I’ll give this a shot since he went through the trouble of creating a vscode extension for it.
A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
21–30 of 115 posts
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#22I am just getting more and more convinced that any personal todo list is useless. Most useless part is priorities on personal list. If something like utility invoice is to be paid - just do it. If it is something like "read Anna Karenina" it is not getting any priority ever it is just something I would like to do in my life. So stuff that really needs to be done I will deal with without any todo list I will just reme…
My problem is that I'll never remember to do those things on my own. I have repeating items for things that seem obvious but that life experience has demonstrated that I just can't track on my own. I wish I could remember to order flowers for my wife in time for them to be delivered before our anniversary, but I won't. A todo app for me is a lifesaver: instead of being all stressed out that I'm forgetting something i…
Isn't a repeating calendar event with an alert a better tool for this? But then you have to remember to check your calendar or to do the thing that alert you just snoozed/ignored was reminding you to do. Don't forget to check your todo list from time to time...
I have the same problem as you, of remembering things I need to do. But I've not found todo lists to actually help, in fact I find if I take too much time to maintain the list, I have less time to spend doing the things I'm supposed to do.
Kind of like remembering phone numbers. I don't know anyone's phone number anymore, because I don't have to, because I have a place that I can store them all. The difference is that the phone dials it for me when I tap it; my todo list doesn't carry out the tasks I write on it, but it does help me to forget them faster!
It's some mixture of https://xkcd.com/1906/, https://xkcd.com/927/ and https://xkcd.com/1319/
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#23I am just getting more and more convinced that any personal todo list is useless. Most useless part is priorities on personal list. If something like utility invoice is to be paid - just do it. If it is something like "read Anna Karenina" it is not getting any priority ever it is just something I would like to do in my life. So stuff that really needs to be done I will deal with without any todo list I will just reme…
I have a completely different approach. My personal TODOs are of different type: they are necessary, non-immediate, with varying emotional load (pleasant-unpleasant). I manage them using a combination of calendar and at-based reminders. These include things like teeth cleaning, cancelling a subscription, calling my parents for their anniversary and so on. I simply wouldn't be able to remember all these things without reminders, there are just too many of them.
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#24For a standalone CLI, I still prefer https://github.com/todotxt/todo.txt-cli - probably because there are Android and iOS clients for it, and it's based around a bash script.
For vim, I just use vim-wiki, which is a superset of this functionality.
Of course, looking through this thread, there's lots of different options. Which is cool.
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
My problem is that I'll never remember to do those things on my own. I have repeating items for things that seem obvious but that life experience has demonstrated that I just can't track on my own. I wish I could remember to order flowers for my wife in time for them to be delivered before our anniversary, but I won't. A todo app for me is a lifesaver: instead of being all stressed out that I'm forgetting something i…
Isn't a repeating calendar event with an alert a better tool for this? But then you have to remember to check your calendar or to do the thing that alert you just snoozed/ignored was reminding you to do. Don't forget to check your todo list from time to time... I have the same problem as you, of remembering things I need to do. But I've not found todo lists to actually help, in fact I find if I take too much time to…
I find a TODO list useful for those things that need to be done today as well as others sometime in the next two weeks. For whatever reason, it can't be done today but it does need to happen. Putting a reminder on my calendar sometimes works for me and sometimes doesn't depending on what other supporting actions or information or whatever go along with it. If the calendar reminder pops up and I'm not "ready" to work on that it can get lost. On my TODO list, I see a constant reminder that the due date is coming and I can ensure that I find the time to complete it. I'm not always the best at looking well ahead on my calendar.
That's how my mind works, YMMV.
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#26How does this compare with TaskPaper, like https://guide.taskpaper.com/getting-started/ ? TaskPaper is sophisticated enough that OmniFocus can use it as a serialization format.
I’ve never used TaskPaper, but the capabilities of the data format look somewhat similar.
I think the difference is primarily a philosophical one: [x]it! is a file format with a formal specification that’s open source.[1] There is no “canonical” tool for it, the idea is rather that tools can be created separately. That should give users the freedom to work with their data independent of specific tools.
[1] https://github.com/jotaen/xit/blob/main/Specification.md
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#27Why use this over orgmode?
do you use orgmode outside of emacs? I tried a port to vscode once and it was not usable.
I like EasyOrg as you do not need to use Emacs. It also has a useful agenda.
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#28I am just getting more and more convinced that any personal todo list is useless. Most useless part is priorities on personal list. If something like utility invoice is to be paid - just do it. If it is something like "read Anna Karenina" it is not getting any priority ever it is just something I would like to do in my life. So stuff that really needs to be done I will deal with without any todo list I will just reme…
My experience is that physical to-do lists are great for sitting down, surveying what needs doing, and deciding what you’re going to do today. Including decisions like “I did not read any of Anna Karenina yesterday but I still want to do this so I am putting it on today’s list, and while I am thinking about this I took 5s to take it off the shelf and put it by the comfy reading chair”. And things like “laundry is gon…
> Digital to-do lists are where tasks go to die.
I also am becoming convinced of this.
The issue is that you can keep adding to them. And if you’re the digital hoarder type - hello, my friend Alex! - you can never delete the old crap. So now you have this utterly unachievable list of things that seemed like a good idea at the time. And which have lost context due to time, so now you barely even remember what you meant.
I introduced Alex to Things.app’s feature whereby you can mark a task as ‘Cancelled’. So it takes it off the list, but you’re not pretending that you did it. I hope that helps him.
Me, I use slips of paper and a pencil. On my desk the slips closest to me are those that I’m doing, or should do, now. When there’s too much paper, it’s obvious. Throwing away (by sticking it on the spike) a piece of paper feels good. It’s just a piece of paper.
Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#29Re: A plain-text file format for todos and check lists
#30I am just getting more and more convinced that any personal todo list is useless. Most useless part is priorities on personal list. If something like utility invoice is to be paid - just do it. If it is something like "read Anna Karenina" it is not getting any priority ever it is just something I would like to do in my life. So stuff that really needs to be done I will deal with without any todo list I will just reme…
Normal human brain can’t remember that much. It also helps to write down everything that needs to get done first, so that you can prioritize between them.
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