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" <lngn...@gmail.com> 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
