How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Marcelo de Moraes Serpa]

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Hello list,

This is a thread to share your org dir (you have one right) file structure.
The title is because I see many of org users prefer having big monolithic
files, and I have a slightly different line of thought.

Well, I'm a GTD proponent. GTD, excluding the hype behind it, is pretty
simple. If you take into account only the "mastering workflow" (low level
next actions), then it's just a matter of capturing, procesing, organizing,
reviewing and doing. The Weekly review is also a very important component.

So I have:

* org/
** gtd/
*** GTD.org - main projects and next actions lists
*** GTDInbox.org - unprocessed captured stuff
*** GTDHorizonsOfFocus.org - horizons of focus, goals and visions
*** GTDSomedayMaybe.org - projects an actions I'd like to do someday (big)
*** ReferenceNotes.org - quick notes that I'd like to keep as reference
*** BlogPostIdeas.org - Ideas for blogposts and pseudo-projects for blog
posts write-ups and drafts)
*** CodingExperiments.org - List of open source projects and other
sandbox-like stuff I'm acting or would like to act on
** wiki/
*** Lots of files. Mostly stuff I update regularly. Also considered
reference.
** diary/
*** Lots of files. One for each day I write on my journal. All have .org
extension too, of course.
** attachments/ - any binary attachments. That I'd like to keep.

The only file in the agenda list is GTD.org. This is the "front-end" of the
system. I know many of you will tell me I'm not using agenda the way it's
supposed to be used, and probably I'm not. I'm willing to learn more
efficient ways though; what I could probably do is setup more agenda filters
and tag wisely, but my knowledge of elisp and org's internals don't allow me
to do that yet.

I have a pretty simple trick though. I have a custom rgrep function that
searches across all these files. So, except the gtd stuff, mainly the
GTD.org (which should have only actionable tasks and respective projects),
all the rest is a big network of information, really -- I keep inputting
information (in the form of a entry on ReferenceNotes.org or a new wiki
"page") and try to tag (just by creating a * tag headline item and tagging
each file in the case of a wiki "page" or just tagging the item on
ReferenceNotes.org) properly, then forget about it.

I'd say I don't put other files on the agenda in order not to pollute the
"front-end". You see, I wouldn't like to see Inbox items (from GTDInbox.org)
on the agenda for example, as they are not actionable. If I want to see
them, I just open the file (and I have a shortcut for that, C-x r j i (a
register)), but in the case of GTD.org, the agenda really makes the
difference, because I have items tagged as context (@home, @call), projects,
categories, etc, as well as my calendar.

The big question here is: Why not using only one file (Maybe stick to only
ReferenceNotes.org) ? Well, to be honest, it still seems awkward for me. For
quick reference data (like I used to use tomboy for) the ReferenceNotes.org
feels great -- I'm it as a big file for "static" reference data, data that
doesn't change often or doesn't evolve (which I'm going to improve by
implementing Jan's system, thanks for the post, Jan!) and also one for GTD
(GTD.org), but the rest is spread around many files. I know org can manage a
big blog of text in a way multiple files wouldn't be needed (you can narrow,
etc), but I still think that keeping the diary and the wiki in mutiple files
is a batter approach. Also, swithing files and searching for files in emacs
is very fast, and I'm still not that fast on org commands ;)

On top of this, I've installed howm-mode, and it's quite neat. If you are
writing on a file and then type something like:

wiki/myarticle.org
 << MyArticle

On any other subsequent file you edit, it will highlight that very word and
allow you to follow the link to the file. Nice to keep a wiki ontop of org,
like this:

wiki/anotherfile.org

*MyArticle* <-- gets underlined and allows you to follow the link

As for the wiki -- I don't want a wiki to be published, i.e: online. Back on
my Windows days (long time ago :)) I used to use wikidpad for reference data
and it worked very well. What I have here is an attempt of getting near the
functionality of wikidpad (a real-time wiki for the desktop).

Again, I probably could simplify this a lot, and I'm open to suggestions ;)

Marcelo.

