task-management

What this skill does

# Task Management — The System That Thinks For You

Todoist is the task layer. The agent is the gardener.

## Philosophy

Three systems, one practice:

**Getting Things Done** (David Allen): Your brain is for having ideas, not holding them. Capture everything immediately. Process to next physical action. If it takes < 2 min, do it now. Weekly review is sacred.

**Shape Up** (Ryan Singer, Basecamp): Work expands to fill the time available. Set appetite (how much time is this worth?), not estimates. Projects are bets with fixed timelines, not open-ended backlogs. If it's not worth betting on, kill it.

**Tiny Habits** (BJ Fogg): Behavior change = anchor moment + tiny behavior + celebration. "After I [existing routine], I will [tiny version of new habit]." Make it stupidly small. Celebrate immediately. Let it grow naturally.

### What This Means In Practice

- **Every task is a next physical action.** Not "research X" but "spend 20 min reading the X docs." Not "fix the bug" but "reproduce the bug in a test."
- **Inbox is a capture buffer, not a todo list.** Process it to zero. Each item gets: do it (< 2 min), schedule it, delegate it, someday it, or delete it.
- **Projects have appetite.** "2 weeks, small batch" or "6 weeks, big batch." If a project has been open for 3x its appetite with no progress, it's a zombie. Kill it or re-scope.
- **Habits are anchored, not scheduled.** "After morning coffee → shoulder warm-up" not "Do exercises at 7am." The anchor is the trigger.
- **Less is more.** A clean list with 5 clear next actions beats 50 vague intentions. Ruthlessly prune. If you haven't touched it in 2 weeks and it's not scheduled, it doesn't matter.

## Task Surfaces (ADR-0238)

Todoist is not one undifferentiated bucket.

- **Human surface**: tasks Joel must personally do, review, or decide
- **Decision surface**: explicit questions for Joel, not generic backlog
- **Machine surface**: agent bookkeeping, infra follow-ups, memory review, and system chores

Rules:

- Default human home is **`Joel's Tasks`**
- `Questions for Joel` is for actual decisions only, not a dumping ground
- `Agent Work` is for machine-visible backlog when a task is still useful at all
- **Do not create machine tasks in Joel-facing projects**
- **Do not let machine-task creation fall back into Joel-facing projects just because another surface failed**
- If the agent can do the work now, **do it instead of tasking it**

Good human-facing tasks:
- "Ask Kristina for post-op follow-up appointment date"
- "Update Grzegorz on instructor chat progress"
- "Choose between A and B for launch pricing"

Bad human-facing tasks:
- "Investigate gateway retry chatter"
- "Review memory proposal p-20260306-030"
- "Build log query tool for LiveKit integration" when the agent can already do the work

## Todoist Adapter

### Credentials

```bash
# API token from https://app.todoist.com/app/settings/integrations/developer
# Stored in agent-secrets
export TODOIST_API_TOKEN=$(secrets lease todoist_api_token --raw)
```

### Read

```bash
todoist-cli today                    # What's due today
todoist-cli inbox                    # Needs triage
todoist-cli list                     # All active tasks
todoist-cli list --filter "p1"       # Todoist filter query (priority 1)
todoist-cli list --project ID        # Tasks in a project
todoist-cli list --label review      # Tasks with a label
todoist-cli projects                 # All projects
todoist-cli sections --project ID    # Sections in a project
todoist-cli labels                   # All labels
todoist-cli show ID                  # Task detail + comments
todoist-cli review                   # Daily standup: today, inbox, overdue, project breakdown
```

### Write

```bash
# Create a task
todoist-cli add "Title" --due today --description "Details" --project ID

# With labels, priority, deadline
todoist-cli add "Ship feature" --due "next monday" --priority 3 --labels agent,urgent --deadline 2026-03-01

# Complete
todoist-cli complete ID

# Update
todoist-cli update ID --content "New title" --due tomorrow --description "Updated notes"

# Move between projects
todoist-cli move ID --project ID

# Delete permanently
todoist-cli delete ID

# Reopen a completed task
todoist-cli reopen ID

# Create a project
todoist-cli add-project "Project Name" --color blue

# Create a section
todoist-cli add-section "Section Name" --project ID
```

