Re: tags-tree question

[Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca>]

Pete Phillips <pete@smtl.co.uk> writes:

> On a related question, is it possible to set up an
> org-agenda-custom-command to pick out a set of tags, all of which have
> NEXT as a todo-type, and which either have no scheduled date, OR which
> have a scheduled or deadline date less than or equal to 1 month in the
> future.
>
> For example, show lines with 
>
>     NEXT and (Home | LaptopH | DIY) 
>
> where either there is no scheduled (or perhaps, deadline) date OR 
>
> 	Scheduled Date <= today + 1 month
>
> My thinking on this is that sometimes I have next actions (such as
> cutting my pampas grass every january), which would be set up like this:
>
> *** NEXT Cut pampass grass :DIY:
> SCHEDULED: <2009-01-12 Thu>
>
> My current setup uses this:
>
>  ("h" "Home Stuff (Next)"
>   ((tags "Home//NEXT" nil)
>    (tags "DIY//NEXT" nil)
>    (tags "LaptopH//NEXT" nil)
>   nil)
>
> The problem at the moment is that it shows up all year in my Home Stuff
> (Next) list (which searches for Home|LaptopH|DIY with NEXT todotypes),
> but I only want it to start showing up about a month before the date I
> have decided I need to do it. At the moment, NEXT items which I will
> need to do, but which I can't do anything about until nearer the time,
> clutter up my action lists.
>
> Is there any way to do this ?

Hi Pete,

For this do something like the following:

Set a deadline date on 

*** NEXT Cut pampass grass :DIY:
DEADLINE: <2009-01-12 Thu>

and

(setq org-agenda-todo-ignore-with-date t)

This keeps all tasks with a schedules or deadline date out of the list
of tasks when searching for next tasks and by default deadlines show up
on the agenda 30 days before they need to be done.

I find I'm using DEADLINE: a lot more then SCHEDULED: in my tasks.

In this case your custom agenda command to match NEXT tasks will not
list the tasks with dates (ever) and those tasks will show up on the
agenda 30 days before they need to be complete.  You can control when
they show up individually using dates such as

DEADLINE: <2009-01-12 Thu -60d>

This works great for me.

Regards,
Bernt