From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Matt Price Subject: GTD: Tags or Custom TODO states? Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:51:30 -0400 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Return-path: Received: from [140.186.70.92] (port=40704 helo=eggs.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1OPkPR-0000EQ-Aa for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:51:38 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OPkPM-0007VQ-Vd for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:51:37 -0400 Received: from mail-iw0-f169.google.com ([209.85.214.169]:37104) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1OPkPM-0007V6-Rh for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:51:32 -0400 Received: by iwn35 with SMTP id 35so1983601iwn.0 for ; Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:51:31 -0700 (PDT) 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 Hi Everyone, So, I'm going to try to implement David Allen's Getting Things Done using org-mode, as so many other people have done already. I'd like to set things up more or less right the first time, but since GTD is brand-new to me (just finished the book today!) and I'm still only barely competent at org-mode, I'm a little anxious about the choices I need to make. I think I understand some of the steps I have to take now, but would love some advice from all the GTD'ers out there. So here goes: GTD is a 5-step process: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, Do. I have all my GTD stuff in Dropbox, under ~/Dropbox/GTD, so there won't be any syncing problems across computers (don't have a smartphone yet, so that's not an issue). That directory currently contains: Collect.org this is where stuff gets collected before any processing takes place -- it's especially for things I think of or that get thrown at me when I'm in a rush, or for 'mindsweeps'; essentially, it's a kind of Inbox (I have an email inbox, too, with wanderlust as my mail client -- but i'm not going to get into that now). The items in this file do not have TODO states because I haven't figured out how to manage them yet. Every morning, or thereabouts, I'm supposed to check Collect.org and quickly process each item. Either it gets done right away, thrown out, or assigned a category & refiled in one of the other GTD files... Reference.org Stolen from http://www.jboecker.de/2010/04/14/general-reference-filing-with-org-mode.html, this is the one file that contains all my reference material. Again, nothing in here is a TODO, and this file is not in the agenda-files alist. GTD.org this is the main storage place for actionable items, and items that are waiting for a response, so it is listed in the agenda-files alist. My plan is to use custom agenda views to quickly access all actions i need to take and all items i'm waiting for. Everything should be tagged with at least a CONTEXT tag (calls, emails, office, home, errands, etc) and in most cases probably another tag that relates in some ways to content -- so e.g. a person's name could be used as a tag to build what Allen calls "agendas" for the next meeting you have with that person. limiting on tags should make that pretty straightforward. Everything should also have a TODO state associated with it; right now I'm thinking something like this: TODO WAITING |DONE but maybe there should be others. (i do want to keep things as simple as possible, though) Projects.org This file lists my projects and outlines the sub-projects associated with them. Most of these are not _really_ todos -- but each project does need to have a "next action" associated with it, and this *is* a real TODO item. Here's where I can't decide which way to go: Add this file to the agenda-files alist, and create two sets of TODO states: PROJECT | DONE and TODO WAITING | DONE and then create custom views for reviewing projects (during the Weekly Review, or maybe more often) and for viewing next actions along with the TODOS from GTD.org; or Just tag the projects headlines with :Project:, and only mark TODO's when there's a next action defined. This is simpler but it makes it a little harder to track projects using the Agenda view. ; or just move the TODO items to GTD.org where they in some sense belong. that seems a little labour intensive though. the main work that I would have to do to set this up is to craete appropriate remember templates and maybe some custom refiling commands. Those don't seem that hard to do. Anyway, I would love to hear whatever advice people have -- I've read around a bit in the archives and mosto f the links from the worg GTD page, but I still have plenty to learn. Thanks much, matt