From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Tim O'Callaghan Subject: Re: GTD, Projects, and Next Actions in org-mode Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 14:59:42 +0200 Message-ID: <20060804125942.GB3544@ELSAMSW-37164> References: <3dbac09fcc4853019690ee76c8c4a73f@science.uva.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1G8zHJ-0007Lu-6P for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 04 Aug 2006 08:59:49 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1G8zHG-0007JZ-WF for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 04 Aug 2006 08:59:47 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1G8zHG-0007J6-Ok for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 04 Aug 2006 08:59:46 -0400 Received: from [193.120.211.34] (helo=dspsrv.com) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA:32) (Exim 4.52) id 1G8zKp-0008Dz-Ha for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 04 Aug 2006 09:03:27 -0400 Received: from [145.36.45.123] (helo=localhost) by dspsrv.com with esmtpa (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1G8zHD-0004CJ-Rc for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 04 Aug 2006 13:59:43 +0100 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 04:36:51PM -0400, Jason F. McBrayer wrote: > > I thought I'd ask to see how other people who are using org for > Getting Things Done are handling projects and their relationship to > Next Actions. I've tried out several approaches, and while I can rule > out a few as no good, there are some with enough plusses and minuses > to keep me from being really happy with any of them. > > My first go was to have a top-level category for projects, with a > headline for each project under that. This worked for keeping track > of my list of projects, but it didn't give me any way to tell what > project a Next Action was associated with. > > My next attempt was to mix together projects and next actions, with > next actions coming hierarchically under the project they were > associated with. Projects have a tag unique to that project, but > distinct from the tags I am using for contexts (contexts start with @, > projects with nothing). This works, but the only way to get a list of > projects is to either look manually through the file, or get the list > of tags and ignore the ones that are contexts. > > I've tried two others: one is to make PROJECT an org-todo-keyword. > This makes it very easy to get a list of projects, with the negative > side effect that projects can show up in context lists if they are > tagged with a context so that their Next Actions can inherit it (e.g., > home improvements are all tagged @Home). This would work fine if I > didn't use tag inheritance, or was conscientious about not putting > contexts in projects. The other thing I've tried is to make "Project" > a tag. This obviously works only if one is not using tag > inheritance --- if you're not, then it's easy to get a list of > projects, but if you are, you'll get all your next actions, too. > > What are other people doing to keep track of their projects? Is > having projects listable all that important? > At the moment my current project 'template' is: * Project name :proj:projectcontext: Project outcomes/visualization/rationale file:link to project reference files/directories file:link to project source files/directories *** [DONE|X|10|15|30|45] next action :Next Action context: ***** [DONE|10|15|30|45] sub action :Next Action context: Where :proj: means its a project description context. [DONE....] is the next action type. This is either DONE, X (untimed), 10... estimated next action time. Still its still very hard to manage lots and lots of projects. Tim.