* org-mode workflow
@ 2006-04-10 7:00 Austin Frank
2006-04-10 7:40 ` Carsten Dominik
` (2 more replies)
0 siblings, 3 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Austin Frank @ 2006-04-10 7:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: emacs-orgmode
Hello!
I'm in the middle of actually getting my act together, and while I have
been using org on and off for several months I have not yet fully
integrated it into my day-to-day work.
I'd like to begin using org for keeping track of my notes and my tasks.
As I set out to establish my org files, I find that I'm not sure how
to proceed most effectively. I understand, of course, that the answers
to these questions will vary from person to person, and that I will
undoubtedly find a very specific configuration that fits me best.
Still, if you're willing, will you share your thoughts on the following
topics?
1) Do you find it to be more convenient to have one file per topic
(research.org, personal.org, etc), or one directory per topic with more
specific files within it (research/project1.org, personal/finances.org)?
2) Within an org file, do you find it more effective to maintain one
tree for tasks and other trees for notes, or do you mix notes and tasks
within the same trees?
3) If you use remember with org, what role does it play in your work
flow? When do you find yourself reaching for a remember note instead of
using an org link or editing an org file directly?
4) Does anyone use timeclock.el with org? Have you found other ways to
track time allocation using built-in org functions?
5) What's the one trick you're most pleased to have discovered, or the
one feature that changed your routine most once you began to use it?
If you feel that this discussion is not appropriate for the list, please
feel free to email me off-list at this address.
Thanks for any help,
/au
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: org-mode workflow
2006-04-10 7:00 org-mode workflow Austin Frank
@ 2006-04-10 7:40 ` Carsten Dominik
2006-04-10 8:26 ` Christian Egli
2006-04-11 11:35 ` juman
2 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Carsten Dominik @ 2006-04-10 7:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Austin Frank; +Cc: emacs-orgmode
On Apr 10, 2006, at 9:00, Austin Frank wrote:
> If you feel that this discussion is not appropriate for the list,
> please feel free to email me off-list at this address.
I would definitely like to see this discussion here on the list - in
fact it was one of the main reasons for creating this list. I have
been getting questions in this direction repeatedly.
- Carsten
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: org-mode workflow
2006-04-10 7:00 org-mode workflow Austin Frank
2006-04-10 7:40 ` Carsten Dominik
@ 2006-04-10 8:26 ` Christian Egli
2006-04-11 11:35 ` juman
2 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Christian Egli @ 2006-04-10 8:26 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: emacs-orgmode
Hi all
Thanks Austin for starting this discussion. I've been wanting to start a
discussion on use cases for org-mode for quite some time.
On Mon, 2006-04-10 at 03:00 -0400, Austin Frank wrote:
> 1) Do you find it to be more convenient to have one file per topic
> (research.org, personal.org, etc), or one directory per topic with more
> specific files within it (research/project1.org, personal/finances.org)?
So far I've been using one file per topic.
> 2) Within an org file, do you find it more effective to maintain one
> tree for tasks and other trees for notes, or do you mix notes and tasks
> within the same trees?
I mix notes and tasks.
> 3) If you use remember with org, what role does it play in your work
> flow? When do you find yourself reaching for a remember note instead of
> using an org link or editing an org file directly?
I have not used remember so far.
> 5) What's the one trick you're most pleased to have discovered, or the
> one feature that changed your routine most once you began to use it?
I always start the day with opening my agenda-list to see what I have
planned to do today. I use the week view so I can see at a glance how
busy the rest of the week is.
--
Christian Egli, Senior Consultant
Novell (Schweiz) AG, Leutschenbachstrasse 41, 8050 Zürich
Tel. +41 43 299 75 46 direct, Tel. +41 43 299 78 00, Fax: +41 43 299 75 01
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: org-mode workflow
@ 2006-04-10 14:55 Thomas Baumann
0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Thomas Baumann @ 2006-04-10 14:55 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Austin Frank; +Cc: emacs-orgmode
Austin Frank <austin.frank@gmail.com> writes:
> 1) Do you find it to be more convenient to have one file per topic
> (research.org, personal.org, etc), or one directory per topic with
> more specific files within it (research/project1.org,
> personal/finances.org)?
I'm having all relevant data (projects, personal, other) in one file and
use the archive function to clean up the main file. Some very big files
are linked to my main file.
> 2) Within an org file, do you find it more effective to maintain one
> tree for tasks and other trees for notes, or do you mix notes and
> tasks within the same trees?
mixed, I like to have everything together for export, printing and so
on.
> 3) If you use remember with org, what role does it play in your work
> flow? When do you find yourself reaching for a remember note instead
> of using an org link or editing an org file directly?
I don't use remember.
> 4) Does anyone use timeclock.el with org? Have you found other ways
> to track time allocation using built-in org functions?
Not really necessary, because org can calculate time spans and you can
easily insert timestamps with times.
> 5) What's the one trick you're most pleased to have discovered, or
> the one feature that changed your routine most once you began to use
> it?
Having discovered org-mode in the NEWS section of emacs-22 certainly
changed the way I use emacs, thanks Carsten!
And of course being able to link everything (including emails, pdfs,
tex-files) into one file results in a nice workflow.
Thomas
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* org-mode workflow
[not found] <200604101605.k3AG5PKg199736@bp04.u.washington.edu>
@ 2006-04-10 19:42 ` Scott Otterson
0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Scott Otterson @ 2006-04-10 19:42 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: emacs-orgmode
> From: Austin Frank <austin.frank@gmail.com>
> 1) Do you find it to be more convenient to have one file per topic
> (research.org, personal.org, etc), or one directory per topic with more
> specific files within it (research/project1.org, personal/finances.org)?