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Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[tycho garen]

On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 12:41:19AM -0500, Marcelo de Moraes Serpa wrote:
> This is a thread to share your org dir (you have one right) file structure.
> The title is because I see many of org users prefer having big monolithic
> files, and I have a slightly different line of thought.

I've blogged about this before, as I think our "systems" change a
bit as we use them and tweak slowly. I'm not a GTD user in the formal
sense, though I think I've learned a lot from the whole GTD "thing."
My setup is as follows: 

- "codex.org" - General file, global inbox, and day to day chores, and
  other notes. Many org-remember templates file here and are later
  cleaned up to other files

- five .org files for fiction projects in various state of
  incompleation.  These include outlines, project management and task
  setting, and other assorted notes. Think Outline++

- data.org, clippings.org, annotations.org, and links.org. These are
  all fed from org-remember and mostly don't have internal
  hierarchy. I think of these files as a database, and I often dump
  the text of articles that I'm interested in reading and reflecting
  on in the long term with citation information so I can be sure that
  I'll have access to them long term. I've written about this on my
  blog as "fact files."

- events.org - schedules and big things that I'm doing. Mostly minimal
  and the way that I make sure that my agenda view can tell me that
  I'm going out of town for something or other. 

- I have org-files for managing website/writing projects, for
  tychoish.com and cyborginstitute.com. These tend to be more
  notes+tasks centered than the other finite project based files for
  fiction things, as these are enduring projects with shorter
  narratives, as it were

- I have technology.org and fiction.org which I must confess I haven't
  really touched in months, but theoretically there for tech-related
  todos (hack emacs to do something new, add a keybinding here) and
  smaller fiction related tasks that don't fit into the bigger
  projects (short stories, new projects that I don't know if I want to
  commit to etc.) 

- I have research.org and employment.org which are both career
  related, and I haven't touched very much in the last year or
  so. Alas. 

- I have an employer specific org file for my current company, which
  allows me to separate out my work tasks into it's own silo without
  affect other tasks, while still being a part of my larger org
  system. 
 
Everything is in one directory which is git controlled. Everything is
agenda-ized. I often just work in org files making outlines and doing
my planning there, but often actionable items come in via
org-remember. I toggle between the "org-todo-list" agenda view and the
org-agenda-list, and use the -todo-list to get a big picture of
everything I'm working on and to create deadlines and schedule tasks,
and then use -agenda-list to work from. Relevant sections of my
config:

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c o a l") 'org-agenda-list)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c o a t") 'org-todo-list)

(setq org-agenda-include-all-todo nil)
(setq org-agenda-skip-scheduled-if-done t)
(setq org-agenda-skip-deadline-if-done t)
(setq org-agenda-include-diary t)
(setq org-agenda-columns-add-appointments-to-effort-sum t)
(setq org-agenda-start-on-weekday nil)
(setq org-agenda-default-appointment-duration 60)
(setq org-agenda-mouse-1-follows-link t)
(setq org-agenda-skip-unavailable-files t)
(setq org-agenda-use-time-grid nil)
(setq org-agenda-todo-ignore-deadlines t)
(setq org-agenda-todo-ignore-scheduled t)

I hope this helps....

Cheers,
sam

-- 
tycho(ish) @
garen@tychoish.com
http://www.tychoish.com/
http://www.cyborginstitute.com/
"don't get it right, get it written" -- james thurber

Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Matt Lundin]

Hi Marcelo,

Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> writes:

> This is a thread to share your org dir (you have one right) file
> structure. The title is because I see many of org users prefer having
> big monolithic files, and I have a slightly different line of thought.

I have a handful of central files: e.g, inbox.org, reading.org,
computer.org, writing.org, and so on. I've found, however, that on my
relatively modest machines org/outline buffers slow down at appr.
12,000+ lines and become more or less unnavigable at appr. 30,000+ lines
(especially if they have a deeply nested structure). Whenever a file
gets too large, I simply create new files for sub-projects and
sub-topics (e.g., perl.org, emacs.org, etc.) and link to them from the
main file (e.g., computer.org). I also do a lot of archiving.

