I can’t believe it’s the end of July already. This year has been a blur.

I started playing with Linux again last weekend. I tried Ubuntu, openSUSE, and Kubuntu, but I settled on Fedora, the KDE spin. This is on my old laptop, but it works quite well. Faster than Windows, and just something to toy around with. I settled on the KDE desktop despite having more recent experience with GNOME. KDE just seems lighter and quicker. GNOME is cleaner, but it just seems a little heavy for some reason.

Just some updates based on the last several posts.

My task management process is still mainly focused around Todoist. I’m kind of surprised that I’ve stayed with it since the last time. I think it’s mainly because I just haven’t had the mental capacity to think about moving to another system. I’ve achieved “Master” karma status on it, for what it’s worth.

The office fish tank is humming along. I’ve had one fish death (out of the 40 or so I put in there). No idea why, but it didn’t look diseased or anything. Just dead. I also now have 4 new fish that “appeared” at some point in the past couple weeks. Darn mollies are like rabbits.

Vacation starts now. No plans; not traveling anywhere. Just taking a break before I go crazy. Anyway, supposedly vacation.

That’s about it. I don’t have much more to add.

And the dog, 2 seconds after I step outside and before I can sit down.

It’s been a couple weeks since I last posted. Nothing earth shattering has happened as of yet, which is probably a good thing. The new fish tank seems to be doing quite well, though algae or the like is cropping up a lot. Not thrilled about that, but it was inevitable. Water has cleared, and nitrogen cycle seems to be established. I have not moved any more fish into the tank, but with the stability of the tank, I might add a few more from the other tank in time.

I’m hoping this weekend is rather uneventful and restful. I’ve been feeling stressed for various reasons, and I need a break.

No dog picture as this doesn’t seem to be a real update. If I have time and the inclination, maybe I’ll post a more thorough fish tank update or a pupdate.

Interesting article. www.nytimes.com/2022/07/1…

Here in the US, it’s a holiday weekend, and one that the dogs fear the most. Here’s hoping we get through it unscathed. That is, without claw scratches from the furry beats trying to crawl all over us when the loud noises outside happen.

The new fish tank is still in the process of fully cycling. I have not noticed any kind of appreciable ammonia reading, despite having around 40 fish, mostly smaller, transferred over. I have, however, gotten a bloom from the bacteria that break down organic material in the tank. These are different than the nitrifying bacteria which I assume are at least present and working since no ammonia readings. So, trying to get the cloudiness cleared up, which unfortunately, just takes time and making sure not too much organic matter accumulates. I cleaned the gravel a bit and added some finer filter media, but to be honest, there isn’t a whole lot of waste to clean up.

The plants are not doing much of anything. I’ve been fertilizing and adding plant growth hormones to the mix to help them, but they’ve been just siting there, looking poor. If I see any more degradation, they’re being pulled. I’ll just have to figure out something else if that happens.

Short entry this time as it’s early, and I’ve been neglecting my normal household chores to “play” with the fish tanks. No updated fish tank pictures yet as I want to wait for the water to clear a little more, so here’s the requisite dog picture.

Today’s fun power issues are brownouts instead of the full on blackouts. Which is actually worse because it reaches certain voltages and then things die randomly.

The greatest trick the devil ever played was getting companies to think styrofoam is great as a packing material. Little ******* balls of foam everywhere…

Happy 25th of June! Which is apparently celebrated with loud fireworks or gunfire? (My dogs are not happy.)

So, this is another fish tank update which also happens to be about another fish tank. Yep. I bought another one.

Since the current 26 gallon tank is a little on the small size for however many mollies exist in there now, I bought a second tank. A nice 38 gallon one. The living room would have been my first choice for this sized tank, but that wasn’t going to fly with the other half. So, it’s in my office. It actually makes for a nice background for conference calls. Since I didn’t buy it as a kit as I already had filters and such, it wasn’t too bad in price. The stand I had to get to hold it was more expensive, and actually took more time to set up.

Since it is in my office, I don’t have the same aesthetic restrictions that I do in other rooms. I can do whatever geeky thing I want. And to start I’ve picked Star Wars. My goal is not to cram the tank full of trinkets and decorations (or even plants), but to provide some nice open space for the fish to swim. I want to try and keep it mostly uncluttered. Mostly because I like cleaner looking tanks, but also because the fewer hiding spots there are, hopefully fewer new mollies. We’ll see.

