Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with todo

How to Integrate "Repeating Tasks" Into a Text File To-Do System?

WCityMike — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:46:41 -0800

I recently switched over to a plain text file as my to-do list; I can structure it the way I want, it is an absolute cinch to access in any one of a hundred zillion different ways, it's crossplatform, and so on. However, I am running into one methodology I can't figure out how to translate into the "plain text" world, and that is repeating tasks. I am wondering how people who also keep their to-do lists in text files handle repeating tasks. I'd like to specifically exclude the solutions of loading repeating tasks into a calendaring program or employing a third-party application to create them (i.e. Taskpaper & AppleScript, or Remind). I'm really looking more for how you handle it in simply in the world of plain text.

Also, to open it up a little, I'm curious as to what little mechanisms or mindhacks or systems you may employ within your text-file to-do list, so please feel free to share that, too (although I am primarily interested in the repeating tasks question).

Thanks!

Multi-platform, web-accessible task list software

spyke23 — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:34:43 -0800

Having searched through askMeFi already, I haven't come across anything that answers my query. I use Evernote, which is a fine web/application, that is accessible on all platforms, via the web, and by Iphone. Does such a thing exist in the realms of to-do list software? I prefer being able to put my tasks into an application, but have them accessible and synced to the web. I use OS X

Computerized "Job Jar"?

penciltopper — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:35:11 -0800

I would like randomly selected items from a To-Do list to "float to the top" on a regular basis. Ideas? Ok, so growing up, we had chores to do and things that needed doing around the house. Trying to assign them or claim them permanently never worked out very well, so we wrote anything that needed doing on slips of paper, put them in a jar. Every Sunday you took one item out of the jar and were stuck doing whatever was on the paper. Sometimes it was quick and easy, sometimes it was a real pain. But the luck of the draw made it easier to tolerate.

I have a Tasks list in Outlook that when printed out is several pages long, full of 4-hour or 8-hour projects. Guh. Obviously, it's too big to help me get it all done, and there's always some other needs-doing item I'd prefer to do that can push a more unpleasant task out of the way. I'd like to cut everything but this week's absolutely necessary "next action" items from my Tasks list, and have the rest somewhere else.

What I would like to do is block out a day or half-day each week for the "Job Jar". By some sort of magic, that big list of items would have one or two projects percolate to the top somehow, and notify me. They'd go in that week's block of time as Must-Dos, rather than languishing away on a Someday list as they do now.

I've seen a lot of productivity hacks go by on MeFi - does anyone have ideas?

I doubt Outlook would be able to do this for me, so any other tool that would do this is worth it. Gimme whatever you got.

I'm not interested in the obvious choice of assigning due dates beforehand to these projects and getting notified that way. If I am allowed to make choices about what's due when, then the whole element of random assignment I'm looking for is lost. I'm lousy at making deals with myself (I practice active procrastination), but can keep a Job-Jar-like pact; so I'm looking for something that can randomize listed items and deliver one or two a week.

Super double special rainbow pony bonus points for something that's smart enough to give me one item listed as All-Day or two listed as Half-Day.

Can anyone recommend a to do list or shopping list application for my Nokia N95 cellphone?

inbetweener — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:10:14 -0800

I have a Nokia N95 and wondered if anyone could recommend any cellphone Java apps or Symbian S60 series 3 apps that would provide to do list / shopping list functionality to my phone. I use rememberthemilk.com on my PC but I need something when I'm out and about and cellphone web access doesn't really come cheap in the UK so I've ruled out the mobile version of RTM.

The built in todo list on the Nokia calendar app is awful. I'm currently using a java program called Odysseus for the shopping list but it too is pretty frustrating to use... and I'm currently using the standard Nokia notes application to keep todos in a text file on the phone but again - far from satisfactory.

My google-fu isn't really helping me locate a decent (preferablt free) alternative - anyone have tried and tested suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Moving to Portland

triolus — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:11:30 -0800

I'm moving to Portland, OR next week, and wanted to get a feel for the area. What are some places that I absolutely should visit, places to dine and drink, and so forth? I'll be living off SW 21st Ave, and will not have access to a car for several days until the movers get it out there, so I'm really looking for suggestion within walking/rail distance. Several things on my mind:

1) Good, cheap places to eat. I won't be able to cook for a few days until, once again, the movers get my stuff out there.

