Better task management using special symblos and a Kanban-style pane

[Galaxy_Emperor]

The idea is similar to Proletarian Task Wizard plugin - the plugin parses all checkboxes in all of your notes and puts them to a special pane, where you can manage them by drag’n drop.
When you change or delete a task in this pane, it is changed or deleted in the note as well.

BUT.
What if u have about 10k notes with checkboxes? And what if not all of them are actually tasks?

That’s why we shall introduce a custom symbol for a “task to be managed” or a new checkbox state (supervised).

The profit: you can type your task in any note, on the go. One click - and you see your inbox with all the tasks from all the notes which can be managed like Kanban cards and organized into categories that u define.

[Tu2_atmanand]

I think Task Board plugin is the very close thing to this right now. Also there is CardBoard plugin, which is already in the market place.

The drag and drop feature is coming very soon in the Task Board plugin, and it will be soon released in the Obsidian community plugins.

@Galaxy_Emperor

see your inbox with all the tasks from all the notes which can be managed like Kanban cards and organized into categories that u define.

To define into custom categories, you can create all the columns as namedTag in the Task Board plugin and enter the tag which you have assigned to those taks. The respective tasks will be visible in your respective columns. Also all non-tagged tasks will be under the UnTagged column. Drag and drop will make it much powerful, by just dropping into the specific column, the task’s tag will be changed to that of the columns tag.

@Galaxy_Emperor

That’s why we shall introduce a custom symbol for a “task to be managed” or a new checkbox state (supervised).

So, basically we can create a checkbox using three different ways :

- [ ] 
+ [ ] 
* [ ] 

In the Task Board plugin, if you want the task to appear on the Kanban board, you will only have to use - [ ] type. The rest two will be ignored, giving the user power to decide which tasks should be scanned by the Task Board plugin.
There are different types of checkboxes, will be added in this plugin at later stage for example :

- [ ] to-do
- [/] incomplete
- [x] done
- [-] canceled
- [>] forwarded
- [<] scheduling
- [?] question
- [!] important
- [*] star
- ["] quote
- [l] location
- [b] bookmark
- [i] information
- [S] savings
- [I] idea
- [p] pros
- [c] cons
- [f] fire
- [k] key
- [w] win
- [u] up
- [d] down

But your suggestion gave a good feature idea, where user can be given the option to select what type of symbol they want to use as checkbox, and only tasks with this checkbox should be shown on the board.

[Galaxy_Emperor]

Thank you so much for the detailed answer!
Didn’t expect the community to answer so fast))

I shall try both plugins and follow your recommendations first, maybe these two are exactly what i missed.

The idea of a special task-symbol is also important because u may have lots of checklists in the same vault (not tasks-parsed as tasks-huge mess, especially for non-folder PKM systems with tags and so on instead). Also, if u have about 20k long notes the plugins usually crashes.

Maybe something can be borrowed from the Reminder plugin - it parses @-symbols and creates a list of notifications - all in one place but from all the notes in Vault. The idea is that a symbol should be rare, non previously used. Or a customzable one. With a hotkey assigned, to create tasks on the go

Thank you once again!

[Tu2_atmanand]

@Galaxy_Emperor

Also, if u have about 20k long notes the plugins usually crashes.

Yeah, I forgot to mention this. If you have that many notes, don’t use the CardBoard plugin right now. It has that limitation, where it basically loads all the tasks, every time you open the CardBoard, and when you close and open the Obsidian application itself. The original developer might solve it in future.

To solve this issue and also to integrate various other features I have in mind, I developed my own plugin, by getting inspired from it. Also I have various future plans with the Task Board, which you can see in the Roadmap here : Task Board Dev · GitHub

@Galaxy_Emperor

Maybe something can be borrowed from the Reminder plugin - it parses @-symbols and creates a list of notifications - all in one place but from all the notes in Vault. The idea is that a symbol should be rare, non previously used. Or a customizable one. With a hotkey assigned, to create tasks on the go

Love to see a like minded person here. These are actually my way of doing tasks management in Obsidian. And these are some of the motivation for developing Task Board. Also I’ll be focusing on project management (which will be group of tasks, and task can be itself a project) in future.

But yes, Reminder plugin integration with Task Board is in the Roadmap, so user can select, which tasks should be reminded and which should a simple tasks. Also, to make the task adding workflow easier, I created the Edit Task Popup, which you can open using command or hot-key. But yes, your cursor has to be inside the editor where you want to add the task. In future, you will have the feature, to add temporary tasks on the go from any window in Obsidian.

