Re: Organizing by time or by subject and an idea

[Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca>]

John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> writes:

> On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 3:00 AM, Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>> The key, as John has already stated, is to record everything!  With
>> emacs, I can usually pull out what I want *if* the information was
>> recorded in the first place.
>>
>> Finally, tags can be very useful for quick searching as well.
>
> I still need to figure out a better tag system as well. Currently, I
> just have a project acronym under each main header:
>
> -----
> * Tracking
> Odds and ends tasks
>
> * Project 1      :proj1:
> Stuff for project 1
>
> * Project 2     :proj2:
> Stuff for project 2
>
> * References     :ref:
> Misc things I need to refer back to now and then (project reporting IDs, etc.)
> -----
>
> That's quasi helpful, but not really... Do you tag by type of data
> stored? Project/task type/name?

Hi John,

I have lots of projects that have similar structure and headlines.  I
use tags sparingly -- mainly for filtering in the agenda and for
information about tasks.  I almost always work from the agenda to find
what to do next and having the tags indicating which project the task is
for is very convenient.  Tags are inherited so I'll normally tag the top
level project with some unique name and a few file tags are added for
grouping tasks.

I keep multiple projects in a single file but they are all related to
some larger projects.  I'll archive done state tasks away when they are
2 months old.

Something like this:

,----[ fileX.org ]
| #+FILETAGS: XX
| 
| * Tasks
| ** TODO Do this
| * TODO SomeProject                                               :someproject:
| ** TODO Create design document
| ** TODO Coding
| *** TODO FileA
| **** TODO FunctionQ
| *** TODO FileB
| * TODO OtherProject                                                  :otherproject:
| ** TODO Create design document
| ** TODO Coding
| *** TODO FileF
| **** TODO FunctionR
| *** TODO FileG
`----

,----[ fileY.org ]
| #+FILETAGS: YY
| 
| * Tasks
| ** TODO Do this
| * TODO ProjA                                               :proja:
| ** TODO Create design document
| ** TODO Coding
| *** TODO FileA
| **** TODO FunctionQ
| *** TODO FileB
| * TODO ProjB                                                  :projb:
| ** TODO Create design document
| ** TODO Coding
| *** TODO FileF
| **** TODO FunctionR
| *** TODO FileG
`----

When looking for tasks to work on in the agenda it's obvious what a task
belongs to.  Each task has an XX or YY tag from the FILETAGS line and
all projB tasks have a :projb: tag.  I use this a lot to quickly
distinguish tasks from each other in the global todo list.

My current global todo list has tasks with 1 - 5 tags.  Only HOLD tasks
have 5 tags (where :HOLD: is automatically added when I change the task
state)  All tasks have at least 1 tag (coming from the FILETAGS entry).

Filtering the agenda with tags is immensely useful.  You can limit to a
specific tag, or exclude tasks with some tag, etc which helps me focus
on the thing I'm working on now.

I also limit my block agenda view to subtree and project using my fairly
recent changes on http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html.

HTH,
Bernt