Day workflow: need your opinion

Day workflow: need your opinion

[Xavier Maillard]

Hi,

I am not a serious org-mode user but I am trying to use it again
for daily task planning (which everytime I tried, failed at ;)).

I did my lectures thanks to the worg project (Bernst and John
lecture were a real pleasure and sort of a non hittable dream to
me) but I still not clear how I could take advantage of all I
read (Bernst project concept is rather hard to understand for
me, it lacks examples IMO).

My main problem is that, at my work position (DBA), urgency is
not given by what I plan to do but by whom is calling me -i.e if
someone is calling me, it often means "forget what you were doing
and do this instead".

Given my fabulous talent of procrastination, this does not really
help get organized and thus this does not help in getting things
done.

How would you use org-mode in this situation ?

Ex:

a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A

At my job, they often rules the "retro planning" concept which is
bloat. So how would you "manage" such situation in org-mode ?

Thank you,

Xavier

Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Vedang]

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Hi Xavier,

> a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
> b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
> c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
> d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
>
I think the Time Clocking
section<http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#sec-7.2>of this
document <http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html%20> by Bernt Hansen would be
quite helpful in your case. In fact, the entire document is excellent
reading for getting things done using org-mode.

Thanks,
Vedang

On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 11:27 AM, Xavier Maillard<xma@gnu.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am not a serious org-mode user but I am trying to use it again
> for daily task planning (which everytime I tried, failed at ;)).
>
> I did my lectures thanks to the worg project (Bernst and John
> lecture were a real pleasure and sort of a non hittable dream to
> me) but I still not clear how I could take advantage of all I
> read (Bernst project concept is rather hard to understand for
> me, it lacks examples IMO).
>
> My main problem is that, at my work position (DBA), urgency is
> not given by what I plan to do but by whom is calling me -i.e if
> someone is calling me, it often means "forget what you were doing
> and do this instead".
>
> Given my fabulous talent of procrastination, this does not really
> help get organized and thus this does not help in getting things
> done.
>
> How would you use org-mode in this situation ?
>
> Ex:
>
> a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
> b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
> c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
> d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
>
> At my job, they often rules the "retro planning" concept which is
> bloat. So how would you "manage" such situation in org-mode ?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Xavier
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
>



-- 
Unix is simple. It takes a genius to understand it's simplicity.    -
 Anon
People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how
hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.    -    Calvin.

Cheers,
Vedang.

Associate Software Engineer,
Symantec
http://vedang.wordpress.com
http://mytechrants.wordpress.com

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Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Leo]

On 2009-08-04 06:57 +0100, Xavier Maillard wrote:
> a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
> b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
> c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
> d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
>
> At my job, they often rules the "retro planning" concept which is
> bloat. So how would you "manage" such situation in org-mode ?

Let me give it a try.

When I am at Task A but interupted for Task B, I will mark Task A with
one of the todo-keywords (you can create one specific for interruption
for example PAUSE).

Then you need to review what is on your plate by C-c a t to decide your
next action after Task B.

-- 
Emacs uptime: 8 days, 14 hours, 0 minutes, 20 seconds

Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Benjamin Andresen]

Hey Xavier,

Xavier Maillard <xma@gnu.org> writes:

> Ex:
>
> a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
> b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
> c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
> d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
>
> At my job, they often rules the "retro planning" concept which is
> bloat. So how would you "manage" such situation in org-mode ?

I'm clocked in with the task I'm currently doing. If this is interrupted
I will clock in the new task that has been appointed to me without
clocking out the old task. (You might have to create the interrupting
task before clocking it in.)

After I'm done with the interrupting task, I'll do C-u C-C C-x C-i and
press "i" which I believe stands for "continue the previous interrupting
task".

(I have this bound to F-keys because I clock stuff all the time.)

> Thank you,
>
> Xavier

Hope that helps,
benny

RE: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Jonathan Arkell]

I'll take a stab at this...

