This will probably be the last post about migrating from Things to toodledo, as I've got all my most frequently-used workflows automated at this point
The last thing I needed to do after migrating all my data and automating task intake from Mail was automating the addition of new information from Mail to an existing Toodledo task.
The specific use case is that I've already got a task tracked in Toodledo and there is email traffic concerning it - some with important information I'd like to easily reference - but the task isn't done yet. How do you make that information easily referenced? The most useful way in my opinion is to save a link to that message along with some metadata about it, in the note of the Toodledo task.
To do that quickly, I wrote a little Applescript that fishes out the date, the sender, and the message id, and puts that information on the clipboard with the message id embedded in a clickable link. Now you just have to go to the task in toodledo and hit the paste key, and you're all set.
As with my new task creation script, I use Mail Act-On to bind execution of this script to a hot-key and simultaneously chuck the message into an archiving folder - keeping me from mousing as much and keeping my inbox clean.
Here's the script - Copy Message Link.scpt - hopefully you find it useful
Cheers!
-Mike
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
GTD - intake automation with Toodledo and Mail.app
I'm still in the process of converting my task workflows from Things to Toodledo, for reasons mentioned previously
One of the most important things for me is to have an automated workflow for task intake from email people send me to my task management application.
For Mail.app (my email application) I use Mail Act-On so that I can have a keyboard shortcut run an Applescript. For Toodledo I use Applescript to create a new email message to my Toodledo email address for new task creation, and I prepulate the email with the original subject, and an email body that contains information about who the email was from, when it turned up, and then a URL that will open the email in Mail.app if clicked.
I leave the message open so I can edit the Subject line (adding toodledo email syntax about when it is due and what folder to put it in etc) then I send it away and move the message out of my Mail.app inbox into a "to-process" folder where things are archived
The end result is a new toodledo task with a note that contains a link that will open the message. Fabulous.
Here's the script
One of the most important things for me is to have an automated workflow for task intake from email people send me to my task management application.
For Mail.app (my email application) I use Mail Act-On so that I can have a keyboard shortcut run an Applescript. For Toodledo I use Applescript to create a new email message to my Toodledo email address for new task creation, and I prepulate the email with the original subject, and an email body that contains information about who the email was from, when it turned up, and then a URL that will open the email in Mail.app if clicked.
I leave the message open so I can edit the Subject line (adding toodledo email syntax about when it is due and what folder to put it in etc) then I send it away and move the message out of my Mail.app inbox into a "to-process" folder where things are archived
The end result is a new toodledo task with a note that contains a link that will open the message. Fabulous.
Here's the script
Friday, May 6, 2011
GTD - migrating from Things to Toodledo - exporting Things data
I'm migrating from Things to Toodledo for task-tracking, in order to satisfy a couple of new (to me) use cases that I can't handle with Things, but that it appears Toodledo will allow me to handle.
I have more than 3500 completed tasks in Things though, and I treasure my ability to search through the completed tasks to turn up info used for new tasks. It isn't acceptable to me to lose that data in the transition, but I don't want to have multiple task apps, so I want to migrate all of my data from Things to Toodledo.
Things supports certain things Toodledo doesn't, so the first thing you have to do is alter your Things data so it's in a style Toodledo can accept, and that may be imported well.
First thing is that Toodledo doesn't really support Projects. It supports "Goals" but to tell you the truth, migrating that data isn't easy, and I didn't attempt it. I simply made my Projects into Areas on Things, and moved the tasks in Things to those Contexts.
Toodledo also doesn't support delegation the same way Things does. In order to migrate your delegates, the best way I could think of to map it was to have a "Delegated" Context, and then take the Things delegate's name and tag the thing with it. That way you can search for specific delegates on Toodledo post-migration, and you'll know something is delegated, at least.
On Toodledo, you'll need to create Folders for each Area from Things, along with the "Logged" and "Delegated" contexts.
The second thing is that Toodledo doesn't allow you to import completed tasks. This is troublesome for me because I want that history. I settled on putting all my completed tasks in a "Logged" context so at least I could get them in Toodledo, then mark them all completed later.
