I must be missing something...

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* I must be missing something...
@ 2009-06-09 13:41 David Abrahams
  2009-06-09 14:02 ` Bernt Hansen
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: David Abrahams @ 2009-06-09 13:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

Hi,

I've been using and studying org mode for a few months now, and though
it seems to have great potential, some things still escape me.  For
example, do my DONE items simply accumulate forever in todo.org?  I know
there's an archiving feature... do I move those done items manually to
an archive when I no longer need to see them?

Also, how do I manage my projects?  Org mode seems to "want" to put
everything in one big file.  I know I *can* separate trees by file, but
it doesn't seem to be very convenient to do so.  For example, if I'm
visiting a project file, is there a way to get an agenda view on just
/that/ file without having to modify org-agenda-files?

I know I'm being a bit vague, but so far the basic operations of
org-mode, which were very fast to use at first, haven't "scaled up" very
easily to handle my whole life, and I'm not sure how to get there.

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give,

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* Re: I must be missing something...
  2009-06-09 13:41 I must be missing something David Abrahams
@ 2009-06-09 14:02 ` Bernt Hansen
       [not found]   ` <m2tz2pe1oq.fsf@boostpro.com>
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: Bernt Hansen @ 2009-06-09 14:02 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: David Abrahams; +Cc: emacs-orgmode

David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

> Hi,
>

Hi David!

> I've been using and studying org mode for a few months now, and though
> it seems to have great potential, some things still escape me.  For
> example, do my DONE items simply accumulate forever in todo.org?  I know
> there's an archiving feature... do I move those done items manually to
> an archive when I no longer need to see them?

Stuff accumulates and I personally archive subtrees manually once/month.

> >
> Also, how do I manage my projects?  Org mode seems to "want" to put
> everything in one big file.  I know I *can* separate trees by file, but
> it doesn't seem to be very convenient to do so.  For example, if I'm
> visiting a project file, is there a way to get an agenda view on just
> /that/ file without having to modify org-agenda-files?

I recently wrote about this here.
http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#LimitingAgendaView
Maybe that will help?

>  
> I know I'm being a bit vague, but so far the basic operations of
> org-mode, which were very fast to use at first, haven't "scaled up" very
> easily to handle my whole life, and I'm not sure how to get there.
>
> Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give,

I've been using org-mode for years and I use it for everything.  A
description of my work flow and setup for org-mode is at
http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html in case that's useful.

HTH,
-Bernt

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

[parent not found: <m2tz2pe1oq.fsf@boostpro.com>]

* Re: I must be missing something...
       [not found]   ` <m2tz2pe1oq.fsf@boostpro.com>
@ 2009-06-09 18:07     ` Bernt Hansen
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Bernt Hansen @ 2009-06-09 18:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: David Abrahams; +Cc: emacs-orgmode

David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:

> on Tue Jun 09 2009, Bernt Hansen <bernt-AT-norang.ca> wrote:
>
>> David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> writes:
>>> I've been using and studying org mode for a few months now, and though
>>> it seems to have great potential, some things still escape me.  For
>>> example, do my DONE items simply accumulate forever in todo.org?  I know
>>> there's an archiving feature... do I move those done items manually to
>>> an archive when I no longer need to see them?
>>
>> Stuff accumulates and I personally archive subtrees manually once/month.
>
> I have a lot of "degenerate subtrees" (items with no sub-items).  You
> just do those one-at-a-time?

If there are lots I just make a keyboard macro that archives the current
subtree.

Another possible option (untested) is if you move them all together you
can duplicate (or create) the parent task and then promote it.

This moves

* DONE Task 1 to archive
* DONE Task 2 to archive
...
* DONE Task n to archive

to

* New Fake Parent Task
** DONE Task 1 to archive
** DONE Task 2 to archive
...
** DONE Task n to archive

and then archive the new fake parent once including all of its subtasks.

