handling cyclic tasks (general question)

handling cyclic tasks (general question)

[Stuart McLean]

Hi,

Following is an example of the setup I currently have. What I am
interested in is how other members of the group might more elegantly
(or just differently) handle something similar.

* 2007
** January
...
** October
** November

each date has the following within it, example:

** November
** 2007-11-01
*** Todo
    :PROPERTIES:
    :CATEGORY: todo
    :END:
**** TODO something
**** TODO something else
*** Work
    :PROPERTIES:
    :CATEGORY: work
    :END:
**** Work I did <2007-11-01 Thu 08:00>--<2007-11-01 Thu 16:00>
     1. work A
     2. work B 
     3. etc
*** Exercise
    :PROPERTIES:
    :CATEGORY: exercise
    :END:
**** exercise that I did


Now, at the end of each month, e.g 2007-11-30, I have a heading on the
same level called Cyclic Todo. These contain things that I need to do
everyday, and need to remember to do everyday. I end each with a
closing note when I do them. The thing is some of the details that I
wish to record in the closing note are long and would clutter up the
heading, so I add a hyperlink back to the date (e.g 2007-11-01) and
record the info there under the proper category (usually Exercise, but
you can generalize from there, it could be applied to something else.)

What I would like to know, are there more elegant solutions for accomplishing this? Is anyone willing to share their particular setup, or examples of variations. I find my current setup a little cumbersome.

Thanks, and sorry for the long post.

Stuart

Re: handling cyclic tasks (general question)

[Bastien]

Hi Stuart,

Stuart McLean <makhector@gmail.com> writes:

> Following is an example of the setup I currently have. 

Your setup might be difficult to maintain because of its chronological
structure.  I don't know if other people use Org this way or have used
it this way, but I think it could be hard to maintain... usually your
Org files will be project-oriented (or task-oriented) and you will use
the agenda and timeline functions to display information time-wise.

But maybe I'm wrong here, or you may specifically need this structure.

> Now, at the end of each month, e.g 2007-11-30, I have a heading on the
> same level called Cyclic Todo. These contain things that I need to do
> everyday, and need to remember to do everyday. I end each with a
> closing note when I do them.

> What I would like to know, are there more elegant solutions for
> accomplishing this? 

Usually, closed entries get archived at some point.  The general issue
you're raising here is: how to archive closed instances of cyclic tasks?

Here is how I do it: 

- I close the cyclic task
- I add a note if needed
- I archive the task with C-c C-x C-s
- I copy the task back at point with C-y

Then, instead of having the same task with loooongs notes under its
headline, I have several archived instances of the task with a note
for each of them.

I'm quite okay with the workaround above, but it has two drawbacks:

- it's safer to C-y immediately (otherwise you'll struggly to find the
  right thing to yank)

- each archived task has the same headline (which might be confusing
  when reviewing (?) your archives

I don't know if other people already came across the same need and other
workarounds.  

> Is anyone willing to share their particular setup, or examples of
> variations. I find my current setup a little cumbersome.

Argh... we definitely need to demonstrate different setups in the
tutorial section of http://orgmode.org :-/

-- 
Bastien

Re: handling cyclic tasks (general question)

[Stuart McLean]

Thanks again for your speedy response. I have to do a bit of thinking
as to why I use the setup I do, I somehow just evolved as "the Right
Thing". I'll experiment with archiving the cyclic tasks, sounds like a
great idea. I'm not very very new to org-mode, but it has grown on me
so much that I try to do more and more of my organizational stuff with
it, and I am having a little trouble getting it to do exactly what I
want (or, more likely, I don't know exactly what I want ;-) ).

Thanks again, 

Stuart

ps Bastien, in your signature you say "Remember: use `Reply All' to
send replies to the list."

I use Gnus 5.11. Is a Wide Reply, the same as Reply All?

Sorry for the naive question, I love using Gnus, but what you can do
with it is, well, a _lot_.

Re: handling cyclic tasks (general question)

[Bastien]

Hi Stuart,

Stuart McLean <makhector@gmail.com> writes:

> (or, more likely, I don't know exactly what I want ;-) ).

Er, at least now you *know* that :)

> ps Bastien, in your signature you say "Remember: use `Reply All' to
> send replies to the list."

This is appended to my signature by the mailing list bot (mailman).

> I use Gnus 5.11. Is a Wide Reply, the same as Reply All?  

AFAIK, yes.  "Reply All" is a most common labelling across mail user
agents, but the result should be the same.  I guess the warning in the
sig is because a simple "Reply To" will only reply to the sender (as it
should be, even if some mailing list don't respect this convention...)

> Sorry for the naive question, I love using Gnus, but what you can do
> with it is, well, a _lot_.

A _lot_ is not enough to say!

-- 
Bastien