Matt Price <mopto...@gmail.com> writes: > Hi Everyone, > > So, I'm going to try to implement David Allen's Getting Things Done > using org-mode, as so many other people have done already. I'd like > to set things up more or less right the first time, but since GTD is > brand-new to me (just finished the book today!) and I'm still only > barely competent at org-mode, I'm a little anxious about the choices I > need to make. I think I understand some of the steps I have to take > now, but would love some advice from all the GTD'ers out there. So > here goes: > > GTD is a 5-step process: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, Do. > > I have all my GTD stuff in Dropbox, under ~/Dropbox/GTD, so there > won't be any syncing problems across computers (don't have a > smartphone yet, so that's not an issue). That directory currently > contains: > > Collect.org > > this is where stuff gets collected before any processing takes place > -- it's especially for things I think of or that get thrown at me when > I'm in a rush, or for 'mindsweeps'; essentially, it's a kind of Inbox > (I have an email inbox, too, with wanderlust as my mail client -- but > i'm not going to get into that now). The items in this file do not > have TODO states because I haven't figured out how to manage them yet. > Every morning, or thereabouts, I'm supposed to check Collect.org and > quickly process each item. Either it gets done right away, thrown out, > or assigned a category & refiled in one of the other GTD files...
I use remember mode and remember templates to record new tasks and notes for later processing. I suggest you use that for dropping things into your Collect.org > > Reference.org > Stolen from > http://www.jboecker.de/2010/04/14/general-reference-filing-with-org-mode.html, > this is the one file that contains all my reference material. Again, > nothing in here is a TODO, and this file is not in the agenda-files > alist. > > GTD.org > this is the main storage place for actionable items, and items that > are waiting for a response, so it is listed in the agenda-files alist. > My plan is to use custom agenda views to quickly access all actions i > need to take and all items i'm waiting for. Everything should be > tagged with at least a CONTEXT tag (calls, emails, office, home, > errands, etc) and in most cases probably another tag that relates in > some ways to content -- so e.g. a person's name could be used as a tag > to build what Allen calls "agendas" for the next meeting you have with > that person. limiting on tags should make that pretty > straightforward. Everything should also have a TODO state associated > with it; right now I'm thinking something like this: > TODO WAITING |DONE > but maybe there should be others. (i do want to keep things as simple > as possible, though) With org-mode there's no real reason you have to keep these all in a single file. I use multiple files with org-agenda-files listing the active ones which will contribute tasks to my agenda. > > Projects.org > This file lists my projects and outlines the sub-projects associated > with them. Most of these are not _really_ todos -- but each project > does need to have a "next action" associated with it, and this *is* a > real TODO item. Here's where I can't decide which way to go: > Add this file to the agenda-files alist, and create two sets of TODO states: > PROJECT | DONE and > TODO WAITING | DONE > and then create custom views for reviewing projects (during the Weekly > Review, or maybe more often) and for viewing next actions along with > the TODOS from GTD.org; or > Just tag the projects headlines with :Project:, and only mark TODO's > when there's a next action defined. This is simpler but it makes it a > little harder to track projects using the Agenda view. ; or > just move the TODO items to GTD.org where they in some sense belong. > that seems a little labour intensive though. I've tried multiple things for projects: - todo state keywords (PROJECT and PROJDONE) - tags :project: and I've recently moved to a lazy project definition described at http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#sec-12_2 This works great for me since I have level 1 tasks as categories and any actionable items start at level 2. So a project is any level 2 task with actionable subtasks (any todo keyword) I no longer spend any time deciding if something is a project or not. If it has subtasks and is worth doing it's a project. If it's not worth doing I just cancel it and move on. HTH, Bernt _______________________________________________ Emacs-orgmode mailing list Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
