Making a "weekend" smart list
michael.pearson says:
Can anyone suggest a way to create a smart list of items that will be due the upcoming weekend, and that weekend only that will work no matter what day the list is searched on?
I thought I'd found the solution in "dueAfter:friday and dueBefore:Monday," but discovered today that it won't run the search on the same day mentioned in the dueAfter condition. I suspect I'll have the same trouble if I try to run the list tomorrow.
I tried doing this before using a weekend tag, but invariably a number of the items roll off the weekend list and into the next week's tasks, leaving me an additional chore of having to remove the weekend tags from those items.
It would be most helpful to have a single list I can reliably count on to show me what I'm proposing to myself to do every weekend plan and move tasks as necessary. This isn't an issue during the week as once I've done my weekly review of tasks, I deal only with the next day's work. Weekends are more precious real estate and I need to be able to consider the two days as a whole.
I can run the weekly planner, but I can't manipulate tasks from there.
I also share such task lists with my wife, sometimes on Thursdays but more often on Fridays when we both have a little more time and all the last-minute stuff has come in. Having to remember the syntax or keep a number of different list scenarios around depending on what day of week it is does not simplify my task management and keep things out of my head.
I thought I'd found the solution in "dueAfter:friday and dueBefore:Monday," but discovered today that it won't run the search on the same day mentioned in the dueAfter condition. I suspect I'll have the same trouble if I try to run the list tomorrow.
I tried doing this before using a weekend tag, but invariably a number of the items roll off the weekend list and into the next week's tasks, leaving me an additional chore of having to remove the weekend tags from those items.
It would be most helpful to have a single list I can reliably count on to show me what I'm proposing to myself to do every weekend plan and move tasks as necessary. This isn't an issue during the week as once I've done my weekly review of tasks, I deal only with the next day's work. Weekends are more precious real estate and I need to be able to consider the two days as a whole.
I can run the weekly planner, but I can't manipulate tasks from there.
I also share such task lists with my wife, sometimes on Thursdays but more often on Fridays when we both have a little more time and all the last-minute stuff has come in. Having to remember the syntax or keep a number of different list scenarios around depending on what day of week it is does not simplify my task management and keep things out of my head.
(closed account) says:
Perhaps I'm missing something, but why not ...
(due:Saturday OR due:Sunday)
?
(due:Saturday OR due:Sunday)
?
(closed account) says:
Ah, I just tried (due:Friday OR due:Saturday) and see the problem. If it *is* Friday, then saying "due:Friday" makes RTM assume you mean next Friday.
Hm. Let me go look at the advanced operators for a moment.
Hm. Let me go look at the advanced operators for a moment.
(closed account) says:
This is a very tricky logic puzzle, but I do think it's accomplishable with the current operators ...
(closed account) says:
The trick is to find a way of referring to Friday and Saturday that work even after they've passed.
I thought I had found that, but although they initially *looked* like they were "behaving", the variables weren't behaving.
For example, I was going to try:
dueBefore:"2 days after Friday" AND dueAfter:"1 day before Friday"
I thought this method of referencing Friday would work, because when I do 'dueBefore: "2 days after Friday"', I end up getting the equivalent of dueBefore:4/21, not dueBefore:4/28. So obviously, when I use that expression, it's looking at Friday as *this* Friday -- whereas if we use due:Friday, it thinks of it as 4/25.
So I was hoping that if the above method of referring to a Friday would work, then variables could be massaged into place to accomplish what you wanted. But that expression above, were RTM behaving internally consistent, would mean that it would be saying "due before 4/21 and due after 4/17", which should have yielded events from 4/18-4/20 (Fri-Mon). It yielded no results at all.
So, I don't think there's a way to accomplish what you're looking for. In order for this to work, I think RTM needs to make it so that if you say "due:Wednesday" and it's Wednesday, that's interpreted as today, not next Wednesday. Or, it would need to clean up the misbehavior of the above variables.
I thought I had found that, but although they initially *looked* like they were "behaving", the variables weren't behaving.
For example, I was going to try:
dueBefore:"2 days after Friday" AND dueAfter:"1 day before Friday"
I thought this method of referencing Friday would work, because when I do 'dueBefore: "2 days after Friday"', I end up getting the equivalent of dueBefore:4/21, not dueBefore:4/28. So obviously, when I use that expression, it's looking at Friday as *this* Friday -- whereas if we use due:Friday, it thinks of it as 4/25.
So I was hoping that if the above method of referring to a Friday would work, then variables could be massaged into place to accomplish what you wanted. But that expression above, were RTM behaving internally consistent, would mean that it would be saying "due before 4/21 and due after 4/17", which should have yielded events from 4/18-4/20 (Fri-Mon). It yielded no results at all.
So, I don't think there's a way to accomplish what you're looking for. In order for this to work, I think RTM needs to make it so that if you say "due:Wednesday" and it's Wednesday, that's interpreted as today, not next Wednesday. Or, it would need to clean up the misbehavior of the above variables.