So far I have a Millennium Falcon, a mini mostly destroyed looking Death Star, and some knock off of the AT-AT - it’s listed as Robot Dog - Large. The official AT-AT was just too darn expensive, and I’m not so deep into this hobby that I’d drop a c-note on a single aquarium decoration. Knock off it is.

The tank is still in the process of getting ready. I have the water, substrate, filters, heater, and initial decorations in, though probably not in final resting places. Spent a lot of time cleaning the coarse sand (or tiny gravel, however you want to look at it), so the tank didn’t need more than a few hours to actually clear of any dust. Still debating the filter media configuration and contents. I have two filters on it, so I can mix and match whatever. Boatload of bio media in one, maybe finer filtration and any chemical filtration I may want in the other. Not sure what I’ll end up with, but I have options, none of which should result in fish death. fingers crossed

The plan is to gradually move the fish over in batches. We’ll still leave some in the old tank in the living room as it’s still a good tank, and I like looking at fish. But we’ll probably end up replacing it at some point later this year with a smaller tank, maybe 15-20 gallons that my wife can mess around with and “isn’t an eye sore because it sticks up above the landing divider.”

On another positive note, in talking with the local fish store, they take donations of “live bearer” fish, so if I want to unload some there, I can. I don’t know what they do with them, and the fewer questions I ask, probably the better. But it’s an option to having to buy a third tank or watching them suffer from overcrowding.

I know we usually end these with a dog pic, but an aquarium pic seems more appropriate this time.

Hottest day of the year so far, with warnings and air quality alerts and sorts of stuff. And the power just went out. It’s going to be a hot, muggy night.

I’ve been kind of getting into the whole aquarium thing again. I’ve been testing the ammonia at least daily, and it seems to have settled into the 0.25-0.5 range. Usually, that’s still considered bad. But! Since I really haven’t been paying pretty much any attention to the water for the past few years, the pH has dropped drastically. It’s registering about 6.5-6.8. My tap water is alkaline by default (above 8), and I’ve been adding some pH down drops to get it close to 7 before going in the tank. I’ve been using pretty much the same formula for I don’t know how long. Again, not really testing on a regular basis for a while.

So I know you’re thinking, “The tap water changed and I’ve been actually over acidifying it.” Nope. But one water quality I rarely paid attention to before and absolutely didn’t pay attention to the last few years: carbonate hardness. The tap water essentially doesn’t have any for whatever reason (I tested it). And the whole nitrite/nitrate thing wore down what little I had in my tank. The carbonate hardness acts as a pH buffer. Helps keep water from wild swings in pH as well as keeps it kind of alkaline. I had none. So, as the nitrogen gets processed, it turns the water acidic. And with the carbonate buffer essentially gone, boom, acidic tank.

The positive of this is that the acidic nature of the tank ionizes the ammonia (at least so I’ve read a few places). The ionized form of ammonia is not toxic like “free” ammonia. So, that’s probably why I didn’t see death and destruction.

But, I probably should get the carbonate levels back up to something healthy. So, that’s the next step. I could get some crushed coral or other things. But I’m taking the easy way out and just getting an alkaline buffer in a bottle. I’ll need to slowly start adding and raising the pH so as not to shock the fish. Apparently, the mollies prefer pH in the range of 7.2-7.8, and acidic tank water can actually cause discomfort. Wouldn’t know it by the fact that they’ve multiplied to the point of overcrowding. But anyway, I should get the tank closer to the slightly alkaline pH it should be as well as build up that buffer.

I’m also switching product lines. I had been using API Stress Coat+ as my water conditioner for a while. But the aloe they use really doesn’t do anything based on what I’ve read. Plus the recent bottle from Amazon seemed suspect as it had a different viscosity than the previous bottles. So I switched to Seachem Prime for my dechlorination needs. And got some Seachem stress stuff as well just in case, but I’m not going to use it with every water change. The Seachem Prime is really concentrated. I had to buy an eye dropper to properly dose my 5 gallon bucket. Literally 2-4 drops per gallon. The 500ml bottle should last a long time.

