Markdown Task Management

VerifiedSafe

Task conventions and file organization for markdown-based task management. Use when creating or modifying task files with proper structure and metadata.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
ProductivityIntermediate
206/2/2026
Claude CodeCursorWindsurfCopilotCodex
#task-management#markdown#file-organization#productivity#recurring-tasks

Recommended for

Our review

Provides a structured system for managing tasks, ideas, bugs, memories, and more using Markdown files with YAML frontmatter, organized into separate folders.

Strengths

  • Clear and intuitive folder structure
  • Built-in recurring task handling
  • Preserves user's exact text formatting (no cleanup)
  • Supports reusable templates

Limitations

  • Requires manual file moves
  • No native calendar integration
  • Limited to text files with no visual interface
When to use it

When you need a simple, version-controlled task management system within a codebase or document folder.

When not to use it

For complex project management with team collaboration or real-time updates from external tools.

Security analysis

Safe
Quality score90/100

The skill only uses allowed-tools (Read, Edit, Write, Glob, Grep) for file organization and does not involve any destructive or network operations. No exfiltration or code execution risks.

No concerns found

Examples

Create a new task with due date and tags
Create a new task file for 'Review design document' due next Friday (2025-02-28) with tags [design, review].
Move a completed task to completed folder
Move the task 'Setup CI pipeline' from tasks/ to completed/ and add a completed date of today.
Create a recurring monthly task
Create a recurring task for 'Monthly report' due on the 15th of each month, with a history log.

name: manage-tasks description: Task conventions and file organization for markdown-based task management. Use when creating or modifying task files. allowed-tools: Read, Edit, Write, Glob, Grep

Task Management Skill

File Structure

  • tasks/ - Items with specific due dates that need to be completed
  • ideas/ - Projects and ideas without due dates (someday/maybe)
  • templates/ - Reusable task templates (e.g., blog post checklist, event prep)
  • memories/ - Reference items and context (not actionable)
  • bugs/ - Issues and problems to fix
  • completed/ - Archived one-time tasks that have been finished
  • import/ - Temporary folder for reviewing imported items before moving to appropriate folders

Task File Format

Each task is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter:

---
type: task | idea | template | memory | bug
due: YYYY-MM-DD
tags: [tag1, tag2]
---
# Task Title

Task content here.

Required Fields

  • type - Categorizes the file for organization:
    • task - Actionable item with due date (goes in tasks/)
    • idea - Project or concept without deadline (goes in ideas/)
    • template - Reusable checklist or structure (goes in templates/)
    • memory - Reference/context item, not actionable (goes in memories/)
    • bug - Issue or problem to fix (goes in bugs/)

Optional Fields

  • due: YYYY-MM-DD - Due date (required for tasks, optional for ideas)
  • completed: YYYY-MM-DD - Completion date for finished one-time tasks
  • recurrence: monthly | quarterly | weekly | biweekly | yearly - For recurring tasks
  • recurrence_day: N - Day of month for recurring tasks
  • status: in-progress | noodling | someday - For idea files only (not used in tasks/)
  • tags: [tag1, tag2] - Categorization tags

File Organization Rules

tasks/

  • One-time tasks: When completed, add completed: date and move to completed/
  • Recurring tasks: Stay in tasks/ permanently, update due: date when complete (never move to completed/)

ideas/

  • Use status field to track progress:
    • in-progress - Actively working on this, but no specific deadline yet
    • noodling - Thinking about it, exploring, might become in-progress
    • someday - Parked for later, not active now
  • When an idea gets a due date, move it to tasks/

templates/

  • Copy template, add due date and specifics, save to tasks/

memories/

  • No due dates, no action required
  • Meeting notes, documentation, decisions made

bugs/

  • Can have due dates or not
  • Track technical issues, website problems, system bugs
  • When fixed, add completed: date and move to completed/

completed/

  • Contains finished tasks with completed: date
  • Keeps active tasks/ folder clean
  • Never put recurring tasks here

import/

  • Set type: field during review
  • Move to appropriate folder based on type

Recurring Tasks

Recurring tasks include:

  • Instructions section explaining how to update when complete
  • History section to log completion dates
  • Never move to completed/ - stay in tasks/ permanently

Example:

---
type: task
due: 2025-01-15
recurrence: monthly
recurrence_day: 15
tags: [admin]
---
# Monthly Report

## Instructions
When completing this task:
1. Update the `due:` date to next month
2. Add completion date to History section

## History
- 2024-12-15: Completed
- 2024-11-15: Completed

Task Creation Guidelines

CRITICAL: Preserve user's exact text formatting

When the user provides notes, content, or task details:

  • Use their EXACT text - preserve capitalization, punctuation, line breaks exactly as given
  • Do NOT capitalize the first letter if they didn't
  • Do NOT add periods at the end if they didn't include them
  • Do NOT add section headers like "## Notes" unless they provided them
  • Do NOT reformat or "clean up" their text in any way

Simple tasks

Just the essentials:

  • due date
  • tags
  • minimal notes

Complex tasks

Include:

  • Checklist section
  • Notes section
  • Resources/links section (if needed)

Recurring tasks

Include:

  • recurrence field
  • Instructions section
  • History section

Idea files

Include:

  • status field (in-progress, noodling, or someday)
  • tags
  • notes/description
  • No due date (if it gets a due date, move to tasks/)

Tagging Conventions

  • Use semantic tags that describe the task category, context, or project
  • Keep tags lowercase and hyphenated for multi-word tags
  • Be consistent with existing tags in the project
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