Re: [Orgmode] FR: keystroke to cancel prefix sub-keymap

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
Adam Spiers ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> Suppose that I have a sub-keymap for custom agenda commands with
> prefix 's', i.e. shortcuts 's1', 's2', 's3' and so on.  I might invoke
> org-agenda, press 's', then change my mind and want to use another
> custom command instead.  Currently, the only way of doing this would
> be to press something like 'q' or C-g, then reinvoke org-agenda.  It
> would be nice instead if there was a keystroke which simply returned
> you to the first *Agenda Commands* buffer.  The following patch
> demonstrates the required behaviour, but as you can see, is not a
> particularly clean way of doing it.
> 
> http://www.adamspiers.org/cgi-bin/hg.cgi/org-pacific/rev/8fadf3f7ddda

I forgot to say that the previous patch I posted bound the
cancellation to SPC; however I think DEL would be a more intuitive
choice:

http://www.adamspiers.org/cgi-bin/hg.cgi/org-atlantic/rev/69815deb4483

# HG changeset patch
# User Adam Spiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
# Date 1199102771 0
# Node ID 69815deb4483e0e782ec0e164d2058a511243e64
# Parent  518295ce53e0594261d7e1b8d92ab8552c0bd69a
SPACE to cancel prefix sub-keymap

diff -r 518295ce53e0 -r 69815deb4483 org.el
--- a/org.elSat Dec 29 20:42:27 2007 +
+++ b/org.elMon Dec 31 12:06:11 2007 +
@@ -19340,6 +19340,14 @@ L   Timeline for current buffer 
(setq restriction nil))
   ((and (equal selstring "") (memq c '(?a ?t ?m ?L ?C ?e ?T ?M ?# ?! 
?/)))
(throw 'exit (cons (setq selstring (char-to-string c)) 
restriction)))
+   ((and (> (length selstring) 0) (eq c ?\d))
+(delete-window)
+(org-agenda-get-restriction-and-command prefix-descriptions))
+;; Can't do it this way because help text describing hardcoded agenda
+;; commands is inserted into buffer outside the (while t ...) loop.
+;; (setq selstring ""
+;;   rmheader 0
+;;   custom org-agenda-custom-commands))
   ((equal c ?q) (error "Abort"))
   (t (error "Invalid key %c" c
 


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[Orgmode] BUG: missing ' in org-agenda-skip-* docstrings

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
http://www.adamspiers.org/cgi-bin/hg.cgi/org-atlantic/rev/fb36fb4548b2

# HG changeset patch
# User Adam Spiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
# Date 1199108855 0
# Node ID fb36fb4548b2f886ef0ecb7fc14daaeca39762a4
# Parent  5b1e541ddd0e043c55aea3e1e164bf115e01a4e9
fix org-agenda-skip-* docstrings

diff -r 5b1e541ddd0e -r fb36fb4548b2 org.el
--- a/org.elMon Dec 31 12:06:34 2007 +
+++ b/org.elMon Dec 31 13:47:35 2007 +
@@ -20430,12 +20430,12 @@ to skip this subtree.  This is a functio
 
 (defun org-agenda-skip-entry-if (&rest conditions)
   "Skip entry if any of CONDITIONS is true.
-See `org-agenda-skip-if for details."
+See `org-agenda-skip-if' for details."
   (org-agenda-skip-if nil conditions))
 
 (defun org-agenda-skip-subtree-if (&rest conditions)
   "Skip entry if any of CONDITIONS is true.
-See `org-agenda-skip-if for details."
+See `org-agenda-skip-if' for details."
   (org-agenda-skip-if t conditions))
 
 (defun org-agenda-skip-if (subtree conditions)


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Re: [Orgmode] BUG: missing ' in org-agenda-skip-* docstrings

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
And another ...

http://www.adamspiers.org/cgi-bin/hg.cgi/org-atlantic/rev/eeeab6022608

# HG changeset patch
# User Adam Spiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
# Date 1199109084 0
# Node ID eeeab6022608fcb4348ddadcd595b20b3a524ecc
# Parent  fb36fb4548b2f886ef0ecb7fc14daaeca39762a4
fix org-agenda-skip-if typos

diff -r fb36fb4548b2 -r eeeab6022608 org.el
--- a/org.elMon Dec 31 13:47:35 2007 +
+++ b/org.elMon Dec 31 13:51:24 2007 +
@@ -20453,8 +20453,8 @@ regexpCheck if regexp matches
 regexpCheck if regexp matches
 notregexp Check if regexp does not match.
 
