Re: [Orgmode] A brief reference to org-mode in my presentation on Auto Focus Task Management System

[Brian Theado]

On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Charles
Cave<address@hidden> wrote:
[...]
> http://www.slideshare.net/charles_in_oz/auto-focus-1543619
>
> When I first learnt about this system I played around with using
> org-mode to implement it, but found the pen and paper solutions
> was best. I still use org-mode to capture tasks when I am at the
> computer and want to capture URLs to explore and so on.

Charles, thanks for sharing your autofocus presentation.  This is the
first I've heard of it and I found it interesting.

In reading more about the technique, I found comments from several
others also stating a preferece for using pen and paper.

I played around today with autofocus using an outliner (not org-mode
yet) and find I don't really have an urge to try a paper based system.
 I know being tethered to electronic devices is not always convenient,
but for me the apparent benefits are attractive.

I found it quite useful to be able to re-order the items so I could
group the completed items together at the top of a given "page" and
see the active items all together towards the bottom of the "page".
Also, being able to use body text and sub-outline structure to capture
notes related to the task item was invaluable.

I implemented a "page" in the outliner by creating a headline labeled
"page 1" and inserted 25 or so empty child headlines.  I added tasks
to the list just as described in your presentation.  For completed
items I record the date and change the font of the headline to
strikethrough (not sure how I would do that in org-mode).  I change
the font of the page headline I'm currently processing to bold and I
change the font of the item I'm currently processing to bold.  Having
worked just a single day, I haven't quite made it onto the second page
yet.  When I do reach the second page, it will just be a matter of
inserting a "page 2" headline which is a sibling following the "page
1" headline and inserting 25 or so more empty child headlines.

As I'm working on an item, I am free to add notes  in the item's body
and/or subtree.  When it is time to pick another task to work  on,
visibility cycling can quickly make only the tasks for the current
"page" visible.

Was your org-mode implementation that you found inferior to pen and
paper similar to this?

Brian