Wunderlist

So I have been experiencing the Wunderlist "Synchronizing failed" error, and finally decided it wasn't going away on its own so I should do something about it. Since I'm still using WL1, I wanted NOT to logout. Luckily, I can extract my data, using Wunderlist-Helpers, or even simpler using the command line.

Mac OS X has come with sqlite3 for a while now, so no installation needed.

$ find ~ -name "wunderlist.db" -print 2>/dev/null
~/Library/Application Support/Titanium/appdata/com.wunderkinder.wunderlist/wunderlist.db

(be sure to escape the space with a backslash!!!)

$ cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Titanium/appdata/com.wunderkinder.wunderlist/
$ sqlite3 -csv -header wunderlist.db "select * from tasks left join lists on tasks.list_id=lists.id;" > ~/Desktop/wunderlist_export.csv
$ open ~/Desktop
$ open ~/Desktop/wunderlist_export.csv

Now you should see your desktop folder with the newly created export file, and it should be open in your default CSV viewer!

I think I'm going to go from Wunderlist back to Google Tasks.

Monkey GSD

The reason why I use TiddlyWiki in general, and Monkey GSD in specific (when I want to track tasks), is that I don't have to be annoyed.

For example.

This morning, I was very faintly mildly irritated (while setting up a new Action) that once I select a Project, that is left-most on the line, the Area adjacent to it vanishes so I can't set it. My first thought was to switch the positions of Project and Area, so that I would fill in an Area first, then a Project, then Area would vanish but at least it would have a value. However, once I found where to switch the order of the two, it was obvious how to keep Area from vanishing.

So instead, I just got rid of the vanishing act by removing this text wherever it appeared: macro="hideWhen tiddler.hasParent('Project')" .

However, since Areas are more general than Projects, I might switch the order as well ...

I don't know JavaScript, I don't know the inner workings of TiddlyWiki, but even I can modify the "software" so it doesn't annoy me. Awesome feature!

GTD3

I like TiddlyWiki, and I like the d3 version for GTD, but it wasn't fitting how I wanted to organize tasks at work. The main problem, of course, is that my job doesn't fit GTD that well. Mainly that Done part. I always need to upgrade software to the latest version, and to fix something, and whatever: I have many eternal projects and loose tasks.

The real problem was that I was using Projects in d3 as Categories. So where do projects go? And so almost every action in some projects was floating, and that breaks down the utility of the powerful Next Action concept.

Well, it's just JavaScript and I ain't afraid of no new programming language. So I created Categories for myself, just above Projects, as well as a way to look up uncategorized projects. It's not difficult.

First I edited the GTDMenu tiddler, adding this line at the very top:

+++(gtdCategoriesSliderState)[Categories]< >===

That line is just like the following line for Projects, except with Categories.

Then I created a tiddler titled CategoryList tagged gtd with these lines:

*<<list tagged "category -someday" all>>

*+++(gtdUncategorizedSliderState)[Uncategorized Projects:] <<list tagged "project -Category1 -Category2 -Category3" all>>===

Fill in your actual categories instead of those CategoryN placeholders, and you're set. (Or, if you're better at JavaScript, list the tiddlers that are tagged project that aren't tagged with a tiddler tagged category.)

Now make yourself some category tiddlers! Remember to use the category tag to make them show up in the menu on the left.

GCal in Thunderbird

Like everyone else, I ran across bfish's post on putting GCal in Thunderbird. I don't always have my calendar (pick iCal, iGoogle, or GCal) up, but I always have Thunderbird running. So I had to try it. It works as advertised!

Two comments. You can use the ICAL link for your Google Calendar, not just the XML link as noted in these directions; I used ICAL. The first calendar I created had the correct Google account filled in automagically, but the subsequent calendars did not (as noted in the comments).

And don't forget GCALDaemon if all you want is two-way synchronization between iCal (Sunbird, Lightning, Rainlendar, Evolution) and Google Calendar. It works for me, it gets new features all the time, and it is the best-documented version 1.0 F/OSS I've ever seen. And it worries my geek side a whole lot less than using Plaxo (with its spam history), also suggested.

PocketMod

Holy foldy, batman! I'm usually pretty handy at paper folding, but I had to watch the video for PocketMod four times before I could do it! Yowzah!

5 Tags

After reading this post on email management, I changed the five default tags in Thunderbird 1. I use Do It (sub-5-minute tasks after the email sprint), Delegate It, Follow Thread (so my email archives aren't cluttered, I prefer the smallest spanning set of messages from any thread), Defer It (longer tasks), and Delete It Later (like shipping information, I'll delete it after the package arrives safely).

I'm loving the unlimited number of tags and more powerful and more flexible search folders in Thunderbird 2 beta! I had to restore the original five tags back to what I use (now you know why it's on my mind), but I am ready to throw tags everywhere!