-The regexp is taken from the conditions list, it must com right after the
-`regexp' of `notregexp' element.
+The regexp is taken from the conditions list, it must come right after the
+`regexp' or `notregexp' element.
 
 If any of these conditions is met, this function returns the end point of
 the entity, causing the search to continue from there.  This is a function


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Re: [Orgmode] SOMEDAY/MAYBE vs. low priorities

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
Pete Phillips ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> > "Adam" == Adam Spiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
> Adam> GTD methodology suggests having "someday" and "maybe" task
> Adam> buckets for things which you want to remember to do at some
> Adam> undetermined point in the future.
> 
> Adam> So far I have implemented this in org-mode by using SOMEDAY
> Adam> and MAYBE keywords.  However I have been deliberating whether
> Adam> in fact these states are simply low priorities in disguise,
> Adam> and whether as a result it would make more sense to use [#D]
> Adam> for "someday" and [#E] for "maybe", on the grounds that
> Adam> "someday" implies that you really do want to accomplish the
> Adam> task eventually, whereas "maybe" implies that you're not yet
> Adam> decided whether you care too much if it ever gets
> Adam> accomplished, and is hence lower priority than "someday" (and
> Adam> probably the lowest priority imaginable, in fact).
> 
> I disagree. They are not priorities. In fact, David Allen doesn't put
> any store by priorities anyway. His view is that priorities are dynamic,
> not static, and that any priorities you set now will change tomorrow
> when you get into your office.
> 
> I used to use a dayrunner, using the classical time planning
> priorities. In retrospect, it never really helped me (although it was
> clearly better than the totally ad-hoc way I used to manage things
> before!). In fact I think it makes things too complex.  I find that the
> GTD approach of reviewing my projects on a regular basis, in conjunction
> with checking my diary for the next month, helps me decide what i should
> do next. It also reduces the workload in terms of having to
> re-prioritise.
> 
> This is what DA says:
> 
>   "And daily to-do lists and simplified priority coding have proven
>   inadequate to deal with the volume and variable nature of the
>   average professional's workload. More and more people's jobs are
>   made up of dozens or even hundreds of e-mails a day, with no
>   latitude left to ignore a single request, complaint, or
>   order. There are few people who can (or even should) expect to
>   code everything an "A," a "B," or a "C" priority, or who can
>   maintain some predetermined list of to-dos that the first
>   telephone call or interruption from their boss won't totally
>   undo."
> 
> Now, you may or may not agree with this, but personally I would try to
> avoid using priorities *if you are using GTD methodology*.  If you are
> using some other system, then it may work. However, GTD doesn't need
> priorities because (quoting DA again):
> 
>   "As I've said, you shouldn't bother to create some external
>   structuring of the priorities on your lists that you'll then
>   have to rearrange or rewrite as things change. Attempting to
>   impose such scaffolding has been a big source of frustration in
>   many people's organizing. You'll be prioritizing more
>   intuitively as you see the whole list, against quite a number of
>   shifting variables. The list is just a way for you to keep track
>   of the total inventory of active things to which you have made a
>   commitment, and to have that inventory available for review."
> 
> Also in the book, he says that your priority is dependant on context,
> time, and energy available.  So for example, you have an hour until a
> meeting, you are pretty knackered, and have a phone and computer
> available. Do you try to do the priority A item on your list ? What if
> your priority A item is to write your business plan for the year ? With
> an hour, and feeling knackered, you are probably better off dealing with
> a bunch of phone calls, or processing emails. What if you have 10
> minutes ?  What if you have an unbroken 8 hours ?
> 
> The point about this is that your priorities change constantly, you
> don't have time to keep rearranging them, and you will make choices
> based on other factors other than the priority you gave an item a few
> weeks ago. In fact, you are likely to ignore the priority in the above
> situation, so save yourself the bother.

