* Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" @ 2010-04-12 19:46 Ali Tofigh 2010-04-12 20:38 ` John Hendy 2010-04-25 7:46 ` John Wiegley 0 siblings, 2 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Ali Tofigh @ 2010-04-12 19:46 UTC (permalink / raw) To: emacs-orgmode Hello everyone, I'm a new user of org-mode, and seeing the great potential, I am trying to switch to org-mode for handling my day-to-day tasks. I'm going to start off by using org-mode to handle my projects and I need some advice. I like to keep my projects self-contained. Therefore I use one org-file for each project. Each org-file contains two main headlines: journal and tasks. Under journal I collect all kinds of information: meeting notes, relevant stuff I've read, urls, etc. I also write down what I have done every few days. The journal entries are sorted chornologically. Under tasks I keep all todo items. Frequently my notes on meetings contain ideas for stuff to try. Does anyone have any advice on how to handle these? I don't want to keep them as todo items in the journal since I like to keep changing the todos (e.g., dividing them into subtasks) and I don't want those changes to appear in the journal. My initial thought was to create one headline for each idea and tag it with ":idea:". I could then easily go through all ideas in a project and choose the ones I want to work on by creating todo items. Those ideas would then be further tagged with ":handled:" or something similar. This way I could search for unhandled ideas in my projects. As an alternative I could use separate todo keywords for todos and ideas. Any specific advice or just general thoughts are most appreciated. Cheers, /Ali ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-12 19:46 Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" Ali Tofigh @ 2010-04-12 20:38 ` John Hendy 2010-04-12 21:04 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-25 7:46 ` John Wiegley 1 sibling, 1 reply; 11+ messages in thread From: John Hendy @ 2010-04-12 20:38 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Ali Tofigh; +Cc: emacs-orgmode [-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3590 bytes --] On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 2:46 PM, Ali Tofigh <alix.tofigh@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello everyone, > > I'm a new user of org-mode, and seeing the great potential, I am > trying to switch to org-mode for handling my day-to-day tasks. I'm > going to start off by using org-mode to handle my projects and I need > some advice. > > I'm new to this as well and started in a very similar way: - begin with just notes - ramp up to todo tracking - continue to ramp up to scheduling/full-fledged work data capture system > I like to keep my projects self-contained. Therefore I use one > org-file for each project. Each org-file contains two main headlines: > journal and tasks. Under journal I collect all kinds of information: > meeting notes, relevant stuff I've read, urls, etc. I also write down > what I have done every few days. The journal entries are sorted > chornologically. Under tasks I keep all todo items. > > I started with separate, then went to all-in-one file, and think I'm going back to one-per, mainly because of issues with being too deep in an outline already by having one file; in other words, I blow a headline with project name, then another with either 'journals' or 'todos', etc., and only then am I in day-to-day notes... Anyway, your setup sounds similar to what I'm leaning toward as well. > Frequently my notes on meetings contain ideas for stuff to try. Does > anyone have any advice on how to handle these? > > I'm very 'idea' centered as well. See some 'ideas' below :) > I don't want to keep them as todo items in the journal since I like to > keep changing the todos (e.g., dividing them into subtasks) and I > don't want those changes to appear in the journal. I agree with this -- my idea for a 'journal' is a record of my work, meeting notes, etc. Ideas are usually equivalent to 'off-topic concept to try later that came up in the context of this meeting but that will develop separately.' > My initial thought > was to create one headline for each idea and tag it with ":idea:". I > could then easily go through all ideas in a project and choose the > ones I want to work on by creating todo items. Those ideas would then > be further tagged with ":handled:" or something similar. This way I > could search for unhandled ideas in my projects. As an alternative I > could use separate todo keywords for todos and ideas. > What about: ### IDEA 1 ### --- file: project_name.org --- * Journals ** Title <date> Notes about stuff * Ideas ** TODO idea 1 <date> ** WORKING idea 2 ** DONE idea 3 <date> Something like this? This could track ideas in each project and if you do use them as TODOs you can pull them up with agenda to check ideas across all projects. ### IDEA 2 ### - a remember template for ideas? - file keystrokes set to set the file to a particular project's file with a simple key entry? - or... one file called 'ideas.org' divided by