Re: Keeping Your Appointments in org

[Matthew Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org>]

Hi Ian,

Ian Barton <lists@manor-farm.org> writes:
>
> Searching back through the list there are quite a lot of snippets
> describing how people use org to keep appointments, but no overview. I
> would like to write a tutorial on how you can keep your appointments
> in org, so I thought that I would ask list members if they would post
> some details of their system.

In the past I've used the Emacs diary, which integrates quite nicely
into the agenda views. It's really easy to add entries to the diary
from the agenda by typing "i". And the format for basic diary entries
is very simple, e.g.:

Jan 8, 2009 6:00pm Go for a walk

But recently, I've begun entering all my diary entries into org-mode
files because (a) it makes it very easy to put scheduling directly in
my project plans (b) org-mode supports complex diary expressions
within org files and (c) it's nice to add notes to scheduled events.
And, of course, org-modes active timestamps are also very easy.

Generally, I maintain a distinction between scheduled tasks and
appointments. For tasks I add a SCHEDULE or DEADLINE date. For the
appointments I add a simple timestamp, as in:

* Go for a walk <2009-01-08 Thu 18:00>

or

* 6:00pm Go for a walk <2009-01-08 Thu>
>
> I am intending to keep my appointments in a dedicated org file
> (calendar.org). 

Since the agenda's so powerful I just leave my appointment entries
scattered among several files - i.e., in their relevant context by
subject.

> At the moment I am using a remember template which adds them with a
> tag of APPT. I the use a custom agenda view if I only want to see
> appointments.

I do the same---i.e., use a custom agenda view to see only
appointments. In case it's of interest to anyone, here's the command I
use to view a weekly calendar consisting only of appointments.

(setq org-agenda-custom-command s
	'(("c" "Weekly schedule" agenda ""
	   ((org-agenda-ndays 7)
	    (org-agenda-start-on-weekday 1)
	    (org-agenda-repeating-timestamp-show-all t)
	    (org-agenda-skip-function '(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'deadline 'scheduled))))
          ;; other commands here
          ))

>
> I am particularly interested in the best way to deal with repeating
> appointments. For example how do you deal with a weekly appointment
> that has a defined start and end date.

I use a diary S-expression within org-mode for this:

** My weekly event 7:00pm
<%%(and (= 2 (calendar-day-of-week date)) (diary-block 1 6 2009 4 4 2009))>

This event shows up in the agenda at 19:00 hours every Tuesday between
January 6 and April 4 of 2009.

I look forward to reading your tutorial on scheduling.

Best,
Matt