The keyboard macro works pretty well for me - except blank lines
sometime mess up cursor positioning for the next task to archive - so be
careful your point is on or in a task you want to archive before
repeating it.  This shows up for a few tasks each month (with blank
lines before the task) but I haven't spent any time trying to improve
the situation yet.

>
>>> Also, how do I manage my projects?  Org mode seems to "want" to put
>>> everything in one big file.  I know I *can* separate trees by file, but
>>> it doesn't seem to be very convenient to do so.  For example, if I'm
>>> visiting a project file, is there a way to get an agenda view on just
>>> /that/ file without having to modify org-agenda-files?
>>
>> I recently wrote about this here.
>> http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#LimitingAgendaView
>> Maybe that will help?
>
> It hits a lot of things in the general area of what I need, but the
> specific thing I wanted to do was to temporarily remove all tasks that
> live in a particular file from the agenda.  I was able to get a similar
> functionality by putting a unique tag on the root item in that file and
> the using org-agenda-filter-by-tag to filter it out, but that seemed a
> bit indirect.

I just use #+FILETAGS: for this and filter away the file I want to
remove.  I haven't explored if there is a way to have the filter
remembered between agenda views until I restore it (similar to the
agenda restriction lock) but I'm thinking that functionality probably
does not exist today.

Right now I have a bunch of deadlines on my farm.org file cluttering up
my agenda view so I'm regularly doing C-c a a / - f to hide the @farm
tagged tasks.  I want to see everything else but those.  I could drop
the farm.org file from my agenda but I'll probably forget to restore it
in time.  Filtering works for me in the interim until I find a better
solution.

>
>>> I know I'm being a bit vague, but so far the basic operations of
>>> org-mode, which were very fast to use at first, haven't "scaled up" very
>>> easily to handle my whole life, and I'm not sure how to get there.
>>>
>>> Many thanks in advance for any advice you can give,
>>
>> I've been using org-mode for years and I use it for everything.  A
>> description of my work flow and setup for org-mode is at
>> http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html in case that's useful.
>
> I've been through that material several times already; thank you _very_
> much for writing it.

You're most welcome :). Playing with publishing is (almost) fun.

>Maybe I just need to keep working with it to learn
> more.  I find it's hard to take the time to do that when you're really
> trying to use org mode to get other stuff done!

Yes I can see that.  Org-mode is huge (in functionality and the way you
can approach a problem).  The best advice I can give is start small and
build on what you know until you end up with something that works for
you.  If my document can help give you ideas to get there that's great!

Regards,
Bernt

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* Re: I must be missing something...
@ 2009-06-09 14:08 giovanni.ridolfi
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: giovanni.ridolfi @ 2009-06-09 14:08 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode, David Abrahams


--- Mar 9/6/09, David Abrahams <dave@boostpro.com> ha scritto:

 Hi David,
> do my DONE items simply accumulate forever in
> todo.org? [...] do I move those done items
> manually to an archive when I no longer need to see them?

yes.

> 

> if I'm
> visiting a project file, is there a way to get an agenda
> view on just
> /that/ file without having to modify org-agenda-files?

what about  C-a  a L  "Timeline of the current buffer" ?

>  
> I know I'm being a bit vague, but so far the basic
> operations of
> org-mode, which were very fast to use at first, haven't
> "scaled up" very
> easily to handle my whole life, and I'm not sure how to get
> there.

you can
+ surf the worg site 
   http://orgmode.org/worg/
+  read the document of Bernt
    http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html

and try by yourself:

For the things we have to learn before we can do, we learn by doing. 
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (c. 325 BC) (II.1103a33) 


http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Aristotle#Nicomachean_Ethics_.28c._325_BC.29

cheers,

Giovanni




^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

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2009-06-09 13:41 I must be missing something David Abrahams
2009-06-09 14:02 ` Bernt Hansen
     [not found]   ` <m2tz2pe1oq.fsf@boostpro.com>
2009-06-09 18:07     ` Bernt Hansen
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2009-06-09 14:08 giovanni.ridolfi

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