How to estimate effort by week?

How to estimate effort by week?

[Christoph LANGE]

Dear all,

is there any way of estimating effort by week?  I have some tasks on 
which I don't want to waste too much time per week.  For other tasks, on 
which I don't want to waste too much time per _day_, I can use the 
following properties:

    :PROPERTIES:
    :CLOCK_MODELINE_TOTAL: today
    :Effort:   0:15
    :END:

There is no immediate equivalent for a week (or for any other timespan). 
  But is there possibly some workaround?

Cheers, and thanks,

Christoph

-- 
Christoph Lange, http://www.facebook.com/ch.lange, Skype duke4701

Re: How to estimate effort by week?

[Christian Egli]

Christoph LANGE <ch.lange@jacobs-university.de> writes:

> is there any way of estimating effort by week?

Have a look at the doc string of org-effort-durations. 

Documentation:
Conversion factor to minutes for an effort modifier.

Each entry has the form (MODIFIER . MINUTES).

In an effort string, a number followed by MODIFIER is multiplied
by the specified number of MINUTES to obtain an effort in
minutes.

For example, if the value of this variable is (("hours" . 60)), then an
effort string "2hours" is equivalent to 120 minutes.


-- 
Christian Egli
Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled
Grubenstrasse 12, CH-8045 Zürich, Switzerland

Re: How to estimate effort by week?

[Christoph LANGE]

Hi Christian,

2011-11-18 17:32 Christian Egli:
> Christoph LANGE<ch.lange@jacobs-university.de>  writes:
>> is there any way of estimating effort by week?
>
> Have a look at the doc string of org-effort-durations.
>
> Documentation:
> Conversion factor to minutes for an effort modifier.

Thanks for your pointer, but (if I got you right) that wasn't what I 
meant to ask.

So let me try to ask more precisely:  I was not interested in expressing 
that a task would take me an estimated time of N weeks, but in 
expressing that I would spend at most <some amount of time> per week on 
that task.

Cheers,

Christoph

-- 
Christoph Lange, http://www.facebook.com/ch.lange, Skype duke4701

Re: How to estimate effort by week?

[Bernt Hansen]

Christoph LANGE <ch.lange@jacobs-university.de> writes:

> Hi Christian,
>
> 2011-11-18 17:32 Christian Egli:
>> Christoph LANGE<ch.lange@jacobs-university.de>  writes:
>>> is there any way of estimating effort by week?
>>
>> Have a look at the doc string of org-effort-durations.
>>
>> Documentation:
>> Conversion factor to minutes for an effort modifier.
>
> Thanks for your pointer, but (if I got you right) that wasn't what I
> meant to ask.
>
> So let me try to ask more precisely:  I was not interested in
> expressing that a task would take me an estimated time of N weeks, but
> in expressing that I would spend at most <some amount of time> per
> week on that task.

Hi Christoph,

Is this to help limit you to that time per week or for estimating?

For limiting you can set up something like this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* STARTED Some task
SCHEDULED: <2011-11-21 Mon +1w>
:LOGBOOK:
- State "DONE"       from "STARTED"    [2011-11-19 Sat 10:27]
CLOCK: [2011-11-19 Sat 10:25]--[2011-11-19 Sat 10:27] =>  0:02
CLOCK: [2011-11-19 Sat 09:28]--[2011-11-19 Sat 10:27] =>  0:59
:END:
:PROPERTIES:
:Effort: 1:00
:LAST_REPEAT: [2011-11-19 Sat 10:27]
:END:
Limit work to 60 minutes per week
Let it repeat for next week
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

where the task repeats at some interval (weekly since you want to work
up to 1 hour per week on this task).  When you clock in the task the
modeline shows your current clocked minutes on the task _since your last
repeat_.

Set your Effort property to the limit you want for the task for the
interval and set your repeat to the size of your interval (1 hour per
week in this case)

So when you reach the limit of 1 hour (in this case) you mark the task
DONE which stops the clock and rescheduled the task to the next repeat
date.

When you clock the task in again the modeline shows 0:00 and counts up
to the effort limit again.

Does that help?

Regards,
Bernt

Re: How to estimate effort by week?

[Christoph LANGE]

Hi Bernt,

thanks a lot for your advice.  Sorry, but it took some time until I 
found the time for trying it.  I think I understood how it works.  Below 
I just have some minor questions.

2011-11-19 16:32 Bernt Hansen:
> Is this to help limit you to that time per week or for estimating?

Indeed I was interested in limiting the time that I spend on some task.

> For limiting you can set up something like this:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> * STARTED Some task
     ^^^^^^^

OK, so this example uses another TOOD keyword, which I haven't had 
before.  I understand that your example also works without introducing a 
new state, but I'm not yet sure what TODO states I need to use this 
feature most efficiently.  See below for a more specific question about 
that.

> SCHEDULED:<2011-11-21 Mon +1w>
> :LOGBOOK:
> - State "DONE"       from "STARTED"    [2011-11-19 Sat 10:27]

If I understand correctly, this mainly follows the habit tracking 
documented on the info page "Tracking your habits" – right?

