Re: Agenda view for logging?

[bva@alexanderonline.org]

Hi Jose,

I'm also still very much a rookie, in GTD and in org-mode. But I'd  
argue against added one more way to add something to the agenda time  
grid.  Things show up in the time grid if
1) you use C-c C-s (adds SCHEDULED: property to headline)
2) you use C-c C-d (adds DEADLINE: property to headline)
3) you use C-u C-c . (inserts timestamp at point; headline will show  
up in agenda)

As a novice, I've come to the belief that these multiple ways of  
'scheduling' (I mean only that a line of text is added to the agenda)  
have grown organically from org-mode's past, by not dropping an older,  
simpler way, but adding a new mechanism for a specific type of time- 
management problem. Each one has its own small differences in how it  
interacts with other features of org-mode to support the specific  
issue it addresses (deadlines show up in red, e.g.)

I offer the following thoughts quite humbly, knowing that I'm likely  
among the least effective time-manager and org-mode user on this list.


In response to your concerns
a) no need to type extra characters
response: perhaps you could try the commands listed above. You only  
need to type the time-range, and org-mode fills in the rest

b) no need to clutter up with the date
response: SCHEDULED and DEADLINE properties can be folded under the  
headline (in fact, they can be put into the PROPERTY drawer, if you'd  
really like to hide them. And there's no extra date verbage in the  
time grid (and I think there is a customization for removing the word  
'Scheduled' if you don't like it, but I haven't decided to dislike it  
*that* much.  It's the default and I trust it's there for a good reason)

c) if I miss it today, it'll show up tomorrow
response: So if you've missed washing the dog today at 9:56, why  
should that task be automatically rescheduled for tomorrow *at the  
exact same time*.  If missing the appointed time and date doesn't  
prevent you from doing that task, then perhaps you could make it a  
TODO item that shows up on the global todo list instead.  If you  
actually did the task, but didn't get around to changing your  
headline, then it's there for you to deal with inappropriately.

Oh, and if you have a normal date+timestamp, then you find the  
headline and hit S-<right> to move the day forward by one, so the  
manual rescheduling isn't hard either.  So if you glance at  
yesterday's agenda, and see something in the wrong place, it's easy to  
move forward.  This works in the agenda, in the org-mode buffer, and  
you only need to get point somewhere inside or next to the timestamp  
(I use C-u C-u <arrow> alot, which isn't very precise, so I appreciate  
that I don't have to get the point to a specific character)

I hope you like key-board shortcuts (or you're going to go crazy with  
emacs, much less org-mode!)

Respectfully yours,

Ben

On 2008-04-10 Thu, at 16:35, emacs-orgmode-request@gnu.org wrote:
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:09:21 -0700
> From: Jose Robins <wulfhomme13-rook@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Orgmode] Agenda view for logging?
> To: "Joel J. Adamson" <jadamson@partners.org>
> Cc: org-mode <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>
> Message-ID: <47FE2DA1.3060109@yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
>
> Joel J. Adamson wrote:
>> Carsten Dominik <dominik@science.uva.nl> writes:
>>
>>
>>> Hi Jose, Manish
>>>
>>> I don't really think that it would be reasonable to make any entry
>>> that contains a string that looks like a time show up in the agenda.
>>>
>>
>> I think I missed part of this conversation.  If I put
>>
>> ** Wash the dog <2008-04-10 09:56 >
>>
>> in one of my org-agenda-files, it shows up at 9:56 in the agenda
>> time-grid.  Is this not the intended behavior?
>>
>> Joel
>>
>>
> Yes, that is intended behavior and it works fine. The question was
> whether a time range without a time-stamp would work as well.  
> something
> like...
>
> ** 9:55 am - 10:15 am wash the dog
> - would put this task in "today's" agenda view.
>
> I see Carsten's  point about not wanting to recognize any arbitrary  
> text
> string which looks like a time to be considered a
> "time-of-specification". A possible compromise is to have a string  
> which
> looks like "<10:15-10:30> " to be considered as a task for today which
> appears @ the appropriate time in the agenda view. The beauty is that
> (a) you avoid having to type in extra keystrokes to schedule it, (b)  
> no
> need to clutter with an additional date and (c) if it doesn't get done
> or something, when I do the agenda view tomorrow, it shows up there as
> well and it doesn't get lost.
>
> Of course, I may be asking for things that may have other negative
> implications, since after all, I'm still a rookie with org mode (still
> wet behind the ears) and maybe there are better approaches to  
> this.  :-)
>
>
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