GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

[Clément Mayet]

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Hi all, I've discovered emacs org-mode a few days ago, and I think I've
finally found the tool I've been looking for for monthes. I'm a PhD student
and I feel the need to organize my thoughts tasks and notes.
I would like to implement a GTD-like workflow in org-mode. I used to use
tiddlywiki ([mGSD]) and would like to find a similar workflow in orgmode.
I have several projects, in different areas (research, administrative,
etc.) for my work and my personal life. In each project, I would like to
have a project's description, some todos, and a history (logbook).
I've read this page [http://orgmode.org/worg/org-gtd-etc.html] and some of
the tutorials related to GTD. However I'm still having (at least) one
question. Given an action in a project, I would like to see the action's
project in the agenda view, and even better, to order actions by project
(or by context, then by project). Does somebody have any hints on how to do
that ?
Below is an export of the .org file I made for myself to determine how to
implement my worflow. This is inspired by different tutorials and posts
from this mailing list. There are still some open questions...  Again, any
hints are welcome !

Thanks !

Clement

[mGSD]: http://mgsd-docs.tiddlyspace.com/


1 Basic workflow :
-------------------
- catch everything in a scratch file
- every week, empty scratch file and organize process information, refile
TODOs, create projects, etc. Go through every active project and choose
next actions (change state from TODO to NEXT).
- DO things ! get a list of NEXT actions (using agenda view ?) in a given
context. Possibly filter actions according to realm (personal/work) and
area (administrative, research, etc.). Actions should also be ordered
according to their projects. It would be something like :
  - Context 1
    - project 1
      - list of actions
    - project 2
      - list of actions
  - Context 2

*I think the main difficulty is to get the project to which the action
belongs as it is only a heading above the action. My first question is :
should I use properties, tags , something else ?*

2 File organisation
--------------------
I will probably use different files for the different areas.

- *scratch.org* (for quicknotes,todos, ideas of projects, to be
organized/refiled later on during the weekly review)

- Work
  inbox.org: tasks without project or things to be refiled (maybe redundant
with the SCRATCH file?)
  research.org: some ongoing and or longterm projects
  bibliography: does not really contains projects but scientific notes
about the articles I read, with TODOs/NEXT for things to read, tags.. One
entry for each article. Maybe organised under some main entries. Project
will often have links to bibliogrpahy entries.
  development: code development
  administrative:

- Personal
  inbox.org: problem : same name as the work inbox (maybe use Pinbox and
Winbox)
  perso.org: no need for now to make areas for personal things

*Is there any way ( interest ?) to use subfolders to separate Work from
Personal things ?*

3 Project
----------

3.1 Project's contents :
=========================

3.1.1 project description
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Should I put it under another headline (description, outcome) or directly
under the project's headline ? Any thoughts about this ?*
Must be easily exported in html to a website giving an overview of my
current research work (PUBLIC) .

3.1.2 Action list:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Actions will not published or in restricted acces (RESTRICTED, this means
at least two levels of publication).
*Use property for that ?*
Each action has
* status :
  - TODO : an action
  - NEXT : a TODO set to NEXT during weekly review, directly actionable.
Record a time stamp to be able to identify next actions which stay too long
in this status
  - WAITING : not actionable right now. Record a time stamp and note to
explain what i am waiting for. I would also like to list actions that
should be done by the person X (my boss, a colleague, etc.) and export it
to html (then to a restricted acces webpage, or sent by email, or
whatever). *Should I use a tag with the name of the person, or a property
"WAITING_ON:" ?*
  - DONE : record a time stamp to be able to make a list of actions done
during last week / month and export it (RESTRICTED).
  - CANCELED
  this is done either with :
  1. "#+TODO: TODO(t) NEXT(n!) WAIT(w@/!) | DONE(d!) CANCELED(c@)" in each
file's header
  2. The following code in the .emacs
    (setq org-todo-keywords
         '((sequence "TODO(t)" "NEXT(n!)" "WAIT(w@/!)" "|" "DONE(d!)"
"CANCELED(c@)")))

* contexts (as few as possible)
  Use tags
  - :@office:
  - :@home:
  - :@errands:
  - :@offline:


3.1.3 Project's logbook
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Record of every step in the project, with time stamps, after project
description and list of actions. (Possibly published on website ?,
RESTRICTED/PUBLIC).

3.2 Area
=========
- is given by the file in which it is contained (i.e category)
- usefull to  easily filter tasks (if I just want to do administrative work
this morning, or read some bibliography...)