FWIW, I've found it quite convenient to rely on filetags to organize my
notes. I've written a few functions that allow me to limit my agenda to
a subset of agenda files that share a filetag (e.g., "emacs" or
"writing"). This is a bit quicker than calling agenda commands on all
agenda files and then filtering afterward. It also allows for greater
focus on a particular area of work.

Here are the functions:

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#set-agenda-files-by-filetag

Best,
Matt

Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Carsten Dominik]

On Apr 17, 2010, at 3:50 PM, Matt Lundin wrote:

> Hi Marcelo,
>
> Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> This is a thread to share your org dir (you have one right) file
>> structure. The title is because I see many of org users prefer having
>> big monolithic files, and I have a slightly different line of  
>> thought.
>
> I have a handful of central files: e.g, inbox.org, reading.org,
> computer.org, writing.org, and so on. I've found, however, that on my
> relatively modest machines org/outline buffers slow down at appr.
> 12,000+ lines and become more or less unnavigable at appr. 30,000+  
> lines
> (especially if they have a deeply nested structure). Whenever a file
> gets too large, I simply create new files for sub-projects and
> sub-topics (e.g., perl.org, emacs.org, etc.) and link to them from the
> main file (e.g., computer.org). I also do a lot of archiving.
>
> FWIW, I've found it quite convenient to rely on filetags to organize  
> my
> notes. I've written a few functions that allow me to limit my agenda  
> to
> a subset of agenda files that share a filetag (e.g., "emacs" or
> "writing"). This is a bit quicker than calling agenda commands on all
> agenda files and then filtering afterward. It also allows for greater
> focus on a particular area of work.
>
> Here are the functions:
>
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#set-agenda-files-by-filetag


Hi Matt,

this is very interesting!

One idea:  Instead of setting the value of org-agenda-files,
you can also restrict in the following way:

(org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)
(put 'org-agenda-files 'org-restrict my-file-list)
(setq org-agenda-overriding-restriction 'files)

The restriction sticks until you remove it with `C-c C_x >'

I am not sure this will work better for your case - but maybe it will.

- Carsten

Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Marcelo de Moraes Serpa]

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Thank you for the replies ;)

One thing that I miss, is a way to make org-todo-list where each todo item
would, somehow, show its parent until the topmost (or with configurable
levels). Is it possible somehow? It would make it more easier to keep
projects in only one file (GTD.org for example). I can use follow mode, but
this would be nice.

Thanks,

Marcelo.

On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 3:54 PM, Carsten Dominik
<carsten.dominik@gmail.com>wrote:

>
> On Apr 17, 2010, at 3:50 PM, Matt Lundin wrote:
>
>  Hi Marcelo,
>>
>> Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>  This is a thread to share your org dir (you have one right) file
>>> structure. The title is because I see many of org users prefer having
>>> big monolithic files, and I have a slightly different line of thought.
>>>
>>
>> I have a handful of central files: e.g, inbox.org, reading.org,
>> computer.org, writing.org, and so on. I've found, however, that on my
>> relatively modest machines org/outline buffers slow down at appr.
>> 12,000+ lines and become more or less unnavigable at appr. 30,000+ lines
>> (especially if they have a deeply nested structure). Whenever a file
>> gets too large, I simply create new files for sub-projects and
>> sub-topics (e.g., perl.org, emacs.org, etc.) and link to them from the
>> main file (e.g., computer.org). I also do a lot of archiving.
>>
>> FWIW, I've found it quite convenient to rely on filetags to organize my
>> notes. I've written a few functions that allow me to limit my agenda to
>> a subset of agenda files that share a filetag (e.g., "emacs" or
>> "writing"). This is a bit quicker than calling agenda commands on all
>> agenda files and then filtering afterward. It also allows for greater
>> focus on a particular area of work.
>>
>> Here are the functions:
>>
>> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#set-agenda-files-by-filetag
>>
>
>
> Hi Matt,
>
> this is very interesting!
>
> One idea:  Instead of setting the value of org-agenda-files,
> you can also restrict in the following way:
>
> (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)
> (put 'org-agenda-files 'org-restrict my-file-list)
> (setq org-agenda-overriding-restriction 'files)
>
> The restriction sticks until you remove it with `C-c C_x >'
>
> I am not sure this will work better for your case - but maybe it will.
>
> - Carsten
>
>

