todo.next - a todo.txt command line interface

todo.next is a command line interface for todo lists following the lightweight todo.txt syntax written in Python 2.7. It works on Windows and probably on Linux / MacOS as well (will check eventually - it's on my todo list ;) ).

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • 1. Binary
  • 2. From source
• Differences to other todo.txt programs
• Todo item syntax
• Commands
  • Maintaining todo items
  • Listing todo items
  • Maintaining your todo.txt file
• Supported Properties
• Other todo.txt Resources

Installation

1. Binary

(not yet)

2. From source

Download the sources from gitHub. You need to have Python 2.7 with the modules colorama and dateutil installed. You can then run:

python todo.py [command] [parameters]

A good idea is to create a batch file or alias for the python todo.py part (I created a t.bat batch file for sake of less typing).

Differences to other todo.txt programs

Why another todo.txt program? Mainly it's about scratching my own itch, but I feel that I'm not the only one who often wished todo.txt to have

• Dates AND times. All dates (e.g. due, done and created) are set using the key:value property syntax and not (as done in todo.txt) prepended to the todo item text. They support specifying optionally the time of a day. I consider the property syntax as a good thing, as I can write them anywhere and more naturally in my todo item, preferably at the end of the text, where they are not that prominently displayed. So, the original todo.txt syntax:

  x 2012-07-06 2012-07-09 @call Tommy and get his patches for +todo.next @code
  

  becomes:

  x @call Tommy and get his patches for +todo.next @code created:2012-07-06_13:45 done:2012-07-09_16:23
  

  Note that the time is appended to the date by an underscore. todo.next allows suppressing the unappealing properties and shorten this line to:

  x @call Tommy and get his patches for +todo.next @code done:16:23
  

• Relative dates. Want to delay a todo item to next friday? No problem, delay fri does that. Tomorrow? Well, there is delay tm. In one year, two weeks, two days and 13 hours? Use the delay +1y2w2d13h syntax.

• Unique IDs. No more line numbers, you can add (unique) IDs to todo items. This makes addressing your todo items more rememberable. In fact, the default settings are so that todo.next will autogenerate unique IDs.

• More weight on reporting. I often want to know the things I did at some point of time. Thus, I also like to "log" the things that never became todo items in the first place to this file by using report items.

• Light-weight time tracking. It is possible to start and stop working on a todo item, which will log the overall duration that you worked on it.

• Dependencies between todo items. You can only start working on your todo after you got some input from a co-worker? todo.next allows you to express that.

• Ability to attach files, URLs and e-mail addresses. You can attach files, URLs and e-mail addresses to todo items and open them via command line. Very handy.

• Markers. You can add any (one) character between parentheses (except priority characters A-Z) to give the todo item additional semantics. E.g. (?) may be an optional todo item that will be decided later on, (i) may contain important information, etc. Let your imagination play!

• UTF-8 support. If you tried several todo.txt-alternatives and they always crashed at your todo item to write a mail to Jürgen, you will know why that's important!

Todo item syntax

The todo.txt syntax has simple rules for representing todo items:

1. One line is one todo item
2. If the line starts with "x ", it is marked as 'done', e.g. x call Tommy about todo.next
3. A todo item can have the priorities (A) to (Z) (upper case) or may be not prioritized. Priorities must be stated at the beginning of the line, e.g. (A) feed the cat
4. A todo item may contain multiple projects and contexts. Projects are prepended with a +, contexts are prepended with a @, neither may contain whitespace.
5. A todo item can have multiple properties (see Supported Properties). Properties' syntax is propertyname:propertyvalue, where neither property name nor value may contain whitespace
6. [Note: Specific to |todo|] If the line starts with "* ", it is a report item, meaning that it just describes a task that was no todo item in the first place. Typically, after having finished a spontaneous task that I worked on, I add it as a report item, e.g. * called Tommy about todo.next
7. [Note: |todo| supports creation dates and done dates via properties, which is more fine-grained and powerful] In todo.txt syntax, creation and done date may be specified at the beginning of the line (but after the other prefixes)

todo.next honours the main syntax rules but, especially for creation and done dates, takes the approach that properties are far more flexible than the syntax rules of todo.txt.

Commands

todo.next has multiple commands that allow viewing and manipulating your todo.txt file. On the first start (if no configuration has been found), todo.next will guide you through the creation of a new configuration, e.g. creating a new todo file or loading an existing one.

After you created a new todo file, you can call todo.next with the following commands:

Maintaining todo items

add:	adds a new todo item to the todo list
attach/detach:	attaches / detaches a file to / from a given todo item
block/unblock:	manages dependencies, e.g. whether you can start working on a todo item only after having finished another item
delay (due):	delays the due date of one or more todo items
done (x)/reopen:	sets the status of one or more todo items to 'done' / resets the 'done' status
edit (ed):	allows editing a given todo item
open:	opens either an URL, a file or mail program depending on information that is attached to the todo item
prio:	assigns given items a priority (absolute like 'A' or relative like '-') or removes it
remove (rm):	removes one or more items from the todo list
repeat:	closes a todo item and creates a copy at some specified time in future
start / stop:	marks a todo item as started / stopped, allows time-tracking while working on todo items

Listing todo items

agenda (ag):	displays an agenda for a given date
context (ctx):	lists all todo items per context
delegated:	shows all todo items that have been delegated and wait for input
list (ls):	lists all items that match the given expression
lsa:	shorthand for list --all
overdue (od):	shows all todo items that are overdue
project (pr):	lists all todo items per project
report (rep):	shows a daily report of all done and report items in a given time frame
search:	lists all current and archived todo items that match the search string
stats:	displays some simple statistics about your todo list
tasked:	shows all open todo items that you are tasked with

Maintaining your todo.txt file

archive:	archives all non-current todo items and removes them from todo list
backup:	backups the current todo file to a timestamped file
check:	checks the todo list for syntactical validity
config:	open todo.next configuration in editor

Supported Properties

todo.next supports several properties:

created:	date and time; automatically added to each newly created item (via add command)
due:	date and time; the due date of the todo item
done:	date and time; automatically added to each done item (via done command)
id:	characters; a unique ID that is automatically added (standard configuration) to each item and can be used to address a specific item
started:	date and time; added to a todo item by the command start. On stop command, the time difference will be calculated and stored in property duration
duration:	number; represents the time in minutes a todo item has taken to work on
blockedby:	reference to other ID; states that this todo item depends on another item with the given ID.

Other todo.txt Resources

• The original todo.txt web site links a plethora of resources and examples. Especially the "Why text-based?" post is good.