projects (or just tag idea headlines with the project name) --- then use remember-mode to add ideas to that file when you're in meetings/taking notes in a different, dedicated project file? > Any specific advice or just general thoughts are most appreciated. > > I'm so new I can hardly believe I'm proposing these ideas as I don't even know that I know everything necessary to implement them! But... these are things i ponder so I thought I'd share... > Cheers, > /Ali > > John > > _______________________________________________ > Emacs-orgmode mailing list > Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. > Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode > [-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 5515 bytes --] [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 201 bytes --] _______________________________________________ Emacs-orgmode mailing list Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-12 20:38 ` John Hendy @ 2010-04-12 21:04 ` Ali Tofigh 0 siblings, 0 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Ali Tofigh @ 2010-04-12 21:04 UTC (permalink / raw) To: John Hendy; +Cc: emacs-orgmode On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 16:38, John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> wrote: >> Frequently my notes on meetings contain ideas for stuff to try. Does >> anyone have any advice on how to handle these? > > I'm very 'idea' centered as well. See some 'ideas' below :) ;-) > What about: > > ### IDEA 1 ### > --- file: project_name.org --- > * Journals > ** Title <date> > Notes about stuff > > * Ideas > ** TODO idea 1 <date> > ** WORKING idea 2 > ** DONE idea 3 <date> > > Something like this? This could track ideas in each project and if you do > use them as TODOs you can pull them up with agenda to check ideas across all > projects. What I would like is to keep my ideas in their context and not separately. Ideally I just want to write my meeting notes as usual but be able to somehow mark certain sections as ideas to come back to later. I keep my real todos, the ones I want to work on, separately as you suggest. > ### IDEA 2 ### > - a remember template for ideas? > - file keystrokes set to set the file to a particular project's file with a > simple key entry? > - or... one file called 'ideas.org' divided by projects (or just tag idea > headlines with the project name) > --- then use remember-mode to add ideas to that file when you're in > meetings/taking notes in a different, dedicated project file? Same as above... I really really would like some feature to be able to highlight some part of my text (or even better a list item) as an idea. This way my ideas could be interspersed in the level I'm in. It doesn't seem logical to me to create a new heading for each idea in the middle of my notes. === project1.org === * journal ** meeting 1 notes... - idea 1 :idea: - idea 2 :idea: notes contd... (this is same level still as notes above under heading "meeting 1") * tasks ** todo1 *** subtask1 ** todo2 > I'm so new I can hardly believe I'm proposing these ideas as I don't even > know that I know everything necessary to implement them! But... these are > things i ponder so I thought I'd share... I appreciate it. It's fun to share ideas! /Ali ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-12 19:46 Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" Ali Tofigh 2010-04-12 20:38 ` John Hendy @ 2010-04-25 7:46 ` John Wiegley 2010-04-26 14:47 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-26 16:16 ` Nathan Neff 1 sibling, 2 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: John Wiegley @ 2010-04-25 7:46 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Ali Tofigh; +Cc: emacs-orgmode On Apr 12, 2010, at 3:46 PM, Ali Tofigh wrote: > Frequently my notes on meetings contain ideas for stuff to try. Does > anyone have any advice on how to handle these? Hi Ali, For ideas I just use a done TODO state called "NOTE". I have the key M-z bound to create one and switch me to the Org-buffer, so that I can stay there and keep typing. John ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-25 7:46 ` John Wiegley @ 2010-04-26 14:47 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-26 17:00 ` Matt Lundin 2010-04-27 10:07 ` Sébastien Vauban 2010-04-26 16:16 ` Nathan Neff 1 sibling, 2 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Ali Tofigh @ 2010-04-26 14:47 UTC (permalink / raw) To: John Wiegley; +Cc: emacs-orgmode Hi John, On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 03:46, John Wiegley <jwiegley@gmail.com> wrote: >> Frequently my notes on meetings contain ideas for stuff to try. Does >> anyone have any advice on how to handle these? > > For ideas I just use a done TODO state called "NOTE". I have the key M-z bound to create one and switch me to the Org-buffer, so that I can stay there and keep typing. Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried both checkboxes and TODO items to keep track of my ideas, but your idea of using a done state seems very neat. I'll give it a go. What really feels unsatisfactory to me is that only headlines can be TODO items. I want to be able to insert TODO items in the middle of a section. I've looked at the inline-tasks add-on, but that doesn't really do it for me... Anyway, I understand that the way org-mode is implemented right now, it would be very impractical to try to add non-headline TODO-items. In any case, org has simplified my life, even before I've optmized the way I use it. It's great! Cheers, /Ali ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-26 14:47 ` Ali Tofigh @ 2010-04-26 17:00 ` Matt Lundin 2010-04-26 17:30 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-05-20 0:14 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-27 10:07 ` Sébastien Vauban 1 sibling, 2 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Matt Lundin @ 2010-04-26 17:00 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Ali Tofigh; +Cc: emacs-orgmode Hi Ali, Ali Tofigh <alix.tofigh@gmail.com> writes: > What really feels unsatisfactory to me is that only headlines can be > TODO items. I want to be able to insert TODO items in the middle of a > section. I've looked at the inline-tasks add-on, but that doesn't > really do it for me... Could you please elaborate? > Anyway, I understand that the way org-mode is implemented right now, > it would be very impractical to try to add non-headline TODO-items. In > any case, org has simplified my life, even before I've optmized the > way I use it. It's great! Here's one quick hack to search for non-headline todo items (i.e., checkboxes): C-c a / \[ \] [RET] This will generate a list of all "open" list items, such as, - [ ] Review this idea Best, Matt ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-26 17:00 ` Matt Lundin @ 2010-04-26 17:30 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-05-20 0:14 ` Ali Tofigh 1 sibling, 0 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Ali Tofigh @ 2010-04-26 17:30 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Matt Lundin; +Cc: emacs-orgmode On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 13:00, Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> wrote: > Ali Tofigh <alix.tofigh@gmail.com> writes: > >> What really feels unsatisfactory to me is that only headlines can be >> TODO items. I want to be able to insert TODO items in the middle of a >> section. I've looked at the inline-tasks add-on, but that doesn't >> really do it for me... > > Could you please elaborate? I often write journal entries after meetings describing what was discussed. I often summarize using plain lists. Some of these are ideas for future work, some are downright todos. Some paragraphs are descriptions of ideas. Ideally for my case, I would want to be able to tag a list item or even entire paragraphs as an 'idea' or turn a list item into a todo-item without creating a new (sub)section: text text text.... - *TODO* Sarah wants me to send her files A and B - maybe we should try algorithm B on data set C :idea: text text text continuing the section... > Here's one quick hack to search for non-headline todo items (i.e., > checkboxes): > > C-c a / \[ \] [RET] > > This will generate a list of all "open" list items, such as, > > - [ ] Review this idea Wow, I had not thought about that one! I'll be fiddling with that as soon as I get some time on my hands. Thanks. I'm getting some really good suggestions from people here. /Ali ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-26 17:00 ` Matt Lundin 2010-04-26 17:30 ` Ali Tofigh @ 2010-05-20 0:14 ` Ali Tofigh 1 sibling, 0 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Ali Tofigh @ 2010-05-20 0:14 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Matt Lundin; +Cc: emacs-orgmode On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 13:00, Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> wrote: > Here's one quick hack to search for non-headline todo items (i.e., > checkboxes): > > C-c a / \[ \] [RET] > > This will generate a list of all "open" list items, such as, > > - [ ] Review this idea > This has proved to be the best way so far for handling my "ideas". I have now defined a custom agenda command for this and it works very well. Thanks for the suggestion. /Ali ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-26 14:47 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-26 17:00 ` Matt Lundin @ 2010-04-27 10:07 ` Sébastien Vauban 2010-04-28 1:59 ` Bernt Hansen 1 sibling, 1 reply; 11+ messages in thread From: Sébastien Vauban @ 2010-04-27 10:07 UTC (permalink / raw) To: emacs-orgmode-mXXj517/zsQ Hi Ali, John and all, Ali Tofigh wrote: > On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 03:46, John Wiegley <jwiegley-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org> wrote: >>> Frequently my notes on meetings contain ideas for stuff to try. Does >>> anyone have any advice on how to handle these? >> >> For ideas I just use a done TODO state called "NOTE". I have the key M-z >> bound to create one and switch me to the Org-buffer, so that I can stay >> there and keep typing. > > Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried both checkboxes and TODO items > to keep track of