From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Brian Theado Subject: Re: A brief reference to org-mode in my presentation on Auto Focus Task Management System Date: Sun, 7 Jun 2009 23:17:58 -0400 Message-ID: <7c9a47b40906072017g687b801dk236384081d870231@mail.gmail.com> References: <4A2B1AF3.9050806@optusnet.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MDVN7-0003jK-1k for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:18:05 -0400 Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1MDVN2-0003j0-In for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:18:04 -0400 Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=45936 helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1MDVN2-0003ix-DO for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:18:00 -0400 Received: from mail-bw0-f212.google.com ([209.85.218.212]:50499) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1MDVN2-00029w-37 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:18:00 -0400 Received: by bwz8 with SMTP id 8so980476bwz.42 for ; Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:17:58 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4A2B1AF3.9050806@optusnet.com.au> List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Cc: Charles Cave On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Charles Cave wrote: [...] > http://www.slideshare.net/charles_in_oz/auto-focus-1543619 > > When I first learnt about this system I played around with using > org-mode to implement it, but found the pen and paper solutions > was best. I still use org-mode to capture tasks when I am at the > computer and want to capture URLs to explore and so on. Charles, thanks for sharing your autofocus presentation. This is the first I've heard of it and I found it interesting. In reading more about the technique, I found comments from several others also stating a preferece for using pen and paper. I played around today with autofocus using an outliner (not org-mode yet) and find I don't really have an urge to try a paper based system. I know being tethered to electronic devices is not always convenient, but for me the apparent benefits are attractive. I found it quite useful to be able to re-order the items so I could group the completed items together at the top of a given "page" and see the active items all together towards the bottom of the "page". Also, being able to use body text and sub-outline structure to capture notes related to the task item was invaluable. I implemented a "page" in the outliner by creating a headline labeled "page 1" and inserted 25 or so empty child headlines. I added tasks to the list just as described in your presentation. For completed items I record the date and change the font of the headline to strikethrough (not sure how I would do that in org-mode). I change the font of the page headline I'm currently processing to bold and I change the font of the item I'm currently processing to bold. Having worked just a single day, I haven't quite made it onto the second page yet. When I do reach the second page, it will just be a matter of inserting a "page 2" headline which is a sibling following the "page 1" headline and inserting 25 or so more empty child headlines. As I'm working on an item, I am free to add notes in the item's body and/or subtree. When it is time to pick another task to work on, visibility cycling can quickly make only the tasks for the current "page" visible. Was your org-mode implementation that you found inferior to pen and paper similar to this? Brian