This was originally part of this post, but it got quite large, so I decided to split it. Build some suspense between posts for my legions¹ of readers.

I mentioned in the aforementioned that things in Vikunja are possible activities, whereas those in Task Fiend are things I definitely intend to do. Things move from Vikunja to Task Fiend when I decide to do them. Occasionally things made it to Task Fiend only to be chucked later. This is why Task Fiend has two completed statuses: done and archived. I want to be able to look back and see which things I actually did.

I haven’t seen done vs archived in any other consumer-grade to-do list/project management software. I know you can set different wasn’t-done-but-is-now-complete designations in Jira, but Jira is really overkill for three people trying to manage a household together. In software that implements kanban functionality, you can create columns for done vs archived, but all the kanban software I tried would only recognize one of those columns as complete, so the archived things forever appear in my task list. The desire to record what I did and didn’t do, without the didn’t-do being effectively immortal, was a big part of my decision to roll my own.

Every task I put in Task Fiend is designed to be atomic: I can do it in one step. I don’t put “Make a doctor’s appointment.” If I call and it goes to voicemail, I have to leave it as undone until the doctor calls me back, which I can’t control. I can’t move that task forward, so I want it off my list. I write “Call the doctor’s office for an appointment.” If it goes to voicemail, I tick it off and create a new task, “Call the doctor again.” I did the thing and I earned the tiny little dopamine hit. If the doctor’s office calls me back before the reminder to call back comes up, that’s what the archived status is for. I didn’t do the thing, so I shouldn’t get the dopamine hit.

If a thing really can’t be broken into multiple steps in any sensible way, like mending a larger tear than can be done in one session, I create a task along the lines of “Start [thing]”, followed by however many iterations of “Continue [thing]” as are necessary. I’m not sure that’s the best way to do it, but it gets the job done.

It goes a little against conventional wisdom, but not everything goes on the to-do list:

• Things that have visible reminder: I can see that I have papers I need to file. Seeing it both on the phone and in meatspace is ovewhelming. Also, I don’t need the satisfaction of marking it done - there’s already satisfaction in no longer having the visual reminder.
• Things that I don’t know when will need to be done again and that don’t make sense to do early: putting on laundry; running the dishwasher. I don’t want to do it before I have enough dirty stuff to fill the machine, and I don’t know when I will have enough dirty stuff. These two examples also have the visible reminder aspect - I can see when the hamper full.
• Things I’m going to start in the next two minutes: this is dangerous game with a memory like mine. However, I get less satisfaction out of ticking the done circle overall if I get in the habit of adding things immediately before I do them. It’s important that I get actual satisfaction from marking things done or the whole house of cards comes tumbling down.

Pretty much everything else gets listed, from brushing my teeth in the morning to brushing my teeth at night. If I don’t have those visually represented, I have a false sense of my capacity for the day. Also, it’s insurance against forgetting. I don’t mean to brag, but my ability to forget things is truly amazing.

As far as I know, this software has two users, both of whom live under the same roof. Half the user base likes to geek out on productivity software for its own sake. The other half just wants to remember that they need to weed the garden. I’ve tried to make Task Fiend accessible to both of us. Functionality more sophisticated than “Record a thing, mark it done” needs to get out of the way.

There is one enduring problem I don’t have a solution for: I don’t know what to do with non-project tasks. I need to get my oil changed. I could put it in a project “Automotive Maintenance,” but that’s not a true project in that it will not be done at any foreseeable time. I could stick a year on the end and archive it at the turn of the year. I don’t love it. It’s arbitrary. I don’t have a great solution.

Again, I don’t have any particular destination with this post. I dig reading things like this that other people write, so I’m hoping that my steadfast bot readers and occasional human reader enjoy this.