The water is much better than it was a couple weeks ago, though I’m still fighting a little bit of cloudiness. I’m trying Seachem Purigen as of today to see if that does anything. It’s some sort of resin that binds and capture itsy bitsy particles. You’re supposed to be able to “recharge” it once it gets used up/dirty by soaking it in bleach for a while. But there’s a problem with “some” stress coat products. If the stress coat contains amines, then the whole process results in essentially poisoning the entire tank with chloramine. So, if this does work and I decide to use it longer term, I’ll be buying new stuff just in case the API (or Fluval) conditioner/stress coat would result in a toxic reaction. It’s not expensive and lasts longer than carbon, so hoping it won’t be cost prohibitive. It’s been about 8-10 hours, and it doesn’t look to have made any kind of improvement. But we’ll see. I also have some Seachem Clarity if I want to try that. It “binds” the little particles into bigger particles which can be trapped by the sponges/mechanical filtration.

So that’s been all the excitement in my life lately. Aren’t you glad you read this?

Note: After writing this, I discovered more than one report of API's ammonia test never reporting below 0.25, even on just pure water (distilled or whatever). So my 0.25 might actually be 0 in actuality.

“ASAP” is not an acceptable due date when a specific due date is requested.

I didn’t get to watch the WWDC keynote today. Probably will watch later this week. Too many things going on, but the Lock Screen enhancements sound like a step in the right direction. That’s about all I had time to read about today.

Why isn’t New Years on one of the soltices or even equinoxes? Seems like such an obvious choice.

And so another weekend starts. I got a few hours head start today, and I filled it with exciting summertime activities like picking up the backyard and mowing! Do I know how to live or what?

It’s not too bad of a day. It’s 75° (F), sunny, slight breeze, and generally quite enjoyable in the shade. I think I’ve spent more time outside this afternoon than I have the rest of the year combined. Of course this is just commentary on how much I just don’t go outside unless I’m doing something, like mowing. Or bike riding.

Which is something I haven’t done yet this year. The knee is coming along I guess. It’s still sore, and it’s definitely weaker than it was before this whole knee thing happened. But hopefully I’ll get there. One of the things I’ll be doing before I actually get back on the bike is swapping out my pedals for something that doesn’t clip in. I have a feeling that the twisting motion you do to get out of the pedal just won’t work well with my current situation. So I’m going for what most people would call just plain old pedals. Mine will have some additional grip to keep my foot from slipping off if I’m really pushing, but I fully intend to go back to my SPD pedals at some point this summer. I just need to get some rehab work in without worrying about falling over or twisting my knee awkwardly. So that’s the current plan. No idea when I’ll put that plan into action, but it’s a start.

So, about that task thing. Yeah. I’m playing with Todoist right now. It’s not perfect, but there are some things about OmniFocus that aren’t, either. Don’t know if I’ll stick with it or if I’ll go back to OmniFocus. It could go either way right now. Todoist has natural language entry, which is fine in most instances and maddening in others, especially trying to find the right combination of words for repeating tasks that aren’t every week or month or whatever. It still uses due dates only and doesn’t use start dates, which annoys me to no end, but I’m trying to see if I can make it work without too much effort.

So why did I change? I don’t really know. Todoist has more integrations with things. It works with Fantastical, which I’m using right now mainly for the iPhone and iPad widgets; I don’t use 75% of what Fantastical can do. Todoist integrates with services like IFTTT and Zapier. Only thing I’ve done with IFTTT is to have it create a task to shovel the driveway when snow is forecast. Kind of cool, but not sure it’s a critical item. Todoist also works on more platforms like Android, Windows, and Web. I generally like apps that are multiple-platform when they are a service. But again, only if it works as well or better than the alternatives. Not sure it’s there. Only been a few days, so, still in the honeymoon phase. Time will tell. Probably before next weekend with my current tendencies.

I’ve been working on the fish tank lately. My wife was criticizing the recent cloudiness of the water, so I did a cleaning (which I do at least every other week anyway) and broke out the water test kit, which apparently expired 2 years ago. I should probably check the water more often. Anyway, the ammonia was through the roof according to the kit. The fish weren’t displaying any signs you’d normally see with high ammonia levels. Reddened gills, death. So I changed more of the water than I usually do. Still off the scale. I was beginning to wonder if this was the end of the great fish tank experiment which started over 10 years ago.