Lets say you have the following TODO tags defined:

TODO STARTED | DONE
And
PROJECT | CANCELLED FINISHED

And lets say you have project A defined like so:

*** PROJECT Project A
**** TODO Some Larger Task
     - [ ] DO the thing
     - [ ] That other thing
     - [ ] More stuff
**** TODO Complete project
     - [ ] Log hours

When you are ready to start work on project A "Some Larger Task", you mark it as "STARTED".  As you go through the steps in project A, you would tick off things as they are completed, and mark larger tasks as done.  When the interrupting task comes in, decide whether or not it is a one off, or deserving of a project.

If it is a One-off task, you might put it in a larger Tasks headline.  Again, I would split out what needs to be done here as a series of smaller todo steps or checkboxes.

*** PROJECT Interrupting Cow
**** STARTED Put out the fire.
     - [ ] Find the fire hose
     - [ ] Wear Suitable Rubber Boots
     - [ ] Put out fire
     - [ ] Save the day.

Now, if there is another interruption, you can Add another entry:

*** STARTED yet another one-off task.
    - [ ] Give molly the frobniator
    - [ ] send widget to fred.

Now, let's say it's lunch time, and the last thing you want to do is fart around with org files.  Great.  Go for lunch.

When you get back from lunch, or your break, run a quick agenda command to see what tasks you have started:

C-a T STARTED

Now you can take a peek at your started tasks, and you know what is currently holding your immediate attention.

I have a custom agenda set up for work that displays the started tasks right after the Scheduled tasks and my weekly view.  This makes the following things immediately apparent:
  1) Any time commitments are at the forefront of my mind and attention
  2) Any work I am currently doing is immediately visible.

When I am being diligent about working with org mode, I keep track of what I am doing directly into the TODO task, either as a series of checkboxes, or at the very least, a log of what I have done.  This makes it really easy to get back to what I am doing.  For instance, if I am knee-deep in hacking some SQL queries, I'll try em out on my sql buffer, and copy the relevant ones back to my currently working org buffer.   You can also use org-store-link and org-insert-link to keep track of your place, which obviously works better if you are working on a file.  I have found it especially useful for working with shell commands as well, to keep track of which commands I used, and sometimes the output of the commands.  Again, this makes it easy to deal with interruptions, because you can easily  follow your breadcrumb trail back.

Hopefully that helps!

-----Original Message-----
From: emacs-orgmode-bounces+jonathana=criticalmass.com@gnu.org [mailto:emacs-orgmode-bounces+jonathana=criticalmass.com@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Xavier Maillard
Sent: August 3, 2009 11:58 PM
To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
Subject: [Orgmode] Day workflow: need your opinion

Hi,

I am not a serious org-mode user but I am trying to use it again
for daily task planning (which everytime I tried, failed at ;)).

I did my lectures thanks to the worg project (Bernst and John
lecture were a real pleasure and sort of a non hittable dream to
me) but I still not clear how I could take advantage of all I
read (Bernst project concept is rather hard to understand for
me, it lacks examples IMO).

My main problem is that, at my work position (DBA), urgency is
not given by what I plan to do but by whom is calling me -i.e if
someone is calling me, it often means "forget what you were doing
and do this instead".

Given my fabulous talent of procrastination, this does not really
help get organized and thus this does not help in getting things
done.

How would you use org-mode in this situation ?

Ex:

a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A

At my job, they often rules the "retro planning" concept which is
bloat. So how would you "manage" such situation in org-mode ?

Thank you,

Xavier



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Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Bernt Hansen]

Xavier Maillard <xma@gnu.org> writes:

> How would you use org-mode in this situation ?
>
> Ex:
>
> a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
> b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
> c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
> d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
>
> At my job, they often rules the "retro planning" concept which is
> bloat. So how would you "manage" such situation in org-mode ?

Find project A and clock it in

When someone calls you create a remember task and clock that in.  Add
whatever details you talk about to the task as the record of your
conversation.  This creates or redirects you to work on task c).