(closed account) says:
By the way, you can get fairly close with:
(dueBefore:today OR ((due:Saturday OR due:Sunday) AND dueWithin:"6 days of today)
The reason you would need the dueBefore:today functionality is to still show Saturday tasks were you not to complete them and have them carry over to Sunday. However, that means that this list would display overdue items when viewed during the preceding week as well.
(dueBefore:today OR ((due:Saturday OR due:Sunday) AND dueWithin:"6 days of today)
The reason you would need the dueBefore:today functionality is to still show Saturday tasks were you not to complete them and have them carry over to Sunday. However, that means that this list would display overdue items when viewed during the preceding week as well.
michael.pearson says:
Thanks for trying to work it out, wcitypoe. I can manage running a couple of different smart lists depending on what day of the week it is, but it's not as simple as I'd like.
One problem seems to be that dueBefore:"2 days of friday" yields the same result as dueBefore:"2 days of wednesday" or whatever day. All days give the same result as dueBefore:"2 days of today", so I don't think it possible to change the day this way.
I miss "yesterday" and also a way to check what day the search is done (today:"sunday"), that would be nice.
One way could be to tag all tasks due saturday+sunday with "weekend" but that's cheating ;-)
I miss "yesterday" and also a way to check what day the search is done (today:"sunday"), that would be nice.
One way could be to tag all tasks due saturday+sunday with "weekend" but that's cheating ;-)
My best so far:
dueBefore:"Monday" AND (dueWithin:"2 days of Saturday" OR dueWithin:"1 day of Sunday"), can also be written
dueBefore:"Monday" AND (due:Saturday OR due:Sunday)
Catches all weekend task when used Mon-Fri and Sunday tasks when used on Saturdays. Calling it on a Sunday doesn't return anything.
The problem as wcitypoe pointed out is getting the weekend stuff when used during the weekend itself. Especially tricky is getting the Saturday tasks when using the smart list on a Sunday. Adding to the filter easily adds tasks that shouldn't be there.
I really would like to be able to tell what day the search was made...
Other things I found when searching the forums:
- When using dueBefore and dueAfter, you can't also specify things like dueBefore:"2 days of Sunday". All these searches are relative to "today", you might as well write dueBefore:"2 days of today" or dueBefore:"2 days".
- It's not possible to use negative numbers in these searches. The minus sign is just ignored.
- The key search operator is probably dueWithin, and in order to get yesterdays tasks maybe a modification of dueWithin:"1 month of 1st" could work, that one picks up overdue tasks interestingly enough.
Maybe a joint effort could fix this for the benefit of all!
dueBefore:"Monday" AND (dueWithin:"2 days of Saturday" OR dueWithin:"1 day of Sunday"), can also be written
dueBefore:"Monday" AND (due:Saturday OR due:Sunday)
Catches all weekend task when used Mon-Fri and Sunday tasks when used on Saturdays. Calling it on a Sunday doesn't return anything.
The problem as wcitypoe pointed out is getting the weekend stuff when used during the weekend itself. Especially tricky is getting the Saturday tasks when using the smart list on a Sunday. Adding to the filter easily adds tasks that shouldn't be there.
I really would like to be able to tell what day the search was made...
Other things I found when searching the forums:
- When using dueBefore and dueAfter, you can't also specify things like dueBefore:"2 days of Sunday". All these searches are relative to "today", you might as well write dueBefore:"2 days of today" or dueBefore:"2 days".
- It's not possible to use negative numbers in these searches. The minus sign is just ignored.
- The key search operator is probably dueWithin, and in order to get yesterdays tasks maybe a modification of dueWithin:"1 month of 1st" could work, that one picks up overdue tasks interestingly enough.
Maybe a joint effort could fix this for the benefit of all!
Better still (I think, haven't tested it completely yet):
dueBefore:"Monday" AND (due:Saturday OR due:Sunday OR (due:today AND NOT dueBefore:Saturday))
I would guess this doesn't catch Saturday's tasks on Sundays, that's a tricky one. The idea with the last part is to hide tasks that are due Mon-Fri.
dueBefore:"Monday" AND (due:Saturday OR due:Sunday OR (due:today AND NOT dueBefore:Saturday))
I would guess this doesn't catch Saturday's tasks on Sundays, that's a tricky one. The idea with the last part is to hide tasks that are due Mon-Fri.
michael.pearson says:
Wow, rajjan, that looks to be just about what I need! Somehow, the ability to do nested operations had eluded my understanding of the interface.
My primary need is to be able to track how full the weekend task list is getting during the week, and then be able to print off a final list, typically on Friday, that I use as reference throughout the weekend, ticking each item off on paper as I go. I rarely update the list on the computer until Sunday evening, when I do a weekahead planning session.
The frustration I was having is not being able to print a meaningful list on Fridays, and your solution seems to accomplish that ... although I'll have to wait until Friday to be sure!
My primary need is to be able to track how full the weekend task list is getting during the week, and then be able to print off a final list, typically on Friday, that I use as reference throughout the weekend, ticking each item off on paper as I go. I rarely update the list on the computer until Sunday evening, when I do a weekahead planning session.
The frustration I was having is not being able to print a meaningful list on Fridays, and your solution seems to accomplish that ... although I'll have to wait until Friday to be sure!