tabular logging of values in habits and other repeating tasks

[Michael Gilbert <mcg@gilbert.org>]

Hi —

So, I think there must be a way to do this, but I'm stumped. 

Here's what I am trying to set up: I want to be able to log a series of values (rather than just DONE or note) for my habits. For example: "Did I run today?" can be tracked with regular logging. But "OK, you ran. How many miles?" can't, as far as I can tell. I know I can set those tasks to offer up an interface for notes, but each of those notes is a distinct item, right? I want to find a way to leverage the power of orgmode tables/columns by logging a value (or possibly more than one) in a single table with a line for each repetition of the task. So, for one habit the value might be "miles run". I'm a tango dancer, so for another the value might be "minutes of drills done". I can imagine circumstances with more than one column as well. For example, if I were tracking exercise in general, I might want one column for the type of exercise and another for the number of minutes performed.

In general, I am trying to break my ties to a number of simpler data-logging tools (web apps, text files) and just centralize this into Org-Mode where it belongs.

Any advice?

— Michael