I'll take a stab at this...
Lets say you have the following TODO tags defined:
TODO STARTED | DONE
And
PROJECT | CANCELLED FINISHED
And lets say you have project A defined like so:
*** PROJECT Project A
TODO Some Larger Task
- [ ] DO the thing
- [ ] That other thing
- [ ] More stuff
TODO Complete project
- [ ] Log hours
When you are ready to start work on project A Some Larger Task, you mark it
as STARTED. As you go through the steps in project A, you would tick off
things as they are completed, and mark larger tasks as done. When the
interrupting task comes in, decide whether or not it is a one off, or deserving
of a project.
If it is a One-off task, you might put it in a larger Tasks headline. Again, I
would split out what needs to be done here as a series of smaller todo steps or
checkboxes.
*** PROJECT Interrupting Cow
STARTED Put out the fire.
- [ ] Find the fire hose
- [ ] Wear Suitable Rubber Boots
- [ ] Put out fire
- [ ] Save the day.
Now, if there is another interruption, you can Add another entry:
*** STARTED yet another one-off task.
- [ ] Give molly the frobniator
- [ ] send widget to fred.
Now, let's say it's lunch time, and the last thing you want to do is fart
around with org files. Great. Go for lunch.
When you get back from lunch, or your break, run a quick agenda command to see
what tasks you have started:
C-a T STARTED
Now you can take a peek at your started tasks, and you know what is currently
holding your immediate attention.
I have a custom agenda set up for work that displays the started tasks right
after the Scheduled tasks and my weekly view. This makes the following things
immediately apparent:
1) Any time commitments are at the forefront of my mind and attention
2) Any work I am currently doing is immediately visible.
When I am being diligent about working with org mode, I keep track of what I am
doing directly into the TODO task, either as a series of checkboxes, or at the
very least, a log of what I have done. This makes it really easy to get back
to what I am doing. For instance, if I am knee-deep in hacking some SQL
queries, I'll try em out on my sql buffer, and copy the relevant ones back to
my currently working org buffer. You can also use org-store-link and
org-insert-link to keep track of your place, which obviously works better if
you are working on a file. I have found it especially useful for working with
shell commands as well, to keep track of which commands I used, and sometimes
the output of the commands. Again, this makes it easy to deal with
interruptions, because you can easily follow your breadcrumb trail back.
Hopefully that helps!
-Original Message-
From: emacs-orgmode-bounces+jonathana=criticalmass@gnu.org
[mailto:emacs-orgmode-bounces+jonathana=criticalmass@gnu.org] On Behalf Of
Xavier Maillard
Sent: August 3, 2009 11:58 PM
To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: [Orgmode] Day workflow: need your opinion
Hi,
I am not a serious org-mode user but I am trying to use it again
for daily task planning (which everytime I tried, failed at ;)).
I did my lectures thanks to the worg project (Bernst and John
lecture were a real pleasure and sort of a non hittable dream to
me) but I still not clear how I could take advantage of all I
read (Bernst project concept is rather hard to understand for
me, it lacks examples IMO).
My main problem is that, at my work position (DBA), urgency is
not given by what I plan to do but by whom is calling me -i.e if
someone is calling me, it often means forget what you were doing
and do this instead.
Given my fabulous talent of procrastination, this does not really
help get organized and thus this does not help in getting things
done.
How would you use org-mode in this situation ?
Ex:
a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
At my job, they often rules the retro planning concept which is
bloat. So how would you manage such situation in org-mode ?
Thank you,
Xavier
___
Emacs-orgmode mailing list
Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
The information contained in this message is confidential. It is intended to be
read only by the individual or entity named above or their designee. If the
reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified
that any distribution of this message, in any form, is strictly prohibited. If
you have received this message in error, please immediately notify the sender
and delete or destroy any copy of this message.
___
Emacs-orgmode mailing list
Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list
