Neorg GTD 1.0.0

[danymat]

TLDR: Neorg GTD is no more because of Neorg 1.0.0, so Neorg GTD 1.0.0 will be created!

Hello everyone !

As you probably know, Neorg got his first major version, 1.0.0 !
But by changing the specs, we were left with 2 major choices:

• Update GTD to support new norg syntax
• Drop GTD

As the original creator of Neorg GTD, I was kind of inactive those past months because of work. But on the contrary, users saw GTD in neorg as a great tool and continued using it and pushing it to the limits, finding bugs, providing very valuable insights and feedbacks that I was not able to keep up, and @vhyrro quite didn't contribute to the module to be able to do it all by itself.
We then decided to "Drop GTD", as you probably saw if you updated recently.

But we feel like this module was very interesting and provided a lot of benefits, both for users and neorg devs.
That's why GTD is planned to come back, with some twists, and surely for the better:

1. Create new GTD specs that supports 1.0 specs

• Link to 1.0 specs: https://github.com/nvim-neorg/norg-specs/blob/main/1.0-specification.norg

We previously used these specs to defined what GTD should look like in Neorg, and what should be the format of the tasks and workspace.

Now that the Neorg specs have changed, the format of our notes and tasks have to be redefined. We already have some ideas of what it should look like, but we definitely need you to propose and provide feedback based on your previous usage, and needs.

As soon as we're ready to discuss about this, we'll open a dedicated discussion, and add a new comment below this issue. Feel free to subscribe to this issue to be pinged about the opening of the discussion, and important matters that we should communicate to you.

2. Detach GTD parsing and code logic from neovim plugin

As I was coding GTD module, I felt the need to maximize separation between the code that "grabbed" the files and did modification of the files, and the code responsible for analyzing our workspace and providing our UI that we loved.

As a need to spearate code logic to neovim specific input/output operations, we decided to create an external Neorg GTD tool that will be responsible for the code logic part.

This will provide the ability to make Neorg GTD more resilient from neovim changes, while opening our beloved Neorg GTD to possible new external applications (https://beorgapp.com/ wink wink)

More will be coming soon.

3. Release "new" features in GTD that were not implemented beforehand

This is the last part of the plan, that'll probably take place during the specs definition and the writing of the Neorg GTD application.
The idea is simple: we'll try to gather valuable feedbacks that were provided during the release of Neorg GTD in order to meet people's expectations in the release of the new version.
I will personally try to gather and group the given issues/feedbacks here below.

• The annoying problem of creating 1 workspace for GTD
  • GTD Norg workspace annoying error #460 (possible misconfigurations in configuring GTD workspace)
  • How to access to GTD views from anywhere #223
  • GTD first impressions and notes/questions. #307 (changes on cwd + initial setup)
  • Flexibility with GTD and workspaces #523
• Capture out of nvim
  • GTD view/capture out of vim #536
  • GTD capture without `:NeorgStart` #486
• Rigidity of the structure
  • What is the purpose of `index.norg` and `inbox.norg`? #686
  • [BUG]: Having nested gtdworkspace opens empty buffer. #625
  • GTD not showing already started Tasks in today's list #576
• Logbook of previous tasks and projects
  • GTD - Refiling items #355
  • GTD in Journal files? #493
• New syntax
  • #time.created field for recording GTD tasks #692 (metadata for tasks and projects)
  • recurring cyclical/frequency list #507 (recurring tasks)
  • Api to modify task state based on uuid #504 (UUID)
  • Clocking in #351 (clocking tasks)
• Move tasks
  • GTD Add Interface to Move Task #591
• Reporting
  • completed task report #260

---

I hope this gives more clarity for people that wondered why Neorg GTD got deleted, and what is the desired plan.
Thank you everyone for your support, and happy holidays ! 🎄 ❤️

Reference

If you want to read the history behind GTD and how the first version got released, check out the couple of links below:

• User Scenario: Getting Things Done #13: How the first idea of GTD in neorg popped out
• WIP: GTD Base Features #60: The first PR for GTD
• GTD workflow #61: The first discussion about GTD workflow in Neorg.
• Proposition for GTD specs on neorg #67: The 0.1.0 specs of GTD in neorg (this is the draft of the :h neorg-gtd file that you probably read before GTD getting nuked

Upvote & Fund

• We're using Polar.sh so you can upvote and help fund this issue.
• We receive the funding once the issue is completed & confirmed by you.
• Thank you in advance for helping prioritize & fund our backlog.

[vhyrro]

Big Update

I am happy to announce that the backend work for GTD is mostly in place, and that it's time to start work on GTD itself!

Below you may find the initial GTD specification which aims to describe the high level behaviours of GTD. The only thing it has yet to explain are projects, because those are being heavily worked on and reconsidered over and over again with more and more unique ideas :)

Below you may find two links, one to the main norg file that describes the gtd spec and the same norg file exported to pdf for easier viewing and sharing.

1. Norg: https://github.com/nvim-neorg/norg-specs/blob/main/gtd-1.0.0-rc1.norg
2. PDF: gtd-design-goals.pdf

I am also documenting the whole process and hope to make some nice devlogs out of it!

[vhyrro]

I would like to add an addendum to the specification which is not discussed there:

The entire workflow and concepts behind GTD (i.e. what makes GTD useful) should be explained within help pages inside of Neorg. Users shouldn't have to resort to external GTD tutorials to understand how Neorg's GTD works.

I find adding it to the thread here is easier than me updating the document and reexporting it to LaTeX 😅