t vs Taskwarrior vs Todo.txt

For what little I've used them, t is rather straightforward. taskwarrior is far more detailed. todo.txt is around that level of complexity, but I found it a little more cumbersome than taskwarrior.

For what it's worth:

• taskwarrior
• t
• todo.txt is on deck for this week.

And just for reference, there are lots more out there.

level 2

r0ck0

2 points · 4 years ago

On the taskwarrior thing having the "task" command... it's good because it's short. But the program needs a unique name so that you can search the web for it.

level 3

paulbeckingham

2 points · 4 years ago

Yeah, the binary predated the name. It might get renamed to 'tw' though. Shorter is better, when the program is trying to be low-friction.

level 1

paulbeckingham

4 points · 4 years ago

I use Taskwarrior quite a bit, but then I'm biased.

I have some tips which apply to all though, which you might consider:

• Choose something lightweight. If the app takes 10 seconds to launch, it's not going to encourage you to quickly capture items and notes.
• Choose something that generates the kind of output that you want. Can you sort? Filter? Search?
• Choose something that supports whichever methodology you use. That could be GTD, Pomodoro, and so on - there are many approaches, and you might find yourself changing methodologies, or tweaking them to match your own style.

level 2

elacheche

2 points · 4 years ago

Thanks for your feedback and tips :)

level 1

z-brah

4 points · 4 years ago

BTW, unix comes with all the tools you need:

─── cat -n ~/.todo 
    1  Take a shower
    2  Buy some bananas
    3  Answer the TODO post on reddit
    4  Tidy mail dir
─── sed -i 3d ~/.todo 
─── echo "Do some work" >> ~/.todo 
─── cat -n ~/.todo 
    1  Take a shower
    2  Buy some bananas
    3  Tidy mail dir
    4  Do some work

And as it's nothing more than a file, you can easily read it from elsewhere to display it in conky, or a status bar..

level 2

5225225

1 point · 4 years ago

that format will also work with todo.txt. Todo.txt doesn't really many restrictions on formatting. That format will work fine with todo.txt and any programs deisgned to work with it, but todo.txt also has the ability to set priority, mark something as completed without removing it, and the format is still human-readable, so you could pipe it into conky/a status bar.

https://github.com/ginatrapani/todo.txt-cli/wiki/The-Todo.txt-Format

level 3

z-brah

2 points · 4 years ago

As it's just a file, you can modify it to match the todo.txt rules. Let's take the following file, and see how to match those rules:

─── cat ~/.todo
Reply to TODO comment on reddit
Tidy mail dir
Wash the cat
Buy some bananas

Set task priorities

# add priorities to tasks 3 and 4
─── sed -i '3,4s/^/(A) /' ~/.todo
─── sort ~/.todo
(A) Buy some bananas
(A) Wash the cat
Reply to TODO comment on reddit
Tidy mail dir

# let's change priority
─── sed -i '4s/A/B/' ~/.todo
─── sort ~/.todo
(A) Wash the cat
(B) Buy some bananas
Reply to TODO comment on reddit
Tidy mail dir

Manage completed tasks

# set a task as completed (prepend with a "x", as todo.txt)
─── grep -n banana ~/.todo
4:(B) Buy some bananas
─── sed -i '4s/^\(([A-Z]) \)\?/\1x /' ~/.todo
─── sort ~/.todo
(A) Wash the cat
(B) x Buy some bananas
(C) 2014-06-04 Call John
Reply to TODO comment on reddit
Tidy mail dir

Basically, todo.txt just provides a shell script wrapping all those functions. It's obvious that if you want to mangae a COMPLEX set of tasks, using bare tools can become very handy (see the last sed substitution... you'll get bored quickly :P). I never used todo.txt, because I don't need such a complexity. I mean, if something is done, then I just remove the line. if something is important, I move it to the top of the list, and that's all!

My point was not to say that todo.txt is NOT useful. But that it answer a specific demand: complex task handling + plain text.

For a basic task handling, just stay unixy ;)

level 4

5225225

1 point · 4 years ago

Yeah. But, if you are usually on a mobile, todo.txt provides mobile apps that aren't just a text editor opened on the file. But if all you need is basic tools, vim is a good enough text editor.

Also, the setting it as completed is wrong, the x needs to be at the very start and needs to have the completion date appended to it. The correct form would be
x 2014-06-04 Buy some bananas

level 5

z-brah

1 point · 4 years ago

I was talking about UNIX systems. While android/iOS are "technically" unixy, they're not meant to be used along with the CLI, so my point do not apply.

Also, I misread the documentation, so just replace:

sed -i '4s/^\(([A-Z]) \)\?/\1x /' ~/.todo

with

sed -i "4s/^\(([A-Z]) \)\?/x $(date +%Y-%m-%d)/" ~/.todo

But anyway, that's a bit complex for such a simple task. If all you need is remember 5-6 tasks, then UNIX tools are enough. If you want more (priorities, date, sync with mobile, etc..) then you obviously need something bigger

level 1

soleblaze

3 points · 4 years ago

I moved from todotxt to task warrior a few months ago. Task warrior has some nifty features that work well if you like to do a lot of planning in your task app. Task warrior also handles projects better.

Todotxt is simpler to use and it's easy to write addons for it. If all you need is a list then it would work fine. I had made some modifications to mine that made it easier to deal with projects. Unfortunately, I lost them awhile ago. That's the main reason I switched.

Todotxt has mobile apps for iOS and android. To use them you keep your todotxt file in Dropbox.

I believe there's one android app that works with task warrior and in order to use it you need to setup a task warrior server that your phone can connect to.

level 1

Resquid

2 points · 4 years ago

There's a task manager called t? Aw man, I'm already using sferik's twitter tool t

level 2

elacheche

1 point · 4 years ago

Oups, my fault x( I mean Todo List apps, not task manager.

level 1

sbicknel

2 points · 4 years ago

I’ve used todo.txt. It seems fairly good. It also has a mobile app for android which costs $5? I think. Easy to use.

level 2

5225225

1 point · 4 years ago

Or you can use a version in f-droid that's free. Doesn't sync with dropbox though, you have to manage that yourself.

level 1

alexwh

2 points · 4 years ago

I've been using Todo.txt for about a year or two now. No complaints really, it's pretty simple and has nice mobile apps. I'd recommend it to anyone, but I haven't looked into alternatives like the ones you listed because I haven't had any need to; todo.txt covers everything I need it for.

level 1

edkolev

2 points · 4 years ago

After trying some of these (tw and to do.txt) I settled on a pen and a pocket sized notebook

level 1

rro99

2 points · 4 years ago

alias todo="vim ~/.todo"

level 1

AnAirMagic

2 points · 4 years ago

Have you looked at org-mode?

http://orgmode.org/

level 1

goltoof

2 points · 4 years ago · edited 4 years ago

TaskWarrior has been my go to for some time now. Most important thing with any todo is it's got to be dedicated and trustworthy.
Dedicated in that I have a virtual server that I use for TaskWarrior and nothing else. Trustworthy in that it's incrementally backed up across other machines that also sync tasks with the server. A little overkill I'm sure, but my to do list is just that important to me seeing as my livelyhood depends on many of the projects I manage with it.

TW just has too many features as it is and tons of tools available. Even more so with basic scripting knowledge. I higlhy suggest taking a look.

Whatever you choose, make sure it's backed up and something you can trust.