logging the timings of task A + task B both at once?

logging the timings of task A + task B both at once?

[Sharon Kimble]

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Being that we can have multiple cursors, is it possible to have 2
separate, distinct, tasks being clocked both at the same time?

I've googled but didn't come up with anything, but trying it I find that
'Task B' when it starts timing it auto-logs-out of 'Task A'. But I'm now
in the situation where I have to write down the times of 'Task A' to
fudge the timings in the logbook of 'Task A' when 'Task B' finishes,
which isn't ideal.

So, can it be done please?

Thanks
Sharon.
-- 
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Debian 8.4, fluxbox 1.3.7, emacs 25.0.92

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Re: logging the timings of task A + task B both at once?

[Nicolas Goaziou]

Hello,

Sharon Kimble <boudiccas@skimble.plus.com> writes:

> Being that we can have multiple cursors, is it possible to have 2
> separate, distinct, tasks being clocked both at the same time?


[...]

> So, can it be done please?

There can only be one active clock at any given time. Although
I understand the need for some special features, I don't think it is
worth re-implementing "org-clock.el" to allow multiple ones.

You may probably redefine "Task A" and "Task B" so they do not overlap
and require being clocked at the same time.

Regards,

-- 
Nicolas Goaziou

Re: logging the timings of task A + task B both at once?

[Christoph LANGE]

Nicolas Goaziou on 2016-04-06 10:54:
> Sharon Kimble <boudiccas@skimble.plus.com> writes:
>> Being that we can have multiple cursors, is it possible to have 2
>> separate, distinct, tasks being clocked both at the same time?
> [...]
>
> There can only be one active clock at any given time. Although
> I understand the need for some special features, I don't think it is
> worth re-implementing "org-clock.el" to allow multiple ones.
>
> You may probably redefine "Task A" and "Task B" so they do not overlap
> and require being clocked at the same time.

I have a similar use case, which is related to booking working hours on
multiple projects and/or multiple employers.  I have many tasks which
cannot clearly be associated to a single project or employer, such as
"installing security updates on my computer".  Here, it would be
convenient to be able to define, by a special property, that, say, .7 of
the time logged on one task should be attributed to one
project/employer, and .3 to the other one.

Such that a query for

#+BEGIN: clocktable :tags "EmployerA"

over

* Security updates :EmployerA:EmployerB:
  :PROPERTIES:
  :LOGFACTOR-EmployerA: .7
  :LOGFACTOR-EmployerB: .3
  :END:
  :LOGBOOK:
  CLOCK: [2016-04-24 Sun 11:09]--[2016-04-24 Sun 12:09] =>  1:00
  :END:

would result in a value of "0:42".

I am currently using two workarounds for this:

1. Explicitly defining two separate tasks.  Having logged some time on
one of the tasks, I manually split the CLOCK: intervals and move the
"other" part of the split to the other task.  Thanks to my function
org-clock-split-current-interval
(https://github.com/clange/emacs/blob/master/.emacs.d/init/org.el#L68)
the latter is not as painful as one might think.

2. Not tagging tasks with :EmployerA: or :EmployerB: but with a common
super-tag, e.g. :Work:.  Then, in the spreadsheets I'm generating from
my clock tables (see
https://github.com/clange/org-mode/blob/master/clocktable-spreadsheet/working-hours.org
for the general approach; those spreadsheets that generate
project-/employer-specific timesheets I have not yet made public), I do
something like "determine all time logged on :Work: but neither on
:EmployerA: nor on :EmployerB:.  Add .7 of that time to the time that's
explicitly logged on :EmployerA:, and .3 of that time to the time that's
explicitly logged on :EmployerB:."

Cheers,

Christoph

-- 
Dr. Christoph Lange, Enterprise Information Systems Department
Applied Computer Science @ University of Bonn; Fraunhofer IAIS
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