So through some aggressive water changes, more thorough cleaning (a couple of times), a couple doses of ammo lock, and some “quick start” stuff that supposedly has the nitrifying bacteria in it, the tank seems much, much better. Ammonia is down to 0.25 ppm. Just above the ideal “zero.” I also changed the filter unit I was using. The old one had replaceable cartridges which you swapped out regularly. Problem is, a lot of your bacteria live there, too. So every time you throw away the filter cartridge, there goes a whole host of good bacteria. Plus, I was in the habit of changing the filter when I did water changes. So even more bacteria literally down the drain. It was not a good process I had.

The new filter assembly doesn’t use cartridges. It has a large “bin” that you build up what kind of filtering material you want in there. So, I have a “sponge” or mechanical filter to filter out the you know what. I have a big bag of carbon to help with clarity and smells. And I have a “bio bag.” It’s just some porous ceramic cylinders that the bacteria can grow in, on, and around. When the filter gets clogged, I just rinse it out in some discarded aquarium water (not tap water) to get rid of the crap but hopefully still leave a lot of the bacteria that are clinging in there. Same with the bio bag and/or carbon. And I can mix and match. I can put twice as much bio material and leave the carbon out. I can rely on the pre-filter sponge and replace the inside sponge (which I won’t do, because there’s a boatload of fish in there right now). It’s a better solution I hope. At least I won’t be throwing away all my bacteria when I do a cleaning.

So, taking a wait and see approach. I did get a new water test kit that wasn’t expired. So, I’ve been monitoring it daily for ammonia and maybe every other day for nitrites and nitrates, both of which are fine. If I see a spike in ammonia, then I’ll need to figure something out. The tank is overpopulated by most metrics. Darn mollies multiple like rabbits. So, I’ll probably need to monitor more than my current pace of once every couple years.

And a dog from the past, enjoying a head scratch. He was quite an interesting boy, and I doubt I’ll ever see a dog with his personality again.

How did this extended weekend go by so fast? I had over an extra day, and it seems like this weekend was shorter.

With the switch to OmniFocus, I needed to redo my weekly review process. It was relatively trivial to set something up, but the actual execution still needs some tweaking. The weekly review process generally involves emptying out all the various inboxes such as email inboxes, random thoughts and ideas that I record in OmniFocus or reminders or whatever to be decided later, and a physical inbox for postal mail or the like. The latter I will admit I don’t handle well. I have not properly processed this in months/years and it continually grows; it’s essentially a project all in its own to clear out.

I start by cleaning out the easy stuff. The email I’ve been keeping up on for a while now. Archiving crap that doesn’t have any actionable content and should be kept, deleting mailing list stuff or other items I don’t need, and creating tasks where I do need to do something, like pay a bill. So my personal email is in pretty good shape. (My work email is a completely different story as my task management process using only work approved apps leaves a lot to be desired.) Doing this constant email cleaning helps keep things nice and tidy.

Next I look at “task inboxes.” I always have a default place in whatever tasking system I have where new tasks can go. A project or list where I can record new things to process later. The “later” is this weekly review process at the latest. I am trying to put everything in OmniFocus right now, but occasionally something ends up in the native Reminders app, either because I forget or because it was easier to put it there whenever that was. So I check both. I then decide where to put the task, if it needs some dates, is actionable or dependent on something else, and anything else like tags and such. Sometimes they just get deleted if they’re not something I will actually need to do. This is important so things do not fall through the cracks.

I look at anything on the calendar to see how “busy” my week will be. This helps me gauge whether I can put some additional tasks on my week’s activities Generally, my actual calendar is pretty light outside of work. Doctor’s appointments, family obligations, etc., are the main components of this. I will occasionally record generic, nebulous things like “long work day,” “PTO,” or “this week will be very busy at work” so it helps provide context. I never put specific work items on my personal calendar because I don’t want it cluttering things up. I try to maintain as much separation as possible for mental sanity.

I then review my few number of projects for relevance. Are there tasks in a project that aren’t relevant any more? Sometimes I create tasks under a project because I think I’ll need to do something but it ends up not needing to be done. Or sometimes I even forget to mark items as completed. Sometimes the project itself was dropped for whatever reason. The point is to review these regularly and make sure they’re still accurate.

