A simple shell script for effective time management.
-b : start on a break
-c : custom command (defaults to "clear")
-m : toggle MPD on change
-n : notify on change
-s : speak command
-t : show time in tmux status bar
-e : specify time to end at (e.g. 2:45pm today)
-f : specify a configuration file
gtd [ -bcmnst ] [ work length ] [ break length ]
Basically it loops infinitely between periods of work and breaks. For example...
gtd -s 25
Will start a loop with 25 minute periods of work separated by 5 minute breaks. If you give it the -b flag then it starts on a break instead of a working period.
If you don't specify a break length, the script automatically determines how long breaks should be depending on how long you want your working periods to be. I usually use either 25 or 15 minute working periods depending on my mood. The basic formula it uses is just integer division divided by 5. So 25 minute periods have 5 minute breaks and 15 minute periods have 3 minute breaks. An 11 minute period will have a 2 minute break since 11/5 = 2.2 ≈ 2.
The -c, -m, -n, -s and -t flags use commands. The -m flag uses mpc toggle to toggle your mpd client and the -n flag uses libnotify to notify when the period ends. The -s flag enables espeak to speak to you when the period changes. The -c flag uses a custom command, which is clear by default. The -t flag refreshes tmux and updates /tmp/gtd with the time status so that it can be read by tmux. Just read the file somewhere in your tmux.conf status bar configuration somewhere. For example:
set-option -g status-right "#(cat /tmp/gtd)#[fg=colour15,noreverse,bg=colour233] #(date '+%a %m/%d %I:%M %P') "
If you have the at command you can use its syntax to specify an end time with the -e flag. For example:
gtd -e "10:45pm today"
This will stop the script at 10:45pm today. See man at for more syntax options.
The script is easily modifiable to use custom programs or commands if you'd rather not use the defaults. The one exception to this is the tmux integration. For the others, simply set the appropriate variable when starting or in the file ~/.gtdrc. You can use the -f flag if you'd like to use a different file. The configurable variables are provided below. If you use a flag after setting a boolean variable to true it will toggle it, turning it off.
CUSTOM_CMD="clear"
MPD_CMD="mpc -q toggle"
NOTIFY_CMD="notify-send"
SPEAK_CMD="&>/dev/null espeak"
DEFAULT_WORK_LENGTH=${DEFAULT_WORK_LENGTH:-15}
NOTIFY_WORK="\"Get things done.\""
NOTIFY_BREAK="\"Take a break.\""
SPEAK_WORK="$NOTIFY_WORK"
SPEAK_BREAK="$NOTIFY_BREAK"
# Set these to "true" to change the default
DO_BREAK=
DO_CUSTOM_CMD=
DO_MPD=
DO_NOTIFY=
DO_SPEAK=
DO_TMUX=
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