Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Hi M, it is not about programming and it is not about plain text files, but MS Office (Word) files.. Dropbox is not an option, maybe a document management system (DMS) with versioning, but it is not in place yet. And even if there is, how could I then track my workflow with Emacs? I find convenient to convert doc files to text using antiword or wvtext and then I can follow the changes easily using usual tools. Tomas
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Hi Martin, I think that you should be using tags for this. For example: * Project XYZ :projectxyz:J.Smith: ** TODO Write Text ** WAIT Feedback on Text ** TODO check feedback ** TODO send to original author ** WAIT for Feedback In this case you are adding a tag with the project name and another with the author (for example). Then when you export this to the agenda, or generate a list of pending tasks, all the subnodes of this tree will inherit the tags and you will see them associated to each task. Another option is to use a different file for each project (maybe not too practical if you have many of them). When generating a list of task you get the file name with each task. If you name the file as your project (say projectxyz.org), then you know where that task is coming from. You can add something like this to your .emacs file so you do not have to add all these small files by hand to the agenda list: ; (load-library find-lisp) (add-hook 'org-agenda-mode-hook (lambda () (setq org-agenda-files (find-lisp-find-files /home/documents/smallprojects \.org$)) )) ; With this all org files in the smallprojects folder will be added to the agenda. Hope this helps... Julian -- Julian Mariano Burgos, PhD Hafrannsóknastofnunin/Marine Research Institute Skúlagata 4, 121 Reykjavík, Iceland Sími/Telephone : +354-5752037 Bréfsími/Telefax: +354-5752001 Netfang/Email: jul...@hafro.is Hi, I'm working with org-mode to document my work and to keep track of tasks and projects. At the moment there are many little projects where I * get a text from someone (or write it myself) * have to read and edit it * send it oer email to 1 or 2 other colleagues which have to read / edit it * get it back and check the changes * maybe send the text again to the original author * then finally release the text for publication ... and you imagine, there is not only 1 such text at once but several of them. I wonder what is an approriate way to keep track of such workflows with org-mode.. I'm using MS Outlook for mails and so when I receive a mail, I store a hyperlink pointing to that mail in Outlook. For a process like the one above I would have a task * TODO Write Text about topic XY and send it to colleague(s)... then * WAIT Colleage(s): Feedback on Text about topic XY * TODO check feedback/changes of Colleagues and edit again, and send for approval * TODO send to original author * WAIT for Feedback of original author (if changes, repeat process above) * TODO send text to publishing colleague or similar... I hope it is clear what I mean, there are a lot of small steps and each time creating a new task takes much time and I have to copy the name of the project again and again... Maybe it would be better to add all the notes about the progress as notes in the Logbook and change the Heading of the task each time, but that also seems strange to me... Would there be a way to make the children inherit automatically a text from the project name, e. g. * Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC ** WAIT John: Feedback on Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC ** Send Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC to Ellen for approval ... in a way that Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC is filled in automatically by a placeholder? Or what is your way for tracking such workflows in org-mode? Kind regards Martin
[O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Hi, I'm working with org-mode to document my work and to keep track of tasks and projects. At the moment there are many little projects where I * get a text from someone (or write it myself) * have to read and edit it * send it oer email to 1 or 2 other colleagues which have to read / edit it * get it back and check the changes * maybe send the text again to the original author * then finally release the text for publication ... and you imagine, there is not only 1 such text at once but several of them. I wonder what is an approriate way to keep track of such workflows with org-mode.. I'm using MS Outlook for mails and so when I receive a mail, I store a hyperlink pointing to that mail in Outlook. For a process like the one above I would have a task * TODO Write Text about topic XY and send it to colleague(s)... then * WAIT Colleage(s): Feedback on Text about topic XY * TODO check feedback/changes of Colleagues and edit again, and send for approval * TODO send to original author * WAIT for Feedback of original author (if changes, repeat process above) * TODO send text to publishing colleague or similar... I hope it is clear what I mean, there are a lot of small steps and each time creating a new task takes much time and I have to copy the name of the project again and again... Maybe it would be better to add all the notes about the progress as notes in the Logbook and change the Heading of the task each time, but that also seems strange to me... Would there be a way to make the children inherit automatically a text from the project name, e. g. * Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC ** WAIT John: Feedback on Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC ** Send Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC to Ellen for approval ... in a way that Text about topic XY for publishing in ABC is filled in automatically by a placeholder? Or what is your way for tracking such workflows in org-mode? Kind regards Martin
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
