For the last few months I've felt better at managing my actions and tasks thanks to Steve Losh's T. T is a simple python script that allows you to manage a simple task list from your shell prompt.

I use my shell all the time to ping stuff, renice processes and you know, whatever (like in the image below).....

... having my todo list right there in front of me has been really helpful (The numbers in the square brackets!). Steve's website suggests a quick update to your shell profile to add your task list to your prompt but I found running a python script each time I do anything quite slow, especially since I have two lists.

Below is my bash .profile file, there you can see the rather OTT change(s) I've made to integrate my todo lists into my shell prompt. I have two lists (work & personal) the number of things to do shown in my shell prompt gets updated each time the lists change (thanks to md5).... and I hide my work list over the weekend ;)

#!/bin/bash
alias p='python ~/bin/t/t.py --task-dir ~/Dropbox/Tasks --list personal.tasks --delete-if-empty'
alias w='python ~/bin/t/t.py --task-dir ~/Dropbox/Tasks --list work.tasks --delete-if-empty'

function nick_PS1 {

        if [ -e "/Users/nick/Dropbox/Tasks/Personal.tasks" ]
        then
                CurrentPersonalMD5=`md5 ~/Dropbox/Tasks/Personal.tasks | awk '{print $4}' | cat `

                if [ -e "~/.tasks.personal.md5" ]
                then
                        LastPersonalMD5=`cat ~/.tasks.personal.md5`
                fi

                if [ "$CurrentPersonalMD5" == "$LastPersonalMD5" ]
                then
                        if [ -e "~/.tasks.personal.no" ]
                        then
                                NumOfPersonal=`cat ~/.tasks.personal.no`
                        fi
                else
                        NumOfPersonal=`p | wc -l | sed -e's/ *//'`
                        echo $NumOfPersonal > ~/.tasks.personal.no
                        echo $CurrentPersonalMD5 > ~/.tasks.personal.md5
                fi

                if [ $NumOfPersonal -ne 0 ]
                then
                        LEFT='['
                        RIGHT=']'
                        Personal="p:$NumOfPersonal"
                fi

        else
                NumOfPersonal=0
        fi

DayOfWeek=`date "+%u"`
if [ $DayOfWeek -lt 6 ]
then
        if [ -e "/Users/nick/Dropbox/Tasks/Work.tasks" ]
        then
                CurrentWorkMD5=`md5 ~/Dropbox/Tasks/Work.tasks | awk '{print $4}'`

                if [ -e "~/.tasks.work.md5" ]
        then
                LastWorkMD5=`cat ~/.tasks.work.md5`
        fi

                if [ "$CurrentWorkMD5" == "$LastWorkMD5" ]
        then
                        if [ -e "~/.tasks.work.no" ]
                        then
                                NumOfWork=`cat ~/.tasks.work.no`
                        fi
                else
                                        NumOfWork=`w | wc -l | sed -e's/ *//'`
                                        echo $NumOfWork > ~/.tasks.work.no
                                        echo $CurrentWorkMD5 > ~/.tasks.work.md5
                fi

                if [ $NumOfWork -ne 0 ]
                then
                        LEFT='['
                        RIGHT=']'
                        Work="w:$NumOfWork"
                fi

        else
                NumOfWork=0
        fi
else
 NumOfWork=0
fi

        if [ $NumOfPersonal -ne 0 ]
        then
                if [ $NumOfWork -ne 0 ]
                then
                        SEP="|"
                fi
         fi

        RESULT="$LEFT$Personal$SEP$Work$RIGHT"

        if [ -z $RESULT ] 
        then
                RESULT="linickx@macbookpro"
        fi

        echo $RESULT
}

export PS1="\$(nick_PS1) \W \$"

... I think my next stop will be using geektool show the list/reminders on my desktop.