Hello Eric, Thanks for your reply and advice.
I will look at custom agenda view and clocking. But I have bad memory of clocking tools because of the way previous jobs used it (It was not Emacs). Eric Abrahamsen <e...@ericabrahamsen.net> writes: > Sébastien Gendre <s...@k-7.ch> writes: > >> Hello, >> >> I don't know if it's the correct place to ask it. If not, sorry to ask in >> the wrong place. >> >> How do you manage complex project with Org-mode ? >> >> I used Org-mode for several periods of time in recent years. It worked >> very well for short and day to day tasks. When only a few of theme have >> deadlines and when you have plenty of time to do them. >> >> But, as a student, I regularly have big and important projects to do for >> the school. The kind of project who need several days to be done, with >> deadlines too soon, and if you fail one them the consequences can be >> disastrous. And generally, I have to many of these project in the same >> time and not enough time to do all the work. So, I also need to follow >> the progress of each project to choose which is sufficiently advanced to >> be stop for the benefit of another less advanced project. >> >> And I don't know how to manage this kind of projects with Org-mode. How >> to do it, without failing a 6 days project because I spent to much time >> on something else and I have only 3 days left with 3 half-day important >> appointment I cannot cancel. I can't risk failing a single one of these >> project by trying. So, when I am in a period with a lot of these >> projects, I stop using Org-mode and concentrate on doing these project >> as fast as I can. And because I often have this kind of project, I spend >> most of the year without being able to use Org-mode. >> >> So, if you have any suggestion on how to manage, in Org-mode, projects >> with: >> * Lot of work to do (many days) >> * Short deadline (not enough time) >> * High importance (disastrous consequences in my future in case of fail) >> * Many of them in the same time >> * Progression need to be followed to chose where to sacrifice time to >> limit the damages > > Interesting questions! I have the same general problem of, when things > heat up too much, I stop using the Org agenda. It's quite the opposite > of how it's supposed to work, but I guess it's something about human > psychology. I'll be interested to see what people say in this thread. > > Some suggestions that come to mind: > > - Create custom agenda views for each project, providing an overview of > that project only, but use a single unified agenda view for each day's > schedule. Look at the per-project agenda to decide if/how to complete > it, but draw the action items into the unified schedule when deciding > how to spend your day. It should become evident pretty quickly what > you actually have time for. Projects are many, but there is only one > of you. > - Maybe consider using `org-trigger-hook' and `org-blocker-hook' to cut > down on TODO overwhelm. > - Use time estimates and then TODO clocking to more swiftly disabuse > yourself of unrealistic expectations. This plus a schedule agenda can > also help you make sure you stop work at a reasonable time and go do > something else. > - Say no to more work :) Looking at your solid-packed agenda for the > next day works wonders for saying no. > > Good luck!