2) Pet stores - I need food and a new litter box for the cats.

3) The local dive bars - where are they?

4) How is the public transportation system, in your opinion?

Plus anything else you can think of that can help an ATLien adjust to the new town. Thanks mefis!

Getting a ToDo List Manager is on my ToDo List

willmize — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:05:50 -0800

There seems to be a million different online and software based To Do List and Project Management applications, and my brain is tired of trying to figure out the difference between them. It's the bells and whistles that get to me. Help me find the one that fits! Here's a description of my perfect application:
1) I have Project A, B, C, D, E through infinity. There should be no limit to the number of projects I can have.
2) I have Tasks assigned to each Project that need to be done in a certain order to complete that project.
3) The ability to look at one Project in detail, see all Tasks and be able to makes notes on each task.
4) When I log in or fire up the app, I want to see a list of all projects, along with *just the current task waiting to be accomplished.* I get overwhelmed easily when I see a list of 20 to 30 tasks for just one project. I just want to see the one task I need to focus on now. For example, I could have Project A - Task 4, Project B - Task 2, Project C - Task 8, etc.
5) When I check off that task (let's say Project A - Task 4), the next one comes up - the next time I log in, instead of showing Project A - Task 4, it would show Task 5.
6) I would LOVE for this to be an online application and therefore independent of operating system. Bonus points for the ability to be able to drag and drop to reorder Tasks and prioritize Projects. Also bonus points for the ability to group Projects according to similarity (writing, home improvement, fitness and diet, vacation planning, car maintenance, etc)
7) If it's software based, it needs to fit on a thumb drive and be cross-platform, as I have a PC at work and a mac at home.

I've looked at Remember The Milk, Vitalist and TaDaList but don't think they fit the bill for the above.

I hope I've been specific enough and hope this question might also help others whose brain works similarly to mine.

Thanks so much for your help.

iCal Repeat Todos

honorguy7 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:00:15 -0800

How do I set iCal todo items to repeat on a regular interval? That way if I check off to mow the lawn, it will auto-create a new todo item for next week so I see it on my schedule. My Palm pilot used to do this. Is there an AppleScript?

Dick Tracy Hipster PDA

mecran01 — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:23:48 -0800

I need a way to keep my short, paper todo list in my face. Something like a luggage tag that I could wear like a wrist band, so I could glance down and see my four tasks for the day. What else might work? Keeping a 3 x 5 card in my pocket doesn't work because I don't look at it. Same with a palm pilot. Ideally, nothing that looks to dorky, but I know that's asking a lot given that the list has to be visible. And I hate writing on my hand.

Calendar software that includes to-do lists?

nebulawindphone — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:55:54 -0800

I don't want a to-do list next to my calendar. I want to-do lists in my calendar. Help me find the scheduling software (OS X or web-based) of my dreams. I want a calendar that lets me do the following things:

Set up repeating events (e.g. a course that meets a few times a week)

Associate a separate to-do list with each instance of a repeating event (e.g. a separate list of assignments due each day in class)

Highlight the events whose to-do lists are unfinished (e.g. the classes for which I still have homework to do)

This seems pretty straightforward, but Google Calendar and iCal can't do it. Do you know of a program that can?

Bonus points if it still plays nice with iCal feeds.

Be my guide to Charlotte, NC

Terminal Verbosity — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 11:37:52 -0800

What's a family of four to do in Charlotte, NC? My wife and two kids (five and seven) will be in Charlotte from June 9-14. We're staying at the Westin on College and Stonewall and are logistically limited to places we can walk or take public transportation. So what is there to do in downtown Charlotte for kids and what is there to do for adults that accommodates children? Restaurants, museums, planetariums...all recommendations welcome. Is there anything going on that week specifically we should check out?

Also, I'm missing a large book festival in Chicago for this trip; are there any good used book stores in that area I can hit?

Recommend a free online notepad

schroedinger — Mon, 07 May 2007 10:09:21 -0800

Free online application for storing quick ideas, notes, websites, etc--like post-it notes on your moniter, only digital and easily organized and searched. Currently I'm trying out Helipad, but what do you use? More functionality needs inside. Over the course of a day I have lots of little things I write down. To-dos, websites I want to visit, ideas to research over the next couple of weeks, recipes to try. Writing things down on slips of paper creates a mess. Up until now I used Gmail, but it's all too easy to forget about them after a million emails to myself with "" in the header I'm realizing this really isn't a solution.