> CLOCK: [2011-11-19 Sat 10:25]--[2011-11-19 Sat 10:27] =>   0:02
> CLOCK: [2011-11-19 Sat 09:28]--[2011-11-19 Sat 10:27] =>   0:59
> :END:
> :PROPERTIES:
> :Effort: 1:00
> :LAST_REPEAT: [2011-11-19 Sat 10:27]
> :END:
> Limit work to 60 minutes per week
> Let it repeat for next week
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> where the task repeats at some interval (weekly since you want to work
> up to 1 hour per week on this task).  When you clock in the task the
> modeline shows your current clocked minutes on the task _since your last
> repeat_.

OK, that's basically what I wanted to achieve, and it's very nice that 
the clocked minutes are also shown in a warning face here when I exceed 
the limit.

> Set your Effort property to the limit you want for the task for the
> interval and set your repeat to the size of your interval (1 hour per
> week in this case)
>
> So when you reach the limit of 1 hour (in this case) you mark the task
> DONE which stops the clock and rescheduled the task to the next repeat
> date.

More realistically I won't do that after one hour, but continue working 
on that task (with a guilty conscience), and then mark it DONE around 
the end of the week ;-)

OK, I see that marking such a task as DONE does not actually leave it in 
the DONE state but takes it back to the first TODO state.  So far I had 
the TODO sequence "TODO DELEGATED | DONE CANCELLED" and tried to extend 
it to "TODO DELEGATED STARTED | DONE CANCELLED", but that would take my 
repeating task back to "TODO" instead of "STARTED" after marking it 
DONE.  I think a separate sequence of states would make more sense; 
maybe "STARTED | RESTARTED"?

> When you clock the task in again the modeline shows 0:00 and counts up
> to the effort limit again.

Cheers,

Christoph

-- 
Christoph Lange, http://www.facebook.com/ch.lange, Skype duke4701

Re: How to estimate effort by week?

[Bernt Hansen]

Christoph LANGE <ch.lange@jacobs-university.de> writes:

> Hi Bernt,
>
> thanks a lot for your advice.  Sorry, but it took some time until I
> found the time for trying it.  I think I understood how it works.
> Below I just have some minor questions.

Hi Christoph,

The delay is not a problem at all.

>
> 2011-11-19 16:32 Bernt Hansen:
>> Is this to help limit you to that time per week or for estimating?
>
> Indeed I was interested in limiting the time that I spend on some task.
>
>> For limiting you can set up something like this:
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> * STARTED Some task
>     ^^^^^^^
>
> OK, so this example uses another TOOD keyword, which I haven't had
> before.  I understand that your example also works without introducing
> a new state, but I'm not yet sure what TODO states I need to use this
> feature most efficiently.  See below for a more specific question
> about that.

Yes, I use STARTED as a todo keyword and it gets automatically set when
I clock in the task.  My setup details are at
http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html in case you want all the gory
details.

>
>> SCHEDULED:<2011-11-21 Mon +1w>
>> :LOGBOOK:
>> - State "DONE"       from "STARTED"    [2011-11-19 Sat 10:27]
>
> If I understand correctly, this mainly follows the habit tracking
> documented on the info page "Tracking your habits" – right?
>

No this isn't a habit because it doesn't have a STYLE property.  It's
just a regular repeating todo task.  A habit needs a repeater and a
STYLE property with a value of 'habit'.

>> CLOCK: [2011-11-19 Sat 10:25]--[2011-11-19 Sat 10:27] =>   0:02
>> CLOCK: [2011-11-19 Sat 09:28]--[2011-11-19 Sat 10:27] =>   0:59
>> :END:
>> :PROPERTIES:
>> :Effort: 1:00
>> :LAST_REPEAT: [2011-11-19 Sat 10:27]
>> :END:
>> Limit work to 60 minutes per week
>> Let it repeat for next week
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> where the task repeats at some interval (weekly since you want to work
>> up to 1 hour per week on this task).  When you clock in the task the
>> modeline shows your current clocked minutes on the task _since your last
>> repeat_.
>
> OK, that's basically what I wanted to achieve, and it's very nice that
> the clocked minutes are also shown in a warning face here when I
> exceed the limit.

It works for me :)

>
>> Set your Effort property to the limit you want for the task for the
>> interval and set your repeat to the size of your interval (1 hour per
>> week in this case)
>>
>> So when you reach the limit of 1 hour (in this case) you mark the task
>> DONE which stops the clock and rescheduled the task to the next repeat
>> date.
>
> More realistically I won't do that after one hour, but continue
> working on that task (with a guilty conscience), and then mark it DONE
> around the end of the week ;-)

I don't always stop when I go over either - but my clocked time is shown
with a bright red background I can't miss on the modeline and everytime
I clock in the task (ie capture something clocks in the capture task and
returns to this overrun task) my siren sound is played so it's very
obvious.

>
> OK, I see that marking such a task as DONE does not actually leave it
> in the DONE state but takes it back to the first TODO state.

When you mark a TODO task DONE (or CANCELLED or any other done-state
keyword it cycles back to TODO or to a specific state you specify in a
property REPEAT_TO_STATE)

> So far I had the TODO sequence "TODO DELEGATED | DONE CANCELLED" and
> tried to extend it to "TODO DELEGATED STARTED | DONE CANCELLED", but
> that would take my repeating task back to "TODO" instead of "STARTED"
> after marking it DONE.  I think a separate sequence of states would
> make more sense; maybe "STARTED | RESTARTED"?

If you want to force the state to STARTED then add a property like this
:PROPERTY:
:REPEAT_TO_STATE: STARTED
:END:

Regards,
Bernt