Then I look at my “Anytime” tasks. These are tasks that don’t have any date commitments at all but I want to do them at some point if I have time and/or motivation. Just random things, mainly. If it’s something I think I can do and it makes sense to do so, I tag it as “next” and assign a defer to date on it. If something that needs a due date because I’ve put it off to the point where it needs to be done, that gets added as well. A good example is today I decided to actually do something about the attic door’s insulation. It’s something I identified a while ago as something I want to do. So I put a defer date of today to actually install something. It’s not due today, but I can start working on it starting today. Summer is coming, and anything I can do to help keep the house cool when the A/C is running will be good.

Next up are the “Someday/Maybe” tasks. These are tasks I put on the list so I don’t forget about them, but I haven’t decided if I really want to do them at all. I review them for relevancy, if they haven’t already been reviewed during the project review process. If a task is something that I still think I may want to do, it stays. If a task is something I know I want to do, then I remove the someday tag and it becomes an Anytime task. I can take it a step further and even schedule it. Some of the tasks in this list may also be dependent on other things and are thought of as “on hold.”

After going through all the reviews and scheduling, I then take a look at my new list of tasks. I see if I was overly optimistic on the things I want to do and adjust if needed. It’s a critical step to make sure I’m not trying to do too much and risk getting discouraged when I can’t complete an overly bullish plan.

The final step is just to review the tasks I’ve completed in the past week. It’s supposed to be a source of “encouragement” that I’ve actually done something. Not really a crucial step in the process, but it also helps me remember what I did because I don’t remember everything I’ve done as well I used to. Life is more complicated than it was 10 years ago. Too many things vying for our attention.

So, that’s my general weekly review process. I generally do this every Sunday, usually in the morning when I’m just putting around. I use it as a way of centering myself as a new week starts up. A chance to set reasonable expectations. Right now all of the above is in a “weekly review” task with subtasks. Not sure I will keep it there. I might change it to a recurring project just because of the way the current software works. I haven’t decided, really. It’s not a primary concern, though, to be honest. It’s just a tool to help with the above. As long as I do the above in some fashion, doesn’t really matter how I do it or what I use. I just need to keep on top of it, review it regularly to make sure I’ve captured everything and don’t have unnecessary stuff, and just to take it one step at a time.

And as a reward, here’s the required dog picture. (Not even his bowl. Just unhappy that it’s not dinnertime.)

As the US gears up for an extended weekend, I have to say I am really looking forward to it. Also, we need more of these. Compared with my international colleagues, we have noticeably fewer holidays. That whole “you must work your fingers to the bone because we say so” mentality has resulted in fewer holidays. Kind of sucks. My plans for the weekend involve a lot of lounging, and hopefully, naps. I need to chill and recharge.

So when last I wrote, I had switched over to OmniFocus as my primary task manager, not sure if it will stick or not. It’s been a few days, and it’s been fine, with one little tweak. I’ve added in Due to the mix. Why do I need two task managers? Well, the stuff I put in Due are regularly recurring, routine type items. Things that generally take me less than 15 minutes to do and that I do very regularly. Take your meds, let the dogs out one last time, refill the coffee pot, and silly things like that. Things that I need to be reminded about because I am distracted when I typically need to do those things. Either involved in a book, going down some rabbit hole on the Internet, or whatever. I’d completely forget about them or realize when it’s too late.

So I put these in Due. One, because they’re not part of some large project or take a lot of time, and two, because Due will nag you a lot until the task gets done. That’s kind of what I need for these routine type things. Hound me until I do them.

So, that’s where I am with task management. Actual tasks, and maybe someday, projects, go into OmniFocus. The mundane routine things that I need to be reminded about, in Due. I’ll see if I stick with it or if I change it up again in a few weeks or months like I usually do.

And dog. Can’t be entirely comfortable, but he’s claimed as his spot.

The only certainties in life are death and taxes. For me, there’s also “changing task management systems.” In a previous post not that long ago, I said I had switched to using GoodTask with Reminders as the backend for my relatively simple personal task management. Yeah. That lasted a few weeks.

So right now I’m playing with OmniFocus. I used OmniFocus on and off for years, since I got my first Mac back in 2011. It’s based on the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology at its core. Before, it was a pretty strict adherence to it. With OmniFocus 3 they loosened it up a bit, but it’s still pretty structured towards GTD. But I was growing a little irritated with the GoodTask/Reminders combo. GoodTask is good software, but my main issue revolves around the interface, where it’s pretty crowded, even after clearing things up and configuring it a bit.

