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"Sticky" Tags and deadlines versus start dates

zannalov says:
Greetings and salutations to all.

I find myself constantly shifting tags. I'll create a tag to help me sort something, but by the next day it won't be relevant. Because RTM keeps tags in the list if they're attached to completed tasks, and deletes tags from completed tasks (if the tag as a whole is deleted), I needed a way to create more "persistent" tags that I could see in completed tasks, but still be able to keep my tag cloud somewhat clean. Smart lists are great, but you can end up with far too many smart lists, twisted logic, and they can end up taking up a lot of screen space, too.

I looked at the characteristics of the search field, and came up with this. A quick example would be to name a task, "Take out the trash [chores]" Namely, surround your tag with square brackets.

Here is an example. Create three tasks. Name one "Here boy!", another named "Do something [here]" and the other "Do stuff [there]" (Yes, I know about locations, I'm just using the words as an example). If you search for "here", you'll find all three. If you search for "[here", you'll only find "Do something" but if you search for "here]" you'll find both "Do stuff" and "Do something".

Why does this work? RTM does literal-string searching (at least within words). Because RTM doesn't recognize the brackets "[]" as breaks in words, the search "[here]" would have to be the entire word, and couldn't include "[there]". This makes it easy to tell one "sticky tag" from another. Putting them in the name keeps them visible without having to peruse notes, and means you don't have to search with "noteContains:..." It also means that deleting a tag entirely via the settings page doesn't affect the sticky tag at all, whether or not the task is completed. Hooray for a clean, ever-shifting tag cloud!

There is a caveat, though: Searches automatically break on spaces unless you surround something in quote marks. Personally, I use an old, old programmer's technique called "camel case" to make sure every tag is a single word. [hereIsAnExampleWithMultipleWords]

A really handy extension of this is the ability to use the due date field for more than one kind of date.

I find I generally have two kinds of tasks regarding dates: Those that start on a certain date, and those that need to be completed by a certain date. The problem, of course, is that there is only one date field! Well, with the sticky tags, I have a tag named [deadline] and a tag named [startDate]. Then I can easily search (and save the search as a single smart list) for everything I should be working on today: "( dueBefore:tomorrow AND [startDate] ) OR ( dueAfter:today AND [deadline] )" Don't forget the parenthesis!

I hope this helps or gets you thinking, be well, and enjoy!
Posted at 1:09am on May 20, 2009
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Hm, this seems pretty complex.
When I've had to manage tags, I generally will search for a tag, show completed tasks, enter multi-edit mode, and retag the tasks with the new tag name. That works pretty well and keeps the tags as tags without cluttering the task name.

But, of course, the power of RTM is in the flexibility! Certainly an interesting example of what you can do!
Posted 14 years ago
zannalov says:
I know it seems complex, but it's a work-around for when you have a lot of tags to juggle, and you don't want to accidentally untag something. I have run into the problem of accidentally deleting tags I wanted to keep, and undo is only really helpful if you catch yourself right away. This way the tags that I know will always shift around like sand go in the tags field, and the attributes that don't really shift much (if ever) go in the task title.

Ideally multi-edit mode would not let you delete tags in the edit box, but rather give you a list of tags that appear on one or more of the selected tasks which could be "x"ed out, while leaving the tag edit box to only add tags.
Posted 14 years ago
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