Displaying your Todo.txt on the desktop
Posted on April 12, 2007. 15 comments.
Having worked on way too many projects lately, I needed a way to keep track of my todo-list, and a way to be constantly reminded of my upcoming tasks.
So I turned to GeekTool, a small app that can display any shell command directly on your desktop. I use it to print out my todo.txt file, and update every 60 seconds. With the text-editing module activated in Quicksilver, this means that I can add todo-items to my desktop directly through QS.
How to set it up
- Create a file named todo.txt, and add your tasks.
- Download GeekTool, and install. It will be added as a pref-pane.
- Add a new entry, and chose “Shell” as its type.
- Enter this command (edit the path):
more /Users/username/Documents/todo.txt- Set the “refresh” option to something like 60 seconds.
- Place the new window where you want it on your screen.
- Use Lucida Grande as the font (If you ask me ;).
That’s it! You’ll now be continuously reminded off all the work you have yet to do.
15 comments
felix says:
you could also just leave todo.txt open in a text editor.
zzap says:
Hmm, nice idea; works in theory. I’ll have to try it out!
Richard says:
Also worth noting that with Quicksilver you can append text to the end of a text file, making updating todo.txt simple - you don’t even need to open the file.
Olav says:
@felix: Yeah, but I try to keep as few apps open as possible.
@Richard: Yeah, I use that too.
Mikkel says:
I do this. Now I can at all times feel bad about doing nothing on my list but everything else :|
Peter says:
What sort of structure do you have on that todo list? What are those single letters at the beginning of the lines?
Olav says:
@Peter: The letters are a kind of categorization, like school, work and so forth.
The first group of items are appointments, and the second are long term projects.
Steven Campbell says:
I’d like to see something like this for Windows or Linux.
nexusprime says:
@Steven: You could probably use something like http://linux.die.net/man/1/root-tail
Stefan Seiz says:
Olav, i would suggest to use “cat” instead of “more” - as more will probably not exit when you display a long todo (waiting for you to press a key to advance a page).
Konin says:
I have checked too this.Thx.
Heal says:
Lists, and everything you write down make things more powerful!
Keep writing and thanks for useful info
Matthew says:
For windows, check out Samurize, For linux, check out Conky.
I follow Lifehacker’s articles for todo.txt structure: http://lifehacker.com/software/todo.txt/
dıs cephe says:
ı do this..
jos says:
I didnt suspect you were a mac guy, most web devs are not using mac.