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* GTD: Tags or Custom TODO states?
@ 2010-06-18 22:51 Matt Price
  2010-06-20 15:58 ` Bernt Hansen
  2010-06-23 16:28 ` Jonathan Arkell
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 7+ messages in thread
From: Matt Price @ 2010-06-18 22:51 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: emacs-orgmode

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

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 7+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2010-06-30 10:39 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 7+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2010-06-18 22:51 GTD: Tags or Custom TODO states? Matt Price
2010-06-20 15:58 ` Bernt Hansen
     [not found]   ` <AANLkTin50G_xgMtDpwcNQuD1vcCNeIJ2MRiVIlbUyO8t@mail.gmail.com>
2010-06-21  1:37     ` Matt Price
2010-06-23 16:28 ` Jonathan Arkell
2010-06-23 17:21   ` Carsten Dominik
2010-06-23 17:33     ` Markus Heller
2010-06-30 10:38   ` Noorul Islam K M

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