I want an online notepad. Nothing that requires downloading a program or installing an extension in case I'm using a public computer. It should be able to store multiple, editable notes, I should be able to search through it, and the notes should be easy to organize. Tags are good, but the possibility of categories would be great too to enhance browsability--that way interesting/important notes and/or categories can jog my memory if I'm looking for a different note.

Most importantly, it must be simple and easy to use, otherwise I'll slip back into old habits and keep using Gmail.

I've tried Remember the Milk and Backpack. I found Helipad recently and it's good, but I can't shake that in this GTD-obsessed world there might be something even better. What are your suggestions?

To Do application with task-specific reminder options?

thatgirl — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 12:05:15 -0800

Is there a To Do/task list application that offers reminder options per task? There are a lot of To Do applications out there, and I've poked around in a few of them. (Remember The Milk, Zoho Planner, Todoist, Backpack, Vitalist -- which is my favorite so far-- etc.) Most of them offer to send you reminders for your tasks, and most of them allow you to choose to receive these reminders by email, text message, or both. However, I haven't yet found one that allows me to choose a reminder method PER TASK. If you set it to email you your reminders, you have no choice but to get ALL of your reminders by email.

I generally prefer to receive my reminders by email, since I don't have a PDA and don't want to pay for text messages all the time or have to buy a bundle package. So I always set my option to email. But! Sometimes, there are certain tasks that I would like to be reminded of by text message instead of or in addition to email. For example, "Charge cell phone." Or, when I know I won't be at my computer that night, "Call so-and-so".

So does anyone know of a (web) To Do/task list application that offers task-specific reminder options?

Need Mac ToDo!

Gideon — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:11:45 -0800

I need a better todo/tasks management system. I'm on a mac, and iCal isn't getting the job done... I've been using Outlook 2007 for a while, and really enjoy its approach to tasks - but Office for Mac is not particularly reliable and so it is not really an option. Here's what I need:

Tasks I can view by date (not all in a row by date, but just, say "Feb 3rd") and an ability to sync with iCal so I can sync it with my windows mobile device. Ideally, I can use the software with Quicksilver as well.

GTD support would be fine, but I prefer it not be forced. Thanks!

Is there a digital voice recorder I can wear on a lanyard?

chrissyboy — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:01:41 -0800

I'm after a digital voice recorder / dictaphone type thing that I can wear round my neck on a lanyard. I want it for quick capture of musical ideas, things to do, verbal notes to myself etc.. Hence wanting to wear it on a lanyard, so it's right there all the time.

About 3 or 4 years ago a guy I worked with had one that was about the size of a credit card, something like that would be ok. Or the size of an ipod shuffle would be even better, come to think of it.

Any recommendations mefites?

Web To-Do With Recurrence Based on Task Completion?

WCityMike — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 08:44:36 -0800

I'm looking for a web-based to-do-list manager, along the lines of 37Signals' Backpack, that allows its users to have a to-do task recur a certain amount of time after it's been checked off. I have been using 37Signals' Backpack for my to-do needs, but am finding that it lacks some features I really would like to have available.

In many ways, 37Signals' Backpack's interface is exactly what I like: AJAX and ease of entering tasks (no 200 setup screens for one measly task), the ability to group them together in different lists, etc.

The one feature I'm dying to integrate is a specialized kind of recurring task. I don't see it happening with Backpack any time soon, as I don't see recurring tasks happening on Backpack any time soon.

The recurrance pattern I'm looking for is for a task to reappear a fixed number of days after you check it off. It doesn't recur by a fixed date, but rather, by a set amount of time after you've accomplished it.

With regards to backing up the computer, for example: instead of backing it up every Saturday, it would be that you would be prompted to back it up seven days after you last checked it off.

Yet it needs to be a Web-based service that allows relatively easy addition of tasks, so that entering in a "don't forget to feed the cat" thing doesn't requires five minutes to put into your to-do list.

