Re: How do you manage complex project with Org-mode

[Sébastien Gendre]

Hello Eric,

Thanks for your reply and advice.

I will look at custom agenda view and clocking. But I have bad memory of
clocking tools because of the way previous jobs used it (It was not
Emacs).


Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> Sébastien Gendre <seb@k-7.ch> writes:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I don't know if it's the correct place to ask it. If not, sorry to ask in
>> the wrong place.
>>
>> How do you manage complex project with Org-mode ?
>>
>> I used Org-mode for several periods of time in recent years. It worked
>> very well for short and day to day tasks. When only a few of theme have
>> deadlines and when you have plenty of time to do them.
>>
>> But, as a student, I regularly have big and important projects to do for
>> the school. The kind of project who need several days to be done, with
>> deadlines too soon, and if you fail one them the consequences can be
>> disastrous. And generally, I have to many of these project in the same
>> time and not enough time to do all the work. So, I also need to follow
>> the progress of each project to choose which is sufficiently advanced to
>> be stop for the benefit of another less advanced project.
>>
>> And I don't know how to manage this kind of projects with Org-mode. How
>> to do it, without failing a 6 days project because I spent to much time
>> on something else and I have only 3 days left with 3 half-day important
>> appointment I cannot cancel. I can't risk failing a single one of these
>> project by trying. So, when I am in a period with a lot of these
>> projects, I stop using Org-mode and concentrate on doing these project
>> as fast as I can. And because I often have this kind of project, I spend
>> most of the year without being able to use Org-mode.
>>
>> So, if you have any suggestion on how to manage, in Org-mode, projects
>> with:
>> * Lot of work to do (many days)
>> * Short deadline (not enough time)
>> * High importance (disastrous consequences in my future in case of fail)
>> * Many of them in the same time
>> * Progression need to be followed to chose where to sacrifice time to
>>   limit the damages
>
> Interesting questions! I have the same general problem of, when things
> heat up too much, I stop using the Org agenda. It's quite the opposite
> of how it's supposed to work, but I guess it's something about human
> psychology. I'll be interested to see what people say in this thread.
>
> Some suggestions that come to mind:
>
> - Create custom agenda views for each project, providing an overview of
>   that project only, but use a single unified agenda view for each day's
>   schedule. Look at the per-project agenda to decide if/how to complete
>   it, but draw the action items into the unified schedule when deciding
>   how to spend your day. It should become evident pretty quickly what
>   you actually have time for. Projects are many, but there is only one
>   of you.
> - Maybe consider using `org-trigger-hook' and `org-blocker-hook' to cut
>   down on TODO overwhelm.
> - Use time estimates and then TODO clocking to more swiftly disabuse
>   yourself of unrealistic expectations. This plus a schedule agenda can
>   also help you make sure you stop work at a reasonable time and go do
>   something else.
> - Say no to more work :) Looking at your solid-packed agenda for the
>   next day works wonders for saying no.
>
> Good luck!