Overall organization/setup for org mode: Projects and Tasks

["Alan E. Davis" <lngndvs@gmail.com>]

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I've been using org-mode for a few years.  My agenda is cluttered with tasks
that are weeks and even months past due.  I am "this close" to declaring
"orgmode bankruptcy" and starting from scratch, except my current setup
works so well for other things.   Might still do that, but I want to ask for
ideas.

I stumble consistently over the distinction between projects and tasks.  I
think there is not clear distinction, but I need to find a way to organize
them so that, at least, agenda displays the day to day TODO tasks separated
in a meaningful way from the long term projects that I need to remind myself
of (and there are dozens of these).

PROJECTS: I can define projects as
       - an overall series of tasks related to a single purpose
       - a recurring task (monthly calendars that I need to remind myself to
make each month)
       - an actual project I am working on (writing a proposal, or a
research project about a coral, or a recipe database, or reconstructing a
LaTeX file tree for a publication ten years ago)


TODOS: perhaps tasks could be anything,
      - bills (marked by tag "bill"
     - phone calls to make

     I am starting to understand how I TODOS can be scattered through all my
other files.   However, the greater the number of agenda files, the greater
the clutter.   And, as a recent thread called to mind, there are times when
the list of agenda files prevents me from searching for tags or todos.  SO
where is the happy medium?

Some thoughts:
     -  I tried to write a custom agenda command that defined the agenda
files to encompass all *org files in a directory.  This actually set the
agenda-files variable to all files for the rest of the session, so I gave
that idea up----although I know it's possible to do it.
     -  Again, the number of agenda files seems to be constraining.
     -  There seem to be issues between defining the agenda files
explicitly, or adding them one at a time.
     -  It would be useful if agenda searches automatically picked up the
recent files I had worked on during the session,
        however, in as streamlined a way as possible.


I don't need to be reminded everyday that I have to organize bibliographic
references for my next trip to the library, but I have to have a way to keep
these organized to jog my memory in planning my time in some loose sense.

I do need to have a list of bills that I can access without having to sort
through the list of projects that are 3 months overdue.

Almost every week I have new insights into how to use tags, so perhaps I
need to junk alot of the tags I set up long ago.

These thoughts are somewhat disconnected, and I apologize for this.

And I would be grateful for any comments that would shed light on how to
solve these issues.

Alan Davis

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