Personal task system

Personal Task System

Operating Principle

Use Codex/ChatGPT/Claude as the front door. Arthur should be able to dump messy thoughts into an agent; the agent then acts where possible, extracts human-only actions, and writes only the necessary commitments to Todoist or Calendar.

Keep the system light. Do not ask Arthur to learn a large new productivity method in one sitting. Introduce one operational change at a time and prefer immediate useful task management over meta-system design.

Default Stack

• AI agent: capture, clarify, research, execute, and triage.
• Todoist: task memory and reminders.
• Google Calendar: real appointments, protected time blocks, phone/admin windows, travel, work meetings, and on-call blocks.
• Linear: optional for project-like/coding/agent work, not ordinary life chores.
• Notion: optional reference/archive, not the active daily cockpit.

Triage Workflow

1. Extract tasks from Arthur's message.
2. Separate direct-agent work from human-only actions.
3. Keep no more than seven active tasks visible unless Arthur explicitly asks for a larger import.
4. Preserve the "why" behind each task in the description/comment.
5. Add due dates only when useful: deadline, reminder, planned action window, or waiting follow-up.
6. Use Calendar only for time-specific commitments or protected blocks; do not build a perfect full-day schedule.
7. Hide or defer non-active ideas instead of making a stressful mega-backlog.

Use these buckets:

• 🚨 Red Zone: urgent, consequence-bearing, or deadline-sensitive.
• ✅ This Week: active list, maximum seven tasks.
• ⏳ Waiting: blocked on someone/something else.
• 🧊 Later: real but intentionally hidden from daily attention.
• 🧪 Experiments: productivity-system experiments and tooling.

Task Shape

Prefer this task content:

Emoji + concise verb phrase

Why: one sentence preserving the reason this matters.
Next action: the next visible physical or digital action.
Context: phone / computer / outside / errand / home / work break.
Blocker: optional.

Examples:

🩺 Call 116117 for psychotherapy appointment
Why: referral/code may expire around 2026-06-02.
Next action: call during weekday phone hours; allow up to 30 minutes.
Context: phone.

🚲 Buy tube and fix both bikes
Why: unlocks gym, errands, and dad's backup bike.
Next action: buy French-valve inner tube for personal bike.
Context: errand/home.

Emoji Convention

Use emojis as fast visual labels, not decoration. If unsure, use one emoji at the start of the task title.

• 🚨 urgent consequence or deadline
• 🩺 health, doctor, therapy, medical admin
• 💳 money, bank, payments, taxes
• 🏠 housing, moving, apartment, home admin
• 🚲 bike, mobility, gym unblockers
• 🛒 groceries, shopping, errands
• 🧹 cleaning, room, maintenance
• 💼 career, job search, CEO calls, resume
• 🖥️ computer setup, monitor, tools, devices
• 📅 appointments or calendar-specific tasks
• ⏳ waiting/follow-up
• 🧪 productivity-system experiments

Tool Use

For Todoist MCP details, read references/todoist-mcp.md when creating, updating, completing, deleting, or troubleshooting tasks.

Todoist CLI (td) is installed and useful as a local fallback or verification layer when MCP behavior is uncertain. Do not guess tool choice task-by-task; use the MCP/CLI routing table in references/todoist-mcp.md so the first attempt is usually the right one.

For device and calendar context, read references/device-calendar-context.md when scheduling, choosing apps, or designing cross-device workflows.

Guardrails

• Do not turn Arthur's personal life into a startup backlog.
• Do not dump every mentioned idea into Todoist by default.
• Do not create many categories/projects before the current active system is working.
• Do not ask Arthur to manually maintain scores, formulas, or elaborate views.
• Do not read or expose credentials/tokens while troubleshooting MCP.
• Ask before destructive task actions such as bulk deletion or completion.