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Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Marcelo de Moraes Serpa]

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Actually, what I want is to show the path to the item, it arealdy does it
when I have the item on focus, but maybe an option to display it on the todo
list would be nice :)

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 1:35 AM, Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <
celoserpa@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for the replies ;)
>
> One thing that I miss, is a way to make org-todo-list where each todo item
> would, somehow, show its parent until the topmost (or with configurable
> levels). Is it possible somehow? It would make it more easier to keep
> projects in only one file (GTD.org for example). I can use follow mode, but
> this would be nice.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Marcelo.
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 3:54 PM, Carsten Dominik <
> carsten.dominik@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Apr 17, 2010, at 3:50 PM, Matt Lundin wrote:
>>
>>  Hi Marcelo,
>>>
>>> Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>  This is a thread to share your org dir (you have one right) file
>>>> structure. The title is because I see many of org users prefer having
>>>> big monolithic files, and I have a slightly different line of thought.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I have a handful of central files: e.g, inbox.org, reading.org,
>>> computer.org, writing.org, and so on. I've found, however, that on my
>>> relatively modest machines org/outline buffers slow down at appr.
>>> 12,000+ lines and become more or less unnavigable at appr. 30,000+ lines
>>> (especially if they have a deeply nested structure). Whenever a file
>>> gets too large, I simply create new files for sub-projects and
>>> sub-topics (e.g., perl.org, emacs.org, etc.) and link to them from the
>>> main file (e.g., computer.org). I also do a lot of archiving.
>>>
>>> FWIW, I've found it quite convenient to rely on filetags to organize my
>>> notes. I've written a few functions that allow me to limit my agenda to
>>> a subset of agenda files that share a filetag (e.g., "emacs" or
>>> "writing"). This is a bit quicker than calling agenda commands on all
>>> agenda files and then filtering afterward. It also allows for greater
>>> focus on a particular area of work.
>>>
>>> Here are the functions:
>>>
>>> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#set-agenda-files-by-filetag
>>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Matt,
>>
>> this is very interesting!
>>
>> One idea:  Instead of setting the value of org-agenda-files,
>> you can also restrict in the following way:
>>
>> (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)
>> (put 'org-agenda-files 'org-restrict my-file-list)
>> (setq org-agenda-overriding-restriction 'files)
>>
>> The restriction sticks until you remove it with `C-c C_x >'
>>
>> I am not sure this will work better for your case - but maybe it will.
>>
>> - Carsten
>>
>>
>

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Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Matthew Lundin]

Hi Carsten,

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> writes:

> On Apr 17, 2010, at 3:50 PM, Matt Lundin wrote:
>
>> FWIW, I've found it quite convenient to rely on filetags to organize
>> my notes. I've written a few functions that allow me to limit my
>> agenda to a subset of agenda files that share a filetag (e.g.,
>> "emacs" or "writing"). This is a bit quicker than calling agenda
>> commands on all agenda files and then filtering afterward. It also
>> allows for greater focus on a particular area of work. Here are the
>> functions:
>> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#set-agenda-files-by-filetag > >
> Hi Matt,
>
> this is very interesting!
>
> One idea:  Instead of setting the value of org-agenda-files,
> you can also restrict in the following way:
>
> (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)
> (put 'org-agenda-files 'org-restrict my-file-list)
> (setq org-agenda-overriding-restriction 'files)
>
> The restriction sticks until you remove it with `C-c C_x >'
>
> I am not sure this will work better for your case - but maybe it will.

Thanks for the tip! That's much more elegant.