Create or find task c) and clock it in.

Work on task c)

Mark C done.

Find project A by using the clock history C-u C-c C-x C-i and picking it
off the recently clocked list.

Continue working on task a).

HTH,
Bernt

Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Xavier Maillard]

At Tue, 4 Aug 2009 15:09:30 +0530,
Vedang wrote:
> 
> [1  <multipart/alternative (7bit)>]
> [1.1  <text/plain; ISO-8859-1 (7bit)>]
> Hi Xavier,
> 
> > a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
> > b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
> > c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
> > d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
> >
> I think the Time Clocking
> section<http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#sec-7.2>of this
> document <http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html%20> by Bernt Hansen would be
> quite helpful in your case. In fact, the entire document is excellent
> reading for getting things done using org-mode.

Thanks a lot. I read it several times.

Xavier

Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Xavier Maillard]

At Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:46:40 +0100,
Leo wrote:
> 
> On 2009-08-04 06:57 +0100, Xavier Maillard wrote:
> > a) I doing some non urgent (planned) DBA tasks (call this project A)
> > b) someone calls me (interrupting Project A)
> > c) I am doing what urgency of b) is needed
> > d) when c) is finished, I get back to project A
> >
> > At my job, they often rules the "retro planning" concept which is
> > bloat. So how would you "manage" such situation in org-mode ?
> 
> Let me give it a try.
> 
> When I am at Task A but interupted for Task B, I will mark Task A with
> one of the todo-keywords (you can create one specific for interruption
> for example PAUSE).
> 
> Then you need to review what is on your plate by C-c a t to decide your
> next action after Task B.

Already tried that but it failed for me. The less I do, the
better for me :D

Xavier

Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Xavier Maillard]

Thanks a lot Bernt. This is how I am doing things right now which
"partially" works for me.

I need a way to tag a TODO as INTERRUPTED automatically when
clocking-in a new item through remember.

Eg:

Working on task A which is marked as STARTED. Someone calls me
asking for help. I C-M-r a new clocked item, automatically
marking previous clocked-in item (task A) as INTERRUPTED.

Even better would be to have something that could clock-out
automatically when a task hits some tags: WAITING or INTERRUPTED.

Do you know if it is possible ?

Also, while at it: how do you access a "daily report" of what has
been done and how long it took to do ?

Thank you a lot everybody.

Xavier

Re: Day workflow: need your opinion

[Bernt Hansen]

Xavier Maillard <xma@gnu.org> writes:

> Thanks a lot Bernt. This is how I am doing things right now which
> "partially" works for me.
>
> I need a way to tag a TODO as INTERRUPTED automatically when
> clocking-in a new item through remember.
>
> Eg:
>
> Working on task A which is marked as STARTED. Someone calls me
> asking for help. I C-M-r a new clocked item, automatically
> marking previous clocked-in item (task A) as INTERRUPTED.

There is a variable for changing task states when clocking out a task.
Every task that clocks out but isn't finished is essentially
interrupted.

The variable org-clock-out-switch-to-state controls that IIRC but I've
never actually tried that (yet).  I just leave my tasks in a STARTED
state.  Anything for me that is STARTED is interrupted (partially worked
on and unfinished).  My STARTED list tends to be less than 20 tasks
total (13 right now).  I just use my STARTED agenda view to pick up the
in-progress tasks easily and clock one in.

>
> Even better would be to have something that could clock-out
> automatically when a task hits some tags: WAITING or INTERRUPTED.
>
> Do you know if it is possible ?

There is a org-after-todo-state-change-hook which you could probably use
to accomplish this.

>
> Also, while at it: how do you access a "daily report" of what has
> been done and how long it took to do ?

I look at my clock report data in the agenda.  Just pull up a day or
week view and hit R for the report.  You can insert clock reports in
your org files and this is the way I used to do this... but when agenda
reporting came along I abandoned that altogether.

HTH,
Bernt