Tabs in Notepad is a nice touch. It allows multiple notes in one window and caches those notes if you close without saving, yet still stupid simple. Except that fucking copilot icon staring at me in the corner...
Layers in MS Paint just feels like unnecessary feature creep.
I rely heavily on to-do lists, calendar entries, and reminders. Without it, I would go insane. Growing up, my mom carried a full-blown day planner everywhere she went, and as I got older, I realized how beneficial it was. These days all my day planning stuff is on my phone, but a pen and paper planner is perfectly acceptable, too.