# the org-gtd package: opinions about Getting Things Done
Aldric
[[!template id=vid src="https://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/emacsconf/2020/emacsconf-2020--11-the-org-gtd-package-opinions-about-getting-things-done--aldric.webm"]]
Come see how org-gtd leverages org-mode to automate the GTD inbox
management. Stick around to see how the various org-mode tools get
connected by the package and how you can leverage them for yourself.
Bonus: there's even a few tests written for the package! We'll go
over those too.
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- Actual start and end time (EST): Start 2020-11-28T13.26.16; End:
2020-11-28T13.41.53
# Questions
## For how many years have you used Org?
At least five years, I don't know exactly how long.
## What about delegated actions of a project? Do they get moved to the delegated heading and moved back to the project when finished?
They stay where they are, because they belong to the project. Org-edna
will automatically mark it as NEXT when its time comes. The user can
mark it as WAIT easily through the agenda. I would like an org-gtd
command to queue up "mark as WAIT", "add the DELEGATED\_TO property",
and "schedule a check-in time", but I haven't yet done the research to
figure out a clean integration of such a custom action with the agenda
view.
## Are you only using linear next-task-method or do you use org-edna to mark tasks even in other projects as NEXT?
Currently I only use linear next-task-method, for two reasons. One is
a technical reason, another one is part of my current approach to GTD:
- I haven't yet had a reason to consider that, say, a project might
block another project, or that an action might block a project -
possibly I haven't tried to do complex enough things in my life yet,
and so I've always been able to simplify what I had to do into
linear projects, even if it was a simple linear project with a last
task of "create a new project based on what I've learned".
- I have zero idea of how I would intelligently display this, yet, so
I've stayed away from this. Contrary to most personal projects I've
worked on, this one has "ease of use" front and center, so before
implementing something like this, I'd need to know how to properly
represent this: if possible, in the agenda view, and if not, I guess
it would be in a HUD I would create for the package.
- <https://orgmode.org/list/87pn6zzoj7.fsf@localhost/> might be
relevant. The feature request suggest a way to show notes
dynamically in headlines.
## How do you make use of incubated items? Do they show up in the agenda for the whole day? That would be distracting, I guess.
I have a block of time, every morning, dedicated to processing the
inbox and seeing what's on my plate for the day. I would use this time
to decide what to do with the incubated item: incubate it again, make
it into a project, discard it, etc. My "incubate" file has a bunch of
top-level headlines like "To Read", "To Watch", "To Eat", "To Visit",
etc.
- That sounds similar to SOMEDAY-list, but processed on per-item
basis. If you decide to re-incubate an item, how to you chose the
new time?
# Notes
- [speaker] I forgot to mention this in my talk because it's fairly
recent: someone pointed me to screens that David Allen designed for
"the ideal GTD app", which means I've got some path forward for
making emacs the ideal GTD app (see
<https://github.com/Trevoke/org-gtd.el/issues/21> )
- Showcases org-gtd: <https://github.com/Trevoke/org-gtd.el>
- Custom org-gtd-capture, but reusing parts of org-mode.
- org-edna (state trigger) for automatically changing TODO to NEXT
after the previous task has been finished:
<https://www.nongnu.org/org-edna-el/>.
- Idea of having an actionable file.
- Maybe org-edna will automatically change TODO to NEXT in that
file(?)
- [speaker]: indeed :D Well, in projects, yes, it doesn't make
sense in other categories.
- Testing via buttercup
(<https://github.com/jorgenschaefer/emacs-buttercup>).
- I'm using org-edna as well and I want to point others to
<https://github.com/toshism/org-linker-edna> which is an enormous
help when working with edna.
