From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Marcelo de Moraes Serpa Subject: Making GTD more mangeable with org Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 12:19:12 -0600 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=47689 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1Q0eGa-0002BZ-Ni for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:19:18 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q0eGY-0002N2-4T for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:19:16 -0400 Received: from mail-iw0-f169.google.com ([209.85.214.169]:49112) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Q0eGY-0002Ms-0q for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:19:14 -0400 Received: by iwl42 with SMTP id 42so5329077iwl.0 for ; Fri, 18 Mar 2011 11:19:12 -0700 (PDT) List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Org Mode Hi list, So, I have been using org for GTD for quite a long time. I love org, and the more I learn about elisp and about it, the more excited I get about it, and the more I see there's nothing out there that reaches the simplicity and powerfulness of org. However, I started noticing I was getting lost in my own system. This is partly because I still don't have the habit of reviewing it all very often, but I also found out that my main gtd.org file (the one that has projects and next actions/tasks) was getting really long. I know I could just use use the visibility functions to make it more mangeable, but somehow I was still getting confused about what to do at certain points in the day. Then I had the idea of creating a braindead index. Something that I could access quickly and that would give me *perspective* and help me decide what path to take. Here's how it looks like: http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/2199/screenshot20110318at120.png It can be thought of as a: * A dashboard * Overview of my system - a way to glue the most important parts * A way to trigger my mind and help me stay on track (avoid procrastination) * A "cache" area where I can list the projects or files that matter the most *now* * A checklist / workflow * A quick way to regain perspective and help you go back to the "zone" I know we have the agenda, but the agenda view doesn't really give me the perspective I need. It's also more of GUI for querying data from your org "database". I've set it up so that emacs will set this specific buffer as read-only when opening it. This helps making it more of a dashboard and prevents me from adding more stuff to it unless I really have to :) If I need to edit it, I just do a M-x toggle-read-only. I also bound a small wrapper around a find-file to open this file with the F3 key. Whenever I need, I can just press F3 and "navigate" from there. What I want to do now is setup the links. Is there a way to setup a link to an agenda function? It'd be nice. Anyway, I know it might sound like a stupid small thing, but I found that this entry-point to my system actually helps me stay focused. What do you think ? Share your thoughts ;) Marcelo.