M elwood...@web.de writes: Hi, At the moment there are many little projects where I * get a text from someone (or write it myself) * have to read and edit it * send it oer email to 1 or 2 other colleagues which have to read / edit it * get it back and check the changes * maybe send the text again to the original author * then finally release the text for publication ... and you imagine, there is not only 1 such text at once but several of them. I wonder what is an approriate way to keep track of such workflows with org-mode.. this doesn't sound so different from several programmers working on the same source code file, so I suspect that GIT is the best and the most popular solution for collaborative work on plain text files. If you/your fellow workers don't use GIT or another VCS, there is still dropbox - put your project text files in your dropbox folder and share them with other, there are automatic backups of older versions by Dropbox. Or you wait for colorg to be released, that would probably fit your needs exactly -- cheers, Thorsten
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Aloha M, M elwood...@web.de writes: Hi, I'm working with org-mode to document my work and to keep track of tasks and projects. At the moment there are many little projects where I * get a text from someone (or write it myself) * have to read and edit it * send it oer email to 1 or 2 other colleagues which have to read / edit it * get it back and check the changes * maybe send the text again to the original author * then finally release the text for publication ... and you imagine, there is not only 1 such text at once but several of them. A terrific source of ideas about how to organize projects with Org mode is Bernt Hansen's web page, http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html See especially his section 6 about adding tasks quickly with Capture. I organize projects something like this, where the first level heading names the project and sub-headings are tasks or task groups for the project: * Topic XYZ ** DONE Create text ** WAITING Revisions by Colleague ABC ** TODO Finalize text ** TODO Submit text When something comes in via email, I quickly file it to refile.org, read other emails, etc. Then, when convenient, I go through refile.org and put things where they should go. Bernt's setup using ido makes it possible to get to Topic XYZ quickly, where the choices can be narrowed and the appropriate file location easily found. I try to discipline myself so a DEADLINE or SCHEDULE is always attached to a TODO item. It is easy for me to skip the weekly project review that the GTD approach recommends, and attaching DEADLINE and SCHEDULE means that fewer things fall through the cracks. hth, Tom -- Thomas S. Dye http://www.tsdye.com
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Thorsten Jolitz tjol...@googlemail.com writes: If you/your fellow workers don't use GIT or another VCS, there is still dropbox - put your project text files in your dropbox folder and share them with other, there are automatic backups of older versions by Dropbox. I use one trick which might be of interest to some people : when I have a dropbox folder with text (in my case, these are .tex and related files) files that will be worked on collaboratively, I first follow these steps in the directory : dropbox exclude add .git git init git add . git commit -m Initial commit (it is important that the first step comes first, this avoids the .git directory from being synched to everyone sharing the folder) From that moment on, I can monitor changes using git diff which I find much easier (in particular thank to magit) than Dropbox's own facilities. Everytime there are new chages, I usually commit them in order to have some history saved locally (though less complete than the history in dropbox, since I probably won't commit after every single change). (As a side note : another way to use git + dropbox is to have your .git directory sync'd between your different computers, but I don't like this very much, and obviously this would be for a completely different purpose.) -- Nico.
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Thanks Thorsten for your reply! it is not about programming and it is not about plain text files, but MS Office (Word) files.. Dropbox is not an option, maybe a document management system (DMS) with versioning, but it is not in place yet. And even if there is, how could I then track my workflow with Emacs? Kind regards Martin Von: Thorsten Jolitz tjol...@googlemail.com Datum: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:14:42 +0100 An: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Betreff: Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person M elwood...@web.de writes: Hi, At the moment there are many little projects where I * get a text from someone (or write it myself) * have to read and edit it * send it oer email to 1 or 2 other colleagues which have to read / edit it * get it back and check the changes * maybe send the text again to the original author * then finally release the text for publication ... and you imagine, there is not only 1 such text at once but several of them. I wonder what is an approriate way to keep track of such workflows with org-mode.. this doesn't sound so different from several programmers working on the same source code file, so I suspect that GIT is the best and the most popular solution for collaborative work on plain text files. If you/your fellow workers don't use GIT or another VCS, there is still dropbox - put your project text files in your dropbox folder and share them with other, there are automatic backups of older versions by Dropbox. Or you wait for colorg to be released, that would probably fit your needs exactly -- cheers, Thorsten
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
M elwood...@web.de writes: it is not about programming and it is not about plain text files, but MS Office (Word) files.. Dropbox is not an option, maybe a document management system (DMS) with versioning, but it is not in place yet. And even if there is, how could I then track my workflow with Emacs? Maybe I shouldn't say this on this list, but this actually sounds to me like a perfect use case for Google Docs, which is very similar to Word, can import and export to Word (or simply replace it if the Docs are not too complex), and is very well suited for collaborative work on the same documents with automatic backup in the clouds and versioning. I think its all about avoiding to work locally on different copies of a document and then send it back and forth by email. Thats just too old-school in my eyes. -- cheers, Thorsten