Your post has given me various new ideas to implement in Task Board. And new suggestions and feature requests are always welcome, will surely help me to create a versatile plugin : Create a Request | Task Board Documentation

[Galaxy_Emperor]

I have no coding skills, but when it goes to feedback - u are welcome)))
Also posted some requests here, may be you will find something useful:

Make "Spaces" by Make.md a separate plugin or develop another one with the same functions, but fast and lightweight

The Make.md plugin is a GREAT project. I like it so much! But: imho, what most users need is its Spaces function. Spaces by Make.md really supercharge Obsidian: alternative, fully customizable file manager, alternative workspaces, great folder notes where you can custom sort notes by drag and drop, colors and emoji for files, notes that can exist in several folders at the same time and so on - there are lots of great ideas implemented! Spaces is 1/5 of the plugin itself. And here is where the…

Insert a custom symbol(s) by a custom hotkey under the cursor position

Some plugins require to insert an emoji or a rare symbol, demanding to switch the language in order to type it. It is very uncomfortable, especially when u have to repeat the same procedure over and over, or a combination is long and complicated. What if we could assign a hotkey to any symbol or a group of symbols? One click - and it appears where cursor position. It could save so much time!

Wish you all the best with plugin approval and development!)

[Galaxy_Emperor]

Hello!

I tested your plugin and found it amazing!
You practically embodied my idea of task management literally!

I wrote a long review to tell you what I liked and disliked about the plugin.
And then I reread it and deleted…
Because there’s a new idea that doesn’t need to fix anything in the plugin.

To implement it, we will need to combine Kanban plugin, Hover editor and your Task Board parsing and sorting algorithms.
The Kanban plugin will become an interface, thus “one window for managing all tasks.”
Your plugin could become a bridge for connecting the GTD system with kanban.
And Hover editor will add depth and adaptability to everything.
A new plugin? Well…

Imagine a standard kanban plugin.
We open it and see beautiful columns that you can create and customize as you like.
And the cards in these columns are with drag and drop.
All that remains is to add the ability to color kanban cards and columns in different colors, similar to obsidian canvas, but this is secondary.
This is often more convenient than color tags. But they are also in kanban.

Now imagine that we have a Hover editor installed, which allows you to edit notes directly from their pop-previews of wiki-links and embedded notes.
Although it is implemented strangely in embedded notes, a separate window opens, but it would be much more convenient to edit it immediately in the embedded fragment.

We went crazy, became GTD enthusiasts, and decided to add and manage all our tasks to kanban like true geeks.
We create a title, write the text of the task under it, and then go to kanban, create a card, and through ![[Note#Task1]] embedding the title of our task in the card.
At the same time, somehow the text that appears in the note immediately below the items of our task is not captured.

And so we get a kanban and in it a colored (optional) task card, which we can change without leaving the kanban.
Moreover, we can open the note to which the card belongs in a separate window with one click.
And if the task has a link to subtasks with subtasks of subtasks… this is not a problem with Hover editor.
At the same time, everything is from one window.
There can be several kanbans for different types of tasks.
The load on the system is minimal.
So far, we have added only:

1. Color cards and columns
2. Avoiding capturing text in embed that does not relate to the task, but follows immediately after it.
3. Perhaps we were able to make Hover editor allow you to edit embeds without highlighting them in a separate window, but directly in the embed itself (secondary importance).

5
Embedding each task individually takes a long time.
In addition, if there are a lot of notes, the plugin will start slowing down the system by scanning the Vault.
And that’s where your parsing algorithms are needed.
And I don’t need my old idea with a unique symbol(((

The plugin never scans the storage at all and does not load the system, even if there are a million notes in it.
It parses only hotkey clicks.
A header of size 6 appears on the hotspot (if it is possible to embed a fragment of a note without a header, it will be fine)
For this header, an embed is immediately automatically created in a certain column of a certain kanban according to the user’s custom rules.
After that, the plugin forgets about the work done and continues to sleep.
He does not need to provide a link between the lock and the task - there is a Hover editor for this.

6. Additionally:
   You can manage task time and tags through the standard features of kanban and its integration with other plugins.
   Your algorithms for parsing hashtags, dates, and other things can also be included here so that tasks are distributed across different kanban columns.
   At any time, any cards can be dragged manually, and at any time they can be sorted again according to the defined rules at the touch of a key (as in your plugin)
   If sorting is needed, the plugin will start analyzing, but only the cards that are included in the kanban, and not the entire vault, which will significantly reduce the load.

7. The result:
   We don’t need to write an interface for the task management window - we manage it from the Kanban plugin.
   We don’t need to parse the storage - tasks are created immediately, immediately go to the desired category, and then the plugin forgets about them.
   The function of synchronizing the text of the task card and the text of the task in the note is solved thanks to Hover editor
   The same plugin allows you to open and edit an unlimited number of nested tasks from one window, including other kanbans…
   we don’t need to write drag and drop and redesign the interface for cards - there is a Kanban plugin with its UI.
   We do not need to register integrations with other plugins - they are available in the Kanban plugin and they are enough.

Imagine what opportunities this opens up!

[Tu2_atmanand]

Really appreciate for sharing your thoughts on Task Board and the idea you have come up with all these three plugins you mentioned. After laying down all the features you have mentioned in an organized manner and after a little more brainstorming, a new plugin can surely be build to achieve this task management workflow. Any developer who would find this interesting and who has the knowledge of Kanban plugin might like to take this idea forward.

Talking about me, I don’t have any plan of integrating my contribution with the Kanban plugin. As, I think the integration might become too complex, after seeing the codebase of Kanban plugin, atleast for me. So, anyone who will be interested doing this, might create it.

