How to deal with non-schedulable one-off stimulus-response-pair-like situations when planning/organising projects?
post by mikbp · 2022-07-01T15:22:39.160Z · LW · GW · No commentsThis is a question post.
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Answers 3 JonathanMoregard None No comments
When working in projects it often happens that one task (A) must be performed after something else (B) happens. If you know B is going to happen at a particular time in the future, this is straightforward to plan --one just needs to add a reminder of A in the appropriate time slot in the calender. If it is something that happens often, one could try to use TAP (Trigger-Action Planning [? · GW]) if s/he is able to train enough. However, when B is a one-off situation that will happen in an unknown time in the future, particularly if it is weeks or months in the future, it is much less obvious how to deal with this. At least for me.
So, how do you guys deal with situations like "when the paper gets published, I need to do X, Y and Z"?
What I usually do is setting reminders at whatever time interval that seems adequate for the specific situation. However, this has downsides: 1) if the interval is too short, I may get used to the reminder and just disregard it without thinking. 2) if the interval is too long, task A may be performed too late.
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I haven't tried it myself, but would something like this do the trick?
↑ comment by mikbp · 2022-07-03T09:57:17.308Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
This sounds useful, thanks.
However, I was thinking more in something that reminds of all the tasks that are dependent on B. Actually this app is a good way to have the trigger (as long as it is something changing a website), but it misses the part or reminding the tasks.
UPDATE:
The app has an expansion pack that seems to get (at least very close) to the issue at hand. It contains a "Plug-in to integrate with Tasker, Automate and Automagic". I have actually never used these apps, but for what I've read about them I would be surprised if they would not be able to add events in a calendar or entries in a to-do list.
Still, I would like to know how people deal with these kinds of situations in general, as this only works when a website changes.
Replies from: JonathanMoregard↑ comment by Jonathan Moregård (JonathanMoregard) · 2022-07-04T09:07:04.174Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Tasker is great in general, I've integrated it with my todo list using todoists REST API, which works great.
As for sourcing triggers:
The only general way I can think of is a personal assistant (or some kind of service that provides the same kind of human assistance).
Otherwise maybe figure out a couple of domain-specific trigger-sourcing methods. If this allows you to do websites, you've covered most online things.
For covering non-online things, maybe you can find an API, use some kind of oracle service or similar.
Do you have an example for thing you struggle with?
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