[Remind-Fans] Commenting Out Only Part of Command (or, How to Handle Recurring To-Dos)

[okazpyw02 at sneakemail.com]

> I have been testing using Remind to handle tasks to-do that have a
> recurring timeframe.  The problem is that I often do not do them on
> the day that I should.

As you note, this is a logical featuring to have in any task
management system, and yet, almost none of them have this
feature (the exceptions being Sciral Consistency and yeaGTD).

> What I'd like to do is:
>
> REM September 30 2008 *1 #*38# MSG This is a task you've not done yet,
> but when you do it, comment out the *1 and uncomment the *38 so that
> it'll appear 38 days from today.%
>
> With the "#" acting as a commenting-out just for that portion of the command.
>
> Is there a character that currently does that?

I'm not a Remind expert, so the way I would do this is to write a
script that searches through my remind.txt file (for some unique
sub-string of the event message) and revises the date and/or
comment-state of the event.  (I think you have to revise the date,
otherwise the reminder will come 38 days after whatever the *original*
date of the event was.)

> Alternatively, has anyone else figured out another way to address the
> problem of a task that normally needs to repeat a certain number of
> days later, but in the meantime needs to stay on your schedule until
> you do it?

For a long list of attempts to do so in remind, see this thread:

http://lists.whatexit.org/mailman/private/remind-fans/2006/000707.html

There seems to be no non-password-protected archive of [Remind-Fans]...
The title of the thread is "basing task recurrance schedule on
completed date/time" [sic].

You may find the TextMate bundle of interest.

drw