Todo list management with vim

The text file format

A todo item is registered as:
- :
When an todo item is completed I just delete it from the file with something like the dd command.

A waiting for item is inserted as:
- wait: (year-month-day)
The year-month-day part is used to register the date I started to wait for the item. This makes it easier to see if a follow up from me is needed to get things rolling again when things get stalled. As with todo items, when a waiting for item is no longer relevant it is removed from the file.

Taking care of the folds

autocmd BufRead /path/to/todo.txt set foldmethod=marker
This line sets the foldmethod to marker. Which means that a fold is started on every line which ends with {{{1. Where 1 is the fold level. But for my todo list I only use level 1.

autocmd BufRead /path/to/todo.txt %!addfolds.pl
addfolds.pl is the script where the real magic happens. This scripts adds the {{{1 in the correct places and removes the {{{1 from the incorrect places.

autocmd BufRead /path/to/todo.txt %foldopen
This line makes sure that all folds are open when vim is started on the todo file.

An supplement to this article can be found on my blog.