Feb 24
Some time ago, I posted about a very cool VBS script that I could use to quickly append a bit of typed text (or text on the clipboard) into a particular scratch.txt file. I married this with SlickRun so I could do it quickly from the keyboard - shortcut key to activate SlickRun, ‘.’ for that magic word, a little VBS box popped up, type in my text, enter, done.
This keyboard shortcut goodness was combined with the Konfabulator Konsoulmate widget, which showed me the contents of my scratch.txt file on the desktop at all times. My main use of this scratch file was twofold:
- Use it to keep track of how much work I was doing, e.g., enter “Research 3 hrs” to show myself what I got done at particular points in the day.
- Use it to quickly jot a note for something that needed to be added to my GTD system, i.e., as a ubiquitous capture tool, without having to open EverNote or Outlook.
Later, dmc on the 43 Folders Google Groups thread introduced some more SlickRun magic, where he/she was able to quickly append to different text files from the keyboard; a la QuickSilver for Mac folks. I liked the idea, and posted about it, but it wasn’t for me. I don’t live in just text files, and one is really all I need. And, I want to see what I’m capturing on the desktop, so I stick with just one file.
Lately, I’ve been noticing some dissatisfaction with my VBS solution described above:
- I often find myself typing something like “. Research 3 hrs” into the SlickRun magicword box. In other words, I’m forgetting that I need to type “.”, then enter, then get the text box. Small, but annoying.
- I never, ever, paste what’s on the keyboard into my scratch file. That’s because I’m not using the scratch file like the authors intended - it is not my only capture device. If I’m copying text from somewhere, it’s most likely going straight into EverNote.
Then today, dmc posted a new set of SlickRun magicwords on the 43 Folders Google Group. These new keywords are simple, elegant, and so obvious when you think about it. Dmc sets up a different magicword for each context, e.g., @home, @computer, etc. Then, when you have some NA that you want to capture, e.g., get milk, you would simply type the following into your SlickRun box: “@errands get milk”, and it would be appended to one particular text file. When you’re done for the day, sort the file, and you have your NAs, sorted by context. Dmc says,
What makes this work so well for me is that it requires very little conscious thinking. With the batch files, I may have to think about which file I’m sending the text to or to make sure I format the command correctly. With the context Magicwords, I only need the context and the todo text. I’ve found that when I am doing something and need to pop something into the todo list, the context Magicwords are so quick and thoughtless, that I never really leave what I was originally doing. I never have figure out where I left off because my hands never leave the keyboard and my mind never really needs to expend much energy changing gears (changing gears slows me down a lot). The thought is quickly out of my head and I don’t think about it anymore.
When I read this post, a lightbulb went on. Here, I could solve several little problems:
- I could get rid of the VBS script and just type straight into the SlickRun box.
- I could really start using scratch.txt as a ubiquitous capture tool. I did sort of before, but in a haphazard way; this would formalize it a bit, make it consistent. The advantage of this is that I have a tendency of combining the capture/process/organize steps of the GTD philosophy. If I go near Outlook or EverNote, I tend to have the desire to reorganize things, or review things, or something. It’s not always that easy to just enter a new NA and then leave. Using my scratch.txt file this way would allow me to separate capture from process/organize. (This argument was also the rationale behind me creating a magicword to let me create an NA (task) without opening Outlook.)
Of course, I couldn’t just use dmc’s magicwords the way they were ;) I had to tweak them a bit for my taste. But this post is already too long, so I’ll end this, and tell you about my customization in another post.
Categories: GTD, scripts/batch, slickrun
