Our digital lives are a mess.
When I walk into the gym, I don’t open a fitness app bloated with ads or logins—I open Markor, a simple Android text editor. I tap my workout log template, and it auto-fills today’s date along with placeholders for the exercises I’ve planned.
As I move through my session, I jot down sets, reps, and weights, all in plain text:
#2025-06-14
## Chest
### Bench Press100kg
- 10- 10- 8
### DB Fly20kg- 12- 12- 12
That file syncs to my laptop automatically via Syncthing. Once it’s on my machine, a script runs in the background. It parses the text, extracts the structured data, and stores it in a SQLite database. From there, it generates a polished HTML dashboard—styled with CSS—that serves as my personal workout hub.
When I open it, I get a full snapshot of my training life:
All of it runs off a few text files, a lightweight database, and some code I wrote once. No subscriptions. No logins. Just data I own, in a system I control.
Most of us juggle a dozen apps to manage a dozen different parts of ourselves: a journaling app for our thoughts, Trello for our tasks, Word for work reports, OneNote for random notes, and a separate IDE for our code. Each new project or passing interest seems to demand a new piece of software, scattering our focus and fragmenting our work across a chaotic digital landscape. We spend more time managing our tools than doing the actual work.
But what if there was a way to unify it all? A single, simple format that could handle every genre of writing, every task list, every note, and every project plan? There is. It’s been here all along, hiding in plain sight. It’s the ultimate weapon for taming the dragons of digital complexity: the plain text file.
In this article, I’ll share how a two-decade journey—from a student in China to a consultant and digital nomad traveling across Asia—led me to this deceptively simple solution. I’ll show you not just why plain text is the antidote to digital chaos, but how you can use it to forge a system that is faster, more private, and endlessly adaptable to the complexities of your own life.
Embracing Plain Text for a Complex Life
Twenty years ago, I was a regular university student using Windows and Microsoft Office like everyone else. But after moving to China, I found myself drawn to the philosophy of Linux and Free and Open Source Software. This world runs on plain text. Configuration files, scripts, code—everything was a simple .txt file.
The contrast was staggering. Clunky, slow-loading applications like Word and Evernote were replaced by tools like Vim, a text editor that opened instantly with a single hotkey. It was a revelation. I built a productivity system based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) using a single todo.txt file, synced effortlessly across all my devices with simple tools. My notes, my tasks, my code, and my writing could finally coexist in one clean, efficient ecosystem.
This wasn’t just a technical preference; it was a practical necessity. There were times I’d be managing client projects from a beach bar in Thailand, planning business ventures from a café in Nepal, or journaling while sitting on a balcony hanging off the Himalayas in India. With plain text, I had one unified system where everything could get done, no matter how unreliable the internet or how basic the hardware. It was the simple, stable foundation that made a complex, nomadic life possible.
Universally Compatible and Ready for Anything
The true power of plain text begins with its history. The format we use today dates back to the earliest days of computing when standards were simple and built to last. A text file from the 1960s, if you still had one, could be opened in a modern editor like Vim or VS Code without a single hiccup.
This universality means you aren’t chained to a specific tool. While I prefer Vim, you can open, read, and edit a plain text file in almost any application on any device:
- Simple editors: Notepad (Windows), TextEdit (Mac), Gedit (Linux).
- Office Suites: Microsoft Word and Google Docs open
.txtfiles perfectly. - Note-taking apps: Obsidian, Logseq, and Joplin are all built around plain text.
- Code Editors: VS Code, Sublime Text, and Atom are designed for it.
You don’t have to give up the tools you like. For example, a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file is just a plain text file. Open it in a text editor, and you’ll see words and numbers separated by commas. Open that same file in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, and it will appear as a perfectly structured spreadsheet. This is the magic of plain text: it’s a universal solvent, able to adapt to whatever container you put it in.
Future-Proofing Your Life’s Work
Universality looks backward and outward, at compatibility across time and software. Future-proofing looks forward, ensuring your data remains accessible for decades to come.
Proprietary formats like .docx or .pages are black boxes. They are filled with hidden, complex formatting code that is specific to the company that created them. While a format like Microsoft Word is ubiquitous now, even modern open-source alternatives like LibreOffice can struggle to render its formatting perfectly. What happens in twenty years when the software landscape has completely changed?
Plain text carries no such risks. Its simplicity is its strength. There is no hidden code to become obsolete. This is critical as technology evolves. In the near future, you might be interacting with your data on AR glasses, smartwatches, or other devices that we can’t even imagine yet. Those devices almost certainly won’t run a full Microsoft Office suite, but they will absolutely be able to read and display plain text. Your ideas, journals, and life’s work will remain accessible, no matter what the future holds.
The AI Advantage: Clean Data, Clearer Thinking
In the age of Artificial Intelligence, the clarity of plain text has become a strategic advantage. Large Language Models (LLMs) thrive on clean, unambiguous data. If you feed an AI a .docx file with complex formatting or an Excel file with empty rows and merged cells, it can get confused and miss the crucial information.
Feed it a plain text file, and the signal is pure. The content is the data, with no noise.
This opens up a powerful new workflow: creating personal “context packs.” Imagine having a file called professional_bio.txt that contains your work history, skills, and career goals. When you need an AI to help you draft a cover letter or update your resume, you first provide it with this file as context. The results will be dramatically more relevant and personalized. The same goes for personal development. A personal_history.txt can give an AI the background it needs to offer tailored advice.
This practice of storing contextual knowledge in clean, simple plain text files gives you a reusable and powerful way to leverage AI, a topic I plan to explore in a future article.
