Re: [Orgmode] Re: Estimated times

[Adam Spiers]

On Mon, Oct 29, 2007 at 09:08:08AM +0000, Christian Egli wrote:
> Sebastjan Trepca <trepca <at> gmail.com> writes:
> > I was wondering if there is a way to set a time estimate for a task
> > and then match it with actual logged time? After you finish it of
> > course.
> > 
> > Maybe something similar as checkbox counters.
> > 
> >  * TODO learn about emacs [0/2, 0h/20h]
> >    - [ ] read emacs manual (10h)
> >    - [ ] read  elisp manual (10h)
> > 
> > First counter counts the finished subtasks, second shows overall
> > logged time and the estimate.
> 
> You might be able to do something with a column view. You define the effort 
> as a
> property and in your Column View you summarize the effort. Might be worth to
> have a look at http://orgmode.org/org.html#Column-view

I use tags for this at the moment:

   #+TAGS: { sub10(1) sub30(3) sub60(6) sub120(2) sub4(4) subday(d) }

   :sub10:   - estimate 10 minutes or less
   :sub30:   - estimate 30 minutes or less
   :sub60:   - estimate 60 minutes or less
   :sub120:  - estimate 120 minutes or less
   :sub4:    - estimate 4 hours or less
   :subday:  - estimate one day or less

Advantages:

   - can set very quickly via C-c C-c 1 etc.
   - prevents me from trying to be too accurate with my estimates
     (IMHO anything more fine-grained is probably unrealistic)
   - can be seen from .org file buffer

Disadvantages:

   - can't add up total time estimated for multiple TODOs
   - can't display in a column

Properties are probably ultimately a cleaner solution.  I presume you
could easily bind shortcuts to `org-entry-put' but I haven't tried it
or thought what the best shortcut keymap prefix would be instead of
C-c C-c (this would have the added advantage of freeing up shortcut
keys for tags).