The recurring task pattern

The recurring task pattern

[Ivan Nedrehagen]

Hi everyone, I have a pattern that repeats itself in org-mode and I am  
wondering if anyone have any solutions to it.

I have some tasks that must be done each week, it does not matter when I  
complete them, but they must be done before end of the week. And when the  
next week comes the task should be repeated.

Now I have an TODO item on it and I flip it back and forth from TODO to  
DONE, but it requires me to remember that I have completed the task, and  
requires me to put it back to TODO next week. This is not working very  
well.

What I would like:
At the beginning of each week the task sets itself to TODO.
When I complete it, it logs the state change (only for this state, I do  
not want state change logging on all).
A reminder that I did not complete it last week would be nice, but I  
expect that to be too much to ask for.

Does anyone use org-mode for anything like this?

Re: The recurring task pattern

[Chris Gray]

Ivan Nedrehagen wrote:

> Hi everyone, I have a pattern that repeats itself in org-mode and I am
> wondering if anyone have any solutions to it.

> I have some tasks that must be done each week, it does not matter when
> I complete them, but they must be done before end of the week. And
> when the  next week comes the task should be repeated.

> Now I have an TODO item on it and I flip it back and forth from TODO
> to DONE, but it requires me to remember that I have completed the
> task, and  requires me to put it back to TODO next week. This is not
> working very  well.

> What I would like:
> At the beginning of each week the task sets itself to TODO.
> When I complete it, it logs the state change (only for this state, I
> do not want state change logging on all).
> A reminder that I did not complete it last week would be nice, but I
> expect that to be too much to ask for.

You can add a deadline that repeats every week for the task.  

** TODO Do weekly task
   DEADLINE: <2009-06-03 Wed +1w> 

Cheers,
Chris

Re: The recurring task pattern

[Mikael Fornius]

And with :LOGGING: property set, notes will be prompted for when state
changes to DONE.

** TODO Do weekly task
   DEADLINE: <2009-08-12 Wed +1w>
   :PROPERTIES:
   :LOGGING:  DONE(@)
   :END: 

See: (info "(org) Tracking TODO state changes")

-- 
Mikael Fornius

Re: Re: The recurring task pattern

[Ivan Nedrehagen]

På Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:57:47 +0200, skrev Chris Gray
<chrismgray@gmail.com>:

> Ivan Nedrehagen wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone, I have a pattern that repeats itself in org-mode and I am
>> wondering if anyone have any solutions to it.
>
>> I have some tasks that must be done each week, it does not matter when
>> I complete them, but they must be done before end of the week. And
>> when the  next week comes the task should be repeated.
>
>> Now I have an TODO item on it and I flip it back and forth from TODO
>> to DONE, but it requires me to remember that I have completed the
>> task, and  requires me to put it back to TODO next week. This is not
>> working very  well.
>
>> What I would like:
>> At the beginning of each week the task sets itself to TODO.
>> When I complete it, it logs the state change (only for this state, I
>> do not want state change logging on all).
>> A reminder that I did not complete it last week would be nice, but I
>> expect that to be too much to ask for.
>
> You can add a deadline that repeats every week for the task.
>
> ** TODO Do weekly task
>    DEADLINE: <2009-06-03 Wed +1w>
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
>
>

Yes this does almost do the trick, but with one annoying feature.
It changes the state back to TODO immediatly after it is done so
it still shows up in my agenda as a TODO item. So it looks for me like
I never have done my repeating items, and I have to check the date to
be sure.

But it is perhaps difficult to make it change state later on?

It could be fixed with a more advanced custom agenda command i guess.

Re: The recurring task pattern

[Matthew Lundin]

Ivan Nedrehagen <ivannedr@broadpark.no> writes:

> På Wed, 03 Jun 2009 10:57:47 +0200, skrev Chris Gray
> <chrismgray@gmail.com>:
>
>> You can add a deadline that repeats every week for the task.
>>
>> ** TODO Do weekly task
>>    DEADLINE: <2009-06-03 Wed +1w>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Chris
>
> Yes this does almost do the trick, but with one annoying feature.
> It changes the state back to TODO immediatly after it is done so
> it still shows up in my agenda as a TODO item. So it looks for me like
> I never have done my repeating items, and I have to check the date to
> be sure.

Which TODO list are you referring to?

   1) The todos on your scheduled agenda (C-c a a)?

   2) The list of all your todos (C-c a t)?

If #1, then you can change the amount of lead time for the agenda with
the following:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
 ** TODO Do weekly task
    DEADLINE: <2009-06-03 Wed +1w -3d>
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

This will cause the todo item to show up on your agenda no sooner than
three days before it is due.

If #2, you might want to check the following variables:

org-agenda-todo-ignore-deadlines
org-agenda-todo-ignore-with-date

These will keep items with deadlines out of your general TODO list. You
can set these globally or use them as local variables in custom agenda
commands.

Regards, 

Matt