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Re: [O] Overall organization/setup for org mode: Projects and Tasks
From: |
Thomas S. Dye |
Subject: |
Re: [O] Overall organization/setup for org mode: Projects and Tasks |
Date: |
Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:26:21 -1000 |
Aloha Alan,
I found myself in a similar situation a while back and it helped me to
do a weekly review. I base mine on Bernt Hansen's experience:
http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#sec-11-1
Every Monday a task pops up reminding me to complete the weekly review.
Clicking on the task takes me to a checkbox list that gives a label to
the individual review task and the keystrokes needed to invoke the
corresponding agenda view.
I'm typically monitoring 1-2 dozen projects and the whole review, which
is now 12 steps, takes me a couple of hours to complete. I suppose I
could cut this time down if I were more organized during the week, but
I'm not, which is why I value the tools in Org-mode.
Also, I found Bernt's ideas on how to structure org-mode files very
helpful. I'm not able consistently to pick the best option among the
very many that org-mode makes possible, so I've come to rely on the
advice of Bernt and others.
hth,
Tom
"Alan E. Davis" <address@hidden> writes:
> I've been using org-mode for a few years. My agenda is cluttered with tasks
> that are weeks and even months past due. I am "this close" to declaring
> "orgmode bankruptcy" and starting from scratch, except my current setup
> works so well for other things. Might still do that, but I want to ask for
> ideas.
>
> I stumble consistently over the distinction between projects and tasks. I
> think there is not clear distinction, but I need to find a way to organize
> them so that, at least, agenda displays the day to day TODO tasks separated
> in a meaningful way from the long term projects that I need to remind myself
> of (and there are dozens of these).
>
> PROJECTS: I can define projects as
> - an overall series of tasks related to a single purpose
> - a recurring task (monthly calendars that I need to remind myself to
> make each month)
> - an actual project I am working on (writing a proposal, or a
> research project about a coral, or a recipe database, or reconstructing a
> LaTeX file tree for a publication ten years ago)
>
>
> TODOS: perhaps tasks could be anything,
> - bills (marked by tag "bill"
> - phone calls to make
>
> I am starting to understand how I TODOS can be scattered through all my
> other files. However, the greater the number of agenda files, the greater
> the clutter. And, as a recent thread called to mind, there are times when
> the list of agenda files prevents me from searching for tags or todos. SO
> where is the happy medium?
>
> Some thoughts:
> - I tried to write a custom agenda command that defined the agenda
> files to encompass all *org files in a directory. This actually set the
> agenda-files variable to all files for the rest of the session, so I gave
> that idea up----although I know it's possible to do it.
> - Again, the number of agenda files seems to be constraining.
> - There seem to be issues between defining the agenda files
> explicitly, or adding them one at a time.
> - It would be useful if agenda searches automatically picked up the
> recent files I had worked on during the session,
> however, in as streamlined a way as possible.
>
>
> I don't need to be reminded everyday that I have to organize bibliographic
> references for my next trip to the library, but I have to have a way to keep
> these organized to jog my memory in planning my time in some loose sense.
>
> I do need to have a list of bills that I can access without having to sort
> through the list of projects that are 3 months overdue.
>
> Almost every week I have new insights into how to use tags, so perhaps I
> need to junk alot of the tags I set up long ago.
>
> These thoughts are somewhat disconnected, and I apologize for this.
>
> And I would be grateful for any comments that would shed light on how to
> solve these issues.
>
> Alan Davis
> I've been using org-mode for a few years. My agenda is cluttered with
> tasks that are weeks and even months past due. I am "this close" to
> declaring "orgmode bankruptcy" and starting from scratch, except my current
> setup works so well for other things. Might still do that, but I want to
> ask for ideas.
>
> I stumble consistently over the distinction between projects and tasks. I
> think there is not clear distinction, but I need to find a way to organize
> them so that, at least, agenda displays the day to day TODO tasks separated
> in a meaningful way from the long term projects that I need to remind myself
> of (and there are dozens of these).
>
> PROJECTS: I can define projects as - an overall series of tasks related
> to a single purpose - a recurring task (monthly calendars that I need
> to remind myself to make each month) - an actual project I am working
> on (writing a proposal, or a research project about a coral, or a recipe
> database, or reconstructing a LaTeX file tree for a publication ten years ago)
>
> TODOS: perhaps tasks could be anything, - bills (marked by tag "bill"
> - phone calls to make I am starting to understand how I TODOS can be
> scattered through all my other files. However, the greater the number of
> agenda files, the greater the clutter. And, as a recent thread called to
> mind, there are times when the list of agenda files prevents me from
> searching for tags or todos. SO where is the happy medium?
>
> Some thoughts: - I tried to write a custom agenda command that defined
> the agenda files to encompass all *org files in a directory. This actually
> set the agenda-files variable to all files for the rest of the session, so I
> gave that idea up----although I know it's possible to do it.
>
> - Again, the number of agenda files seems to be constraining. -
> There seem to be issues between defining the agenda files explicitly, or
> adding them one at a time. - It would be useful if agenda searches
> automatically picked up the recent files I had worked on during the session,
>
> however, in as streamlined a way as possible. I don't need to
> be reminded everyday that I have to organize bibliographic references for my
> next trip to the library, but I have to have a way to keep these organized to
> jog my memory in planning my time in some loose sense.
>
> I do need to have a list of bills that I can access without having to sort
> through the list of projects that are 3 months overdue.Almost every week I
> have new insights into how to use tags, so perhaps I need to junk alot of the
> tags I set up long ago.
>
> These thoughts are somewhat disconnected, and I apologize for this. And I
> would be grateful for any comments that would shed light on how to solve
> these issues. Alan Davis
--
Thomas S. Dye
http://www.tsdye.com