I'm not averse to paying, as long as we're not talking a prohibitively indecent amount of money. My Backpack account is free, so obviously I'd not like to graduate to a $20/mo. deal. Something like $5/mo. is palatable, $10 less so but possible for an extremely fantastico service. Free is, of course, quite good. :-)

Thoughts or recommendations? Obviously, I know I'm not going to get a perfect match to Backpack, but there are a lot of options out there, and I'm not sure what to check first.

The dancing Santa with the Satanic crazed expression on the Ask MeFi "post a question" page scares me very much.

Name of popular note-taking technique discussed here before

lyam — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 14:56:17 -0800

OK, I'm looking for the name of a modern technique popularly used to organize notes, tasks and projects. It's been discussed many times here and there are a couple of popular books that discuss the techniques. I believe it may be known by an acronym or initials. Yes, I searched. Yes, I suck. I'm sure this will be answered in less than 10 minutes.

Thanks!

Boston Weekend, what to do?

filmgeek — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 16:09:33 -0800

It looks like (but might change) that I'm heading up to Boston next weekend - actually I'll be just outside of Boston before the weekend, and likely downtown over the weekend.. I'll have a rental car at my disposal...what do to? I might end up calling some friends and hanging out...

But just as equally, I could go off and do something else. I could go to a Red Sox game (if there is one.) I could do a Metafilter Meetup. I could drive north. I just have no idea what I'd like to do, I just want to have fun.

Oh, what would I call fun? Well, I live quite a bit of life on the road - as a single person, the 'bar life' isn't fun without friends in a given city.

I tend to like offbeat things (but that doesn't mean anything.) I'm curious - given a weekend of time in the Boston/Northeast area, what would you suggest I do? No Skydiving (fear) or beach activities (fear of the sun)...I'm trying to think of something to do there that I can't do in other places and I'm appealing to the hive-mind

Specific to-do list needs.

polexxia — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 06:48:59 -0800

I am looking for any online task list/calendar that meets the following criteria: 1)sync with Palm/using WinXP; 2)supports categories; 3)supports recurrence; 4)(preferably) has some way to be integrated into my Wordpress website. (Robust goal management would be a plus). I have tried Yahoo, but it does not support recurrent tasks and I find the auto-add of Y! Messenger contacts to be intrusive and annoying.

Nested to-do lists

kersplunk — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 16:13:57 -0800

What's the simplest to-do list software that will nest items as many levels deep as I wish? Having experimented with the usual suspects (Ta Da etc.), I've slowly come to the conclusion that I only need three features in a to-do app - checkbox/alarm (duh) and to be able to start with a big vague goal and gradually add detail in levels, without cluttering up all my other big vague goals. I'd probably take a stab at coding it myself, but have no time, due to lack of progress on aforementioned goals.

Is there anything (free) out there already that fits the bill? Or should I be organising things differently?

What makes your todo list work for you?

the giant pill — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 16:19:00 -0800

What makes your todo list work for you? I don't care if it's digital or on papter, I want to know how you got in the habit of using a todo list everyday.

Walk me through getting a del.icio.us clone running locally on my Mac?

WCityMike — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 11:46:51 -0800

I would like to build and host a del.icio.us clone on my Mac (Intel iMac running Tiger). It need not be accessible outside of my machine, although if you can advise me how to do that while still keeping my machine secure, that would be a very nice plus. I am able to build simple command-line apps in Unix and puzzle some stuff out, but I am very much not a l33t hax00r. Can anyone walk me through the process very simple step by very simple step? I have tried various options since unsuccessfully asking this question of Ask MeFi, and have still grown certain that the extremely simple interface of del.icio.us is what I'm looking to work with for to-dos. When they're done, zap them. The tagging can let me sort through my ideas on any one of a hundred different levels by throwing tons of tags at a to-do (work shoppinglist imac web priority1 quickie). The hyperlinking is useful because so many of my to-dos have a hyperlink attached to them. And the bookmarklets will be very swift, given that they'll be interoperating with a local del.icio.us and no web server. It's very much what I'm desiring to do.

The problem is that I do have a minor bit of technical knowledge, but not the full amount. I can go to the command line and do "./configure, make, make install." But if it throws off errors, the best I can do is Google the error to see what other people did to solve it. I can install stuff that it needs to have to depend on. I know what tar and gz are. I understand that MySQL has to do with databases. But a lot of this stuff is gonna be like "Guh?!" to me.

