Note-taking without leaving the Terminal

If you’re like me and spend most of your time in the terminal, switching to another app to take notes may interrupt your workflow. To quickly take notes without jumping apps, I found a nice tool named TaskBook here.

To install it, simply use this one-liner:

yarn global add taskbook

Once installed, try tb --help for a list of commands you can use:

$ tb --help
 
   Usage
     $ tb [<options> ...]
 
   Options
        none             Display board view
      --archive, -a      Display archived items
      --begin, -b        Start/pause task
      --check, -c        Check/uncheck task
      --clear            Delete all checked items
      --copy, -y         Copy item description
      --delete, -d       Delete item
      --edit, -e         Edit item description
      --find, -f         Search for items
      --help, -h         Display help message
      --list, -l         List items by attributes
      --move, -m         Move item between boards
      --note, -n         Create note
      --priority, -p     Update priority of task
      --restore, -r      Restore items from archive
      --star, -s         Star/unstar item
      --task, -t         Create task
      --timeline, -i     Display timeline view
      --version, -v      Display installed version
 

    Examples
      $ tb
      $ tb --archive
      $ tb --begin 2 3
      $ tb --check 1 2
      $ tb --clear
      $ tb --copy 1 2 3
      $ tb --delete 4
      $ tb --edit @3 Merge PR #42
      $ tb --find documentation
      $ tb --list pending coding
      $ tb --move @1 cooking
      $ tb --note @coding Mergesort worse-case O(nlogn)
      $ tb --priority @3 2
      $ tb --restore 4
      $ tb --star 2
      $ tb --task @coding @reviews Review PR #42
      $ tb --task @coding Improve documentation
      $ tb --task Make some buttercream
      $ tb --timeline 

I added a couple of aliases to my ~/.zshrc file for new tasks and notes on my @devops board:

alias task="tb -t @devops"
alias note="tb -n @devops"

So I can type task this is a task, note this is a note. You get the idea.

I have found this tool extremely useful in my daily work for jotting down something quickly:

With the above screenshot for reference:

tb -c 1 will mark task 1 checked

tb -d 1 will delete task 1. To delete several elements, use tb -d 1 2 7, for example.

To set the priority of task 11, I used tb -p @11 2

Feel free to experiment, practice makes perfect!

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