• David Allen (author) - Wikipedia

#Person #GTD

I’m a designer and front–end developer. I enjoy crafting quality macOS applications on the side. I’m also passionate about industrial design, typography, architecture, and art.

• Personal Website
• GitHub Profile)

He makes an app called Finbar, which I use for searching my menubar from the keyboard.

#Person #iOS #macOS #Development #Swift #Web

https://web.archive.org/web/20060819234608/http://www.43folders.com/2006/06/29/ical-tips/#comment-8784

Planning out my time with iCal calendars and groups, and being able to click back and forth between that planning view and David Allen’s “hard landscape,” is very appealing. I’d forgotten your earlier post on this topic, but I’ll be returning to it for ideas.

The printed calendar I carry with me doesn’t have the kind of detail yours does, but it does have the advantage of giving me four months of schedule in my back pocket. Do you print your calendars to any special size—e.g., for pasting into a Moleskine—or just to letter-sized?

The daily agenda for a trip sounds like a great idea for many (salesmen, in particular), but my trips are almost always focused on a single project. I’m more likely to be juggling appointments on the days I am in front of my computer.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060819234608/http://www.43folders.com/2006/06/29/ical-tips/#comment-8841

Thanks for mentioning iCal. I have ditched eveything else and find that iCal has everything I need for GTD.

It’s a calendar, to-do (to-do’s can be sorted by calendar, too, by the way) list, tickler file (just put “See File under “file name” in the notes field) and, well, everything else that GTD requires.

Here’s the reason I forced iCal to work for me: I don’t carry a PDA, just a sony ericsson phone, and everything that is in iCal, including tasks and alarms, are synced with my phone quickly via iSync. I even have a script to open iSync, sync them, them quit iSync, all by hitting Shift-F8. So I just tap the hotkey when I get to my mac and leave it, and all my stuff is current all the time and very portable, always in my pocket.

Another great thing, it doesn’t just import from iCal to the phone, it syncs them, so when I’m out and I need to add a task, I can do it shorthand on the phone and it will sync to a calendar called “Inbox” in iCal when I sync up.

I would love to use fother fun GTD software, but alas, I don’t need to. If you carry a syncable phone with you everywhere, I highly recommend tweaking iCal to work as your GTD system.

Did I mention there’s tons of little apps and even widgets that let you see your iCal stuff at a glance without bringing up iCal? Very nice.

#TBD…

I was think about switching from #Things to #TaskPaper. Task-management is the last piece where I still don’t use plain text, albeit using Markdown in Things notes (see 2023-12-09_12-09 Things to-do journaling template).

• Why I like Things
  • Nice UI
  • #Markdown support in notes
  • Really good #Shortcuts integration
  • iOS and iPadOS versions, which are at the same level of excellence
  • There is a link to everything
  • No attachments
    • People tend to dislike this. Having no attachments support forces me to have better attachment management in dedicated apps like DEVONthink
• Why I don’t like Things
  • Uses a database
    • Backing Up Your To-Dos - Things Support
    • Every item in the TMTask table includes projects, headers, and to-dos
  • Sync is not end-to-end encrypted
  • No Spotlight integration
    • On the Mac, I periodically run a script which creates .hook files linking back to projects as way to have a fake Spotlight index.
      • 2023-12-10_08-22 Indexing Things with Spotlight

Knowing that the database is fairly easy to understand, I’m a bit more confident that I can export my to-dos out of Things. I can even use the SQLite database directly as an archival format too.

The non-existence of end-to-end encryption is still bugs me though.

I’m an experienced software engineer living in Magdeburg, Germany. Available for projects that match (Swift()/[Objective C]).

• Personal Website
• ZeeZide
• Shrugs.app
  • Native Slack client for the Mac (not maintained anymore)

#Person #iOS #macOS #Development #Swift

Programmers complain about distractions all the time. But when we journal and document our actions, we can drop them in the moment and pick them up later from where we left off. It’s like bookmarks for our lives (see next actions 2.7).

We will also have a history of our actions in the journal, which can be used as a reference when we have to go back in time.

#Journaling #NextActions

Automations should be exported into Git repositories. They have to be installed since most automation tool expects a script, a shortcut, or a macro to be imported into a library, or installed in a special place, but we can still export and assemble files from our tools into a repositories.

Keeping these repositories up-to-date can be a burden, since we have to manually export files. But it’s still beneficial to keep these under version control, since sync problems can happen, so we can go back to a previous version more easily.