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Nicolas Richard theonewiththeevill...@yahoo.fr writes: I use one trick which might be of interest to some people : when I have a dropbox folder with text (in my case, these are .tex and related files) files that will be worked on collaboratively, I first follow these steps in the directory : dropbox exclude add .git git init git add . git commit -m Initial commit (it is important that the first step comes first, this avoids the .git directory from being synched to everyone sharing the folder) From that moment on, I can monitor changes using git diff which I find much easier (in particular thank to magit) than Dropbox's own facilities. Everytime there are new chages, I usually commit them in order to have some history saved locally (though less complete than the history in dropbox, since I probably won't commit after every single change). Thats a nice way to enable Emacs/Org-mode/Magit users to work with fellows from the Microsoft universe - thanks for the tip. -- cheers, Thorsten
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
Hi Thomas, thanks for your reply! Sure I know Bernt Hansen's web page and I'm already using his configuration for my system. (I'm still learning Emacs and org-mode, so it was easier to start with an existing setup). I already know and use the capture and refile feature, my problem is that I have the feeling to do more administration of tasks than really doing them if I track such projects like the one described with org-mode and create a sub-task for each step. Especially as I'd have to re-type each time again the name of the project if I want it to appear in my agenda explicitly and not only: WAITING John: Feedback (and I would not know which text it is about). Von: Thomas S. Dye t...@tsdye.com Datum: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:39:13 -1000 An: M elwood...@web.de Cc: emacs orgmode-mailinglist emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Betreff: Re: How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person A terrific source of ideas about how to organize projects with Org mode is Bernt Hansen's web page, http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html See especially his section 6 about adding tasks quickly with Capture.
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
M elwood...@web.de writes: Hi Thomas, thanks for your reply! Sure I know Bernt Hansen's web page and I'm already using his configuration for my system. (I'm still learning Emacs and org-mode, so it was easier to start with an existing setup). I already know and use the capture and refile feature, my problem is that I have the feeling to do more administration of tasks than really doing them if I track such projects like the one described with org-mode and create a sub-task for each step. Especially as I'd have to re-type each time again the name of the project if I want it to appear in my agenda explicitly and not only: WAITING John: Feedback (and I would not know which text it is about). Good news. With Bernt's setup you are off to a good start. Perhaps Properties will do what you want? These are inherited by sub-trees, so they will follow Task 1, Task 2, etc. * Topic XYZ :PROPERTIES: :CATEGORY: XYZ :END: ** DONE Task 1 ** TODO Task 2 The CATEGORY property shows up in my Agenda, so I would know that Task 2 belonged to XYZ. This is how I manage the dozen or so open work projects I have at any one time. We assign each project a number, which I put in the CATEGORY property. When I generate my daily agenda, I see the project number beside each TODO task. See Chapter 7 of the manual for details. hth, Tom -- T.S. Dye Colleagues, Archaeologists 735 Bishop St, Suite 315, Honolulu, HI 96813 Tel: 808-529-0866, Fax: 808-529-0884 http://www.tsdye.com
Re: [O] How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person
M elwood...@web.de writes: I hope it is clear what I mean, there are a lot of small steps and each time creating a new task takes much time and I have to copy the name of the project again and again... Maybe it would be better to add all the notes about the progress as notes in the Logbook and change the Heading of the task each time, but that also seems strange to me... This is exactly what I do, and it works great for me. If you enable state-change logging for the TODO keywords you use most, you can keep a fully annotated and time-stamped history of how the TODO has progressed. I make the heading something generic (ie, Article XYZ) and note what has to be done next in the logbook. I like the idea of a single TODO for a single thing, even if that thing has multiple steps. I often don't know what those steps are going to be (arguments over email, waiting for someone to get back from vacation, blocking on another task, etc) so I need flexibility. In practice, most of my complex tasks start at TODO, bounce back and forth between NEXT and WAITING, and finally end up at DONE. Changes between WAITING and NEXT are logged, so I end up with a LOGBOOK full of neatly stamped changes, each one with a description (plus links to emails and all) of progress. This feels right to me. My main custom agenda view has a block each for WAITING and NEXT headings. Would there be a way to make the children inherit automatically a text from the project name, e. g. Wouldn't this be best taken care of with tags and tag inheritance? I also put colleagues' names in tags, when something requires their participation, which makes it easy get a view of stuff John should be doing. The problem with the logbook approach is that logbook entries are fairly limited beasts (you can't tag them, for instance), and I'm probably already on the verge of abusing them. Next on my list would be sorting agenda items by timestamp of most recent log entry, and also an agenda hotkey to display the most recent log entry for the TODO under point. Possibly what I should be considering is a state-change trigger that actually creates a sub-heading TODO, rather than a logbook entry. Hope something in there's useful! Eric
