Re: Adding Org Files to org-agenda-files

[Tim Cross]

daniela-spit@gmx.it writes:

>  #44935
>
>> Initially, I put pretty much everything into the agenda file list. This
>> worked fairly well until the size of these files began to get very
>> large. The biggest problem I had was my agendas were just getting too
>> large and complicated/distracting.
>
> I have constructed four different Capture Templates and four Org Agendas
> and then I can fire up the ones I want as I am working.
>
>> I then moved to a workflow where the agenda files really only contained
>> tasks and notes, references, pretty much everything else was put into
>> other org files not part of the agenda file list. I didn't like that
>> workflow. It complicated refiling and I lost the ability to keep all
>> related things together in a meaningful way.
>
> Have made capture and agenda by project, and then some functions
> that group some of them together.  Not so sure how good it is going
> to until I have used for proper work.
>

I went down a similar route initially. In the end, found it was much
better to define your capture templates to be generic i.e. not tied to a
specific project, but rather based on what you are capturing and then
use things like tags and properties (which you can have capture prompt
for) to capture project specific information.

So I have the following capture templates

- TODO to capture basic tasks

- phone which I use to capture phone call information and track time.
  Actually, although it is called phone, I use it for any meeting type
  thing. I have to track time for billing purposes and need to record
  date and time of call for tracking purposes

- Mail to track important emails. Adds a link to the original message (I
  read email using mu4e).

- Notes For capturing general note information

- Bookmarks - I have a bookmarks.org file where I keep links to
  'interesting' things. Might be web sites, man pages, info pages etc.

- protocol capture - for org protocol capture handler e.g. capturing
  info from web pages in chrome.

That is about it. My approach is to make capture as quick and easy as
possible. I usually just want to capture something and file it away to
get it out of my head and let me focus on what I was doing.

All my capture templates write to a file called refile.org. When
capturing data, I don't need to think about where it goes, just capture
it an move on. At the start of each day, I open up the refile.org file
and 'refile' the entries, which is just a couple of key presses, into
the most appropriate org file. Many (not all) of the headings I refile
under will add appropriate tags via the org tag inheritance process,
which I use in various agenda views. This reminds me of what I have on
my plate and helps me plan my day. I was initially worried that having
to do this refiling every day would be a hassle. In fact, it has turned
out to be a bonus and rarely takes more than a couple of minutes, yet
not having to worry about where to file something right when I'm
capturing it is a great bonus as it makes it really fast. A meeting or
phone conversation which a client might result in me using capture
several times as I record tasks or notes.

I have a few stored agenda searches and a couple of customised agenda
views, plus I frequently make use of the tags to do ad hoc searches. I
have also defined additional TODO states (TODO, NEXT, STARTED, HOLD,
DELEGATED, CANCELLED and DONE). Some are setup to prompt for an
additional note e.g. DELEGATED to let me specify who it is delegated to
and HOLD to specify why it is on hold).

The rest of my org customisation is mainly about data exports (tweaking
PDFs, HTML, Markdown exports, babel settings and specialised reports,
such as timesheets or invoices). I use org for all my documentation and
some work situations and clients want these documents to comply with
their corporate standards e.g. include logos, specific colours and fonts
etc).

Tim

--
Tim Cross