much to-do about nothing
October 20, 2015 6:42 PM   Subscribe

ProductivityFilter: I basically want a "now playing" ticker for my to-do list on my computer. How can I make this happen?

To stay on task, I want some sort of anchored sticky on my laptop display that pulls up an item (just a text phrase) from my to-do list either based on some sensible parameter-- i.e. it pulls from the top of the list-- or, even better, that I have somehow indicated for selection, extemporaneously (through some extremely simple mechanism like clicking).

I am currently kludging this together by copy/pasting from my to-do list into a sticky note, but even though that sounds easy enough, the time taken really adds up. It would save me a lot of time and mental energy to automate this.

I have used a handful of different web tools to manage my to-do list, and am currently using trello, but this feature would be helpful enough to me that I'd probably adopt any product that might support it.

This seems both pretty simple and pretty useful, right? But alas. I thought there might be something to find in IFTTT, but I think they only plug into log-innable services?, which rules out all the desktop-sticky programs that I'm aware of.
posted by threeants to Computers & Internet (11 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
Windows or OS X?
posted by demiurge at 6:46 PM on October 20, 2015


Response by poster: Windows; thanks.
posted by threeants at 6:47 PM on October 20, 2015


Could you find a sticky note program that would let you put the entire list in a single note, resize the note so that only a single line is visible at a time, and then change it by scrolling to the current item?
posted by XMLicious at 6:49 PM on October 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Could you find a sticky note program that would let you put the entire list in a single note, resize the note so that only a single line is visible at a time, and then change it by scrolling to the current item?

Hmm. A clever idea, but the list changes frequently enough that my current kludge is probably a better fit for my needs than that.
posted by threeants at 6:52 PM on October 20, 2015


Seems like you should be able to find a sticky note type desktop app that could pull from a web api, in this case the trello api.

Perhaps something like Rainmeter?

Alternatively a chrome extension. You can probably have a trello popup in Chrome.
posted by miasma at 7:29 PM on October 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Could you make NowDoThis your default new tab page? I also really like Worklfowy, which is where my entire life is stored, from super in-depth work projects to grocery lists. I keep a tab open in Chrome at all times. One benefit of Workflowy is that you can drill down on exactly one task at a time. There is a stand-alone desktop app that you can make a skinny window next to whatever else you're working on.
posted by Brittanie at 7:35 PM on October 20, 2015 [4 favorites]


2nd Workflowy. It's super intuitive to use.
posted by cotton dress sock at 10:07 PM on October 20, 2015 [1 favorite]


Taco is a website/app that tries to solve this problem too, but I haven't quite gelled with it (and it doesn't work super well with my task lists, but then neither do I). I'm thinking round this as well; I'll post back if I get anywhere soon.
posted by lokta at 1:12 AM on October 21, 2015


Best answer: Hey! Pomello! I don't know yet if you could alter or dispense with the timer length; depending how actively developed it is you could feature-request it.
posted by lokta at 1:43 AM on October 21, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Actually: you can use Pomello without engaging the timer at all, and this is kind of ideal. Thank you for asking this question!
posted by lokta at 1:52 AM on October 21, 2015


Response by poster: Wow, thank you, Lokta! Pomello is exactly what I was looking for down to pretty much every last detail, but I never would have found it myself in a million years.
posted by threeants at 7:48 AM on October 21, 2015 [2 favorites]


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