Thanks a lot for the feedback.  I have read the book several times but
it was great to be reminded of his views on priorities.  Having said
that, I think I would really struggle to review on a regularly basis
without some kind of prioritisation, since at the time of writing I
have 324 NEXT actions and 82 PROJECTs.  Surely that's way too many to
review all of them within the reasonable timeframe of a weekly review
(which I imagine would be 30-120 minutes)?  Likewise, with this amount
of "stuff" to deal with, I think I would struggle by using his
4-critera (context/time/energy available/priority) and 6-level (ground
to 50,000ft) models alone for deciding what to do next - and that's
even with having all the org-agenda-custom-commands already in place
for viewing tasks by context,

[Orgmode] FR: multiple scheduling of one item?

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
Imagine I have a single project or task which I know will require
several sessions to complete.  Before I get to the stage of analysing
it closely and breaking it down into sub-tasks, it would be good to
reserve some diary time in advance, so that I don't accidentally
accept other commitments for that time and overstretch myself.

However, this is different from booking a normal diary appointment, in
the sense that I am not making a commitment to other people to be in a
particular place at a particular time: the commitment is only to
myself and is directly associated with a particular project or task.

Therefore it sounds like it would be useful to be able to schedule the
same task for multiple slots.  It turns out that the org-agenda code
already handles this beautifully; if you do:

* Long task/project not yet broken down into sub-tasks
  SCHEDULED: <2008-01-07 Mon>
  SCHEDULED: <2008-01-08 Tue>

and it appears in both places in an agenda view, and you can jump back
to the item in the normal way.  The only downside is that C-c C-s
doesn't currently support entering it:

  (org-schedule &optional REMOVE)

  Insert the SCHEDULED: string with a timestamp to schedule a TODO item.
  With argument REMOVE, remove any scheduling date from the item.

How about doing the usual trick of comparing different prefix argument
values (e.g. 4 vs. 16) to allow adding a new scheduled slot?


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Re: [Orgmode] SOMEDAY/MAYBE vs. low priorities

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
(More Structured Procrastination... ;-)

Adam Spiers ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> And on top of that, I need a way of marking a "someday" or "maybe"
> task/project as already STARTED or WAITING etc., which is why I
> wrote:
> 
> > - Priorities become truly orthogonal to workflow, e.g. if your
> >   workflow keywords are PROJECT, PROJDONE, NEXT, STARTED, WAITING,
> >   DONE etc. then you can mark any of these as someday/maybe
> >   priority.  This is quite a big advantage AFAICS.

Here's another case study for treating someday/maybe as priorities
rather than as keywords; best illustrated by example:

* PROJECT [#A] This is an urgent project
** but it's stuck since we don't have any NEXT actions yet.
** However we do have:
*** SOMEDAY some ideas about what might need doing later on
*** MAYBE here's another idea we're not sure about yet

* SOMEDAY This is an unimportant project
** Our NEXT actions are still SOMEDAY/MAYBE actions
** so is it stuck or not?
** Technically yes, but do we care?
   since the whole project is only a SOMEDAY.
*** SOMEDAY when the project comes alive, this becomes a NEXT
*** MAYBE here's another idea we're not sure about yet

In the "someday" project above, notice how the distinction between the
unimportant project and its as yet unimportant subtasks is blurred.
That makes for inaccurate search results.  How would we configure
`org-agenda-stuck-projects' to get the desired results?

Now compare with:

* PROJECT [#A] This is an urgent project
** but it's stuck since we don't have any NEXT actions yet
** of priority #C or higher.
** However we do have:
*** NEXT [#D] some ideas about what might need doing later on
*** NEXT [#E] here's another idea we're not sure about yet

* PROJECT [#D] This is an unimportant "someday" project
*** SOMEDAY when the project comes alive, this "someday" action becomes a 
NEXT
*** NEXT [#D] or we could mark it like this
*** NEXT or even this, which would appear in searches for unprioritised 
items
*** NEXT [#E] here's another "maybe" idea we're not sure about yet

I don't really know what's best, but hopefully this is all food for
thought.

Happy New Year to all!