Another thing was around the way subtasks, or checklists, work. Apple does not allow access to Reminders subtasks through its reminders API. So third party apps generally come up with their own system using the notes on the record. This is confusing, and frankly, a pain. If I’m in Reminders, I can’t complete the subtasks that were created via GoodTask and vice versa. While I don’t have many tasks that have subtasks/checklists, there are some, and it was annoying to not have a consistent experience, depending on the app I was in at the time, for what is the exact same record. Apple could fix this in an upcoming version, but who knows if they will.

So I thought about going back to Things 3 again. It was pretty much aligned with my workflow in regards to dates and how they aren’t necessarily critical due dates. But the lack of end to end encryption bothered me. Now, I know of no breaches of security or privacy that may have happened with Things data; they state that they limit access to the data to employees that really, really need it to do some customer request, and I have no reason to doubt that access is secured against breaches or unauthorized access. But it was just something that tickled the back of my brain. Reminders isn’t really end to end encrypted either, but at least I pay a monthly fee for my iCloud data and somehow that seems to make me less likely to think that my data could be shared with others. Plus Apple is always touting privacy as an inherent right. I felt less anxious about Apple having my data than I did a company with no recurring revenue plan. Might be naive on my part, but there it is.

So, I pulled up OmniFocus again. And I looked at the structure I created years ago, with lots of “projects” and various tags. I was definitely into hyper-organized lists then. But I got rid of it all. I don’t need to track work related items with it, and I don’t want to, either. This is my personal system, dammit. And all the personal “projects” were not necessary by any means. So I pared it all down to a few “projects” and a few tags. I may even pare down the projects more and make use of more tags for it. My Projects generally fall into 4 categories right now. Personal, Chores, Recurring, and Daily Routine. I could combine a lot of these and just add tags, and it wouldn’t really change my workflow. And if I do have a real project come up with real, sequential tasks, I can easily add one.

Personal is for miscellaneous items that don’t recur on a set schedule. Things like the utility bills that don’t follow a set schedule, one off tasks like cleaning the grill after winter and deciding on subscriptions of apps I’m testing (like OmniFocus), and just about anything else. It’s basically a catch all when the task doesn’t fit into one of the other projects or isn’t enough to warrant a new project.

Chores is for keeping track of when I need to do all my chores. Mowing the lawn, picking up the backyard, vacuuming, etc. Some of these I do every week. Some chores are done less often. It’s handy to keep track of when I last did them so I can make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

Recurring is for those items that do happen on a set timeframe. Cable and phone bills, mortgage payment, replacing the batteries in the smoke detectors, and the like. Not really “chores” but things that come up regularly and I might forget since they aren’t every week.

Daily Routine are those things I do every day. These have alarms/notifications because I frequently get distracted by shiny objects on the web or in a book. I need the gentle reminder to take the dogs out for their last outs, refill the coffee maker, go to bed, etc. It helps me keep on schedule. Seems silly on the face of it, but it really does help. Do these really belong in a task management system? Probably not. I could use something else like Due, but there’s something about keeping everything in one place.

Next up was setting up the todos with recurrence patterns and whether or not they have definitive due dates. OmniFocus also has a concept of Defer Dates, or Start Dates as they’re called in other apps, which you set when a task cannot be done before a certain day (and time). This is handy because I don’t want to see “mow the lawn” on my list of available tasks right after I actually mow the lawn. I don’t want to see that task come up for a number of days. Start Dates allows me to focus only on that which needs to be done right now.

I revamped my tags as well. I currently have “next,” “today,” and “someday.” Gone are the location based “contexts” and other unnecessary junk. Next is a way of tagging a recurring task so it shows up in my forecast view. Today is what I would assign to some random “whenever I have time” task so I can have it show up today. I can have a backlog of random todos that don’t have any real due dates but I should do at some point whenever I have time or motivation. Tagging as “today” is a way of deciding I’m going to do this today. Someday are just tasks that I may want to do in the future based on events; they’re not a certainty, and I don’t want to think about them all the time. Example would be for replacing the water heater. I have no need to do it now, but in the future I will need to do a few things like decide on capacity, price out the appliance, schedule install, etc. I review the someday items every week to determine if they need to be moved to an actionable state.