• 2023-12-08_17-53-automation-repository-creation Automation repository creation

• Timestamped documentation
  • #TBD…
• A timeline of changes
  • As the idea develops, we can see a timeline of changes in the issue.
  • The timeline of changes is similar to how Zettelkasten threads work. The only difference is that we can’t have indentation with timelines.
• An issue thread is like background information on what decisions we made about our code at a point of time.

• Documentation review should be part of the code review.
  • By forcing us to store the documentation in the same repository, we can keep it up-to-date with the code directly.
  • We can catch missing documentation updates in PRs while doing code reviews.
• The documentation is versioned in a way in Git that ensures it aligns with the same version of the code, thus automatically synchronizing its history with older versions of the app.
• Question: how we can migrate existing documentation from an external wiki into the repository?

#Linking

When committing atomic changes of a “thing”, it has to have the following items included:

• Actual code changes
• Tests/specs
• Documentation
• Reference to an issue number (or a link to an external issue tracking software)

If the commit includes these, we can directly commit it into the main branch.

However, this wouldn’t work in a team setting since it requires too much discipline from other people. Also committing directly to the main branch can be dangerous.

#Development #Linking

PR commits don’t need to be that strict.

Merge commits on the other hand needs to be in a specific format.

• Add an issue number
  • closes or refs issue number
• Add a PR number

This is my standard notes template for journaling about a #Things to-do in its notes.

# 2023-12-09_12-07

Notes about what happened with the to-do…

# 2023-12-09_12-09

Yet more notes about what happened with the to-do…

#Journaling

Source: Hook: getting out of the Dock - Discussion & Help - Hookmark Forum

To display the icon on the Dock:

defaults write com.cogsciapps.hook background.app.mode 0

• #BugsQuestions
  • The problem with the Dock mode is that the Hookmark app still kept active after copying the link.
  • It doesn’t switch back to the original app.
    • LaunchBar has a Dock mode, but it doesn’t steal the focus when it’s activated.

To revert it to be a background only app:

defaults write com.cogsciapps.hook background.app.mode 0

I’m going to keep my interstitial journal separate from my Zettelkasten. My journal doesn’t need Git and all the bells and whistles of my Zettelkasten. I just want to have a simple place to quickly draft ideas.

Some notes may move over to my Zettelkasten, which I can automate, but it’s very private, so I don’t want to accidentally publish something.

#Journaling #TaskPaper #Zettelkasten

People seemingly like Arc because of its tab management. I think it can be replicated with Safari as well using tab groups.

Arc doesn’t even have bookmarks, but Safari does.

• https://resources.arc.net/en/articles/8059643-where-are-bookmarks-in-arc
• https://resources.arc.net/en/articles/6449654-pinned-tabs-tabs-you-want-to-stick-around

1. A bookmark can live in the temporary tab space
2. It can be moved into more specific tab groups
3. From here it can be even bookmarked into my Inbox tab group
4. I can organize the bookmark in my Safari bookmarks, or move it into other apps for long term storage.

I should manage my Pull Requests like this, since they are very important.

I can quickly search today’s notes by typing fdate into The Archive’s omni bar. Typinator will expand today’s date.

I also modified my Open Current Note in Zettelkasten shortcut to give me an option to open the note in The Archive too. I just figured out that it searches for the note and gives me backlinks.

#Shortcuts #Workflow #Journaling

• Start Deep Session
  • #TBD

Follow-up on 2023-12-02_16-34:

I should stop adding URL slugs to my Zettelkasten notes. It’s just adds noise when I’m linking notes with long titles, like this one → 2023-12-08_15-54-increase-your-productivity-on-personal-projects

I could actually support pipes in links, so I wouldn’t see the long URL slug. → 2023-10-17_00-21

Simon Willison is the creator of Datasette, an open source tool for exploring and publishing data. He currently works full-time building open source tools for data journalism, built around Datasette and SQLite.

Prior to becoming an independent open source developer, Simon was an engineering director at Eventbrite. Simon joined Eventbrite through their acquisition of Lanyrd, a Y Combinator funded company he co-founded in 2010.