Adam


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Re: [Orgmode] SOMEDAY/MAYBE vs. low priorities

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
Adam Spiers ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> OK.  My setup is similar except that I allow for sub-projects -
> projects within projects.  As a result, projects are not uniquely
> identified by their star level, so I explicitly mark them with PROJECT
> which means I retain the ability to do keyword searches on them.  This
> also has the advantage that I can include items for reference within
> the project as sub-headings, and they won't have a keyword so they
> won't show up in searches.

OK, last one of the year honest!  `org-stuck-projects' appears to get
confused by sub-projects.  If I set it to

  ("/PROJECT" ("TODO" "NEXT" "NEXTACTION" "STARTED") nil "")

then in the following, it considers both the main and sub- projects as
unstuck, when in fact only the sub-project is:

  * PROJECT main project
  ** NEXT main project is not stuck
  ** PROJECT sub-project
  *** sub-project is stuck


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Re: [Orgmode] SOMEDAY/MAYBE vs. low priorities

2007-12-31 Thread Manish
On Dec 31, 2007 10:45 PM, Adam Spiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Adam Spiers ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> > OK.  My setup is similar except that I allow for sub-projects -
> > projects within projects.  As a result, projects are not uniquely
> > identified by their star level, so I explicitly mark them with PROJECT
> > which means I retain the ability to do keyword searches on them.  This
> > also has the advantage that I can include items for reference within
> > the project as sub-headings, and they won't have a keyword so they
> > won't show up in searches.
>
> OK, last one of the year honest!  `org-stuck-projects' appears to get
> confused by sub-projects.  If I set it to
>
>   ("/PROJECT" ("TODO" "NEXT" "NEXTACTION" "STARTED") nil "")
>
> then in the following, it considers both the main and sub- projects as
> unstuck, when in fact only the sub-project is:
>
>   * PROJECT main project
>   ** NEXT main project is not stuck
>   ** PROJECT sub-project
>   *** sub-project is stuck
>

I am a very new org user so it may not make much sense but I suspect
tags could be used to mark some projects/tasks as SOMEDAY and then
stuck projects configured to ignore those?

Happy New Year!
-- 
Manish


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[Orgmode] New Year's (org-mode) resolutions?

2007-12-31 Thread Bastien
Hi folks,

a great new year's eve to everybody.  Special thanks to Carsten for
another year of fun with org-mode - and thanks to all who make this
mailing list worth reading it everyday !

As this is the right time for resolutions, one single question: what
are your top 3 GTD-wise (or more generally org-wise) resolutions for
this upcoming year?

Mine: 

1. start clocking my work
2. generalize the Org exporter
3. give out more tutorials/screencasts!

All the best,

-- 
Bastien


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Re: [Orgmode] New Year's (org-mode) resolutions?

2007-12-31 Thread Adam Spiers
Bastien ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> a great new year's eve to everybody.  Special thanks to Carsten for
> another year of fun with org-mode - and thanks to all who make this
> mailing list worth reading it everyday !

Seconded!

> As this is the right time for resolutions, one single question: what
> are your top 3 GTD-wise (or more generally org-wise) resolutions for
> this upcoming year?
> 
> Mine: 
> 
> 1. start clocking my work
> 2. generalize the Org exporter
> 3. give out more tutorials/screencasts!

1. regular reviews of my TODO lists in order to schedule things in advance
   (i.e. move from reactive to proactive)
2. start clocking my work
3. align daily actions with long-term goals

Here's a great place for anyone seeking inspiration for new
resolutions to make:

  http://zenhabits.net/

Best wishes to everyone for 2008!


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Re: [Orgmode] SOMEDAY/MAYBE vs. low priorities

2007-12-31 Thread Pete Phillips
> "Adam" == Adam Spiers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Adam> Thanks a lot for the feedback.  I have read the book several
Adam> times but it was great to be reminded of his views on
Adam> priorities.  Having said that, I think I would really struggle
Adam> to review on a regularly basis without some kind of
Adam> prioritisation, since at the time of writing I have 324 NEXT
Adam> actions and 82 PROJECTs.  Surely that's way too many to review
Adam> all of them within the reasonable timeframe of a weekly review
Adam> (which I imagine would be 30-120 minutes)?  

I have over 200 projects, and goodness knows how many next actions.  I
can do the weekly review in about 2 hours, sometimes 3.

