Restructure my org-life

Restructure my org-life

[andrea]

Org-mode is already quite pervasive, I'm writing almost everything with
it and moving also some old latex stuff.

But now I think I have to rethink the whole way I store my data.

I would like then to know how you organize your data to get some ideas.
Now I have a directory

$HOME/org

where I have files like

work.org
personal.org

and some small projects/ideas that don't have a position yet somewhere
else.

In plus in my projects I try to put always a README.org that keeps the
main informations and links to other docs.

That's working fine but now I have too many org files, and I lose a lot
of time visiting them every time, looking for where to insert some info
and finally insert what I wanted to write.

Maybe I should only keep a big TODO.org, use org-remember and move
somewhere else all the informations that are not TODO issues.

But that doesn't convince me either, so I want to see if you have some
better suggestions...
Thanks a lot

Re: Restructure my org-life

[Matt Lundin]

andrea <andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com> writes:

> I would like then to know how you organize your data to get some ideas.
> Now I have a directory
>
> $HOME/org
>
> where I have files like
>
> work.org
> personal.org
>
> and some small projects/ideas that don't have a position yet somewhere
> else.
>
> In plus in my projects I try to put always a README.org that keeps the
> main informations and links to other docs.
>
> That's working fine but now I have too many org files, and I lose a lot
> of time visiting them every time, looking for where to insert some info
> and finally insert what I wanted to write.

A quick question: Are you using the agenda? IMO, the number of org files
you use doesn't really matter, since the agenda will gather the relevant
information from all of them and since you can jump directly from the
agenda to the corresponding point in your files.

I'd also recommend using org-refile to move things from one file and/or
headline to another. Similarly, the agenda search commands make it very
easy to find data in your files.

As a point of comparison, I have 21 files contributing to my agenda at
the moment.

You might want to consult the following tips on Worg:

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-glossary.php#sec-3.3

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.php#how-to-organize-org-mode-files

Hope this helps.
Matt

Re: Restructure my org-life

[andrea]

Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> writes:

> andrea <andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com> writes:
>
> A quick question: Are you using the agenda? IMO, the number of org files
> you use doesn't really matter, since the agenda will gather the relevant
> information from all of them and since you can jump directly from the
> agenda to the corresponding point in your files.

I finally started to use more smartly the agenda and also the template
for remember mode.
Now is much better thanks.
I also have a hook to automatically add new org-files to the agenda, in
this way I don't forget anything.
Now there are 53 files in the agenda, and I guess it will become slow,
I'll have to find smarter solutions...

Thanks

Re: Restructure my org-life

[Xavier Maillard]

Le 01/12/2009 12:41, andrea a écrit :
> Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> writes:
> 
>> andrea <andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> A quick question: Are you using the agenda? IMO, the number of org files
>> you use doesn't really matter, since the agenda will gather the relevant
>> information from all of them and since you can jump directly from the
>> agenda to the corresponding point in your files.
> 
> I finally started to use more smartly the agenda and also the template
> for remember mode.
> Now is much better thanks.
> I also have a hook to automatically add new org-files to the agenda, in
> this way I don't forget anything.

Care to share it with us ?

Regards

Re: Restructure my org-life

[andrea]

Xavier Maillard <xma@gnu.org> writes:

> Care to share it with us ?
>

Of course with pleasure, it's quite simple but very nice
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(defun org-add-eventually()
  "Adding a file to org-agenda when saved"
  (interactive)
  (if (string= major-mode "org-mode")
      (org-agenda-file-to-front)))
 
;;TODO: Check if a file is contained in some subdirectories
(add-hook 'before-save-hook 'org-add-eventually)
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

org-agenda-file-to-front as someone said use the customization thing, so
your agenda-files variable will be written at the end of .emacs/init.el
or wherever you have it.

It works quite well, then if you remove some files the next time you see
the agenda it will just ask you if you want to remove them from the
agenda as well, fairly simple then.

See
http://github.com/AndreaCrotti/Emacs-conf/blob/master/.emacs.d/conf/org.el
for my full emacs configuration (that file linked is only for org-mode).