Roger Barnes

I love when a one-liner just works. The following command connects to my mail server, fetches the mbox containing next action emails and pipes each through the email processor of the Ruby on Rails based Tracks GTD application that I have installed on my desktop machine. Now instead of a folder full of todo items, the same actions are ready for processing in my ubiquitous todo list.

ssh $MYSERVER "cat ~/Mail/_action" | formail -i "From: $MYEMAIL" -ds ruby /var/www/tracks/script/runner -e production 'MessageGateway.receive(STDIN.read)'

Since I’ve been aggressively learning python of late, I started digging through the library support for mbox processing and RESTful APIs. It turns out I didn’t have to this time.

A little donation was sent in the direction of the Tracks project a little while back, now I’m thinking I got extremely good value for money.

Some people keep lots of applications open from day to day.  I prefer to turn my work computer off overnight and start with a clean slate the next day.

Often, while rushing to leave the office and close all those applications, you might find that you were halfway through something.  In the past, I would write myself a physical note or send myself an email (if I haven’t closed my email client already), but now I have a simple tip for keeping track.

Create a text file on your desktop, and add a shortcut to it in your startup programs.  By doing this, there is an easily accessible dumping ground for last-minute notes or reminders, and it will pop up in your preferred text editor the next time you log in.