my ideas, but your idea of using a done state seems > very neat. I've another view on this subject -- but I've to be honest at this early stage: *I currently have no solution that completely satisfies me*. I really am puzzled by using a "TODO state" for saying "this is a note". For me, a so-called TODO state is a circumstance (or a mode), so one transitional property on a cycle. That's something that evolves over time, such as: TODO -> NEXT -> STARTED -> WAITING -> DONE A NOTE does not belong to such cycles. It's just some kind of "property". I would be more inclined to view a NOTE "property" as a tag, but that does not satisfy me neither. Tags are for contexts, mainly resources we need to have at hand, or locations we need to be, or time ranges in which the action makes sense. Maybe it should be a real PROPERTY? Anyway, as I don't have the solution yet, I don't have yet a proper way to mark my notes as NOTES... I hope others can share their views on this? Best regards, Seb -- Sébastien Vauban _______________________________________________ Emacs-orgmode mailing list Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. Emacs-orgmode-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-27 10:07 ` Sébastien Vauban @ 2010-04-28 1:59 ` Bernt Hansen 0 siblings, 0 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Bernt Hansen @ 2010-04-28 1:59 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Sébastien Vauban; +Cc: public-emacs-orgmode-mXXj517/zsQ Sébastien Vauban <wxhgmqzgwmuf-geNee64TY+gS+FvcfC7Uqw@public.gmane.org> writes: > I really am puzzled by using a "TODO state" for saying "this is a note". > > For me, a so-called TODO state is a circumstance (or a mode), so one > transitional property on a cycle. That's something that evolves over time, > such as: > > TODO -> NEXT -> STARTED -> WAITING -> DONE > > A NOTE does not belong to such cycles. It's just some kind of "property". > > I would be more inclined to view a NOTE "property" as a tag, but that does not > satisfy me neither. Tags are for contexts, mainly resources we need to have at > hand, or locations we need to be, or time ranges in which the action makes > sense. I think that's too narrow a view for tags. Tags should be whatever is useful. It can be a context, or resources you need, or locations, or anything else that is useful. I use arbitrary tags to match items with an external tracking system - and use the id of that system so I can match them easily. I also use :NOTE: for notes. It works for my needs just fine. Tags are not and should not be limited to context only. I also use tags for special todo states... if I cancel a task I give it a CANCELLED tag too ... so any subtask of the cancelled task is obviously cancelled and unavailable to work on. -Bernt ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
* Re: Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" 2010-04-25 7:46 ` John Wiegley 2010-04-26 14:47 ` Ali Tofigh @ 2010-04-26 16:16 ` Nathan Neff 1 sibling, 0 replies; 11+ messages in thread From: Nathan Neff @ 2010-04-26 16:16 UTC (permalink / raw) To: John Wiegley; +Cc: emacs-orgmode, Ali Tofigh [-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 905 bytes --] On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 2:46 AM, John Wiegley <jwiegley@gmail.com> wrote: > On Apr 12, 2010, at 3:46 PM, Ali Tofigh wrote: > > > Frequently my notes on meetings contain ideas for stuff to try. Does > > anyone have any advice on how to handle these? > > Hi Ali, > > For ideas I just use a done TODO state called "NOTE". I have the key M-z > bound to create one and switch me to the Org-buffer, so that I can stay > there and keep typing. > > Same here -- I just use the SOMEDAY todo state for both ideas and things that I really want to do someday. Previously, I would use a separate IDEA and SOMEDAY states, but the two concepts are similar enough that I combined them. --Nate > John > > _______________________________________________ > Emacs-orgmode mailing list > Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. > Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode > [-- Attachment #1.2: Type: text/html, Size: 1654 bytes --] [-- Attachment #2: Type: text/plain, Size: 201 bytes --] _______________________________________________ Emacs-orgmode mailing list Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list. Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 11+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2010-05-20 0:15 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 11+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2010-04-12 19:46 Suggestions needed for handling "ideas" Ali Tofigh 2010-04-12 20:38 ` John Hendy 2010-04-12 21:04 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-25 7:46 ` John Wiegley 2010-04-26 14:47 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-26 17:00 ` Matt Lundin 2010-04-26 17:30 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-05-20 0:14 ` Ali Tofigh 2010-04-27 10:07 ` Sébastien Vauban 2010-04-28 1:59 ` Bernt Hansen 2010-04-26 16:16 ` Nathan Neff
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