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

[Ihor Radchenko]

Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> writes:

> My point was not that you don't need to review on a regular basis.
> Reviewing your tasks and projects regularly is essential. My point was
> that creating a todo task telling you to review your tasks/projects is
> an example of a 'noise' task.

I guess that it depends on what you mean by review. I would not call it
a 'noise', but rather a routine. A non-trivial one that requires deep
focus.

Having the review routine as a repeated task "review projects" is not
very useful by itself. However, you can make such task useful by using
checklists:

For example:
https://gist.github.com/mwfogleman/fbec1cc11f9eaac5e5d36b92c671ec8b

Or the one I use:
- [ ] Commit all the changes before the review
- [ ] Check clocking data for past week using the java app 
elisp:org-analyzer-start
  This data will reflect my actual performance, not the way I feel.\\
  Related: [[id:benkuhn_my_weekl_review_habit_benkuh][[benkuhn] My Weekly 
Review Habit]]
  - [ ] add to [[clock-summary][summary table]]
  - [ ] Think about undesired actions I have made during the week. What was the 
trigger for the actions? Reward? Can I avoid the trigger? Can I change the 
action? Remove reward?
    [[id:duhigg2012the][Duhigg, Charles [Random House] (2012) The power of 
habit : why we do what we do in life and business]]
  - [ ] Am I happy with the time spend on work?
  - [ ] If not, should I mark some of the areas or common projects SOMEDAY?
  - [ ] If I feel that I worked too much, but it is not true, consider reducing 
the number of active work tasks
  - [ ] [[elisp:org-analyzer-stop]]
- [ ] Collect all new legal documents and save them to org-mode
- [ ] Add all new contacts to org-contacts
- [ ] Commit and push all changed repositories elisp:magit-list-repositories
- [ ] Clear the Mobiscribe notes
- [ ] Make sure that all the zettels are in sync with org-mode
  - [ ] Copy the card number as =CUSTOM_ID=
  - [ ] Copy creation date as =CREATED=
  - [ ] mark sorted out cards by separator marker
- [ ] Process all the REVIEW tasks (link them). If need many more notes, mark 
them NEXT again
- [ ] Look at entire agenda for today  =g a v=
  - [ ] check tasks to archive
  - [ ] commit the changes
  - [ ] check *active projects*. Make sure that nothing falls out of control
    - [ ] check work projects
    - [ ] check non-work projects
  - [ ] Check *WAITING and HOLD projects*, move them to someday if necessary
  - [ ] check *WAITING and HOLD tasks*, mark them NEXT if need to followup 
(make *note*)
  - [ ] check ongoing and NEXT tasks, make sure that they have a concrete NEXT 
action
  - [ ] make sure that the number of active project for *next week* is 
manageable. Mark/unmark them HOLD otherwise.
    I should really set a small number of projects to avoid distracting my 
attention into too many things at the same time 
[[id:benkuhn_atten_is_your_scarc_resour_benkuh][[benkuhn] Attention Is Your 
Scarcest Resource | Benkuhn.net]]
  - [ ] check SOMEDAY projects and consider if I need to start/continue working 
on them
- [ ] Check next week's agenda
- [ ] Schedule deadlines for 3 big tasks (goals) to be finished next week. 
[[id:small-hack-my-daily-plan-acf][[König von Haunstetten] #daily_goal_tasks A 
small hack for my daily plan]]
  If there are no tasks, create them.
- [ ] check next month's calendar
- [ ] commit all the changes made during the review

> A common beginner error I've seen is for people to be so impressed with
> org-mode, they decide to create tasks, templates and projects which map
> out every aspect of their life. The problem with doing this is that you
> then create additional work for yourself in managing these tasks and you
> run the risk of being overwhelmed - you have so many tasks that instead
> of making your life easier, you now become paralysed by too many task
> choices.  

You are right, which is why I stress on limiting the number of tasks in
agenda. However, I would not call review as something that should not be
listed in agenda. It requires a good several hours and should be taken
into account when planning the day.

Best,
Ihor