LWN: Comments on "Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar"

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

rolandog — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:04:30 +0000

Perhaps an integration could be done by setting the org-todo-keywords like:

;; RFC 5545 compatible keyword sequences; shortcuts of first element in each
;; sequence match those of the capture templates' shortcuts
(setq org-todo-keywords
      '((sequence "NEEDS-ACTION(t)" "IN-PROCESS(i)" "|" "COMPLETED(d)")
        (sequence "TENTATIVE(e)" "|" "CONFIRMED(c)")
        (sequence "DRAFT(j)" "|" "FINAL(f)")
        (sequence "|" "CANCELLED(C)")))

Then, you would modify your workflow and capture templates to handle entries in a 'calendar.org' file:

;; capture templates to accommodate single-file workflow
(setq org-capture-templates
      '(("t" "Todo" entry (file+headline "~/org/calendar.org" "Tasks")
         "* NEEDS-ACTION %?\n   %i\n   %a")
        ("e" "Event" entry (file+headline "~/org/calendar.org" "Events")
         "* TENTATIVE %?\n %i\n   %T\n   %a")
        ("j" "Journal" entry (file+datetree "~/org/calendar.org" "Journal")
         "* DRAFT %?\n   Entered on %U\n   %i\n   %a")))

Also, somehow, translate DEADLINE and SCHEDULED dates with timestamps into iCal properties in a drawer...

And, finally, have some import/export magic to translate between the two, which is easier said than done.

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

amigo421 — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 14:54:11 +0000

I also use Orgzly for mobile and it's perfect for my goals
but I can't find something for the desktop , linux or windows,
a lot of various plugins for the editors(emacs/vim/vscode etc, etc)
all this is the editing for - preparing for the use, but not a using itself.
from my perspective Orgzly is highly adopted for the using:
- reminders
- beautiful rendering

So my primary expectation is a well UI designed task manager for end-users,
something like "desktop Orgzly"

they (users) don't require too much editing but require flexible UI
for popup reminders , with updating statuses, ability to re-schedule,
moving tasks between the lists etc., mostly - visually

is there something for that?

THanks

Taskwarrior with an iCalendar backend

jspricke — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 08:31:28 +0000

> In an ideal world, I would have Taskwarrior with an iCalendar backend, so I could combine the robust text-based tools from Taskwarrior with the attractive web and mobile solutions for iCalendar.

I have written a plugin for Radicale to serve Taskwarrior data through CalDAV:
https://github.com/jspricke/radicale-remind

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

mathstuf — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 13:40:19 +0000

In Tasks (though maybe it's missing in iCal/CalDAV). All I can do is mark a task as "Done". I suppose I could delete, but that doesn't help determine any stats.

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

robbe — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 13:10:55 +0000

Sorry, if I misunderstood. So, in which software package /do/ you lack these features:

> I do wish I had […] and a way to mark tasks as "whoops, missed that"

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

mathstuf — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 14:41:39 +0000

That's useful to know, except I don't track such things in Orgzly. Might be useful for some of my recurring grocery needs though.

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

robbe — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 14:35:03 +0000

> and a way to mark tasks as "whoops, missed that" instead of marking such as
> "done"

In Orgzly, you can define additional states under Settings → Notes & Notebooks → Note → States. Only the TODO/DONE states are available quickly (e.g. via swiping), but editing an entry offers your custom state next to the Flag.

That said, for recurring events like a daily walk, I’d schedule these with a repeat time. It does not matter much to which „done“-like state this kind of task is set: it will stay in TODO indefinitely, just advancing the schedule time to the next occurance.

But you may prefer to generate a list of individual „TODO Take a walk on <2020-07-XX>“ events, set each of these to DONE or MISS, and later do some statistics on that.

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

mathstuf — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 21:06:06 +0000

Thanks for the articles. I've tried to use taskwarrior for many years and the perennial problem of actually using the list continued to be the problem. Now that I have a mobile client, there's a lot more motivation to complete tasks since they "follow me around". I've personally landed on todoman/vdirsyncer and Tasks syncing via my Fastmail account. I also have Orgzly on the phone (also synced to Fastmail, but unused by any other client) for lists. Mainly those involving tasks to do in games I'm playing, shopping lists, or long-term wishlists for things like book and movies.

I do wish I had burndown charts and other statistics like taskwarrior provided and a way to mark tasks as "whoops, missed that" instead of marking such as "done" for those that are more temporally driven (like a daily walk).

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

anarcat — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 13:22:49 +0000

I believe what erwaelde was saying is that you can use org-mode itself for time tracking. I have done that myself, using https://orgmode.org/manual/Clocking-Work-Time.html#Clocki...

It's pretty awesome. I've tried *many* timetrackers (and even wrote a few myself), and this was the simplest, most efficient solution I have found. There are tools to convert this data into something that ledger can understand, and from there billing is a few commands and latex templates away! :)

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

pixelpapst — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 12:36:18 +0000

One thing I still miss after migrating the world from subversion to git is the in-built WebDAV server that exposes the versioning via this standard API.

If we had something like that, we could start designing an extension that provides a CalDAV server, but stores the data in a git backend in org-mode (or Taskwarrior) files, and converts on the fly. (It would probably have to use a specific subset of the format that can hold UUIDs etc.)

I know some Debian folks did something similar for CardDAV about a decade ago, but I'm not aware of anything for CalDAV.

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

weberm — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 07:46:19 +0000

For tracking time, one may look to timewarrior; it comes from the author(s) of taskwarrior as well and integrates with it: https://timewarrior.net/docs/taskwarrior.html

Managing tasks with Org mode and iCalendar

erwaelde — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 06:54:24 +0000

Hello,
nice article! Thank you!

I'm using emacs/org-mode myself, and I got hooked by one single item, for which I needed a solution *now*: clocking times. So I started with that and still do this after all these years. I added tasks, agenda views and more importantly regular reviews only recently.

The main thing imho is this: I (or anyone) needed to establish regular rituals (daily inspection of inqueue; weekly review of what I have done, what I need to do next) to keep on top of my tasks much more than the selection of any particular tool. For me org-mode was a natural choice, because I basically live in emacs.

Cheers,
Erich