Forging Your Workflow: Three Paths to Plain Text Mastery
Theory is great, but practical application is what matters. Plain text isn’t just for programmers; it’s a foundation upon which you can build powerful systems for every area of your life. Here are three concrete ways you can start.
1. Task Management with todo.txt
The todo.txt system is a set of simple rules for managing tasks in a text file. Each line is a single task. You can add priority, projects, and contexts using special syntax.
For example:
(A) Finalize the quarterly report @work +ProjectX
Call the plumber @home
Simple tools like grep can filter this file instantly, or you can use dedicated apps like Simpletask (for Android) or the original command-line scripts that understand the todo.txt format. You get a powerful, flexible task manager that you own completely.
2. Networked Note-Taking with Markdown
For note-taking, plain text combined with Markdown is a game-changer. Markdown is a simple syntax for adding formatting like headings, bold text, and lists. This is the foundation for the Zettelkasten, or “digital slip-box,” method of building a networked personal knowledge base.
Tools like Logseq (my recommendation to start with) and Obsidian use Markdown files to help you connect ideas. You create links between notes simply by typing [[Name of other note]]. Over time, you build a web of interconnected knowledge that reflects how you think, making it easy to discover old ideas and form new connections.
3. Long-Form Writing with Markdown
When you write in Microsoft Word, you waste countless hours fiddling with fonts, margins, and layouts. Markdown removes that distraction. You focus only on the words. You use simple characters to denote structure:
Markdown
# My Article Title
## An Important Subheading
This is a paragraph of text. Writing here is fast and focused.
- This is a list item.
- So is this.
You can use **bold** or *italic* text easily.
When you’re done, you can use a tool like Pandoc to convert your Markdown file into a beautifully formatted PDF, HTML, or even a .docx file. Or, you can paste it directly into the WordPress editor, and it will be perfectly formatted for publishing. For a powerful, distraction-free writing experience, try an editor like Vim, which is built for speed and efficiency.
Automating Your World with Scripts and Macros
Once your life runs on plain text, you can automate it. Instead of being limited by the features of a closed app, you can build your own tools with simple scripts.
Command-Line Alchemy
The command line is your workshop for manipulating text.
- Find anything:
grep "keyword" notes.txtpulls every line containing “keyword” from your notes file. - Append information:
echo "New idea" >> ideas.txtadds a new line to your ideas file without even opening it. - Transform text: Tools like
sedandawkcan perform complex search-and-replace operations across thousands of files in an instant.
Editor Macros: The Vim Example
In a powerful editor like Vim, you can record a sequence of keystrokes as a macro and repeat it effortlessly. Imagine you have a list of notes, and each line ends with a tag like #old that you want to remove. You could do it manually, or you could record a macro:
- Press
qato start recording a macro into registera. - Go to the end of the line, delete the tag, and move down to the next line.
- Press
qto stop recording. - Type
100@ato execute that macro 100 times.
In seconds, a task that would have taken minutes of tedious manual editing is done.
Collaboration, Version Control, and Data Sovereignty
Streamlined Collaboration with Git
When you need to collaborate on a document, emailing different versions of a Word file is a recipe for disaster. Plain text pairs beautifully with Git, the version control system used by software developers worldwide. Git tracks every single change on a line-by-line basis, giving you a complete history of who changed what and when. This is far more robust and transparent than Word’s “Track Changes,” especially for complex documents.
Owning Your Data
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, plain text gives you back ownership of your data. Most modern software defaults to syncing your information to a corporate cloud, where it can be analyzed, used to train AI models, or lost in a data breach. Your data lives on their terms.
Plain text files live on your machine. You decide where they go. You can keep them offline, store them on a personal encrypted drive, or sync them across your devices with a private, peer-to-peer tool like Syncthing. The choice, and the ownership, is yours.
Your Path Forward
If you’re ready to escape the chaos of proprietary software, here is your path forward.
The first, most valuable step you can take is to create a bio.txt file. Write a detailed biography of yourself: your work history, skills, unique experiences, interests, and goals. The next time you use an AI for advice, feed it this file first. This single action will fundamentally change the quality of the output you receive.
From there, choose one of these three paths to begin your journey:
- For Task Management: Create a
todo.txtfile. Start listing your tasks using the(A) Task @Context +Projectformat. Use a simple app like Simpletask to interact with it on the go. - For Note-Taking: Download Logseq. Start creating notes as individual Markdown files in a single folder. Begin linking them together with
[[wiki-style links]]and watch your personal knowledge network grow. - For Long-Form Writing: Pick a project—an article, a chapter, a report—and write it entirely in Markdown using a focused editor like Vim. Experience the freedom of writing without distraction.
As a final step, create a free account on a platform like GitHub or GitLab and learn the basics of Git. Start tracking your new plain text files to create a secure, versioned backup of your most important work.
Conclusion: Reclaim Your Focus
Whether you’re outlining a new business, planning a training regimen, or simply trying to get your thoughts in order, plain text can handle it. I’ve seen its power transform my own life, bringing clarity and control to everything from martial arts schedules to corporate strategy documents.
You deserve tools that adapt to you, not the other way around. You deserve a system that is private, future-proof, and lightning-fast. Plain text delivers on all fronts. It’s more than just a file format; it’s a philosophy of simplicity, ownership, and control. It’s a bridge that connects your ideas to reality with the least possible friction. If you feel weighed down by the digital world, give plain text a chance. It may be all you need to move forward—fast, free, and fully in control.
