Managing todos

Learn how to manage todos using the Ultralist CLI.

Listing, filtering and grouping todos

See Showing todos for detailed documentation on how to show your list.

Adding todos

Add a todo by running ultralist add or ultralist a, and then filling out the details of the todo.

A +project or @context can be inserted into the todo body. They can only be one word long.

Ultralist expects the due date at the end, if there is a due date.

Due date format

For things due today or tomorrow, you can use due:today and due:tomorrow. You can also use due:tod or due:tom.

For things due this week, you can use the first 3 letters of the day name. For instance, due:mon or due:thu. Ultralist will always look forward. If today is a Wednesday and you specify due:mon, the due date will be for the next Monday.

For specific dates, you can use either due:may2 or due:2may. The month is always lowercase and 3 letters.

Examples
ultralist add chat with @bob about +specialProject due:tom
ultralist a +lunch make turkey sandwich priority:true
ultralist a +todo respond to @shelly about project:mobile status:next due:may3

Completing/Uncompleting todos

  • ultralist complete [id] or ultralist c [id] - complete a todo
  • ultralist uncomplete [id] or ultralist uc [id] - un-complete a todo
Examples
ultralist complete 35
ultralist c 35
ultralist uc 35

Archiving/Unarchiving todos

  • ultralist archive [id] or ultralist ar [id] - archive a todo
  • ultralist unarchive [id] or ultralist uar [id] - unarchive a todo
  • ultralist ar c - archive all completed todos (a great command to run at the end of the day!)
  • ultralist ar gc - Garbage collect.

Garbage collection

As you use Ultralist, you’ll notice that your IDs continue to increment higher and higher. Running garbage collection will delete all archived todos, thus re-claiming low todo IDs.

Examples
ultralist archive 35
ultralist ar 35
ultralist uar 35
ultralist ar c

Garbage collection

Prioritizing/Unprioritizing todos

  • ultralist prioritize [id] or ultralist p [id] -prioritize a todo
  • ultralist unprioritize [id] or ultralist up [id] - un-prioritize a todo
Examples
ultralist prioritize 35
ultralist p 35
ultralist up 35

Deleting todos

ultralist delete [id] or ultralist d [id] will do the job.

Examples

ultralist delete 35
ultralist d 35

Be careful! once a todo is deleted, it’s gone forever!

Editing todos

You can edit a todo’s subject or due date The syntax is as follows:

ultralist e [id] <subject> <due:[due]> <status:[status]> <completed:[true|false> <priority:[true|false]> <archived:[true|false]>

Editing a todo’s subject

When if you do not include due:[date], then just the subject will be edited.

Example

ultralist e 3 chat with @bob

The above will edit just the todo’s subject, and leave the due date alone.

Editing a todo’s due date

If you only pass due:[date], the todo’s due date will be updated, and the subject will remain the same.

ultralist e 3 due:tom

The above will set the todo item with id of 3's due date to tomorrow, and it will leave the subject alone.

Removing a todo’s due date

You can also say due:none to un-set an existing due date.

Example

ultralist e 3 due:none

Notes management

Each todo can have many notes. Notes are extra info (links, context, etc).

Adding a note to a todo

Add a note to a todo with the following syntax:

ultralist addnote <todoId> <content> or ultralist an <todoId> <content>

➜ ultralist an 1 here is a note
Note added.

Then you can list your todos with notes by using ultralist list --notes

➜ ultralist l --notes

all
1    [ ]  tomorrow    some important todo for the +project
  0                     adding a note

The above will add a note to the todo with an id of 0.

Editing a note

When you edit a note, you replace all of the contents of the note.

Use the following syntax:

ultralist editnote <todoId> <noteId> <content>

or

ultralist en <todoId> <noteId> <content>

Example

➜ ultralist e n 1 0 here is the updated note content.
Note edited.

Deleting a note

Use the following syntax:

ultralist deletenote <todoId> <noteId>

or

ultralist dn <todoId> <noteId>

Example

➜ ultralist dn 1 0
Note deleted.

Handling todo statuses

A todo can have a status. This allows you to further customize your task management.

In ultralist, a status should be a single lower-case word.

For instance, suppose you like to manage your todos using a now, next, later format.

Adding tasks with a status

You can set a status when adding a todo:

ultralist add this is something I need to do right away status:now
ultralist add this is a todo for next week status:next
ultralist add this is a someday todo status:later

Listing tasks by status

You can then build powerful aliases around showing todos with a particular status. For instance, to get an idea of things you need to work on now:

ultralist list status:now

Or you can see your whole list, grouped by status:

ultralist list group:status

Removing a todo’s status

Simply set the status of a todo to none.

ultralist e 33 status:none