Re: Simplifying the weekly agenda a tiny bit, howto?

[Richard Lawrence <richard.lawrence@berkeley.edu>]

François Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
>
>> First of all, if your event is a meeting, it should only be
>> timestamped, not deadlined or scheduled.  Then it will just show up
>> where it's supposed to, and not before (or after).
>
> How do I get it quickly rescheduled then, when it is a regular activity?
> I find fairly convenient using "t d" to push an activity at its next
> slot in the future.  Could I do something equivalent with mere time
> stamps?

If it's a regular activity, you can use a repeater in the timestamp, like:

* Weekly meeting
  <2013-07-18 Thu 15:00 +1w>

or if you need something more complicated, you can use the diary sexp
functions, like:

* 22:00-23:00 The nerd meeting on every 2nd Thursday of the month
  <%%(diary-float t 4 2)>

* Class every Tuesday and Thursday in the Spring 2013 semester 12:30PM-2PM
  <%%(org-class 2013 1 22 2013 5 10 2)>
  <%%(org-class 2013 1 22 2013 5 10 4)>

For non-regular meetings, I have a capture template that allows me to
easily enter them; maybe this is a good option for you if you regularly
need to schedule meetings, but at times that you can't predict before
you actually enter them.

>> It probably shouldn't even be a TODO.  Otherwise, scheduled TODOs show
>> up on their schedule, and deadlined TODOs show up on their deadline,
>> and also today's agenda, if you're coming up on the deadline.
>
> There are many Org commands able to find, display and otherwise handle
> TODOs.  If I stop using such keywords, wouldn't I give up the tools?

Maybe.  Which tools do you use for TODOs that you also apply to
meetings?

Apart from the schedule-based agenda view, if you find it convenient to
e.g. create a list of all your upcoming meetings, you can do things like
tag all your meetings with a :meeting: or :appointment: tag, and then
use tag searches and/or custom agenda views to identify them, sort them
by timestamp, etc.

Hope that's helpful!

Best,
Richar