I find that (org-agenda-restriction-lock) makes subsequent calls to
my-org-agenda-files-by-filetag slow, since it refreshes the current
agenda.

Are there any potential pitfalls if I use (setq org-agenda-restrict nil)
instead? 

Thanks,
Matt

Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Carsten Dominik]

On Apr 19, 2010, at 5:07 PM, Matthew Lundin wrote:

> Hi Carsten,
>
> Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Apr 17, 2010, at 3:50 PM, Matt Lundin wrote:
>>
>>> FWIW, I've found it quite convenient to rely on filetags to organize
>>> my notes. I've written a few functions that allow me to limit my
>>> agenda to a subset of agenda files that share a filetag (e.g.,
>>> "emacs" or "writing"). This is a bit quicker than calling agenda
>>> commands on all agenda files and then filtering afterward. It also
>>> allows for greater focus on a particular area of work. Here are the
>>> functions:
>>> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#set-agenda-files-by-filetag  
>>> > >
>> Hi Matt,
>>
>> this is very interesting!
>>
>> One idea:  Instead of setting the value of org-agenda-files,
>> you can also restrict in the following way:
>>
>> (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock)
>> (put 'org-agenda-files 'org-restrict my-file-list)
>> (setq org-agenda-overriding-restriction 'files)
>>
>> The restriction sticks until you remove it with `C-c C_x >'
>>
>> I am not sure this will work better for your case - but maybe it  
>> will.
>
> Thanks for the tip! That's much more elegant.
>
> I find that (org-agenda-restriction-lock) makes subsequent calls to
> my-org-agenda-files-by-filetag slow, since it refreshes the current
> agenda.
>
>
> Are there any potential pitfalls if I use (setq org-agenda-restrict  
> nil)
> instead?


I think you might mean org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock?

That function does some cleanup which I think you should keep,
so maybe just call it like this:

(org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock 'noupdate)

Otherwise, while you are inside your system, (setq org-agenda-restrict  
nil)
is enough - only when you mix the normal subtree/file restriction with
you system, you may get funny effects.

- Carsten

Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Matthew Lundin]

Carsten Dominik <carsten.dominik@gmail.com> writes:

> On Apr 19, 2010, at 5:07 PM, Matthew Lundin wrote:
>
>> I find that (org-agenda-restriction-lock) makes subsequent calls to
>> my-org-agenda-files-by-filetag slow, since it refreshes the current
>> agenda.
>>
>>
>> Are there any potential pitfalls if I use (setq org-agenda-restrict
>> nil)
>> instead?
>
> I think you might mean org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock?

Yes, sorry for the typo.

> That function does some cleanup which I think you should keep,
> so maybe just call it like this:
>
> (org-agenda-remove-restriction-lock 'noupdate)

Thanks! This was exactly what I was looking for.

> Otherwise, while you are inside your system, (setq org-agenda-restrict
> nil) is enough - only when you mix the normal subtree/file restriction
> with you system, you may get funny effects.

I've put updated versions of the functions on Worg:

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-hacks.php#set-agenda-files-by-filetag

Best,
Matt

Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Flavio Souza]

Hi everybody!

I use these files:

org2010.org:

- This is the file where I insert all my tasks and projects.
- It is divided by these topics:

* GTD Inbox
* Work
* Personal
* Agenda
** Appointments
** Bills
* Summary
** Estimated Hours
** Worked Hours

- At GTD Inbox, I collect all my new tasks and projects by using  
org-remember. In my weekly review, I file them at appropriate section.
- Work and Personal is where I file my tasks and projects and give them  
tags. This helps me filter within agenda view.
- I clock every task I am doing to get my working hours summary.
- Sometimes I use the archive feature to get rid of done tasks and  
finished projects to a separated file.

notes.org

- This is a file where I collect everything that I want to take note and  
file for reference. This is used along with org-remember.
- It is divided by four topics:

* Ideas
* Jornal
* Phone Calls
* General Notes

I also have lots of other files that I fill in with notes. Every note has  
a title with "*" and text body. All the files have a name that starts with  
"nt_". I do not look at them very often, so I don't mind to have lots of  
note files. I use Google Desktop or grep to search information in them  
when I need it. These notes file vary a lot, for example, I have a  
nt_windows.txt file that has notes about windows tips and tricks I  
collected over time.

