Faster rake is better rake

default.rake

# located in lib/tasks/

task default: :help

desc "to get you running"
task :help do
  puts "\033[33mFYI: We're not running the usual Rake setup.\033[0m\n" +
       "To list the Rails rake tasks, run `\033[32mLOAD_RAILS=1 rake -T\033[0m`\n" +
       "Append the normal command with a \033[31mbang!\033[0m to run those tasks\n" +
       "... If you'd like to know more, check out the Rakefile"
end

Rakefile

# Rakefile inspired by http://rhnh.net/2010/09/07/speeding-up-rails-rake
def load_rails_environment
  require File.expand_path('../config/application', __FILE__)
  require 'rake'
  TimeAudit::Application.load_tasks
end

# By default, do not load the Rails environment. This allows for faster
# loading of all the rake files, so that getting the task list, or kicking
# off a spec run (which loads the environment by itself anyways) is much quicker.
if ENV['LOAD_RAILS'] == '1'
  load_rails_environment # Bypass the hacks below so everything works as intended.
else
  # If you don't want to use LOAD_RAILS, just end the command with a bang!
  rule "!" do |t| # so `rake db:migrate!` works just fine
    load_rails_environment
    Rake::Task[t.to_s.chomp("!")].invoke
  end

  # For posterity, add a bit of documentation that shows up in `rake -T`
  desc "\033[33mRails tasks aren't loaded\033[0m; check out `rake help`"
  task :_fyi
end

# Load all tasks defined in lib/tasks/*.rake
Dir[File.expand_path("../lib/tasks/", __FILE__) + '/*.rake'].each do |file|
  load file
end