Time Blocking

TaskPaper
1

Does anyone use a time blocking approach where you schedule tasks into your calendar?

Wondering about an approach to do that with Outlook as my calendar.

The gold plated version is an app called Sunsama which integrates well with Outlook but does not understand .taskpaper format.

Something I am exploring…

2

I’ve started doing this using a simple time blocking system powered by TaskPaper and AppleScript. I manage my tasks in plain text with @due(...) tags, and the script automatically schedules them into my macOS Calendar. It’s a great way to visually block out your day while keeping everything editable in your text-based workflow.

The script scans a TaskPaper file (in my case, managed in Drafts and synced via iCloud) for tasks that include @due(...) tags in the format:

@due(YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm-hh:mm)

It then creates matching events in your macOS Calendar app (you can specify which calendar to use). After successfully creating an event, it replaces @due(...) with @cal(...) in the original file so you can identify scheduled events in TaskPaper.

Features

  • Supports only strict time range tags (hh:mm-hh:mm) — no fallback, by design.
  • Automatically creates events in your specified calendar.
  • Avoids duplicates by checking for existing events with the same title and time.
  • Replaces @due(...) with @cal(...) to mark the task as “scheduled”.
  • Updates your TaskPaper file safely (UTF-8 encoding and atomic replacement).
  • If no valid tasks are found, shows a clean dialog and exits silently.

Example

Before:

- Prepare slides @due(2025-04-02 09:30-11:00)

After the script runs:

- Prepare slides @cal(2025-04-02 09:30-11:00)
Create Calendar Events from TaskPaper @due(YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm-hh:mm) tags 
-- Set your TaskPaper file path and target calendar name here
set taskpaperFile to "/path/to/your/todo.txt" -- Path to your TaskPaper file
set calendarName to "YourCalendarName" -- Name of your calendar

-- Read tasks with @due tags that contain a time range (hh:mm-hh:mm), excluding @done
set taskLines to paragraphs of (do shell script "grep '@due' " & quoted form of taskpaperFile & " | grep -v '@done' | grep -E '@due\$begin:math:text$[^ ]+ [0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}\\$end:math:text$' || true")

-- If no matches, show alert and exit
if (count of taskLines) = 0 then
	display dialog "No tasks found with valid @due(YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm-hh:mm) tags." buttons {"OK"} default button "OK"
	return
end if

-- Read full content of the file (so we can modify and write it back)
set fullText to do shell script "cat " & quoted form of taskpaperFile

repeat with taskLine in taskLines
	try
		-- Extract task name (text before @)
		set atIndex to offset of "@" in taskLine
		if atIndex > 2 then
			set taskName to text 1 thru (atIndex - 2) of taskLine
			-- Remove leading "- " if it exists
			set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "- "
			set taskNameParts to text items of taskName
			set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "" -- Reset delimiters
			if (count of taskNameParts) > 1 then
				set taskName to item 2 of taskNameParts
			else
				set taskName to item 1 of taskNameParts
			end if
		else
			error "Invalid task format: " & taskLine
		end if

		-- Extract the @due tag content
		set dueStartIndex to (offset of "@due(" in taskLine) + 5
		set dueEndIndex to (offset of ")" in taskLine) - 1
		if dueStartIndex < dueEndIndex then
			set dueTag to text dueStartIndex thru dueEndIndex of taskLine
		else
			error "Invalid @due format in: " & taskLine
		end if

		-- Split the @due tag into date and time parts
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" "}
		set dueParts to text items of dueTag
		if (count of dueParts) is not 2 then
			error "Invalid @due tag format: " & dueTag
		end if
		set datePart to item 1 of dueParts
		set timePart to item 2 of dueParts

		-- Split the time part into start and end times
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"-"}
		set timeComponents to text items of timePart
		if (count of timeComponents) is not 2 then
			error "Time range must include both start and end times: " & timePart
		end if
		set startTime to item 1 of timeComponents
		set endTime to item 2 of timeComponents

		-- Convert start time and end time to date objects
		set startDateTime to my makeDate(datePart, startTime)
		set endDateTime to my makeDate(datePart, endTime)

		-- Check for duplicate events
		if not (my eventExists(calendarName, taskName, startDateTime, endDateTime)) then
			-- Create calendar event
			tell application "Calendar"
				tell calendar calendarName
					make new event at end with properties {summary:taskName, start date:startDateTime, end date:endDateTime}
				end tell
			end tell

			-- Replace the @due(...) tag with @cal(...) in the source file
			set originalTag to "@due(" & dueTag & ")"
			set newTag to "@cal(" & dueTag & ")"
			set updatedLine to my replaceText(originalTag, newTag, taskLine)
			set fullText to my replaceText(taskLine, updatedLine, fullText)
		end if
	on error errMsg
		log "Error processing task: " & taskLine & " - " & errMsg
	end try
end repeat

-- Write updated content using UTF-8 and clean line endings
set tempFile to "/tmp/todo-temp.txt"
set quotedText to quoted form of fullText
set writeCommand to "/bin/echo -n " & quotedText & " | iconv -t UTF-8 -c > " & quoted form of tempFile
do shell script writeCommand

-- Replace the original file atomically
do shell script "mv " & quoted form of tempFile & " " & quoted form of taskpaperFile

-- Function to create date objects
on makeDate(dateString, timeString)
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "-"
	set {yearStr, monthStr, dayStr} to text items of dateString

	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"
	set {hourStr, minuteStr} to text items of timeString

	set yearInt to yearStr as integer
	set monthInt to monthStr as integer
	set dayInt to dayStr as integer
	set hourInt to hourStr as integer
	set minuteInt to minuteStr as integer

	set newDate to (current date)
	set year of newDate to yearInt
	set month of newDate to monthInt
	set day of newDate to dayInt
	set time of newDate to (hourInt * hours) + (minuteInt * minutes)
	return newDate
end makeDate

-- Function to check if an event already exists
on eventExists(calendarName, taskName, startDateTime, endDateTime)
	tell application "Calendar"
		tell calendar calendarName
			set existingEvents to (every event whose summary is taskName and start date is startDateTime and end date is endDateTime)
			return (count of existingEvents) > 0
		end tell
	end tell
end eventExists

-- Function to replace text in a string
on replaceText(findText, replaceWith, sourceText)
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to findText
	set textParts to text items of sourceText
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to replaceWith
	set newText to textParts as string
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
	return newText
end replaceText
1 Like
3

Thanks for sharing this. I also recommend you add a link to TaskPaper’s extension wiki here:

4

done!

1 Like