Use-case: simple nodes and todo-list

Use-case: simple nodes and todo-list

[c.buhtz]

Hello,

I still read something about org-mode.

It is a complex and powerfull tool. I now try fit/transform my current 
workflow and use-cases to org-mode. So maybe you can give me a simple 
yes-now if this could be fullfilled with org-mode.

1. Simple notes with keywords and endless time to life
I have notes (most of them as post-its on the wall and monitor in my 
office) with information's I am not able or willing to remember. But I 
need this information's every few days. e.g. numbers for bank-account, 
projects, persons
I find this information's by place (post-it glued to a specific place in 
my office). When they are digitized I would use keywords or in-text 
search. e.g. searching for the project name "my project" to find its 
number.

2.ToDo List without time information's
Currently I use a one-page-paper handwritten as a ToDo List. I re-create 
it every week. It helps me. I make priorities with some colors or 
underlines. And it (maybe) makes my workload visible to my leaders when 
sitting in a meeting and having the ToDo list on the table. ;)
In the past I also tried "taskwarrior". Very powerfull, I loved it. But 
it did not fit to my workflow. I know this is apocalyptic and hard to 
imagine but deadlines are useless in my workflow. :D So taskwarrior did 
not helped be it just build up more pressure to me. Simple explanation: 
My work is influenced by to much unknown external spontaneous factors. 
It is useless to make plans/deadlines. Yes it is horror, I work on it. 
But I am not on that level of the hierarchy to make the fundamental 
needed changes.

What do you think?

Do you have any sources that explain org-mode with showing real life 
use-cases?

kind

Re: Use-case: simple nodes and todo-list

[Robert Pluim]

>>>>> On Fri, 09 Oct 2020 10:17:56 +0200, c.buhtz@posteo.jp said:

    c> Hello,
    c> I still read something about org-mode.

    c> It is a complex and powerfull tool. I now try fit/transform my current
    c> workflow and use-cases to org-mode. So maybe you can give me a simple
    c> yes-now if this could be fullfilled with org-mode.

    c> 1. Simple notes with keywords and endless time to life

Yes. org *allows* you to invent a complex deadline/scheduling
workflow, but at its most basic you just write:

* Project 1                 :work:
** Task 1
** Task 2
* Project 2                 :play:

and just stick your notes in there (you can do things with lists,
checkboxes, etc, but Iʼd start simple).

    c> I have notes (most of them as post-its on the wall and monitor in my
    c> office) with information's I am not able or willing to remember. But I
    c> need this information's every few days. e.g. numbers for bank-account,
    c> projects, persons
    c> I find this information's by place (post-it glued to a specific place
    c> in my office). When they are digitized I would use keywords or in-text
    c> search. e.g. searching for the project name "my project" to find its
    c> number.

Everyone has their own system, but I put "stuff I donʼt need often" in
one org file, then I have a 'work' file and a 'play' file. Ordinary
emacs search commands are enough, but again org has support for
searching by tags, name etc.

    c> 2.ToDo List without time information's
    c> Currently I use a one-page-paper handwritten as a ToDo List. I
    c> re-create it every week. It helps me. I make priorities with some
    c> colors or underlines. And it (maybe) makes my workload visible to my
    c> leaders when sitting in a meeting and having the ToDo list on the
    c> table. ;)
    c> In the past I also tried "taskwarrior". Very powerfull, I loved
    c> it. But it did not fit to my workflow. I know this is apocalyptic and
    c> hard to imagine but deadlines are useless in my workflow. :D So
    c> taskwarrior did not helped be it just build up more pressure to
    c> me. Simple explanation: My work is influenced by to much unknown
    c> external spontaneous factors. It is useless to make
    c> plans/deadlines. Yes it is horror, I work on it. But I am not on that
    c> level of the hierarchy to make the fundamental needed changes.


* TODO get milk             :housekeeping:
* TODO feed cat             :housekeeping:pets:

(and the 'housekeeping' stuff is also completely optional).

For priorities org has support for 3 levels of priority built in, so
you'd have:

* TODO [#B] get milk                                           :housekeeping:
* TODO [#A] feed cat                                      :housekeeping:pets:

There are convenient key bindings for setting the priorites on items.

For what you've described, Iʼd start by reading (info "(org) TODO
Items"), and stopping when you've reached the level you want to use.

Robert
-- 

Re: Use-case: simple nodes and todo-list

[Joost Kremers]

Hi,
On Fri, Oct 09 2020, c.buhtz@posteo.jp wrote:
> 1. Simple notes with keywords and endless time to life
> I have notes (most of them as post-its on the wall and monitor 
> in my 
> office) with information's I am not able or willing to remember. 
> But I 
> need this information's every few days. e.g. numbers for 
> bank-account, 
> projects, persons
> I find this information's by place (post-it glued to a specific 
> place in 
> my office). When they are digitized I would use keywords or 
> in-text 
> search. e.g. searching for the project name "my project" to find 
> its 
> number.

Yes, Org can definitely do this, though in this particular case, 
I'm not sure Org really has any advantage over using just plain 
text files or say markdown files. (The advantage of Org would be 
in the integration that would be possible with other parts of your 
setup.)

I personally have something similar: a bunch of files in which I 
keep notes of things I may need in the future. I keep them in Org 
format and I search them with Deft: 
<https://jblevins.org/projects/deft/>. (Though I do not follow the 
advice on that page of using Melpa Stable. I just use the Melpa 
version.) Of course, searching them can also be done with grep (or 
one of its alternatives, ripgrep, ag, etc.) and an Emacs frontend 
(ivy, helm, what have you).

> 2.ToDo List without time information's

Yes, you can create todo-lists without time information. You can 
attach a deadline to a task, but you don't have to. You can also 
create multiple TODO-states (e.g., TODO, INPROGRESS, SUSPENDED, 
DONE, etc.) and set different priorities.

-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments

Re: Use-case: simple nodes and todo-list

[Eric S Fraga]

My use of org actually quite closely manages your paper based
approach.  I have 3 main org files that cover the tasks you have
described:

1. todo.org which has all my todo items.  every now and again, I go
   through this list and schedule some of them.  I do put deadlines on
   items if they have hard deadlines (i.e. of the type that says "this
   *has* to be done by then or else...") but I do not create artificial
   deadlines.

2. notes.org that is simple a collection of (a large number of)
   snippets, each in a single top level headline.  These are all tagged
   when created with as many tags per entry as I can think of at the
   time.  I can then usually find what I want very quickly through the
   tag search functionality in org-agenda (C-c a m TAG RET) with
   org-agenda bound to "C-c a".  But see below.

3. diary.org for appointments and meetings.  This is the file that sees
   the most activity but only because I seem to live in meetings these
   days...

The key with the first two is to not worry about how you structure
information.  If all else fails, you can use the full power of Emacs to
find things (occur; isearch-forward-regexp; etc.).  

HTH,
eric

-- 
: Eric S Fraga via Emacs 28.0.50, Org release_9.4-38-g16f505