[emacs-wiki-discuss] Re: More flexibly named "Time" pages

[Peter K . Lee]

Greg Novak <address@hidden> writes:

> * Sacha Chua wrote:
>>> Specifically, I'd like pages like 2005.August, 2005.September.Week1,
>>> 2005.Year, etc, to be treated just like day pages are treated now.
>>> I'd like to be able to use planner-copy-or-move-task to reschedule a
>>
>> Hmm. Can you help think of a nice way to mix year, week, and day views
>> so that you don't have to check three places for tasks? It would be
>> great if we could get this to work.
>
> Hmm... well, this is substantially more complicated than what I want.
> In fact, for this particular application I'd consider it an
> _advantage_ to have to check multiple pages for tasks.  The reason is
> this: at the moment, I have _way_ _too_ _many_ bite-sized tasks--I'm
> working on a PhD, and it's easy to think of a million future research
> directions that might be interesting.  Then people ask me to do
> things, draw plots, etc.  The result is that I'm completely swimming
> in details and unable to keep track of the big picture.
>
> What I'm finding works better for me is to plan from the top down,
> rather than the bottom up.  That is, each month I choose the two or
> three things that are my _highest_ large scale priorities for that
> month.  Those go on the "month" page, and _no_ other tasks, so that
> it's not cluttered with details.  At the beginning of each week, I
> look at the month page and think about how those tasks break down into
> smaller tasks.  Then I choose my _highest_ two or three week-scale
> priorities for the week. Finally, at the beginning of each day I check
> the week page and plan my day, with my primary goals for the week in
> mind.

I've also run into similar issues, and currently am trying a hybrid
method of using Org-mode in conjunction with planner-mode.

I've only been playing with this method for a few days, but it has
been pretty effective in preserving my sanity.

Basically, I'm using Org-mode's org-agenda to schedule planner
PROJECTS in my calendar, and using planner-mode to manage the tasks
within the scheduled PROJECT and clocking in/out of each sub tasks
related to the PROJECT that is currently scheduled in the agenda as a
block of time.

I place priority in Org-mode for each planner project, place deadlines
to projects, and schedule blocks of time to each project.  I've also
integrated Remember mode to use Org-mode instead of planner-mode, and
treat these notes as references that I refer to when I get to the
particular Project, and I create tasks for the Project once I fire up
the planner project page when the scheduled time block comes by.

I'm treating Org-mode as a scratch-pad for projects and notes, and
planner-mode as more of official project information repository, task
accounting, and note organizer.

So far, it's working out great.  I'll be accumulating collection of
little hack/routines to help me make this integration easier/better,
and will make it available once it becomes stabilized for those that
may be interested.

-Peter