Ah, the standard to-do listing. When used badly, it turns into a supply of stress and a set off for procrastination. When used effectively, the to-do listing might help you deal with what it’s essential do, when it’s essential do it.
There are just a few methods to maintain a to-do listing. You can use pen and paper. You can run a command-line to-do list manager. Or, you should utilize a to-do listing in your desktop.
The latter is what I need to deal with on this article. So, let’s check out 4 to-do listing managers for the Linux desktop.
Todour
Confession time: One of my favourite to-do listing managers is Todo.txt. It’s easy, it is transportable, and my duties sit in a plain text file. On the opposite hand, Todo.txt is a command-line software, and I do know greater than a handful of Linux customers who’ve by no means cracked open a terminal window.
Enter Todour. It’s a graphical frontend for Todo.txt information that makes them simpler to work with. Todour is straightforward and pretty bare-bones, nevertheless it’s efficient.
To use it, sort an outline of your job within the area on the backside of the window.
When you are executed, press Enter or click on the + button to avoid wasting the duty. Todour lists duties within the order you add them.
Like Todo.txt, you’ll be able to tag your duties to make them stand out. For instance, so as to add a due date, sort @due: adopted by a date after the outline. Use hashtags to establish tasks or areas in your duties—for instance, I’d use the hashtag #OSDC to point work I am doing for Opensource.com.
Go For It!
You might need seen that Todour does not provide a complete lot in the way in which of options. That’s positive for some. Others may need a bit extra in terms of a graphical software for working with Todo.txt information. That’s the place Go For It! is available in.
To get began with Go For It! it’s essential create no less than one listing. Lists are classes for grouping your duties. Click the Add listing button on the backside of the window. Navigate to or create a folder in your listing and provides the listing a reputation.
You’ll most likely have a number of lists. If you do, they can not be in the identical folder as a result of every listing saves duties in a file referred to as todo.txt. Yeah, I do know… I counsel making a folder referred to as Tasks and having subfolders for every of your lists. That’s cumbersome, nevertheless it’s one thing you solely have to do as soon as.
When you are able to get working, click on the identify of an inventory after which click on the > button to open the listing.
You can add duties, change their order, mark them as full, or delete them.
One distinctive function of Go For It! is squarely aimed toward devotees of the Pomodoro Technique. Click the clock icon on the toolbar to open a timer set to 25 minutes (the default interval to commit to a job). Click the Start button to get going.
ptask
ptask is not the prettiest software round, however it’s easy. And it does the job. Based on the venerable Taskwarrior command-line to-do listing software, ptask offers you point-and-click entry to Taskwarrior’s primary capabilities.
Fire up ptask after which click on the Add button. Enter an outline of your job. If you’ve got greater than a few duties beneath a single umbrella (say, posts in your weblog or a growth challenge), you’ll be able to group them by coming into some textual content within the Project listing. You can use that challenge with different duties.
Here’s what an inventory of duties in ptask’s window appears like:
Click on a job to edit it. You can change the challenge it is related to, add an outline of the duty, mark it as executed, or delete it.
If you wind up with an extended listing of duties, you’ll be able to filter them by clicking the identify of a challenge within the listing on the left aspect of the window. You can even filter utilizing the Status listing on the toolbar or search for duties utilizing the Search field.
ptask saves your job lists as a set of textual content information in a folder referred to as .job in your /residence listing. The information are within the format utilized by Taskwarrior, so should you determine to embrace the command line, you’ll be able to hold working together with your lists.
Task Coach
I am positive you are sick of me writing about graphical interfaces for Todo.txt and about easy to-do listing managers. If you are in search of a software with just a few extra options, then you definitely’ll need to try Task Coach.
Task Coach is likely one of the most feature-packed to-do listing functions you will run throughout. If you do not consider me, simply have a look at the window for including a job:
When you create a job, you’ll be able to add an outline, begin and finish dates, hyperlink the duty to a different one, and monitor its progress. You can even add detailed notes and attachments and even change the duty’s font, colour, and icon.
If that is not sufficient, you’ll be able to add sub-items to a job by clicking the New Sub-item button on the toolbar. Why try this? Sometimes you’ve got a job that is so giant it’s essential break it right into a bunch of smaller duties. That makes the duty extra manageable and so much much less intimidating.
Task Coach has a few nifty options that set it other than the opposite instruments on this article. The first is its potential to import duties in a CSV or Todo.txt file and export to CSV, Todo.txt, HTML, and iCalendar. That makes transferring to Task Coach from one other to-do listing supervisor simpler.
The second nifty function is Task Templates. Those are clean duties which have sure pre-defined choices, like setting the duty’s due date to tomorrow or with a predefined class. Task Coach comes with three templates, and you can even create your personal.
Final thought
On its personal, a to-do listing software will not make you extra productive. It will not make you begin a job and observe it via to completion. But when mixed with focus and self-discipline, to-do listing managers (like those right here) will allow you to keep on high of what it’s essential do and allow you to attain executed.