### Priority Convention

Use Todoist's native p1–p4. The API inverts these: `--priority 4` = p1 (red) in the UI.

| UI | API | Meaning | Agent rule |
|----|-----|---------|------------|
| **p1** 🔴 | `--priority 4` | Urgent / today | Blocking something. Do it now or escalate. |
| **p2** 🟠 | `--priority 3` | High / this week | Next up. Agent picks from these first. |
| **p3** 🔵 | `--priority 2` | Medium / this cycle | Scheduled work. Gets done when p1-p2 clear. |
| **p4** ⚪ | `--priority 1` | Backlog | Someday/maybe. Reviewed weekly, killed if stale. |

**SOP: When creating agent tasks from ADRs or session work, always set priority.** Default to p3. Promote to p2 if it unblocks other work. p1 is rare — something is broken or blocking Joel.

### Schedule Mapping

| Todoist | GTD Context | CLI Flag |
|---------|-------------|----------|
| Inbox (no project) | Captured, not processed | (default) |
| `--due today` | Committed — doing it today | `--due today` |
| `--due "next week"` | Scheduled | `--due "next monday"` |
| No due date | Next action, no date pressure | (omit --due) |
| Label: `someday` | Maybe/later — reviewed weekly | `--labels someday` |
| `--due "every day"` | Recurring habit | `--due "every day"` |

### Structure

| Concept | Todoist | Rule |
|---------|---------|------|
| Project | Project | Finite goal with appetite. Has a "done" state. Archive when complete. |
| Section | Section | Group within a project. Optional — keep flat until complexity demands it. |
| Task | Task | Next physical action. Concrete, verb-first. |
| Habit | Recurring task | `--due "every day"` or `"every friday at 5pm"`. Anchored to routine. |
| Context | Label | Lightweight tags: `review`, `agent`, `someday`, `waiting`. |

### Todoist Filters (Pro)

Todoist's filter syntax is powerful. Use via `todoist-cli list --filter`:

```bash
todoist-cli list --filter "today | overdue"     # Due today or overdue
todoist-cli list --filter "p1 & !#Inbox"        # Priority 1, not in inbox
todoist-cli list --filter "no date"             # Floating tasks
todoist-cli list --filter "@review"             # Label: review
todoist-cli list --filter "assigned to: me"     # My tasks
todoist-cli list --filter "created before: -14d"  # Stale tasks
```

## Agent Behaviors

### Capture Immediately

When Joel says anything implying a task — "I need to...", "remind me to...", "we should...", "don't forget..." — capture it:

```bash
todoist-cli add "The thing Joel said"
```

Then confirm: **"Captured → Inbox: 'The thing Joel said'"**

Don't ask permission to capture. Ask permission before scheduling or assigning to a project. Capturing is free.

### Process Inbox (GTD)

When asked to review or when inbox has items:

For each item, decide ONE of:
1. **Do it** — takes < 2 min? Just do it now. Complete the task.
2. **Schedule it** — `todoist-cli update ID --due today` or `--due "next monday"`
3. **Move it** — `todoist-cli move ID --project ID`
4. **Someday/maybe** — `todoist-cli update ID --labels someday`
5. **Delete it** — not worth doing. `todoist-cli delete ID`

Present as a batch decision: "Inbox has 4 items. Here's my triage..."

### Create Tasks From Work

When actionable items emerge from other activities (transcribed photos, calendar events, project planning):

1. Extract concrete next actions (verb-first, specific)
2. Decide the audience first: **human, decision, or machine**
3. Only human/decision work goes into Joel-facing Todoist views
4. Assign to the right project
5. Add descriptions with context (ADR refs, links, acceptance criteria)
6. Report what was created