Re: Basic organization question

[Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca>]

Hi Tommy,

Comments are inline below.

Tommy Kelly <tommy.kelly@verilab.com> writes:

> Bernt,
>
> Still digging into this. You said:
>
>> TAGS are much more flexible for controlling what you see on
>> the agenda and I use tags for filtering what is displayed on the agenda.
>
> Am I right though that from the point of view of clocking tasks, you
> rely not on TAGS but on having each task live inside the appropriate
> file/heading/sub-heading/sub-sub-heading and so on? 

Yes each task lives in the appropriate file and subtree.  It is only
possible to clock tasks.  I clock in tasks both from the agenda and
directly from inside org files.  Finding the thing to clock in is what I
use the agenda for -- I find a task with an agenda view (limited by
tags) and clock in the task directly with I in the agenda view.

> Or do you have some jiggery pokery to let clocking and clock tables be
> sensitive to TAGs?

I mostly use R and C-u R in the agenda for clock reports.  The C-u R
version limits the displayed clock report based on your current agenda
tags filter.

Dynamic clock reports can also be limited by tags but I am not currently
using this feature.

I use persistent tags filters so when I set a tag filter to HOME it
stays that way until I change it.  This lets me look at the agenda for
this week limited to HOME tasks, and also TODO and NEXT tasks for only
tasks with the HOME tag.

> Overall it looks like you use file-and-level-of-subheading to categorize things
> according to general area (clientX, clientY, or accounting, research,
> and so on), and then you use TAGs in addition to orthogonally categorize
> things according to some aspect of your workflow (it's a phone call, it
> has GTD context @wibble, it needs refiled, and so on). Is that remotely
> accurate? 

Yes pretty much.  I tend to group project related things into a file and
give it a #+FILETAGS: entry so everything in that file gets some tag.
Then I can limit my agenda view to just include or just exclude those
things depending on my current work context.

Inside a file I'll also have tagged entries for PHONE, NOTE, CANCELLED,
FLAGGED, @somewhere, etc so I can further refine the displayed tasks in
my agenda view.

Regards,
Bernt