This Simple Text Document Can Replace Your Calendar App
Gina Trapani, founder of the website you’re reading now, popularized the text format for to-do lists back in 2006 (please excuse the weird formatting in this nearly 20-year-old article). Called Todo.txt , it is used by many people to this day, thanks in part to the ecosystem of apps built on the format.
I recently came across Calendar.txt by author and teacher Tero Karvinen . It’s a text document based on a similar philosophy—a stripped-down, simpler version of your cluttered calendar app. This concept is worth considering. We’ve been in the era of “using a separate app for everything” for at least a decade now, and of course, many of these apps are pretty good. I’ve spent years recommending software tools for everything from task management to drink making , and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
But not everyone needs a dedicated app for everything they do. Productivity is individual and everyone has different needs. I’ve known several highly technically competent people who still use paper planners to keep track of their appointments and tasks—a simple notepad is so flexible that no app can match it.
One line of text per day
I view open text tools like Calendar.txt in a similar light. This particular tool is as simple as it gets: it uses one line of text every day. You can download a ready-made file with date strings extending to 2033, or simply create your own.
Each line begins with a date, followed by a week number and a three-letter week name. The idea is that you then record your meetings by simply writing down the time and name of the event. The events are simply added to the line in order.
So, for example, a line for today with one meeting/task (I’m cleaning the house this afternoon) would look like this:
2025-03-06 w10 Thu 14 cleaning the house
This approach has many disadvantages. Firstly, there is no built-in event reminder tool, and there is no way to invite others to a meeting. But this simple approach can work for you too.
And as todo.txt showed two decades ago, using text files has its benefits. Plain text is universal, can be opened on any device, and your files won’t disappear because some software company decides to change their priorities. If you’re familiar with the command line , you can use existing tools in a variety of interesting ways. For example, the Calendar.txt documentation shows how you can use grep, a text document search tool, to get information about today’s appointments:
grep 2025-03-06 calendar.txt
You can use the same command to search for events by day.
Again, this approach won’t seem useful to everyone, especially if you never open the Command Prompt, but not every tool needs to be available to every user. Only you can decide which tools will suit you best.