On Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 10:15 PM, Bernt Hansen <be...@norang.ca> wrote: > John Hendy <jw.he...@gmail.com> writes: > >> In any case, this works pretty well, but I think I'm becoming more and >> more sensitive to the fact that I'm not as interested in just tracking >> "journal" type entries. I now have bigger projects that are more >> coherent and on-going vs. just supporting other people's projects and >> noting what I contributed and test results. I find more often that I >> used C-a s to search for something and end up in a file a couple >> months back with some open todo items that I need to take care of. >> >> But then I run across and update or new data... and I find myself >> debating about whether to add it to 2011-05May.org or create a new >> timestamp for it in 2011-07Jul.org. >> >> So, I'm in the mood for input and suggestions. I've read a lot of the >> org tutorials (norang in particular), but not a lot quite put the >> whole picture out there -- how many files, how are they organized, >> etc. A lot of people describe having files per "activity" (writing, >> chores, research), but I'm in the same job, but contributing to >> perhaps 5 or so main projects as well as my ideas/brainstorming stuff >> (I work in R&D engineering/product development). >> >> I'm hoping to hear some input about big picture structuring, keeping >> track of year+ long projects, todo flows, if files have ever gotten >> too big (a fear of mine), if and how you archive, etc. >> >> I've thought of going to a structure with proj1.org, proj2.org, etc. >> and then archiving into an archive_yyyy.org with main headings for >> each project as I finish todos or as things get old. Or maybe I won't >> need to. Maybe an org file can survive an entire project and just get >> archived for reference when I'm done working on it. I'll probably >> still need some kind of "odds and ends" file for things that don't >> belong to a specific project. > > Hi John, > > I've been using org-mode for 5+ years now and I'm still using the same > structuring for tasks and notes that I originally set up. >
Wow, seems like it's really working well, then! > I have a miscellaneous todo.org that I dump miscellaneous non-project > tasks into. Out of curiosity, are these just "loose" todos (no headlines or anything)? Maybe I'm a digitial neat freak, but having long lists like that without organization just bugs me. Or do you access almost all todos via agenda and so it doesn't really matter? > Diary stuff goes in diary.org (i d in the agenda) and > anything that should be grouped together (for some definition of a > group) lives in a separate org file. I archive old entries from X.org > to X.org_archive monthly. Good to know. > > I now dump org files into directories and the directories contribute to > org-agenda-files (so new files just show up as the are created), and I > can add/drop entire directories of org files from my agenda easily. I must have missed that directories work. Very cool and saves me having to add them manually all the time! This is great. > > This has the advantage that I'm free to split or consolidate org files > anytime I want - the agenda will still find the entries as long as they > are in directories that contribute to the agenda. > > If you have 5 main projects that are unrelated I'd probably have one org > file for each project and group stuff in there in whatever order makes > sense to you. I tend to keep project notes in project files. When > notes for a project are generally useful I'll split that into a > notes-only org-file by itself and publish the results to HTML. I re-read your setup page on norang.ca, and it looks like it's actually a bit updated since I saw it last. I think I'll move in the project file direction and try to implement capture as well (haven't been using that at all). I'm still a little hazy on how this will all pan out, as I have really liked my "journal" method of documenting what I work on in terms of it making sense (just write what I did under a headline timestamped with today's date -- simple). The on-going projects thing was the main irk I've had. It just *doesn't* make sense to update data or info on a headline from 2 months ago when new information comes up. But I don't want to split the data, either. I've done that before and linked between different file headlines for ongoing data collection and it's a hassle to follow all those links around to compare data that should be in one place. In your block agenda view, how do you get the "====" line separating sections? Mine just pile on top of each other. Thanks for the input! John > > HTH, > -- > Bernt >
