How fast can you task? – As developers work they are often interrupted. Tasktop eases the pain of interruptions by allowing developers to create and activate a task without touching the mouse. Next time your co-worker utters the sentence “Hey, can you help me with X” say “Sure”, hit CRTL+ALT+N (new quick task), type in “X”, and press ALT+A. Your new task is immediately created and activated. You can begin helping them quickly without polluting your original task’s context.

Ready, Set, Activate – After helping a coworker, or even returning from lunch, developers want to get back in the flow, fast. Pressing CRTL+F9 brings up a list of recently activated tasks, which you can select to activate. Pressing CRTL+F9, down arrow, and then return is among the fastest ways to get back in the flow after being interrupted. It activates the last active task, focuses your views, and supports your shift back into coding.

Say It Again, With Feeling – As I triage incoming bugs for Tasktop I find myself making the same comments over and over, such as “Please send me your error log, here’s how…” or “Download the Early Access Version, here’s how…”. To speed up my workflow I’ve created templates for many common phrases. I press CRTL+Space, start typing “t_” which lists my templates, and then choose the appropriate one. Not only does this keep me sane, avoiding much repetitive typing, but it avoids mistakes.