From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Eric Abrahamsen Subject: Re: How to deal with small projects which are often changing their status/ person Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:59:14 +0800 Message-ID: <87obgg4q31.fsf@ericabrahamsen.net> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Return-path: Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.92]:45130) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TxpXu-0007UE-9U for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:54:35 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TxpXs-0007p6-8h for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:54:34 -0500 Received: from plane.gmane.org ([80.91.229.3]:58414) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TxpXs-0007om-2C for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:54:32 -0500 Received: from list by plane.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1TxpY6-0001dW-C2 for emacs-orgmode@gnu.org; Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:54:46 +0100 Received: from 50-56-99-223.static.cloud-ips.com ([50.56.99.223]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:54:46 +0100 Received: from eric by 50-56-99-223.static.cloud-ips.com with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Wed, 23 Jan 2013 02:54:46 +0100 List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org@gnu.org To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org M writes: > I hope it is clear what I mean, there are a lot of small steps and each time > creating a new task takes much time and I have to copy the name of the > "project" again and again... > > Maybe it would be better to add all the notes about the progress as notes in > the Logbook and change the Heading of the task each time, but that also > seems strange to me... This is exactly what I do, and it works great for me. If you enable state-change logging for the TODO keywords you use most, you can keep a fully annotated and time-stamped history of how the TODO has progressed. I make the heading something generic (ie, "Article XYZ") and note what has to be done next in the logbook. I like the idea of a single TODO for a single "thing", even if that thing has multiple steps. I often don't know what those steps are going to be (arguments over email, waiting for someone to get back from vacation, blocking on another task, etc) so I need flexibility. In practice, most of my complex tasks start at TODO, bounce back and forth between NEXT and WAITING, and finally end up at DONE. Changes between WAITING and NEXT are logged, so I end up with a LOGBOOK full of neatly stamped changes, each one with a description (plus links to emails and all) of progress. This "feels right" to me. My main custom agenda view has a block each for WAITING and NEXT headings. > Would there be a way to make the "children" inherit automatically a text > from the project name, e. g. Wouldn't this be best taken care of with tags and tag inheritance? I also put colleagues' names in tags, when something requires their participation, which makes it easy get a view of "stuff John should be doing". The problem with the logbook approach is that logbook entries are fairly limited beasts (you can't tag them, for instance), and I'm probably already on the verge of abusing them. Next on my list would be sorting agenda items by timestamp of most recent log entry, and also an agenda hotkey to display the most recent log entry for the TODO under point. Possibly what I should be considering is a state-change trigger that actually creates a sub-heading TODO, rather than a logbook entry. Hope something in there's useful! Eric