Once I got my todos put into their proper places and the structure set up, it was time to create some custom perspectives. Perspectives in OmniFocus are ways of seeing only tasks that you want to see. I have a perspective for “Today” which includes any task that is available for me to do right now, including those that are tagged as “today.” For tasks that don’t have a due date and only have a defer date on or before today, they will show up the next day without any “you didn’t get this done” shaming that comes along with overdue tasks. This view does include my daily routine todos. I then created a Focus perspective which is the same thing but filtering out daily routine items. It’s what I generally use for planning the day. And then some other perspectives for coming soon, etc.

So, we’ll give this a spin for a couple weeks and see how it goes. Before, OmniFocus was really just too structured to make it efficient. But a lot of that was my own doing, adhering to a structure I created 10 years ago when I was going through that hyper-organized phase. Now, I just need a list of things to do and the ability to filter out those items I do not. Is OmniFocus still overkill for me? Probably. But I’ve distilled it down quit a bit, cleaned up stuff that just shouldn’t be in a task management system, and created some views for me to get what I want/need for any given situation. And it’s end to end encrypted and plays well with Drafts, my main capture workflow. I’m sure I’ll find or remember things that annoy me, but it’s a matter of degree as to how much I’m annoyed compared to other task management systems. I doubt I’ll ever find the “perfect” solution; it’s what works best out of what’s available.

And dog:

I can’t believe it’s only Wednesday. Also, I can’t believe it’s already Wednesday.

As far as a status update, my knee is still about the same as theist time. Sometimes I can bend it without really noticing that I’m bending it. That is good progress. But walking is still a chore. So not there yet.

After the previous couple of posts regarding some apps/software I have played around with, it got me thinking about portability and open formats of data. So, I’ve been playing more with Obsidian. Still not ready to use it instead of Ulysses, especially for writing up blog posts. But I’ve been reading a lot about it, looking through the community plugins, and thinking about how I want to structure it and what to use it for. Not sure I’m any further than I was after the great note app post. But I’m thinking about it.

In looking through the above and people shouting about open file formats led me to a couple of items from one company. First one has been around for ages; second one was released this week.

Hog Bay Software is a small indie developer in Maine that makes a few software apps for the Mac. The first app I started thinking about was the older app Taskpaper. It’s a simple task manager and uses a simple text file as the backend. It adds some basic functionality to manipulate, view, search, create tasks. The text format is extremely straightforward. If a line of text has a “:” after it, it’s a project designation. If a line of text begins with a “-“ it’s a task, belonging to the Project under which it sits. If a line has neither, then it’s a note. You handle due dates, start dates, completion, etc., using tags starting with an “@“ instead of a hash symbol. So you could have something like:

So in the above, I have a project “Write Article.” Under that I have two tasks. Task 1 was due on May 16 and completed on May 17. Second task is due May 18. So It’s just a matter of learning the “special” tags regarding dates. I find that this is just a text file intriguing. It’s so simple. I will say that this particular software is really geared towards tracking what needs to be done but not alerting you when it comes due. Just doesn’t work that well. Another downside is that Taskpaper does not have a first party mobile app. There is Taskmator which is a taskpaper client, but is separate from the official company. But since we’re dealing with just text files, little chance of causing many problems.

The second app I followed down a rabbit hole, is Bike. Came out this week as official 1.0 version. It’s rather limited in scope right now, but seems like there are several ideas that will be coming in a while. Bike is an outliner app. You write outlines in it. At $30 it’s not exactly cheap, but other outline software generally costs more. I haven’t played around with it much yet, and I don’t know how much I need an outliner. But it seems extremely fluid and quick so far. Bike also does not have a mobile app, but this time there is no third party to fill the gap. An iOS app is planned for a future date, but I don’t know what the timeframe for it is. Default format is a “proprietary” file, but it’s essentially just an html file. You can actually rename the file to “.html” and open it in a browser to see it. It can also save file format as text, where a lot of the features would not work. And it can save in OPML.

Could I do the above using any text editor? Technically, yes!. For taskpaper format, you can use any text editor. For Bike, you can save it as text if you want. And if you use OPML as the file format, it can be opened by other apps that read OPML (an open standard). The fact that both of the above are just local files and are in standard file formats is very intriguing to me. Portability with few downsides. So, I’m playing around with the above while I also decide how to use Obsidian and what I should put in it.

While this post is just kind of an extension of what I wrote the previous two times, it’s just how my brain works. Always looking for the next thing.

And here’s a dog.

Black hole!

www.nasa.gov/mission_p…