Traking estimated time for TODO items

Traking estimated time for TODO items

[Andreas Hilboll]

Dear org experts,

I have a bunch of TODOs which represent tasks that I'd like to do some
time.  When I end up having a certain amount of spare time, I'd like to
be able to get a list of all of these "someday" tasks which would fit
into the available time frame.  I.e., when I know I have about 30mins,
I'd like to see only those "someday" tasks which are estimated to be
shorter than 30 mins.

I'd like to see how people are dealing with this sort of thing.  One
easy possibility would be to have tags "1hr", "2hrs", "0hrs", etc.

I appreciate any ideas =)

Cheers,
  Andreas.

Re: Traking estimated time for TODO items

[Sebastien Vauban]

Dear Andreas,

Andreas Hilboll wrote:
> I have a bunch of TODOs which represent tasks that I'd like to do some
> time.  When I end up having a certain amount of spare time, I'd like
> to be able to get a list of all of these "someday" tasks which would
> fit into the available time frame.  I.e., when I know I have about
> 30mins, I'd like to see only those "someday" tasks which are estimated
> to be shorter than 30 mins.
>
> I'd like to see how people are dealing with this sort of thing.  One
> easy possibility would be to have tags "1hr", "2hrs", "0hrs", etc.
>
> I appreciate any ideas =)

The right way to do such is by using the property "Effort" (available
through pressing `C-c C-x e'). Type in there your time estimate.

That will even be used when clocking to show you whether you still have
time to finish your task, or if you're already above your estimate.

For searching for tasks to do, you can then have such an agenda view:

  (tags-todo "Effort<>{}+Effort<\"0:30\"")

PS- IMO, there are still problems about the syntax of that property:
HH:MM format, or days of 8 hours, or days of 24 hours, etc.  See
http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/84360 for more info about
it. But, if you stick to one common format, it should make it.

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sebastien Vauban

Re: Traking estimated time for TODO items

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Andreas Hilboll <lists@hilboll.de> writes:

> Dear org experts,
>
> I have a bunch of TODOs which represent tasks that I'd like to do some
> time.  When I end up having a certain amount of spare time, I'd like to
> be able to get a list of all of these "someday" tasks which would fit
> into the available time frame.  I.e., when I know I have about 30mins,
> I'd like to see only those "someday" tasks which are estimated to be
> shorter than 30 mins.
>
> I'd like to see how people are dealing with this sort of thing.  One
> easy possibility would be to have tags "1hr", "2hrs", "0hrs", etc.
>
> I appreciate any ideas =)
>
> Cheers,
>   Andreas.

I don't use the EFFORT property, but I think it's exactly what you want.
See the (org) Effort estimates section of the manual.

Eric