[emacs-wiki-discuss] Re: new user questions - configuration, timeclock, nested task, publishing

[Sacha Chua]

Patrick McKnight <address@hidden> writes:

Hello, Patrick!

> I started using planner mode for emacs about a month ago and am really
> impressed.  Like others on this list, I also use the GTD model. 

Awesome! =D

> 1. I am not sure if the typical setup is to refer to a
> planner-config.el file in your .emacs file or explicitly put the
> load and require commands for all the different modules directly

I like putting things in separate config files because people steal
from my config all the time, and separating different things into
different config files makes it easier for people to steal stuff. =)

> 2.  I have not quite figured out how to do the timeclock mode. 
> Perhaps my .emacs file is incomplete but I cannot run (via M+x) any
> specific timeclock commands.  How do I use timeclock?

(require 'planner-timeclock) should do the trick. Then you can use C-c
C-i to mark a task as in progress and start the timer. C-c C-p on the
task will postpone it and stop the timer. C-c C-x will complete it and
stop the timer. You can get a timeclock report with
planner-timeclock-summary.el, I think. =)

> 3. How do I setup a heirarchical structure to my tasks. For example,
> I have a project, say Cancer Screen, and under the project I have
> various tasks such as phone calls, emails, read, analysis, and
> write. How do I create nested task?

This looks like something for project pages or planner-multi.

planner-multi will let you tag a task as: CancerScreen phone and then
you can check the phone page for all of your phone calls and
CancerScreen for all of your CancerScreen-related stuff. You can
rearrange tasks on plan pages, add blank lines, put them in
outlines...

> 4. I am not clear how to publish my schedule and how publishing it
> may be an advantage. If I do publish the schedule, would it be
> editable via the browser (perhaps bad)?

I publish my tasks, schedule and notes on the Net, but I'm unusual. ;)
It's my blog and instant progress report. People occasionally do my
tasks for me, too, which is really nice of them! =)

> teach my graduate students how to organize their lives with emacs.  We
> do all our work in emacs with R/ESS/Sweave/LaTeX so the planner mode
> is an ideal extension.  Thanks again.

Ooooh! Awesome!

Get the hang of remember.el, too. Planner+remember totally rocks.

-- 
Sacha Chua <address@hidden> - open source geekette
http://sacha.free.net.ph/ - PGP Key ID: 0xE7FDF77C
interests: emacs, gnu/linux, personal information management, juggling
sachac on irc.freenode.net#emacs . YM: sachachua83