Re: Org-mode Habit with Varying Description

[Brady Trainor <algebrat@uw.edu>]

Daya Atapattu <atapattud@gmail.com> writes:

> Is there a way to create a habit that picks-up the description from a
> list?
>
> I like to schedule studying a book: It would be scheduled as "Read
> pages 100-125." Then the next day it should read "Read pages 126-150."
> The description of the habit varies; org-mode picks that up
> sequentially from a list.
>
> Is that possible?
>
> Regards,
>
> - Daya


I was scheduling all my TODOs for the day and using agenda view to clock my progress through them. But I've been skimming once again through org-mode users' descriptions of how they use org-mode, and one mentioned only to use scheduling for things like appointments. 

So my advice will step around your use of habits, although I do this without recently haing adopted org-habits into my workflow, so maybe I am missing something. 

So instead of scheduling, I would have you tag these headlines, or similarly set them under a tree with a CATEGORY, and simly toggle their TODO state as you want to work on them. Here is an example of a custom-command: 

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("B" "Books"
         ((tags-todo "-nofilter"))
         ((org-agenda-category-filter-preset '("+read"))
          ;; or
          ;; (org-agenda-tags-filter-preset '("+read"))
        ))
#+END_SRC

So if you think you will keep the reading notes in a few concentrated places, then CATEGORY should do, whereas if you think you would have related headlines strewn about, the tag-filter may be better. 

Here is an example org-file: 

#+BEGIN_SRC org

#+TODO: TODO(t) NEXT | DONE
#+TAGS: read(r) other

* book reading
:PROPERTIES:
:CATEGORY: read
:VISIBILITY: children
:END:
** DONE pages 100-125                 :read:
** NEXT pages 125-150                 :read:
** TODO pages 150-175                 :read:

#+END_SRC

If you'd like to experiment with an additional agenda view for clocking, try

#+BEGIN_SRC emacs-lisp
(agenda ""
        (org-agenda-span 'day)
        (org-agenda-log-mode-items '(closed clock state))
        (org-agenda-start-with-log-mode t)
        (org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-done t))
#+END_SRC

You may want to tweak so that you can get a view of total clocked or just a view of those days where you read. It's not org-habits, but it could still potentially show you your progress in way that can motivate. 

--
Brady