I work my way through each project, expanding it up fully, have a quick
glance, at everything. If I have been maintaining the project as I do
tasks during the week, then there shouldn't be much tinkering with
tasks. Collapse that project and move onto the next. 

I check my org agenda for the next month before I review the
projects. As I go through the projects, I therefore know what meetings,
deadlines etc I need to deal with, and whether there are days I need to
schedule to deal with certain tasks. 

Any SOMETIME projects will get the once-over and I will make a decision
as to whether I need or *want* to start to do anything on this. If not,
leave it as it is. 

However, the key thing is to make sure you are happy you have identified
the NEXT ACTION. With 324 of these to do, you are probably only going to
get 10-50 done in the next week. That means lots of these projects and
actions are going to get the quick scan from you, ensure you are happy
with the NA, and move on. Sometimes you will find that you forgot to
change the status of a task when you completed it, so you mark it as
done, decide the next action, and move on.

Don't forget that the weekly review is where you are planning your
strategy for the next week, so it is a good use of your time.

Adam> So at very least I really need a good way of marking a huge
Adam> chunk of them as "someday/maybe" so that they don't clutter up
Adam> the weekly review but are still available for say, a monthly
Adam> review.  

Well I look at ALL of my projects in the weekly review. For some of
them, I probably don't spend more than 2 seconds on them though, as they
are no brainers. 

An example.  At the moment I have

*** SOMETIME Defect Report - to include trust breakdown (need to edit the perl 
script) - just do last 12 months :Laptop:

This is a report I send out every 1/4, and someone once asked if we
could break it down by hospital reporters for the last 12 months. It is
probably 30-60 minutes perl programming for me, although my experience
is that sometimes a short programming task can expand! However, nobody
else has asked for it since, so when I see it I'm happy to move on. It's
been there for about 2 years.  I haven't got rid of it as I think it
would be a nice addition, and don't want to forget about it.

If you're anything like me, you probably have loads of similar projects
- people who ask for things because they think it is a good idea at the
time or ideas you have had which you don't want to forget about, but you
also don't want to do anything about at the moment. My view is that once
a week I am smart enough to decide whether I need to move on such
SOMETIME projects, because I also understand what the rest of my
workload is like, so am unlikely to make them current unless there is a
pressing need to do so.

So I agree with you about making many of them SOMETIME (or whatever todo
status works for you). You can do this in the comfort and knowledge that
once a week you will check them over, and decide if that is still the
appropriate status. I find that this is the only way to keep sane in
fact!  

The point I'm making here is that the weekly review shouldn't be a
mammoth issue just because you have lots of projects. Yes, the first
time may take a while (I fell off the GTD wagon earlier this year, and
it took me about 5 hours on the train to work my way through the whole
lot). List maintenance during the working day is vital to this.

Adam> Hmm.  So you have WAITING and DELEGATED both meaning that you
Adam> cannot proceed until an external action is completed by
Adam> someone else - what's the difference?  

DELEGATED are things I can do something about - go and stand in front of
someone and ask why they haven't delivered.  WAITING is different - I
may be relying on someone's goodwill for example, or a reply from a
manufacturer, which probably needs a different way of moving it
forward. I find that it works for me.  YMMV

Adam> And what do you mean by "not as yet decided to move on them"?

There are lots of things where, to paraphrase DA's words, 'there will be
a time in the future when I will be smarter, and able to make a decision
on this'. The example above is this sort of project - something I don't
want

Re: [Orgmode] New Year's (org-mode) resolutions?

2007-12-31 Thread William Henney
On Dec 31, 2007 11:41 AM, Bastien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> As this is the right time for resolutions, one single question: what
> are your top 3 GTD-wise (or more generally org-wise) resolutions for
> this upcoming year?
>

Mine:

1. Try to catch up with a small fraction of the new functionality that
has been added to org mode since I last read the manual
2. Try to read through all of Adam's and Peter's postings to this list
3. Try to keep up with Sacha's blog posts

I find it mildly depressing that many other org-moders seem to be able
to write faster than I can read

Cheers

Will


-- 

  Dr William Henney, Centro de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica,
  Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Campus Morelia


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