But now let me take some time to share my ideas about task management in Obsidian and talk a little bit more about Task Board plugin. I think integration of Task Board and Kanban plugin might not be necessary at all, as a new feature in my roadmap called Markdown board, which should work almost similar to Kanban boards. So, basically, when you will create this type of board in the Task Board window, all the tasks added inside this board, will go to a single markdown note. Additionally, there will be some automation features and the usual automation features of Task Board. But yes, the only thing you will be missing here, as you mentioned, you won’t able to double-click on the card and edit there itself, for that you can use either Hover editor plugin or the built-in Edit Task popup. While I was using Kanban plugin long back, I actually wasn’t feeling that comfortable doing this. But it’s worth to mention that, the Editor you see inside those cards, when you double-click on them, is actually a genius implementation of a markdown editor from scratch. I really loved what they did.

The biggest feature, which I think will going to give Task Board a productivity boost, is the Drag and drop feature for cards. After I implement this, I have to re-think on how the workflow in this plugin will look like and where I will move forward from there, although the original idea will be going to remain the same mostly, I believe, which is explained below.

The two main idea/methodologies for building this plugin are :

1. Kanban Methodologies. (But there is a catch here)
2. GitHub Project Planning.

1. Kanban Methodology

Here I am not referring to the Kanban plugin, although it is actually doing what Kanban methodology is supposed to be, but there are few missing gems in this plugin.

As you all know, Kanban methodology is basically putting down all your tasks in the form of cards and arranging them together, mostly in the form of Columns to indicate they belong to a similar property. It may be similar project, due date, priority, stages during development cycle, etc. And you can arrange this cards in a particular column, based on their priority. And, you can color this cards, to indicate certain property of that card, like that task is related to certain area (this is what is missing in Kanban by default, but I saw, someone made nice UI by assigning colors to cards based on tags). So, now once all your tasks has been organized on this Kanban board, your task management workflow becomes easy.

Few things I struggled with Kanban plugin :

• I like to give short titles to my task, but there are often tasks, where I have to explain more about them, add images to the task, add links to documents, etc. Now I can do this inside the card itself, but then the height of the card will become too lengthy or even if I use folding sections, again it won’t look solid enough and there will be additional handwork I have to do from my end to make the cards look better, which is distracting me from focusing on the whole workflow itself.
• Second is although the in-built is editor is excellent, it’s not exactly like the normal Obsidian live editor.
• Third thing, (which I mentioned as a catch, in Kanban Methodology itself) is no automation. Kanban methodology is supposed to be static, so only the user himself can move the cards and change the properties, but there are some rare cases, when the project becomes very complex and big and there is often a need to have some automation in your management, so you get dynamic workflow. This is where the next point comes into the picture.
• I wanted the power of GitHub Project Planning inside Obsidian, which would had been really difficult to implement with this plugin. (explained below)

I referred this for learning about Kanban Methodologies : Kanban - Agile Methodology - GeeksforGeeks

2. GitHub Project Planning

This is basically the interface you see when you visit my Task Board GitHub project. Here you can notice few things :

• The normal Kanban methodology has been very well implemented, just like the Kanban plugin.
• The UI is very polished. (I actually got inspiration for my card’s design from here).
• But the most interesting thing, there is a new pop-up which slides in when you click on any card title. This was an amazing feature to have because :
  • You can edit each and every property about the task from here.
  • The field for task title is separate and to explain more about the task (task description) is separate. But that’s not it, what I really found amazing about this pop-up is that you can add comments, when you do the timestamp is recorded, when you make any change to the task, say, you change its tag, or change its due date everything is recorded. Now, this might not be a very interesting feature for most user, but for me, it’s a game changer. And image, what if each of this comment adding editor (or description editor) is actually a live editor like Obsidian. You won’t need to switch between editor and preview, the hard work is gone.
  • Another extraordinary feature, for those who know, is workflows. You can set certain pre-defined rules, say, once the task is overdue, change its tag A to tag B. This is a basic example, but the possibilities are endless, to automate your task management workflow.

I have also talked more about the use case of this workflow here : Porting Obsidian to C++ and Legal Issues - #15 by Tu2_atmanand

So that what is missing in Kanban plugin as well as Kanban methodology at present, the automation. And this is what the Task Board will be focused on.

Now, integrating all this won’t be going to make the plugin that bloated. But still, to enhance its performance, and since I am making this plugin available to Obsidian user, I will be obviously building all this features as optional, so users can turn them off, as and when they like it.

(Wow, I went really deep into this and didn’t realize, how much I wrote. It will be a great idea to compile all of these writing and post it on Task Board docs, so new visitors will get the idea and vision behind this plugin. I’ll post it soon)

[Galaxy_Emperor]

@Tu2_atmanand

Wow, I went really deep into this and didn’t realize, how much I wrote

Thanks again for the detailed anser!) In this case, the longer - the better! I did the same, actually, so thanks for covering my ideas in your reply))

U mau also introduce your text it as a tutorial (like a test project in Projects plugin, here can be a test board).
For those who ignore documentation and try to deal on their own (for IT specialists it sounds strange, but such lazy people exist)