Separate directories. I've only used org-mode for a couple of weeks so
maybe I'll change my mind. But so far, separate directories have worked
best, partly because I have everything else organized in directories,
and partly because some of my outlines are documentation that I check
into CVS -- my colleagues probably don't care about next week's dinner
plans.
However, I sometimes use agenda mode to tie the dates and TODO's in all
of my orgfiles into a single view.
> 2) Within an org file, do you find it more effective to maintain one
> tree for tasks and other trees for notes, or do you mix notes and tasks
> within the same trees?
I keep them together. For me, the fact that they're all in the same
spot is one of the biggest org-mode selling points -- when I'm using
org-mode to think, the TODO's and dates occur to me at the same time as
the logical content; it's nice to just put them right there and move on
with a minimum of fuss. Having a pure TODO list or a calendar is
useful, though: For me, an agenda view or a sparse tree does the job.
> 3) If you use remember with org, what role does it play in your work
> flow? When do you find yourself reaching for a remember note instead of
> using an org link or editing an org file directly?
I use it to mark places in source code or documentation. For example,
when I need to change unfamiliar code, I'll read through it, hitting
"C-c l" whenever I see an important function, variable declaration, bug,
whatever. Then, before I change anything, I organize all those
remembered locations into an outline with "C-C C-l". Having them all in
one place helps me to think about the big picture of the changes I'm
contemplating, especially when I can mix them in with web page links,
bibliography references, and TODO's. I also like the fact that, a week
later, when I've forgotten everything, I can still retrieve my source
code browsing tracks.
OK, I'm usually not quite that methodical, but I experimented with this
approach on one difficult problem, and I found it worthwhile.
This brings to mind a couple of things I'd really like to see in org mode:
1.) a special link type for latex bibfile references. Maybe clicking on
the link could pop up a paper's author and title, with another RETURN
key hit bringing you to the full reference in the bib file. Something
like that...
2.) a way to link to emails in Thunderbird's IMAP cache. This is
probably so hard that it is science fiction.
> 4) Does anyone use timeclock.el with org? Have you found other ways to
> track time allocation using built-in org functions?
Nope.
> 5) What's the one trick you're most pleased to have discovered, or the
> one feature that changed your routine most once you began to use it?
Before I started using orgmode, I was already making occasional plain
text outlines, but as they rapidly expanded, they became too unwieldy.
It was always possible to search them, of course, but the search results
were still overwhelming -- it was too hard to see at a glance how one
thing fit in relation to another.
Org-mode's fast outline collapsing and moving commands made outlines
much easier, both to understand and to edit (which for me is part of
understanding).
Scott
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: org-mode workflow
2006-04-10 7:00 org-mode workflow Austin Frank
2006-04-10 7:40 ` Carsten Dominik
2006-04-10 8:26 ` Christian Egli
@ 2006-04-11 11:35 ` juman
2 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: juman @ 2006-04-11 11:35 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: emacs-orgmode
Before answering these questions I'll give a short description why I use
org-mode and how it fits my full picture...
I'm on of the GTD (Getting things done, David Allen) people so in short
everything I think I need to do ends up in my "inbox" (it's just a box).
I then go through the inbox to see whats there and if it can be done
right now, should be done but later (added to a tickler file) or just if
it is a project I might do someday.
Weekly I sit down and try to get a bigger picture and go through which
projects I have, which I have done or need to start. In each project I
then break it down to small pieces of what have to be done next to get
the project going.
So for example setting a time with the dentist can be a three step
project. First get the phonenumber, second call them and set a time,
three go there on the right time. Now each task is add to diffrent
contexts as I can find the numner on the Internet, make call when I'm by
the Phone, and the last part is just a booking in my calendar. I then
write the steps on papers for each context so get the number gets on the
Internet context etc...
So this is my baseline I work from and org-mode help me out a lot...
> 1) Do you find it to be more convenient to have one file per topic
> (research.org, personal.org, etc), or one directory per topic with more
> specific files within it (research/project1.org, personal/finances.org)?
I have a file per area you could so say so I have one called apartment
where all my projects for my apartment is and one for finances for
things related to my personal finances. But I also have some subfolders
for some development projects and some writings I do...
> 2) Within an org file, do you find it more effective to maintain one
> tree for tasks and other trees for notes, or do you mix notes and tasks
> within the same trees?
The whole files are just a big mic of notes, trees and tasks which is
one of the great things about org-mode. Instead of trying to keep things
apart I just "braindump" into the document setting things up as tasks
etc as I go...
> 3) If you use remember with org, what role does it play in your work
> flow? When do you find yourself reaching for a remember note instead of
> using an org link or editing an org file directly?
Hmmm don't know what remember is actually but please tell me :-). I
actually use a thing called remind
(http://www.roaringpenguin.com/penguin/open_source_remind.php)
> 4) Does anyone use timeclock.el with org? Have you found other ways to
> track time allocation using built-in org functions?
I keep track of time as I am a consultant but I find it easier to do
that by hand so I just use pen and paper.
> 5) What's the one trick you're most pleased to have discovered, or the
> one feature that changed your routine most once you began to use it?
I'm still in newbie mode as I regulary have to check the references
sheet to know how to do stuff so I have nothting on this topic... :S
/juman
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
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2006-04-10 7:00 org-mode workflow Austin Frank
2006-04-10 7:40 ` Carsten Dominik
2006-04-10 8:26 ` Christian Egli
2006-04-11 11:35 ` juman
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2006-04-10 14:55 Thomas Baumann
[not found] <200604101605.k3AG5PKg199736@bp04.u.washington.edu>
2006-04-10 19:42 ` Scott Otterson
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