部的文本框。按下回车键，任务就会被添加到“Backlog”或“Next”（取决于你在文本框右侧下拉菜单中的选择）。按 Tab 键可从文本框切换到任务列表。你可以使用箭头键更改当前选中的任务。按下回车键可在任务名称下方添加备注，Cmd+Enter 可将任务标记为完成。你还可以使用 Cmd+上/下键在列表中上下移动任务。

There are no unnecessary controls or interface elements in your way. You can open this application, decide what you need to do, then get to it. And you aren’t stuck using keyboard shortcuts—using the mouse is just as intuitive, if that’s what you prefer. 界面中没有任何多余的控件或元素干扰你。你可以打开应用，决定要做什么，然后直接开始工作。而且你也不必非得使用键盘快捷键——如果你更喜欢用鼠标，它的操作同样直观。

The to-do list is the heart of the app, but there’s also an Archive and Scratchpad tab. The Archive includes every task you’ve completed in the past—everything from the Done section is moved here at the end of each day. The Scratchpad is just a blank text document you can use for keeping notes. 待办清单是应用的核心，但它还提供了“归档 (Archive)”和“草稿板 (Scratchpad)”标签页。“归档”包含了你过去完成的所有任务——每天结束时，“Done”部分的所有内容都会移到这里。“草稿板”则是一个空白的文本文档，你可以用来记录笔记。

All of this, notably, is stored in a couple of text documents. You can find these documents in the app’s settings and open them with any text editor. It’s pretty easy to look at the document and figure out what’s going on. 值得注意的是，所有这些内容都存储在几个文本文档中。你可以在应用的设置中找到这些文档，并用任何文本编辑器打开它们。查看文档并弄清楚其中的内容非常简单。

Your task list isn’t in some database in the cloud—it’s on your computer, in an open, human-readable format. This simplicity means you can easily grab your tasks to use in some other application later, if that’s what you want. 你的任务列表不在云端的某个数据库里，而是保存在你的电脑上，采用的是开放且易于阅读的格式。这种简洁性意味着，如果你以后想在其他应用中使用这些任务，可以轻松地将其导出。

And Tasks.txt makes it clear that your tasks are completely private. “There is no account, no cloud sync, no telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting,” the website states. “There are no servers. Nothing leaves your machine.” This is a rarity in the modern age, where every piece of software is trying to hold your data hostage to sell a subscription. This alone makes this an app worth considering. Tasks.txt 明确表示你的任务是完全私密的。网站声明：“没有账户、没有云同步、没有遥测、没有分析、没有崩溃报告。没有服务器。没有任何数据会离开你的机器。”在当今这个每款软件都试图通过扣押你的数据来推销订阅的时代，这非常罕见。仅凭这一点，这款应用就值得考虑。

Mostly, though, I just think it’s a well-implemented app that gets the basics extremely right. It won’t work for everyone, sure, but it might work perfectly for you. 总而言之，我认为这是一款执行得非常出色的应用，它把最基础的功能做得非常到位。当然，它可能并不适合所有人，但对你来说，它或许就是完美的选择。