Example: Transition tasks through hashtag statuses

[benhamilton]

I use the following patterns to transition a markdown task to be tagged with #backlog, which means it's something I'd like to do, but haven't committed to. It's a I'd like to do this, but I don't know when yet.

From #backlog I transition the task to #todo which means I have committed to doing this thing.

While I'm working on a task, I transition it to #wip (Work In Progress).

When it's done, I transition the task to #done.

However life is rarely this straightforward. Thus I'll transition to the following states as required:

• #pending I'm waiting for the requester/client to provide me more information
• #onhold I'm waiting for some third party to provide me with more information (i.e. a supplier, vendor, delivery service)
• #cancelled I'm no longer going to do this thing

[
  {
    "name": "Add to #backlog",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [ ] #backlog",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  },
  {
    "name": "#backlog",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [ ]",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      },
      {
        "from": "#(todo|inprogress|wip|pending|onhold|cancelled|done)",
        "to": "#backlog",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  },
  {
    "name": "#todo",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [ ]",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      },
      {
        "from": "#(backlog|inprogress|wip|pending|onhold|cancelled|done)",
        "to": "#todo",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  },
  {
    "name": "#wip",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [/]",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      },
      {
        "from": "#(backlog|todo|inprogress|pending|onhold|cancelled|done)",
        "to": "#wip",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  },
  {
    "name": "#pending",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [>]",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      },
      {
        "from": "#(backlog|todo|inprogress|wip|onhold|cancelled|done)",
        "to": "#pending",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  },
  {
    "name": "#onhold",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [>]",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      },
      {
        "from": "#(backlog|todo|inprogress|wip|onhold|cancelled|done)",
        "to": "#onhold",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  },
  {
    "name": "#cancelled",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [-]",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      },
      {
        "from": "#(backlog|todo|inprogress|wip|pending|onhold|done)",
        "to": "#cancelled",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  },
  {
    "name": "#done",
    "rules": [
      {
        "from": "- \\[.\\]",
        "to": "- [x]",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      },
      {
        "from": "#(backlog|todo|wip|inprogress|pending|onhold|cancelled)",
        "to": "#done",
        "caseInsensitive": false,
        "global": false,
        "multiline": false,
        "sticky": false,
        "disabled": false
      }
    ],
    "collapsed": false,
    "cursorRegexStart": "$",
    "cursorRegexEnd": "^"
  }
]

I've mapped ⇪R (capslock-R) to Apply Patterns: Apply Pattern to whole lines in Obsidian → Settings → Hotkeys to make it easy to apply these to a task.

Hope these help or give you enough of an example to make a workflow that works for you.