Jan
14
keeping track of daily goals and time
January 14, 2009 | 8 Comments
I’m a wannabe GTD geek (http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/08/getting-started-with-getting-things-done), trying to make todo lists and stay organized, etc… I have inbox zero down at this point. BUT, there were always two aspects of GTD that I have been looking for a good solution for.
The first is keeping track of my time throughout the day. I’ve settled into a quick format text file where I list what I have worked on once I complete the task. For example, “8:15 – 9:45 processed inbox”, or “10:45 – 11:30 diagnosed and fixed locations error in Project X.” I was doing this in Evernote, but it always seemed a little overkill to have Evernote running all day just for a simple text file. Plus, I don’t like the Evernote icon. Stupid complaint, I know.
The second thing I was missing was a good, simple way of storing my daily goals. AKA, my TO DOs. Again, this seems like a simple text file would suffice. I use Basecamp for most to-dos so they can be collaborative, but I want a quick hit list for my own eyes. It doesn’t need to be a good looking Dashboard widget, or a nifty menu bar only app. Just a quick text file would work. Something that can be invoked and managed with the keyboard. However, I don’t want it to just get lost in my files. That is why GeekTool caught my eye today (http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/) is an OS X utility that can display text files and shell commands on your desktop. It can be done in a really unobtrusive way too. With a little TLC, you can have the text from GeekTool blend in very well with your desktop, which is easy for me because I use a solid color – black. So, I started thinking, using GeekTool to display my time and daily goals files will be perfect. But I need to be able to edit them quickly. I remembered Quicksilver had an append/prepend functionality added as an advanced feature. Instructions on the wonderfully awesome 43 Folders (http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/04/quicksilver-append-to-a-text-file-from-anywhere). So, I think this will work really well. I’ve setup a time.txt and a todo.txt and stored them in my project files directory that is already in my QS catalog.
So, using Quicksilver I can now append time entries to my time.txt file. It’s always accessible by simply going to the desktop. I can quickly add todo items to my todo.txt as well. I’m going to try this for a while, I think the power of Quicksilver append is going to win me over. If anyone has better suggestions for keeping track of time or todos, I am happy to hear them.
UPDATE: small change in process. GeekTools apparently has a problem updating more than one text file. So to get around this, I changed my entries to be Shell commands versus Files so I could set a refresh rate. I simply used a command like: cat ~/time.txt to show the text file in a similar fashion to use the File entry type. I set the refresh rate at 5 and that seems to work without bogging down the system.
Aug
29
Can’t delete file in OS X
August 29, 2006 | 16 Comments
I am hoping someone out there can help me. I have a file on my system that I can not delete. I have tried secure empty trash, trash with shift+option, rm -f filename, even tools like ForceEmptyTrash and TicklerTools. Nothing is able to remove this file. I can’t even get the file permissions or data info on the file.
It shows up in the Finder until you click on it, and then it disappears. Notice it has no file size. It actually used to live in an old bundle that got renamed and removed during an automatic upgrade of TextMate. I tried emptying my trash today and the status bar just froze. At first, I tried deleting the app and the finder would hang. So I went in to see what could be causing it. Oddly enough, an ls (of any kind) on the directory just hangs as well. I was hoping I could change the name and file permissions and get rid of it, but I am unable to do anything with the file (if it is even a file at all).
If I open TextEdit and browse to the directory the file is in, the file name is shown, but gets hung on calculating size when I try and highlight it. Opening the directory in the finder, shows the file name like shown above, but as soon as you click on it, it disappears. Right clicking on it, allows me to chose open, but nothing happens. I’ve tried creating another file in the directory with the same name and trying to delete it, but that doesn’t work either it just deletes the new file and leaves this old remnant behind.
How the heck do I delete a file that appears to be there, but isn’t?