From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: David Rogers Subject: Re: Suggestions for progress tracking Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:39:37 -0800 Message-ID: <87sj8jcjie.fsf@gmail.com> References: <87sj8l7bta.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:43302) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TWjBl-0003V4-ED for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:39:42 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TWjBk-0001Wa-8m for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:39:41 -0500 Received: from mail-pb0-f41.google.com ([209.85.160.41]:38171) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TWjBj-0001WO-Uz for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:39:40 -0500 Received: by mail-pb0-f41.google.com with SMTP id rq2so2795496pbb.0 for ; Thu, 08 Nov 2012 23:39:39 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <87sj8l7bta.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> (Eric Abrahamsen's message of "Wed, 07 Nov 2012 22:00:17 +0800") List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: Eric Abrahamsen Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Eric Abrahamsen writes: > I'm starting another novel translation, and want to keep track of > progress in org (I've blown too many deadlines in the past). I've been > looking at the habits functionality, but it doesn't quite match what I > want, and I'm looking for a little advice here. I'd like to: > > 1. Set myself a minimum of pages translated per day, on weekdays. > 2. Record how many pages I do each day. > 3. View some habit-style report of how I'm doing relative to my goal. > 4. Project when I will be done with the novel at the current rate of > progress. > > Obviously I'll be writing some custom elisp to get all of this > functionality, but I'm looking for some advice on the best way to build > the basics. Habits are currently based on either/or values: "done" or > "not done", which doesn't incorporate enough detail. Properties seem > like the best way to keep track of number of pages translated per day, > but that means having a separate TODO heading for each day of work. > State logging could do it, but there are no pre-fab ways of extracting > data out of the log itself. > > It seems like there are so many good tools here: the history reporting > of habits, or the progress cookies you can put in headlines, etc. But > they're all tied to headlines or list items being in an on or off state: > TODO/DONE, checked/unchecked. I think the key for making this work with Org is choosing a unit of work (ten pages, a hundred pages, one page, one chapter, whatever) as your standard, thus allowing you to use the on/off nature of the list items to your advantage. Org also gives flexibility about the time-frames you're working within, so use that too if necessary. In my life, at least, habits really are "did I do it or not", not "how much did I do" - so Org's interpretation of the concept seems reasonable to me. Basically, for a rough example, every ten pages might become one TODO sub-task, waiting to get checked off, under the heading of this novel. If you set yourself a standard that was too pessimistic or too optimistic, you'd have to change the TODOs later, either by changing your chunk sizes or by changing your time frames. (e.g. if a hundred pages a day turns out to be far too much, you have the option of adjusting the number of pages, the number of days, or both.) Maybe your original method, tallying pages per day after the fact, could be used for the first few days, to arrive at some reasonable numbers to plug into the habits. -- David