Finally, Things URL format in notes needs massaging in order to generate clickable links on the toodledo site, and I implemented some logic to do so.
That's about it - if you run this Applescript from within Things, once for the "Next", "Someday" and "Logbook" lists, uploading to the toodledo site each time, you'll have all your data in there.
Then you just need to mark the things in the "Logged" Context as completed, and you've finished your migration. I used TaskSurfer to do that since the interface was so fast for completion-marking.
Cheers
I have more than 3500 completed tasks in Things though, and I treasure my ability to search through the completed tasks to turn up info used for new tasks. It isn't acceptable to me to lose that data in the transition, but I don't want to have multiple task apps, so I want to migrate all of my data from Things to Toodledo.
Things supports certain things Toodledo doesn't, so the first thing you have to do is alter your Things data so it's in a style Toodledo can accept, and that may be imported well.
First thing is that Toodledo doesn't really support Projects. It supports "Goals" but to tell you the truth, migrating that data isn't easy, and I didn't attempt it. I simply made my Projects into Areas on Things, and moved the tasks in Things to those Contexts.
Toodledo also doesn't support delegation the same way Things does. In order to migrate your delegates, the best way I could think of to map it was to have a "Delegated" Context, and then take the Things delegate's name and tag the thing with it. That way you can search for specific delegates on Toodledo post-migration, and you'll know something is delegated, at least.
On Toodledo, you'll need to create Folders for each Area from Things, along with the "Logged" and "Delegated" contexts.
The second thing is that Toodledo doesn't allow you to import completed tasks. This is troublesome for me because I want that history. I settled on putting all my completed tasks in a "Logged" context so at least I could get them in Toodledo, then mark them all completed later.
Finally, Things URL format in notes needs massaging in order to generate clickable links on the toodledo site, and I implemented some logic to do so.
That's about it - if you run this Applescript from within Things, once for the "Next", "Someday" and "Logbook" lists, uploading to the toodledo site each time, you'll have all your data in there.
Then you just need to mark the things in the "Logged" Context as completed, and you've finished your migration. I used TaskSurfer to do that since the interface was so fast for completion-marking.
Cheers
GTD - migrating from Things to Toodledo - why?
As mentioned previously, I'm not a strict GTD follower, but I'm not far from it and I am an obsessive task-list-maker. It's the only way I reliably get things done.
I've been using Things from Cultured Code for a long time - long enough to have created and completed 3617 tasks, actually - and it has worked fantastically for me. I love the interface, and it works well.
However, it does not have cloud sync working yet (though I understand it is in beta), and even with cloud sync it doesn't handle delegation or 3rd-party information sharing well. That was never a problem for me before, but I recently has a new use case turn up as a requirement for me and my task list: I needed to provide visibility into my tasks to 3rd parties.
To me, that means that 3rd parties should be able to look at my task list at any time, with no extra effort on my part. Requiring effort on either my part or the 3rd parties part would be too inefficient for something as constantly used and updated as my task list. Further, it should be possible to swap tasks back and forth with people if I want, with a minimum of effort. Things simply can't handle that.
Some features that Things has which I must maintain are full-featured offline functionality, a feature that eliminates most issue-tracking software like JIRA. I must be able to automate task intake from Mail.app to the task list as I had before. Finally, I must be able to access and modify my task list on my phone, in sync with the list on my desktop.
For all these reasons, I've decided to migrate to Toodledo - it appears to satisfy all these requirements, with the possible exception of good Mail.app -> Toodledo integration, but I'm aware of a couple ways to do it already just not quite as good as I like yet. At present it appears I'll use Toodledo's web site for 3rd party access, their iPhone app for phone access, and TaskSurfer for a desktop client. I'll continue to use Mail Act-On for Mail.app integration and I will either use Toodledo's email interface for task queueing from Mail.app, or I'll figure out how to drive TaskSurfer via Applescript.
The next couple posts will detail the scripts I've written in order to implement the migration from Things to Toodledo so that I don't lose my existing data from completed Things tasks as well as Things in progress.
