Add local variables to control tasks

[Dave Luce 1]

"Tasks" remain the starving step-children of Evernote. Editing is hard and they cannot be individually tagged. I propose a capability for Evernote's tasks, leapfrogging Nozbe, Todoist and Notional.

 

I would add a local variable to a note, then add the capability to use it in the note's tasks' properties.

 

Consider a note listing the tasks for an international trip.

I would gradually build a generic PrePlan note with all the tasks that have caused me trouble in the past. Each needs context, and a reminder, for efficient execution.

The context for each task, like "Buy Travel insurance", would be tagged as "At Computer", or "While Shopping". The context would reappear in the specific plan, each time I plan a trip.

The reminders should be scheduled relative to the WheelsUp date. I would specify each task reminder within this note as "Days_before", or "Weekdays_before", "WheelsUp". Other options would include "Days_After" and "Weekdays_After"

When I set up a trip, I would copy (or instantiate, if it were a template) the generic PrePlan note to my trip's notebook. At the start of the note, I would define a "WheelsUp" date, which would establish the dates of the reminders for each task in the rest of the note. The grammar might be "Set_Variable ", "WheelsUp" "To" "1/10/2022". For the rest of the note, recurrence of the name "WheelsUp" would be transformed to the date.

Similar variables could be used to differentiate "Author's Tour" from "Wildlife Safari", omitting irrelevant tasks and packing.

 

The capability to set variables would be useful in many situations; it might even help to have variables whose scope extends across notes to entire notebooks or stacks. Questions of sequence, collision and syntax probably would make such semi-global variables hard to use, and probably not worth their maintenance.