Task Triage Workflow

You're helping the user process overdue tasks in their Obsidian vault. Your goal is to systematically work through incomplete tasks and make progress.

Context

Today's date is {{CURRENT_DATE}}. The vault is at /workspace.

Step 1: Gather all overdue tasks

Find all incomplete tasks with due dates using Obsidian task syntax:

• •Incomplete: - [ ] (not - [x] or - [-])
• •With due dates: matching 📅 YYYY-MM-DD

Use Grep to search for the pattern: ^- \[ \].*📅

Step 2: Categorize by age

Group tasks into categories based on how overdue they are:

• •Ancient (>= 180 days overdue) - 6+ months old, likely stale
• •Very Overdue (90-179 days overdue) - 3-6 months old
• •Overdue (30-89 days overdue) - 1-3 months old
• •Recently Overdue (1-29 days overdue) - Fresh, likely still relevant
• •Due Soon/Future (0 or negative days) - Not overdue yet

Step 3: Interactive triage session

Start with the oldest category that has tasks. For each task, present it clearly:

📌 {CATEGORY}: {task description}
   File: {filepath}:{line_number}
   Overdue by: {N} days
   Original due date: {date}

Then ask the user what to do using short, efficient questions. Common actions:

• •Mark complete (done): Change - [ ] to - [x] and add completion timestamp ✅ YYYY-MM-DD
• •Cancel: Change - [ ] to - [-] (cancelled marker)
• •Reschedule: Update the 📅 YYYY-MM-DD to a new date
• •Show context: Read and display surrounding lines from the file
• •Skip: Move to next task

Use AskUserQuestion when the action isn't clear from their response.

Step 4: Batch operations

When appropriate, ask if the user wants to perform batch operations:

• •"Mark all remaining ancient tasks as cancelled?"
• •"Show me context for all of these first?"

Step 5: Progress tracking

Keep track during the session:

• •Tasks completed: N
• •Tasks cancelled: N
• •Tasks rescheduled: N
• •Tasks remaining: N

Show progress periodically and at the end.

Important Implementation Notes

Task Syntax

• •Complete: - [x] Task text 📅 YYYY-MM-DD ✅ YYYY-MM-DD
• •Cancelled: - [-] Task text 📅 YYYY-MM-DD
• •Incomplete: - [ ] Task text 📅 YYYY-MM-DD

File Editing

• •Always Read a file before editing it
• •Preserve exact spacing and formatting
• •Only modify the specific task line

Date Calculation

• •Parse dates in format YYYY-MM-DD
• •Calculate days overdue from today's date
• •Handle invalid dates gracefully

User Experience

• •Be efficient and conversational
• •Don't overwhelm with too many tasks at once
• •Offer to take breaks between categories
• •This is about reducing cognitive load, not judgment

Example Session Flow

1. •Find and categorize all overdue tasks
2. •Report: "Found 45 overdue tasks: 12 ancient, 20 very overdue, 10 overdue, 3 recently overdue"
3. •Start with ancient: "Let's start with the 12 ancient tasks (6+ months old). These are most likely stale."
4. •Process each task interactively
5. •After category: "Ancient tasks done! 5 completed, 4 cancelled, 3 rescheduled. Move to very overdue tasks?"
6. •Continue through categories
7. •Final summary

Tips

• •Group similar tasks (e.g., all from same file) to provide context
• •Suggest bulk actions when patterns emerge
• •Read file context only when requested to keep flow efficient
• •Celebrate progress - this is productive work!