So far, this setup is working perfectly and I am able to track all my  
projects and tasks. Thanks to orgmode!

Bye!

flaviosouza
www.flaviosouza.net

Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Greg Newman]

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My process has gone through some revisions.  My current setup is as follows:

client-projects.org
I keep all paid projects for clients in one big file.  I used to keep them
in a file for each client until one of them noticed that their name was
being pushed to github in my agenda files.

studio-projects.org
This file holds all internal projects for my studio.  Paintings, drawings,
administrative tasks, repair and studio related research materials.

home-projects.org
Just that.  Anything related to the house, cars, wife, kid, dogs, etc.

notes.org
I use this file for random thoughts and information I find online.

mind.org
How to explain this one? When I find information that I want to act on in
the future as R&D I throw it into mind.org and
give it a todo status.  Usually stuff in here pertains to things I don't
understand and want to spend time learning.  Hence the name.

phone.org
When on client calls I take notes in the phone file which later gets refiled
to their respective places

calendar.org
This is synced using Doug Hellmann's ical2org python script.  I have a cron
set to sync it every hour so
that my google calendar updates my org file.  I have todochiku installed to
notify me via growl of appointments.



I may go back to having a single org file for each client.  Right now I have
about 20 projects in that file with long lists and
I'm struggling a little with keeping it organized enough that I don't lose
track of projects.

Beyond this setup, every hour a cron syncs my org files to a private
mercurial repository at bitbucket.


— Greg

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Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Alan E. Davis]

   More than you want to know, I'm certain.  I would certainly
   appreciate any ideas that others might provide.  I am reluctant to
   provide much in the way of personal details, but perhaps I do have
   to provide some detail, in order to call attention to how I use
   Org-mode, in many aspects of my life.

   The pattern of my usage of org-mode has evolved through perhaps a
   year and a half, yet I am still at a very modest level of
   understanding.  All the same, I have grown into new understandings
   about how to use Org.  The ~/org directory (under git control so I
   can keep up to date on three computers) has been weighted down with
   a considerable level of cruft.  I am a scatterbrained/eclectic,
   constantly thinking of new ways to clutter these files; yet,
   Org-mode is an ideal tool for this, and I am learning more and more
   about how to use it.  The main pattern that begins to
   emerge is the usage of many files, but more and more of them are
   merging into single topical or function based files, something like
   the following.  However, I sense that some of the org functions
   (including some agenda based functionality, and especially tagging)
   are starting to slow down.

