New Feature Idea: Research Task List/To-Do List

Sometimes I am reading or researching something in Logos and discover something that I want to explore more later without allowing my current research to get derailed. It would be great if I had a task list or to-do list document type that worked like a checklist to record ideas for further research, things I want to learn more about or follow-up on later, or maybe even have it be robust enough to plan an entire research project with major tasks and sub-tasks that can be checked off when complete.

I would imagine the Workflow editor might be useful for some things. But I'm thinking about something simple to quickly record ideas/questions/tasks to follow-up on later without having to use a separate tool outside of Logos.

OR better yet...

Maybe something can be added to the existing Notes tool to allow for the creation of checklists. Maybe "checklist item" could be a new note type (in addition to the highlight and note types) with all the same functionality of creating notebooks and tags for them, sorting and searching them, and even anchoring them to a text. It would need to have the ability to check an item as complete, in progress, or not started, and have that status be a searchable facet in Notes. It would be helpful if Faithlife would bring back precise dating for when notes were created and modified rather than the very generic and imprecise “6 months ago” or “2 years ago” situation we have now. This would help us sort and search with better precision and help keep tasks organized. (We need this functionality back for regular notes and highlights anyway.)

Just brainstorming here. Do other people have ways that they're already doing this in Logos? Maybe as a work around the Prayer List feature can be used this way since it has checklist functionality and tagging. What I like about the Prayer List feature is that when you create a prayer list it creates a card on our homepage that reminds you to do it. I don’t think Notes has this functionality and maybe that would be a drawback of using Notes for this instead of a separate Tasklist document type or some other homepage element that creates a card.

What do you guys think about this idea? Also, let me know if this has already been suggested somewhere else.

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Comments

MJ. Smith

This has been requested repeatedly over the years but never gained a lot of traction. I support the idea but use reading lists or notes in the meantime.

Doc B

Do other people have ways that they're already doing this in Logos?

In Logos? No.

This is a task for an app like Evernote. IMO, research questions should be independent of a platform, and with the increased pressure to move toward a rent/lease model, that independence is even more important.

For less important or smaller research tasks, I have a folder in Favorites where I drag resources that need further investigation.

Just my opinion...you asked.

Kiyah

For less important or smaller research tasks, I have a folder in Favorites where I drag resources that need further investigation.

I definitely think there should be something inside Logos for smaller tasks that I want to follow up on. I can understand your point about more involved research planning being done outside of Logos however.

I use favorites this way too, except when I put stuff in a favorites folder I usually promptly forget about it. lol

Doc B

I put stuff in a favorites folder I usually promptly forget about it.

That is (apparently) the universal human condition. [:D]

Andrew Biddinger

I support checkboxes in a notes file. It doesn't have to be fancy, just a variant of a bullet list. I use a few different programs for all of my tasks, but I do find myself wishing I could have simple checklists in Logos Notes.

Dave Thawley

I've started using Trello for doing this sort of thing. Its a real shame when Logos could do it for us though.

Doc B

I've started using Trello for doing this sort of thing

Never heard of it. Can you give me a quick rundown of what it is and how it works? (And what it costs?)

Kolen Cheung

I use TaskPaper for this sort of thing. It is a plain text format to manage todo list, and has an optional GUI on macOS: https://www.taskpaper.com

Since it is in plain text it is very flexible and scriptable. One could even sync it using Logos as any plain text files (powerful query search requires getting the text somewhere else somehow though.)

Digression: I have been trying to suggest supporting Markdown in Logos, in both creating notes and PPB. Logos should have define its own markdown variants with the additional syntax exactly as in those supported in PPB. Another topic for another day.

Phil Gons (Logos)

Check boxes in notes has come up before and is a good idea.

We had task cards on the list for the homepage, which could be a way to capture and track future tasks.

Kolen Cheung

Check boxes in notes has come up before and is a good idea.

We had task cards on the list for the homepage, which could be a way to capture and track future tasks.

Note that todo management is quite different from just having boxes that can be checked though.

From the use case and suggestions in the OP, it is more like todo management than checkboxes.

Todo management apps examples are OmniFocus, Things, TaskPapers, Trello, etc. Those should be able to handle complex projects and queries.

But of course Logos could just provide the simplest feature for simple todo management and direct people to those for complex tasks. Unless Logos is going to innovate on for example how Christians can collaborate on larger scale projects in its platform (may be like multiple people preparing for a week long Bible camp?), this really should be orthogonal with what Logos is doing.

May be in other words what I'm saying is the feature asked in the OP is too much for Logos because those are stuffs that some company entirely focused on and still may not be successful in delivering a truly useful product. What difference Logos can make in those situation, at best providing feature match to those existing ones? Perhaps links, citations, etc. to the Logos ecosystem and nothing else?

That's also where thing like taskpaper shines. It is a very simple concept, easy to implement, but can grow to arbitrary complexity. OmniFocus is from a big company and its software expensive and a complicated app but TaskPapers can match it feature-wise with a 1~3 men team. So it will be something Logos can borrow and implement it easily, and layperson can use it in the simplest way and yet expandable to arbitrary complexity.

Kiyah

Check boxes in notes has come up before and is a good idea.

We had task cards on the list for the homepage, which could be a way to capture and track future tasks.

Sounds good Phil