I've been using Things from Cultured Code for a long time - long enough to have created and completed 3617 tasks, actually - and it has worked fantastically for me. I love the interface, and it works well.
However, it does not have cloud sync working yet (though I understand it is in beta), and even with cloud sync it doesn't handle delegation or 3rd-party information sharing well. That was never a problem for me before, but I recently has a new use case turn up as a requirement for me and my task list: I needed to provide visibility into my tasks to 3rd parties.
To me, that means that 3rd parties should be able to look at my task list at any time, with no extra effort on my part. Requiring effort on either my part or the 3rd parties part would be too inefficient for something as constantly used and updated as my task list. Further, it should be possible to swap tasks back and forth with people if I want, with a minimum of effort. Things simply can't handle that.
Some features that Things has which I must maintain are full-featured offline functionality, a feature that eliminates most issue-tracking software like JIRA. I must be able to automate task intake from Mail.app to the task list as I had before. Finally, I must be able to access and modify my task list on my phone, in sync with the list on my desktop.
For all these reasons, I've decided to migrate to Toodledo - it appears to satisfy all these requirements, with the possible exception of good Mail.app -> Toodledo integration, but I'm aware of a couple ways to do it already just not quite as good as I like yet. At present it appears I'll use Toodledo's web site for 3rd party access, their iPhone app for phone access, and TaskSurfer for a desktop client. I'll continue to use Mail Act-On for Mail.app integration and I will either use Toodledo's email interface for task queueing from Mail.app, or I'll figure out how to drive TaskSurfer via Applescript.
The next couple posts will detail the scripts I've written in order to implement the migration from Things to Toodledo so that I don't lose my existing data from completed Things tasks as well as Things in progress.
GTD - intake automation with Things and Mail.app
I'm not a strict Getting Things Done / GTD follower, but I do try to keep my inbox from becoming my todo list. It's easy to slide into that habit, but the inbox can't tell you anything about deadlines or priorities, so I really like to have a task management program outside my mail program, where I can line up tasks based on something besides when someone sent me mail.
I use Things from Cultured Code in order to manage my tasks, and I use Mail.app as an email client. I get mail rapidly enough that the simple act of creating a task in Things in response to a mail takes a significant amount of time each day - a great target for automation.
My first goal was simply to have a keyboard shortcut that would pop up a quick entry task creation dialog for Things in response to an email, while in Mail.app. That's easily done, but while we're automating why not make things significantly better? My definition of "better" here is to create the Things task with the email subject used as the task name, then the task notes prepopulated with a hyperlink to the email, made in a way that is stable no matter where the email is saved. Finally, I want the email automatically moved to an archive folder in Mail.app so my inbox is decluttered. The final bit of glue is the Mail.app plugin "Mail Act-On" which lets you create rules triggered by keyboard shortcuts.
I have a Mail Act-On rule set up in response to Ctrl-T that runs the Applescript I use to automate things, then moves the message to a folder.
All pretty easily done, and something I use all the time. So much in fact that I'm sharing it here - use and enjoy: NewThingsToDo2.scpt
Cheers
I use Things from Cultured Code in order to manage my tasks, and I use Mail.app as an email client. I get mail rapidly enough that the simple act of creating a task in Things in response to a mail takes a significant amount of time each day - a great target for automation.
My first goal was simply to have a keyboard shortcut that would pop up a quick entry task creation dialog for Things in response to an email, while in Mail.app. That's easily done, but while we're automating why not make things significantly better? My definition of "better" here is to create the Things task with the email subject used as the task name, then the task notes prepopulated with a hyperlink to the email, made in a way that is stable no matter where the email is saved. Finally, I want the email automatically moved to an archive folder in Mail.app so my inbox is decluttered. The final bit of glue is the Mail.app plugin "Mail Act-On" which lets you create rules triggered by keyboard shortcuts.
I have a Mail Act-On rule set up in response to Ctrl-T that runs the Applescript I use to automate things, then moves the message to a folder.
All pretty easily done, and something I use all the time. So much in fact that I'm sharing it here - use and enjoy: NewThingsToDo2.scpt
Cheers
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