#7

All good points! And a great additional approach to “task” management, to the point of @Alem-B’s original request.

The fact that you use both Things and inline “tasks” (imma keep air-quoting that now) is interesting. I found trouble with OmniFocus because the kinds of tasks you seem to keep in your notes were embedded in a different app I was looking at every 20 minutes. If I was referencing it less often, I would definitely have less of a problem with context-switching.

Hmm.

1 Like
#8

This is an interesting topic, since it’s making me think about my own strategy. Here’s what I’m thinking, so far:

  • Any task that arise out of a train of thought be marked as such e.g.
    • [ ] [[ToDo]] do something
    • This can be simple, complex, the start of an entire project, or anything in between
  • The [[ToDo]] page itself remains blank, but this is where the Backlinks panel is my friend
    • I can see all my tasks as backlinks and there shouldn’t be that many because I’ll be triaging them as follows:
    • Anything that’s complex or big enough that it warrants significant time and potentially a bunch of sub tasks gets entered into my preferred todo app of the moment - Trello, Planner, ToDo, etc. I’ll then simply delete the task in Obsidian, or at least just remove the [[ToDo]] link - or maybe replace the link with a #ProjectTask and maybe a [[Trello]] or whatever task manager link so I keep a reference if I want to go find something. As I engage in the project, any thoughts and notes that arise along the way will find themselves in Obsidian.
    • For anything that’s singular, simple or otherwise fairly quick to execute I’ll keep as a task and use the backlink to go to the originating note, so that I can remind myself of the context within which the task arose and also remove the distractions of other tasks. Again, notes that arise will find themselves in Obsidian and once the task is complete I’ll remove the [[ToDo]] link, but maybe add a #TaskComplete in case I want to reference things that I have done at a later date.
  • For me the ToDo page will always be empty and I’ll rely on the back links to manage clutter.
17 Likes
Follow-Up / ToDo as a First Class Object
In what ways can we form useful relationships between notes [LONG READ]
#9

This is almost exactly the approach I designed for my own use. One issue I have is that sorting the backlinks would be very helpful, ideally chronologically, forward or reverse.

Another advantage of your approach is that the todos show up as single lines, or folded sections, in the backlinks - nice and compact. Contrast this with searching for [ ] or [x], which is quite ugly in the search pane.

2 Likes
#10

Here is what I have for my tasks at the moment which has been working so far - however a few things to note -

  1. I have daily notes enabled with the format YYYY-MM-dd
  2. I have some Keyboard Maestro text shortcuts for easy date entry like /today /date /tom
  3. I also have another shortcut for /todo

My approach is to simply have a single todo.md file which has all my todos in it in the following format -

- [ ] [[PROJECT_NAME]] Task to be done [[Date in YYYY-MM-dd]]

a few other parts of this system -

  • I have a #month section in this Todo file - (not too sure about this yet)
  • I have an “OVERDUE” section in this TODO File - (working through this as well)
  • I have a “DONE” section in my daily note template.

How do I use this system?

  • My TODO file is always open and is pinned
  • My Daily note is open and the backlinks shows me any todos which might be associated for that particular day
  • As I get done with my tasks, I start to move them into the Done section on my Daily Note and remove them from the TODO
  • At the end of the day, I either move the remaining tasks either to a different date - which I don’t usually like or move them to the top of the TODO file into the OVERDUE section
  • If in case I end up writing a task in some other file, I make it a point that I have it linked with [[todo]]
13 Likes
#11

I’ve not found a perfect method yet, and I think I’m going to end up doing ToDo externally to Obsidian. I don’t know if my use case is common or not.

I’ve been using a [[ToDo]] page and modifying it manually. I really like the idea of just tagging the [[ToDo]] page, but I also want a completed record of the things I’ve done, which won’t work well with that method. (May work better when backlinks are sortable.) Granted, my git log will also work as sort of a record, but there are things in my [[ToDo]] that are out of band and would be awkward to make a specific record of in git.

I currently have a directory structure like:

project/
project/notes – Obsidian reads this
project/otherstuff
…

Since Obsidian ignores files it doesn’t understand, I’m free to put anything which falls under the semantic umbrella “notes” in the notes subdirectory regardless of whether it’s intended for Obsidian. (The only real downside so far is that ‘empty’ directories appear in File Explorer, which they probably should.)

So adding additional software to manage something like ToDo isn’t a big deal organizationally. Whether the cognitive load of app-switching will become too burdensome, I’m not sure yet; although I feel like some of that can be ameliorated through changes in workflow.

1 Like
#12

I noticed my checkboxes spawl all over my vault–I’ve taken to greping for something like “- [ ] ” to find uncompleted tasks.

I’ve prototyped a little UI to do a projectional edit from the terminal to “check” the box of a task, but I imagine this best serviced as a plugin “task view” living inside Obsidian. I think some richer support for task due dates/times and an agenda view could be very powerful!