3.3 Tags
=========
general keywords, relative the project's content, for easy search / filter
(not really GTD related)


4 Agenda views (actions with their relative project)
-----------------------------------------------------
5 Could column view be of any help given what I would like to do ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
6 Use of templates
-------------------
7 Hooks for automatic export
-----------------------------

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Re: GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

[Bastien]

Hi Clément,

Clément Mayet <cmayet@gmail.com> writes:

> Given an action in a project, I would like to
> see the action's project in the agenda view, and even better, to
> order actions by project (or by context, then by project). Does
> somebody have any hints on how to do that ?

My top-level headlines are projects and they get a :CATEGORY: property.  

That way I can easily restrict agenda views to projects (C-c C-x < in
the project's headline) or filter agenda items through projects (i.e.
through category) by hitting `<' in the agenda view.

HTH,

-- 
 Bastien

Re: GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

[Clément Mayet]

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Thank you Bastien for your quick answer.
My understanding of the C-c C-x < command is that you restrict the agenda
view to one headline (i;e project in our case). How do you use the
:CATEGORY: property then ? Do you copy the project's name in that property
(or something shorter that makes you remember wich project it is) ?

Clément

2012/9/19 Bastien <bzg@altern.org>

> Hi Clément,
>
> Clément Mayet <cmayet@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Given an action in a project, I would like to
> > see the action's project in the agenda view, and even better, to
> > order actions by project (or by context, then by project). Does
> > somebody have any hints on how to do that ?
>
> My top-level headlines are projects and they get a :CATEGORY: property.
>
> That way I can easily restrict agenda views to projects (C-c C-x < in
> the project's headline) or filter agenda items through projects (i.e.
> through category) by hitting `<' in the agenda view.
>
> HTH,
>
> --
>  Bastien
>

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Re: GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

[Bastien]

Hi Clément,

Clément Mayet <cmayet@gmail.com> writes:

> Thank you Bastien for your quick answer.
> My understanding of the C-c C-x < command is that you restrict the
> agenda view to one headline (i;e project in our case). How do you use
> the :CATEGORY: property then ? Do you copy the project's name in that
> property (or something shorter that makes you remember wich project
> it is) ?

I use something short, but the top-level headlines are short too.

For example, this is my "Org-mode" project:

* Org-mode
  :PROPERTIES:
  :CATEGORY: Org
  :END:

** blabla
** blabla

-- 
 Bastien

Re: GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

[Clément Mayet]

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Thank you ! That could do the trick. However I planned to use categories
(in fact file names) for the different areas (Personnal, Work, Research,
Administrative). If I do as you suggest, I could probably use tags for
these areas instead of category...

Clément

2012/9/19 Bastien <bzg@altern.org>

> Hi Clément,
>
> Clément Mayet <cmayet@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Thank you Bastien for your quick answer.
> > My understanding of the C-c C-x < command is that you restrict the
> > agenda view to one headline (i;e project in our case). How do you use
> > the :CATEGORY: property then ? Do you copy the project's name in that
> > property (or something shorter that makes you remember wich project
> > it is) ?
>
> I use something short, but the top-level headlines are short too.
>
> For example, this is my "Org-mode" project:
>
> * Org-mode
>   :PROPERTIES:
>   :CATEGORY: Org
>   :END:
>
> ** blabla
> ** blabla
>
> --
>  Bastien
>

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Re: GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

[Bastien]

Clément Mayet <cmayet@gmail.com> writes:

> Thank you ! That could do the trick. However I planned to use
> categories (in fact file names) for the different areas (Personnal,
> Work, Research, Administrative). If I do as you suggest, I could
> probably use tags for these areas instead of category...

You're welcome.

FWIW, I use files for areas/contexts and tags for type of actions
(reading, writing, coding, buying, giving a phone call, etc.)

-- 
 Bastien

Re: GTD in org mode - in which project is this action ?

[Memnon Anon]

Clément Mayet <cmayet@gmail.com> writes:

> *I think the main difficulty is to get the project to which the action
> belongs as it is only a heading above the action. My first question is
> : should I use properties, tags , something else ?*

I use properties for projects.
Depending on your numbers of concurrent projects, you may want to
consider separate files for each project. (IMHO less elegant for a large
number of little projects, but nice for say up to ten).

> - *scratch.org* (for quicknotes,todos, ideas of projects, to be
> organized/refiled later on during the weekly review)

I'd add a '* Inbox' Headline at the end of the relevant files, i.e. 
perso.org, research.org etc. No separate scratch file, no w/pinbox.org.

> 3.1.1 project description 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> *Should I put it under another headline (description, outcome) or
> directly under the project's headline ? Any thoughts about this ?*

Both options seem viable.

> * contexts (as few as possible) 
> Use tags
> - :@office:
> - :@home:
> - :@errands:
> - :@offline:

Once, I had a tag NET for things I needed to do while online. 
I then figured out I was online almost everywhere I actually worked, so
I don't use it anymore.