I know that del.icio.us now has a "keep this private" bookmark. But this would interfere with my use of del.icio.us as a linklog system for my website. I also know that there are to-do sites that include tagging and Smart Lists. However, they don't seem as swift to me, and their interfaces seem to include a lot more steps than I'd like, even with the bookmarklets they use.

I know of at least one open-source del.icio.us clone. However, trying to install it without customized help led to a bellyflop and the aforementioned "guh?!?!?!?!".

Can anyone help me out here? Keep in mind that Lifehacker and 43 Folders and other sites read Ask MeFi, so you could end up being a superstar to a lot more people than just me. ;-)

Handling to-dos with a tagging-based web app?

WCityMike — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 14:12:27 -0800

I'm looking for a web-based to-do application with a few very specific features, but, essentially, one that's almost a del.icio.us clone and is very much centralized not on categories, but on tags. I was hoofing my way around my Backpack account and realized that I had not gone through the majority of things in there. Basically, it was a hassle to find things and to read; 37 Signals makes nice things in some ways, but they've applied tagging to pages, not tasks, and there's a host of other imperfections and problems which make me realize I very much want to migrate, the gist of which is that it obviously just isn't effectively working for me if it's a pain in the ass to go through.

What I'd ideally like is something that's almost identical to the delicious interface, where I could use a bookmarklet to add a task. The nice things about tags is you can then proceed to set up your own system -- i.e., anything with a 'p5' category might be important, or I could tag "grocery" for grocery shopping, and then like delicious, you could join tags (i.e. http://del.icio.us/tags/tag1+tag2) to get more customized reports, i.e., http://hypotheticaltodolist.com/WCityMike/grocery+downtown or http://hypotheticaltodolist.com/WCityMike/grocery+nearhome.

There's not much use in public sharing of this data, so privacy would be nice. It would also be good to be able to encode HTML inside an entry, i.e., "Check out this website and this website tonight." But the absence of either of those is not a killer.

Remember the Milk is close to what I'd like, especially with its Smart Lists and tagging and search language, but even it is slightly more complex than I'd like in terms of data entry -- and I find the checkbox NOT representing a complete horribly counterintuitive. That having been said, I'm thinking I may migrate to a combination of a private Furl account for todo-related URLs and a Remember the Milk account ... but ideally, it'd be even nicer to go a different route with this and have them together in this dream app of mine.

I should say that the primary reason I'm looking for this in a web app is I'd like to be able to be able to access the data from Mac and Windows platforms at home and work, respectively, and perhaps even on a cell phone -- and web apps traditionally have that portability.

Better to-do list for Palm OS?

Robot Johnny — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 11:24:41 -0800

Better to-do list for Palm OS? The bult-in "tasks" is good for singular, date-based items, but is there anything similar to Ta-da Lists for the Palm? Ideally I want to be able to create multiple lists of to-do items ("Books To Read" for example) and have checked items move to the bottom of the list or disappear. (Just bought a T|X and am having fun playing around) Oh, and as is always the case with questions like these, free is ideal, but I'll gladly pay if it's worthwhile.

How do I edit the notes section of iCal automatically using Applescript or anything else?

sirion — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 10:12:03 -0800

Simplified scenario: I have a text file called "blah.txt" with some text in it. I also have a To-Do item in iCal named "Blah". I'd like to be able to doubleclick something to make the contents of blah.txt appear in the notes section of the Blah to-do item. -The real goal of this is to get my Getting Things Done lists synced across my Symbian phone, my laptop, and my desktop, and while iCal seems to be the only way to syncronize this information, it's not a particularly good place to enter my data in the first place.

-Any tool is fair game, not just Applescript

-Most of the variables above can be changed (I can move my lists into any format, for example), but I believe iCal is the only way to keep all my devices synced with the same information.

-Possible hint discovered on 43 folders google group: This php module apparently can interface with the iCal files extensively, and is used in some Konfabulator widgets: http://phpicalendar.sourceforge.net/

-May the force be with you

Question number 12365

sharksandwich — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 09:53:16 -0800

I have a Treo 600. I was using Mac OSX Palm HotSync to sync the phone, and started to have some problems here and there. Went ahead and set up Apple's Isync to handle the task, and now my Palm "To Do" list does not sync in the process. Anyone know what gives or how to get my "To Do" to sync via Isync?