name: weekly-task-audit description: Scans last 7 daily notes to find rolling tasks, yo-yo patterns, and chronically stale items. Use when "task audit", "audit my tasks", "what rolled forward". allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, AskUserQuestion
Weekly Task Audit
What This Does
Scans your last 7 daily notes to surface task patterns that indicate something is stuck, blocked, or should be moved to Someday/Maybe. This is different from task-clarity-scanner (which clarifies individual tasks) and retrospective (which reviews accomplishments).
When to Use
- "task audit"
- "audit my tasks"
- "what rolled forward this week"
- "show me stuck tasks"
Instructions
Step 1: Gather Daily Notes
Get the last 7 days of daily notes:
# Generate dates for last 7 days
for i in {0..6}; do
date -v-${i}d +%Y-%m-%d
done
For each date, check if the daily note exists:
/Users/eddale/Documents/COPYobsidian/MAGI/Zettelkasten/YYYY-MM-DD.md
Read all existing daily notes. Skip dates without files (weekends, days off).
Step 2: Extract Task Data
For each daily note, extract tasks from these sections:
| Section | What to Capture |
|---|---|
| Today's 3 | Tasks that were prioritized |
| Ready | Backlog items |
| Done Today | Completed items |
| Waiting For | Blocked/delegated items |
Task format: Usually - [ ] Task text or - [x] Task text or [[LINK - Task]]
Normalize task names for comparison:
- Strip checkbox markers
- Strip dates like
[STALE 01-12] - Strip leading
[[and trailing]] - Lowercase for comparison, preserve original for display
Step 3: Identify Patterns
Rolling Tasks (appeared 3+ days unchanged):
- Same task appears in Ready or Today's 3 across multiple days
- Never moved to Done Today
- Pattern: Keeps getting carried forward without progress
Yo-Yo Tasks (bounced between Today's 3 and Ready):
- Task was in Today's 3 on Day 1
- Moved back to Ready on Day 2
- Pulled to Today's 3 again on Day 3
- Pattern: Pulled twice, pushed back twice = yo-yo
Chronically Stale:
- Task has
[STALE MM-DD]markers - Same task marked stale on multiple days
- Pattern: Keeps getting flagged but never resolved
Waiting For Overdue:
- Items in Waiting For section
- Follow-up date has passed (format:
Follow up MM-DD (original MM-DD)) - Pattern: Blocked work that's past due for follow-up
Step 4: Generate Report
## Weekly Task Audit - Week of [start date] to [end date]
**Days scanned:** [N] of 7
**Total unique tasks seen:** [count]
### Rolling Tasks (appeared 3+ days)
| Task | Days Seen | Last Location |
|------|-----------|---------------|
| [task text] | Mon, Wed, Fri | Ready |
| [task text] | Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri | Ready |
### Yo-Yo Tasks (Today's 3 ↔ Ready)
| Task | Pull Count | Push Count |
|------|------------|------------|
| [task text] | 2 | 2 |
### Chronically Stale
| Task | Stale Dates |
|------|-------------|
| [task text] | 01-10, 01-12, 01-15 |
### Waiting For Overdue
| Item | Follow-up Date | Days Overdue |
|------|----------------|--------------|
| [item] | 01-10 | 6 |
### Summary
- **Rolling:** [N] tasks have been sitting untouched
- **Yo-Yo:** [N] tasks keep getting pulled and pushed
- **Stale:** [N] tasks repeatedly flagged
- **Overdue:** [N] waiting items past follow-up
**Recommendation:** These [total] items might be:
- Someday/Maybe candidates (not actually urgent)
- Blocked on something unspoken
- Need decomposition into smaller tasks
Want to triage these now?
Step 5: Interactive Triage (Optional)
If user wants to triage, go through flagged items one at a time:
Use AskUserQuestion for each:
Task: "[task text]"
Pattern: Rolling (5 days in Ready)
What do you want to do?
Options:
- Move to Someday/Maybe - Not urgent, park it
- Decompose - Break into smaller tasks (ask for subtasks)
- Add blocker note - Document what's blocking it
- Delete - It's no longer relevant
- Keep as-is - Conscious decision to keep
After all decisions, apply changes to today's daily note using Edit.
Guidelines
- Read-only by default - Don't modify files unless user explicitly requests triage
- Normalize for comparison - Same task might be written slightly differently across days
- Count appearances, not modifications - A task appearing 5 days means 5 days of carrying forward
- Respect weekends - Missing daily notes are normal, don't flag as concerning
- Surface patterns, don't judge - Some rolling tasks are intentional (ongoing projects)
Examples
Good trigger: "audit my tasks" → Runs full audit, shows report
Good trigger: "what rolled forward" → Focuses on rolling tasks section
Bad trigger: "review my tasks" → This sounds more like task-clarity-scanner
Integration
This skill complements but doesn't replace:
- task-clarity-scanner - Clarifies individual unclear tasks (daily use)
- retrospective - Reviews accomplishments and learnings (weekly reflection)
- weekly-task-audit - Surfaces stuck patterns (weekly maintenance)
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