He is a co-creator of the Django Web Framework, and has been blogging about web development and programming since 2002 at simonwillison.net

• Blog
• GitHub Profile

#Person #Development #Web

• Create a repository for the original shortcuts
  • automation-things-journal
• Journal About Things To-Do
  • Save the Things URL of the selected item
  • Create a new Drafts document with the date, published, things_url, title attributes in the frontmatter
  • I could also create a new text file directly using iA Writer URL schemes, and the Shortcut
    • Get the Things URL
    • Format the frontmatter
      • title → name of the selected Things item
      • date → the current date
      • published → false
      • things_url → URL of the selected Things item
    • Create the Markdown file with a timestamp and a slugged version of the selected Things item
• Open Things To-Do Journal
  • Check the platform we’re on
    • If Mac
      • Open The Archive app by searching for the current Things URL
        • The Archive Help • Zettelkasten Method
          • thearchive://match/TERM works like the search but displays a good match directly; this is similar to Wiki-Links. You likely want to use this.
          • thearchive://search/TERM searches for TERM as if you typed it in
    • If iOS
      • Search for the Things URL in iA Writer
        • URL Commands – iA
          • ia-writer://quick-search?query=%23unfinishedtask
  • The Things URL needs to URL encoded
    • Shortcuts should do this by default

#Journaling #Things

• Save the original shortcut
  • https://github.com/zsbenke/automation-taskpaper-checklists
• Refactor the Keyboard Maestro macro, which should create a new file in the Zettelkasten repository, and open the file in The Archive
• 2023-12-08_17-34
• I have to touch the newly copied file because the creation date is different

I created the new repository for my first automation script. https://github.com/zsbenke/automation-taskpaper-checklists

It would serve as a demo.

1. Include all files that are needed for the automation.
2. Create a README.md file which describes what it does.
   • I could include the keyboard shortcut which triggers it.
3. Record a demo.mov file
4. Upload the demo.mov file to Vimeo with the name of the automation
   • Automation – Automation Name
5. Link the demo.mov from Vimeo in the README.md

#Automation #Reference

Since I want to use TaskPaper as just another editor app, I should move my interstitial journal file out of it.

• 2023-12-08_19-41-refactor-checklist-journaling
• 2023-12-08_19-42-refactor-things-journaling
  • I’m still think about this part though.
  • I rejected this idea as well. I’ll start to journal in my Things todo notes like I did previously. → 2023-12-09_12-09
• 2023-12-08_22-01-refactor-the-start-deep-session-shortcut

I cancelled some parts of this project. → 2023-12-09_10-04

#Thread #Shortcuts #TaskPaper #Journaling #TheArchive

I think I’m going to give up my TaskPaper journal. I just think The Archive app makes so much sense as a journal and Zettelkasten.

I can develop notes and journal about stuff here. It’s even have images integration, and I can use the old style Notational Velocity app.

• 2023-12-08_17-22-plans-for-taskpaper-journal-changes
• 2023-12-08_22-37

• Author: 2023-12-08_20-16-simon-willison
• Increase your productivity on personal projects with comprehensive docs and automated tests - DCUS → DEVONthink Archive
  • The Perfect Commit → DEVONthink Archive
  • Using PRs and squashing commits is similar
    • What to include in a commit message? 2023-12-09_13-16
  • GitHub issues can be archived → https://github.com/dogsheep/github-to-sqlite
  • Using GitHub as Zettelkasten
  • 2:58
    • Perfect commit
  • 4:00
    • Commit changes of one thing
      • We don’t need to create a PR if the commit is atomic 2023-12-09_13-19
  • 5:30
    • Incrementally building tests
  • 7:32
    • Documentation should live in the same repo as the code 2023-12-09_13-27
    • Catch missing updates in PRs
  • 8:55
    • Documentation tests
  • 10:10
    • Issue threads
  • 12:10
    • It’s like Bike planning
  • 13:40
    • Timestamped documentation
    • A timeline of changes
    • Keeping an issue thread ensures we have a background information on a code change → 2023-12-09_13-35
  • 14:08
    • Issue driven development
  • 14:55
    • Have this for Shortcuts
    • I can commit and export a shortcut
    • Keep them in one repository
    • I can keep automation scripts in Git repositories 2023-12-09_16-05
  • 15:20
    • Get back to something when you have notes
    • Programmers complain about distractions
    • When we keep a journal we automatically keep bookmarks for ourselves 2023-12-09_16-10
  • 16:40
    • Issues for everything, even life stuff
    • At this state, this is a project management app, like Things
    • I keep stuff like this privately, not in GitHub issues
    • I link it using Hookmark
  • 16:56
    • Have Markdown files about projects?
    • It is a way to journal
    • Use my Zettelkasten for journaling using Markdown files
    • Link with Hookmark to a Things project
    • The Archive would be awesome for this
      • 2023-12-08_15-56-switching-to-my-zettelkasten-and-as-a-journal
  • 18:14
    • Publish Markdown files to GitHub issues
    • I can create a new comment to have a way to I document my stuff
    • It will make my work more transparent
  • 19:30
    • Have an output about what did you done
    • Journal about what you did
    • Twitter threads
      • Or small status blog posts
    • PR description
    • Get a blog

#Thread #Literature

I indexed my #Zettelkasten notes in DEVONthink and also turned on syncing without uploading indexed items. On other devices, I also want to have this database synced, but I should also set it up the same way as on the original laptop.