5 Likes
Date/number ranges within search/filter
#13

But you can query tasks within Obsidian! Enter - [ ] in the search bar to see all notes with empty checkboxes. Check them off in preview mode. Enter - [x] to see completed tasks. Much easier than tags, a dummy page, and backlinks, @deftdeg, or am I missing something?

A simple categorization scheme for ToDos is also possible, without any plugins. If you’re trying to avoid context-switching for research and thinking tasks, use the first word after the checkbox to describe the type of activity. i.e. Search for - [ ] Lookup to find your - [ ] Lookup Pangaro's latest paper on cybernetics as well as any other notes that you flagged as needing a source consulted. Search for - [ ] Finish to find - [ ] Finish that paragraph in the introduction and any other editing tasks you’ve flagged. Alternately, if you’re doing directed research toward a set of classes or deliverables, and are likely to work on one per session, use the first word after the checkbox for the project. i.e. Search - [ ] Dissertation to find - [ ] Dissertation: Lookup Pangaro's latest paper on cybernetics.

I can also see checkboxes being an alternative to an inbox folder for processing notes into a Zettelkasten. You might have a template with blank checkboxes for
- [ ] Will make sense to me a year from now
- [ ] Links to related ideas
- [ ] Linked from an index or MOC

Search for unchecked boxes on a weekly basis to find notes you either need to clean up or get rid of.

Haven’t tried this, just thinking out loud. I’m still learning the method and the software! :smile:

12 Likes
#14

I’m a little late to this conversation, but ti would seem this doesn’t work. Sounded great when I read your post, but when I actually try to search for - [ ], nothing. Wonder why that is?

#15

Are you using 0.8.0? There was a bug that’s fixed in the incoming 0.8.1.

#16

Ha! I was literally reading the bug fixes in 0.8.1 when I saw this notification.

#17

So I think one feature that would really make this useful would be only returning one-line in search results. Then you could literally see a list of tasks as search results.

Related: https://forum.obsidian.md/t/choose-number-of-displayed-lines-of-text-in-a-search-result/1065

Two other features that would be helpful, but not necessary:

  • Editable search results
  • Embeddable search queries
3 Likes
Show more context on backlinks and search panes
Is it possible to link to all blocks which are the result of a query?
#18

See my post here for a regex that works to find unfinished tasks in 0.8.0

1 Like
#19

I have 0.8.1. Worked for me in an older version, but looks like now you have to put quotes around it. "- [ ]"

1 Like
#20

I’m thinking of creating tasks as individual notes, and then using an external Python script to scrub through my vault periodically and search for #task tags, and then add those links with a checkbox to my master task lists. Tasks that get tagged as #done would get a strike-through and moved to the bottom of the list.

I intend to keep a few separate lists pinned, and operate them as if they were a Trello board, except I get to own the data, not some other company. I agree with @ryanjamurphy and the @Alem-B: my productivity system will be more efficient if I’m not having to constantly move data between apps.

#21

Fun idea. Please share if you ever set it up!

I once built something similar to extract tasks from notes and import them into OmniFocus. It worked wonderfully until I got tired of managing so many apps.

Perhaps the nicest thing about the workflow you’re imagining is that a note can be a task - just sub in a link after a - [ ].

Some day we’ll have transcludable searches built into Obsidian, so you don’t need the extraneous interval scrubbing.

1 Like
#22

I’m glad it’s planned somewhere in the future. This will allow to make great workflows.

For example, a weekly review:
The weekly review template could have such a transcludable search query that would embed everything under the header # Work Log in all my daily notes of the week.

2 Likes
#23

Man…it would be great if Obsidian could handle taskpaper functionality. Probably not realistic.

I’ve been thinking more and more about tasks at two levels. The surface level, where scheduling appointments and filling out forms and such live. Then the deep project work, where you don’t want to see what’s in the surface level stuff…and it is more functional if it lives within the app/body of work itself…

4 Likes
#24

:grey_exclamation::grey_exclamation::grey_exclamation: exactly!

It doesn’t make sense to stuff a bunch of “think about why the sky is blue” tasks in a task manager, then turn to a couple of documents to do that work. The only reason that’s the paradigm right now is because an alternative hasn’t been tried, I think.

I actually think we’ll get TaskPaper-like functionality as a plug-in pretty soon after the API are public. I might build it myself…

8 Likes
#25

this is my answer to the question: i just embed the web app of my todo app (ticktick) inside an obisidian page using iframe tag.
<iframe width= "1000" height= "500" src="https://ticktick.com/webapp/#q/all/tasks"/>
The only help this does is not having to leave obsidian window to the browser. But to at least some people looking at this post this may just be enough :wink:

4 Likes
#26

I have developed a system. I use it to manage my goals, tasks, and more. You can check it out here: How I use Obsidian to manage my goals, tasks, notes, and software development knowledge base

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