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Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

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Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#51

Post by Shank »

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #15

Why is a todo list a good idea?

The motivation behind a task manager (and things like GTD) is that your brain has much more important things to worry about than what you have to do. If you get to the point where you really trust the system you use, you can get to the point where you're not stressed about remembering upcoming things. Instead, you just consult your system and see what's up.

I started using Things (https://culturedcode.com/things/) because it's so flighty on what it offers in terms of scheduling. You can set tasks to be done today, and deadlines separately. You can't set certain due times or hours -- and you can basically turn off all nagging. It's become projects and tasks that I both need and want to do, but it frees me from dealing with them in my head.

So, it's liberating when done right. It can be done wrong, though. Tasks that aren't actionable make these systems rough, because they set deadlines on immeasurable amounts of work, which creates stress. The trick is to make sure tasks are actionable, and that you aren't remembering them yourself.

Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#52

Post by bachmeier »

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #15

Why is a todo list a good idea?

By itself, a todo list is poison, because your day turns into a game of "check the box" and you spend your time doing things that you shouldn't. In combination with a todon't list, which tells you what doesn't get a place on your todo list, you can be productive.

Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#53

Post by 0XAFFE »

spott wrote: post #39

I run into this every once in a while, but the sticking point is always the mobile picture. If I want to add a todo item using my phone, what are my options? Anyone have any experience with this?

I use emacs org-mode with beorg¹ on iOS. beorg has very good agenda view and allows dumping new entries. Refilling and tagging I do later with real emacs. Syncing files is done via webdav (nextcloud to be exact).

It is a pleasant working experience.

¹ http://beorgapp.com/

Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#54

Post by Shank »

the_af wrote: post #37
0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #15

Why is a todo list a good idea?

I understand why the TODO list is a good idea. My memory is terrible, I get confused if I don't write down everything I was doing and everything I was planning to do the next day. What I'm unsure about is whether the actual tech behind the TODO list matters. It seems we love to discuss this (or reimplement it!) because we're programmers and/or tech people, and tech naturally appeals to us. But I'm unsure Taskwarrior…

> I think what matters is that you keep a TODO list in whatever format is useful to you.

It's just that. That's why programmers keep making todo lists. Because some people want more flexibility, some want less. Some need some specific feature set, and some think other features are stupid. They're simple enough systems that people can build whatever flavor they want -- and it'll work for them -- rather than be constrained to whatever is available.

Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#56

Post by jacobevelyn »

jecxjo wrote: post #29

I use to use Taskwarrior, using all its features until one day my work life lost all complexity. At that point I felt like all the key features of Taskwarrior were lost because I just didn't have enough complication to track. Now I just use todo.txt and that seems to cover everything I need.

Do you mean the "todo.txt" CLI (https://github.com/todotxt/todo.txt-cli), or just a file you edit manually?

I've used the todo.txt CLI on and off, sometimes in collaboration with my (shameless plug) "friends" CLI (https://github.com/JacobEvelyn/friends) for "tasks" that are social in nature. But I always seem to come back to paper todo lists.

Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#57

Post by rayiner »

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #30
marpstar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, it's peace-of-mind. If I write it down, I don't have to keep it in memory.

Yes I can see that happening, but do you also get stressed out by a long list of things to do? This maybe leads to avoiding the todos and then you are worse off for making a list in the first place?

For me it’s the opposite. Knowing that I have things to do but not having them written down in one place makes me anxious. Once I reliably started tracking everything (in Trello), that anxiety went away. I feel free to focus 100% on the task in front of me, without worrying about keeping the next tasks in my head.

Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#58

Post by Shank »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #32
awavering wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the most basic, it makes sure you don't forget things you have to do. There are secondary benefits like prioritizing and identifying blockers which help you work more efficiently.

I'm tending to believe a traditional ToDo is too naive, too one-dimensional. Tasks are a function of: - priority - completion time - complexity For example, if I'm fresh I should choose something that's complex and I have the time for. A higher priority (depending on deadline) might take less brain CPUs so maybe it waits. Thinking of things simply in terms of priority ignores the most important component: your brain.

This is actually a primary motivator behind how GTD works. Offload things you'll forget to a system you trust. Prioritize based on importance, completion time, complexity, and when and where you can do the work. If something requires your utmost attention and focus, you probably can't do it an hour before bedtime. You also can't do it in the middle of the freeway.

If you just have a todo list, though, you run the risk of stressing yourself out about the items on the list. And that's kinda defeating the point.

Re: Taskwarrior, where have you been all my life?

#59

Post by madeuptempacct »

jecxjo wrote: post #29

I use to use Taskwarrior, using all its features until one day my work life lost all complexity. At that point I felt like all the key features of Taskwarrior were lost because I just didn't have enough complication to track. Now I just use todo.txt and that seems to cover everything I need.

Very much this. "[]Change brake pads" is all the complexity I need on a task list. If I have a huge list of sub-items, it just goes into car-to-dos.txt.

Just read some of the comments - burn down charts? Dependencies? This isn't scrum. Looks like people are just looking for a way to procrastinate more by organizing super fancy to do lists.

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