Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.
How do I approximate this functionality using a plain-text to-do file?
WCityMike | Jul 7 2006
I enjoy using a plain text file as my to-do app. Readable on a Mac or a Windows machine, no need for Internet access, infinitately reconfigurable depending upon my mood and the organizational scheme I need to use for the moment. But. There's one golden functionality I've yet to be able to reproduce, and I'm not sure how it's best done. I used to use Life Balance. It's a nice app, but the problem is it's been in a pretty much eternal code- and feature-freeze for a few millenia now (much like BBSW's Mailsmith, although that tool remains my mail client because it still offers functionality no one else does). One of its fantastic features is that you can tell to re-present you with a task a certain amount of time *after you've checked it off*. So let's say you want to empty the cat's litter box every seven days (don't wrinkle your nose, crystals don't need daily changing) -- but you let it go for a few weeks. Traditionally, you'd get bugged with three or four weekly reminders from a traditional to-do list app or from a calendar alarm. Life Balance would let it remain on your to-do list and then, when you check it off, start the timer again. I really don't know how to reproduce that functionality anywhere else. I'd love to somehow mind-hackingly integrate some sort of similar accomplishment into a normal plain-text-file to-do-list universe. But I would have no idea how to go about it. Would appreciate your gleaming insights. 1 Comment
POSTED IN:
 The simplest way to do...Submitted by AlanY on July 7, 2006 - 6:45pm.
The simplest way to do this in a text file is instead of deleting the line with the todo after you do it, simply push the due date forward 7 days. So, for instance, if you're using the "43 sections" technique to represent ticklers in your text file, just move the todo 7 sections down. I know that sounds simple but it works, and it also works in calendar programs like Ecco and iCal too that don't handle recurring todos (incidentally, Ecco does support recurring todos but not based on X number of days between the date you check one off). A more complicated way to do this is to use the "remind" program to parse your text file and generate your todo list. Remind is a Unix thing but it's available for Windows and of course OS X. It can handle any repeating todo concept you want (and appointments too), but there is a learning curve. I'm no expert on it, but the best thing to get started is to noodle around with the resources here: » POSTED IN:
|
|
| EXPLORE 43Folders | THE GOOD STUFF |