I want to use DEVONthink to browse my Zettelkasten locally. It can even get and parse hashtags. But I can’t use hypens in the name of the hashtag for the Hungarian suffixes.

There is a way to open a different archive when starting The Archive app from the Terminal.

$ open -n /Applications/The\ Archive.app --args -archiveURL "file:///Users/YOURUSER/path/to/notes/"

For example, I can open my Running Lists folder with this command.

$ open -n /Applications/The\ Archive.app --args -archiveURL "file:///Users/zsbenke/Documents/Running%20Lists/"

This will open a new instance of The Archive app. I’m not sure if that’s intended behavior, but it works for quick checks.

• In theory I can export new notes from Bike.
• It uses Drafts as a transport app, but my notes are parsed into Markdown.
  • It should even keep the indentation.
• But I have to re-export stuff when I changed it.
  • I can still copy text from the new note to the old one.

I started adding slugs to the fleeting notes category. Since I use my Zettelkasten in The Archive app, I want to see the high-level title there.

• The Vimeo app on macOS gets dismissed when I click on any button. Seems like it happens on every click.

#BugsQuestions

#Completed

I should create a shortcut which let’s me export a selected Things todo into my Notes folder as a plain-text file, so I can use it next to Things as a drafting place for next actions as notes.

It would be enough to open it in TextEdit.

• Create a new project for each post
  • Posts that are long
  • Projects has their own set of rules
  • Duplicate the Post Template project
• Writing
  • 🏷️ Drafting
  • 🏷️ Revise
  • Use the Resources folder for assets
• Publish to the blog
  • I merge all revised sheets
  • Run them through Grammarly
    • Or use the built-in grammar checker in Ulysses
  • Publish the post to my blog
  • Let it sit for a couple of days
  • Archive the project

Can Zettelkasten note linking be done on an iPad using an external display and Stage Manager.

My outline is managed by Bike, and there is no Bike app for iPadOS.

• I should try OPML and OmniOutliner for managing thr outline on iPadOS
  • Do note links work from an OPML file?
  • Can an OPML file be converted to the required outline format?

Follow-up on 2023-11-03_13-56:

Fixed the hashtag parser.

Follow-up on 2023-11-03_13-46:

The hashtag parser doesn’t work well with block links.

• I added an outliner-like JS module which converts Markdown lists into a togglable outline.
  • So in this note, this item can be hidden by pressing the arrow before the parent element.
• I can also link to list items.
  • The outline-toggle controller calculates a checksum from the text on each item, and links them using the toggle arrows.
    • The checksum algorithm I used is available here.
  • When I paste the copied link back to the browser, I get a highlight effect for the linked block.
    • It even works on pages with stacked notes.

Follow-up on 2023-10-23_22-27 Email can be an append-only note-taking tool and storage:

There is a reply to my post → Can you keep all your notes in email? | Writing Slowly

Follow-up on 2023-10-30_07-54:

I’ll keep the outline around with all its rows, but hide everything below level 2. This will require some JavaScript → 2023-10-30_07-49.

Follow-up on 2023-10-30_07-54:

I think the best possible solution would be to keep just the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd levels in the outline.

1. 1st level should be visible since that’s my entry to a main branch.
2. 2nd level should be visible because these are idea threads which can be developed.
3. 3rd level should be hidden though because these can be real rabbit holes which needs digging down into actual notes. I show them by expanding the 2nd level.

All other levels can be removed. This would keep the outline usable.

Maybe the outline should be just the first two levels anyway? Browsing notes can be done from the navigation section in the footer.

Luhmann didn’t have an outline for sure.

• I have to add a script to collapse the 3rd level rows in the outline. I have a hunch that seeing the 2nd level should be enough to dig down into a rabbit hole of related notes.
  • javascript - Dead simple Collapsable List Function for deep and shallow nested UL/LI lists (JQuery) - Stack Overflow
• I should have more 2nd level notes since, these can be used as a thread for actual future article drafts.
  • Do I even need a detailed outline? → 2023-10-30_07-54