Re: [O] What do you use to identify projects (in the GTD sense)

[Sven Bretfeld]

Hi Bernt

Bernt Hansen <address@hidden> writes:

> http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#Projects

Wow, that is a WONDERFUL page you shared with us. Thank you very much!
It will cost me hours go through it and see what I can implement for my
setup. Can't you think about others' time before posting such great
stuff?

Here is my setup and workflow:

I'm quite an orthodox GTD user with one exception: I blended two
concepts of ZTD (Zen to Done
http://zenhabits.net/zen-to-done-ztd-the-ultimate-simple-productivity-system/)
which is a mix of GTD and other systems. What I took from it is the two
tags :MIT: (Most important thing of the day) and :BIGROCK: (Most
important project of the week). Usually MITs are Next Steps which I do
as early as possible during the day, normally there are two or three of
them each day. Bigrocks are privileged projects which I return to most
often, I usually have one or two of them per week.

I use one main org-file. Spheres of responsibility are top level
headings containing neither tags nor todo-keywords:

,----
| * Termine (contains only appointments)
| * Teaching
| * Institute
| * Research Department
| * Research Consortium
| * Personal Research
| * Readings
| * Home Projects
| * Friends
| * Someday/Maybe
| * Stuff to remember (here for example birthdays are defined)
`----

The second level contains projects which are tagged with :PROJECT:. The
third level are associated next steps containing a resource tag.

,----
| * Institute
| ** Major Book Order                                 :PROJECT:
| *** DONE Advertise a position for a coordinator     :OFFICE:
| *** WAITING Wait for applications                   :OFFICE:
| *** Choose an appropriate person                    :OFFICE:
| *** Call a meeting                                  :OFFICE:
| *** Set up delegation project for supervision       :OFFICE:
`----

As you see, only the first two steps contain a todo-keyword. This is
because the second step is running at the moment and cannot choose a
person before the position was actually advertised and the application
deadline has come. I use triggers to set the next step to the
appropriate state when the previous step is marked DONE:

,----
| *** WAITING Wait for applications           :OFFICE:
|     :PROPERTIES:
|     :TRIGGER:  chain-siblings(NEXT)
|     :END:
| *** Choose an appropriate person            :OFFICE:
`----

So, after the application deadline has come, I mark the WAITING entry
DONE and the next entry is automatically set to NEXT. After this is
DONE, "Call a meeting" will be set to NEXT. 

,----
| *** DONE Wait for applications              :OFFICE:
| *** NEXT Choose an appropriate person       :OFFICE:
|     :PROPERTIES:
|     :TRIGGER:  chain-siblings(NEXT)
|     :END:
| *** Call a meeting                          :OFFICE:
`----

In this way my agenda view for "NEXT actions at OFFICE" contains only
actions which can actually be done immediately.

I use to revise my project lists on a daily base. This is the first
thing I do in the morning. It takes about 15 minutes. This is not
orthodox GTD behavior but only this way a can make my mind free and be
sure that I don't forget deadlines and don't neglect projects. I have a
special entry for this revision that appears on top of my
day-agenda-view:

,----
| Dienstag   11 Oktober 2011
|        8:00...... ----------------
|        9:23...... now - - - - - - - - - - - - 
|        10:00...... ----------------
|        12:00...... ----------------
| diary: 14:00-15:00 Meeting with Mrs. Smith
|        14:00...... ----------------
|        16:00...... ----------------
| Termine:18:00-20:00 Central Asia group meeting          :MEETING:
|        20:00...... ----------------
| DailyTasks:      Scheduled:  REGULAR Daily Review [0/7]
| HomeProjects:    Scheduled:  REGULAR Water flowers      :HOME:
`----

I have a special keyword for regular tasks because I don't like them to
appear in NEXT lists. These regular tasks always have a schedule and
therefore appear only in the day-agenda:

,----
| ** REGULAR Daily Review [0/7]
|    SCHEDULED: <2011-10-10 Mo .+1d>
|    :PROPERTIES:
|    :REPEAT_TO_STATE: REGULAR
|    :END:
|    - [ ] review daily agenda
|    - [ ] review Waiting
|    - [ ] review Delegated
|    - [ ] review Projects
|    - [ ] review Stuck Projects
|    - [ ] review Bigrocks
|    - [ ] make new MITs from
|      - [ ] OFFICE
|      - [ ] HOME
|      - [ ] SCHRIESHEIM
|      - [ ] PHONE
|      - [ ] READING
`----

For distant projects I have the Someday/Maybe category:

,----
| ** Send documents to tax adviser
| NOT_STARTED
| *** Start Project
|     SCHEDULED: <2012-01-02 Mo>
| *** Gather documents                                     :HOME:
|     :PROPERTIES:
|     :TRIGGER:  chain-siblings(NEXT)
|     :END:
| *** Copy documents                                     :OFFICE:
| *** Prepare letter                                       :HOME:
| *** Send letter                                        :SHOPPING:
`----

These future projects contain the keyword NOT_STARTED to prevent them
from appearing in the projects list. Starting the project is a scheduled
action. When it appears in my day agenda, I refile to project to the
appropriate responsibility category (in this case "Home Projects"), give
it the PROJECT tag and set the first action to NEXT.

The MEETING tag you can see in the daily-agenda view above, has only one
function: It is converted to the string [mute] when I do an iCal export
which I feed into GoogleCalendar every week (yes, I do have a "weekly"
review also). This serves as a keyphrase used to mute my Android phone
automatically during meetings (using the App Tasker).

This is the main idea of my setup. It contains some other stuff not
mentioned above. For example a special file for things captured en route
with the phone (MobileOrg), and a first level header "New Tasks" where
org-capture material is stored. My wife has writing access to another
file shared via Dropbox to inform me about things to do when we are not
at home together (I had to give her an Emacs crash course for that). I
use to share appointments with GoogleCalendar and use the procedure
described on this list several times to synchronize appointments between
both. 

Take what you find useful. Any hints for improvement are very welcome.

Greetings,

Sven