From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Bernt Hansen Subject: Re: Input on organization of files for multiple projects? Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:15:51 -0400 Message-ID: <8762mvdmzc.fsf@norang.ca> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:57306) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Qk6DT-0001yO-Da for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:15:56 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Qk6DS-0006VB-7f for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:15:55 -0400 Received: from mho-03-ewr.mailhop.org ([204.13.248.66]:55045 helo=mho-01-ewr.mailhop.org) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Qk6DS-0006V6-2u for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:15:54 -0400 In-Reply-To: (John Hendy's message of "Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:33:05 -0500") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: John Hendy Cc: emacs-orgmode John Hendy writes: > In any case, this works pretty well, but I think I'm becoming more and > more sensitive to the fact that I'm not as interested in just tracking > "journal" type entries. I now have bigger projects that are more > coherent and on-going vs. just supporting other people's projects and > noting what I contributed and test results. I find more often that I > used C-a s to search for something and end up in a file a couple > months back with some open todo items that I need to take care of. > > But then I run across and update or new data... and I find myself > debating about whether to add it to 2011-05May.org or create a new > timestamp for it in 2011-07Jul.org. > > So, I'm in the mood for input and suggestions. I've read a lot of the > org tutorials (norang in particular), but not a lot quite put the > whole picture out there -- how many files, how are they organized, > etc. A lot of people describe having files per "activity" (writing, > chores, research), but I'm in the same job, but contributing to > perhaps 5 or so main projects as well as my ideas/brainstorming stuff > (I work in R&D engineering/product development). > > I'm hoping to hear some input about big picture structuring, keeping > track of year+ long projects, todo flows, if files have ever gotten > too big (a fear of mine), if and how you archive, etc. > > I've thought of going to a structure with proj1.org, proj2.org, etc. > and then archiving into an archive_yyyy.org with main headings for > each project as I finish todos or as things get old. Or maybe I won't > need to. Maybe an org file can survive an entire project and just get > archived for reference when I'm done working on it. I'll probably > still need some kind of "odds and ends" file for things that don't > belong to a specific project. Hi John, I've been using org-mode for 5+ years now and I'm still using the same structuring for tasks and notes that I originally set up. I have a miscellaneous todo.org that I dump miscellaneous non-project tasks into. Diary stuff goes in diary.org (i d in the agenda) and anything that should be grouped together (for some definition of a group) lives in a separate org file. I archive old entries from X.org to X.org_archive monthly. I now dump org files into directories and the directories contribute to org-agenda-files (so new files just show up as the are created), and I can add/drop entire directories of org files from my agenda easily. This has the advantage that I'm free to split or consolidate org files anytime I want - the agenda will still find the entries as long as they are in directories that contribute to the agenda. If you have 5 main projects that are unrelated I'd probably have one org file for each project and group stuff in there in whatever order makes sense to you. I tend to keep project notes in project files. When notes for a project are generally useful I'll split that into a notes-only org-file by itself and publish the results to HTML. HTH, -- Bernt