   The files
      1. Main files
	  1. JOURNAL.org:: Various longer posts, from some remember
	     templates with various top level headers as targets.
	  2. notes.org::  target for org's tools for  firefox, as well as
	     for a remember template to store notes for later filing.
	  3. LetterDrafts.org:: writing correspondence
	  4. Todo.org:: Various kinds of TODO notes
	  5. Happenings.org:: Diary like functionality
	  6. Diary.org:: Emacs diary
	  7. Contacts.org:: I still haven't figured out how to do this.
      2. Project related files, general
	  1. System.Journal.org:: where I log various system issues and
	     try to keep on top of changes to my system, both hardware
	     and operating system, as well as software.
	  2. Classes.org:: Where I keep various kinds of notes on courses
	     I teach. (I think I have struggled with this the most).
	  3. Field.Journal.org:: I am a biologist who makes field notes.
	  4. Music.org:: Becoming huge with guitar tablature, lyrics,
	     notes on the Guitar, etc.
	  5. Drafts.org:: Drafts of all kinds of documents.
	  6. SCHOOL.org:: Notes about the school where I teach.
	  7. Microscopy.org:: Notes on microscope use and hardware.
	  8. Science.org:: Notes of a scientific  nature, about
	     literature or research.
	  9. Quotes.org:: I have a remember template for storing away
	     quotes.
	  10. Sweeps.org:: Hardly used, up to recently, a place to store
	      "Mind Sweeps" or Brainstorms.
	  11. Emacs.org:: Log and notes about use of emacs, and notes
	      about the changes I've made to .emacs.el
	  12. Health.Journal.org:: notes on health issues for the members
	      of my family.
	  13. HOWTO.org:: When I have figured out some settings or
	      installation notes, I keep them in this file in a highly
	      unintelligible HOWTO format.  Sometimes even I cannot read
	      them.
	  14. Film.org:: I keep notes on films I watch and vidoes I use
	      in teaching.  Including  time-indexed notes made with the
	      relative-timer facility or Org-mode.
	  15. EmacsTricks.org::
      3. Project files, more specific, and more numerous.  For example:
	 1. BeachHoppers.org
	 2. DigitalPhotography.org
	 3. LetterToJoe.org
	 4. Worms.org
	 5. Recipes.org
	 6. MakingDo.org:: a few notes for a book about running a
	    laboratory on a shoestring, using found objects, etc.
	 7. Tides.org:: One of my interests.
	 8. Lexicon.org:: I am saving notes here using a remember
	     template that saves linguistic notes in "band format."
	 9. ScientificLiterature.org:: I am trying to organize notes on
	     downloaded PDFs and bibtex reference database.

    Usage notes.

      1. I am learning to use the agenda.  I have some custom agenda
         commands.  It has taken me a long time to learn how I can
         keep track of events and appointments, as well as TODO
         items.  I'll be learning for a long time yet.  SCHEDULING is
         useful, as are DEADLINES.   It's taking a while to fall into
         habits of use to make these useful to myself.
      2. I am slowly learning to use tags in a personally useful way.
	 1. Context is somewhat useful.  However, I really need a
            shopping list.
	 3. I am starting to use inheritance of keywords on headlines,
            as it helps clean things up.
      3. I am also gradually beginning to understand how I can use
         TODO keywords.
	 1. My more unique keywords include: EVENT, LESSON, APPT,
            PROJECT, IDEA, WRITE
      4. Outlining is the most important thing I use Org-mode for.  I
         am happy to be able to export a PDF of notes taken during a
         meeting or any other times.  It surprises me how quick this
         is, and how nice, even though I've been using LaTeX for
         years.
      5. I hacked the code to provide six priority levels, #A--#F.  I
         haven't gotten around to use all the levels, but I forsee
         being able, for example, to use #F as shopping list items.

Re: Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Tim O'Callaghan]

My .02Euro-cents worth.

I used to have an uber.org file setup, but i found it de-focused my
thinking. I'd get sidetracked because a topic caught my attention or
looked out of place.

I've moved to something a bit more dynamic now, its still under
construction though. I wanted to be able to minimize the amount of
keystrokes i need to access a particular file, and have something that
translated well to a mobile keypad. So my new philosophy is that I've
decided to use numbers. They're easy to memorize and can be used in a
kind of personal Dewey decimal scheme.

Breaking it down, I have a bunch of directories in ~/

| org         | the main org directory, under git
             |
| 0_INBOX     | a clearing house for file based "stuff" - firefox
downloads to here |
| 1_PROJECT   | root tree for current project folders
             |
| 2_SOMEDAY   | root tree for someday project folders and tickler
reminder files    |
| 5_TOREAD    | electronic media i want to read - pdfs text files etc.
             |
| 6_TOLISTEN  | podcasts, audiobooks etc,
             |
| 7_TOWATCH   | downloaded videos etc.
             |
| 8_REFERENCE | general reference material.
             |

Using git, I sync my ~/org directory across the various machines i use
org-mode on, but i leave the [0-9]_ named directories local to the
machine. That provides context. I'm still experimenting with keeping
the numbered directories under git. Its proving problematic when my
sourcecode is also under git too.

The 1_PROJECT folder contains a folder per project. Each project
folder has a 1+<project name>.org file in it, which automatically gets
picked up and used in the Agenda (see .emacs stuff below for details).
That way the agenda is only populated with work i can actually do on
that machine. I'm still looking into how to use git and the attachment
system to manage project directories as separate git projects...

In the sycned ~/org folder i have these files which are included in
the agenda. All of these files can be found with two keystrokes, a
number then a '+'.

| 0+inbox.org    | where all my remember stuff is dumped.            |
| 1+projects.org | personal/portable misc small project container    |
| 2+someday.org  | Someday/Tickler/To-Buy                            |
| 4+calendar.org | Appointments, birthdays (yet to sync with google) |
| 8+contacts.org | Contact information                               |
| 9+journal.org  | Musings, Writings, rants etc.                     |

And finally i'm using the numbers again, and "traffic light" style
colors for task and project state tracking.

| key | color  | tag  | description
                 |
|-----+--------+------+-----------------------------------------------------------------|
|   0 | green  | DONE | Task done
                 |
|   1 | grey   | TODO | Heading is a next action that was outlined and
might need doing |
|   2 | yellow | NEXT | Heading is a next action that needs doing.
                 |
|   3 | orange | WAIT | Heading is something i am waiting for
                 |
|   4 | yellow | APPT | Heading is an appointment of some kind
                 |

Tim.

---- the .emacs code ----

(setq  org-default-notes-file (expand-file-name "~/org/0+inbox.org")
      org-todo-keywords
      (quote
       (;; normal workflow <need action> | <no action required>
        (sequence "TODO(1!)" "NEXT(2!/!)" "WAIT(3@/!)" "APPT(4@/!)"
                  "|" "DONE(0!/@!)" "DEFERRED(D@!/!)" "CANCELED(C@!/!)")
        ;; project state indicators
        (type "PROJECT(P!/@!)" "SOMEDAY(S!/@!)" "|" "PROJDONE" "PROJCANC")
        ))
      org-todo-keyword-faces
      (quote
       (;; "traffic light" style task colours
        ("TODO" :foreground "grey" :weight bold)
        ("NEXT" :foreground "gold" :weight bold)
        ("DONE" :foreground "forest green" :weight bold)
        ("WAIT" :foreground "orange" :weight bold)
        ("APPT" :foreground "gold" :weight bold)
        ("CANCELED" :foreground "indianred" :weight bold)
        ;; project level todo indicators
        ("SOMEDAY" :foreground "orchid" :weight bold)
        ("PROJECT" :foreground "grey" :weight bold)
        ("PROJDONE" :foreground "forest green" :weight bold)
        ("PROJCANC" :foreground "indianred" :weight bold)
        )))

(setq org-agenda-files ())
;; use ~/org and search the top level directories in the 1_PROJECT folder
(defun toc:add-org-agenda-directories (dir filter)
  "add files matched by filter in directory dir to org-agenda-files list"
  (interactive)
    (dolist (d2 (file-expand-wildcards (expand-file-name dir)))
      (if (file-directory-p d2)
          (dolist (f (directory-files d2 t filter t))
            (push f org-agenda-files)))))

; only include numbered files from org directory
(toc:add-org-agenda-directories "~/org" "[1-9]+.*.org$")
; auto include - 1+<project-name> files
(toc:add-org-agenda-directories "~/1_PROJECT/*" "1\+.*.org$")
;;
(setq org-refile-targets '((org-agenda-files :maxlevel . 3)))

Re: How you ORGanize yourself? (aka: Why not one file to rule'em all?)

[Bernt Hansen]

"Alan E. Davis" <lngndvs@gmail.com> writes:

>       5. I hacked the code to provide six priority levels, #A--#F.  I
>          haven't gotten around to use all the levels, but I forsee
>          being able, for example, to use #F as shopping list items.

There's no need to hack the code for this.  You can modify the
variables that control how many priorities you get with 

  - org-default-priority
  - org-highest-priority
  - org-lowest-priority