One of the things I want to do is develop a good sense of how long it
takes me to do something. Better time estimates lead to better
scheduling, better sense of what I can commit to, and ultimately less
stress and more happiness. =)

Fortunately, Planner makes it easy for me to do really detailed
time-tracking. When I mark a task as in progress, the clock starts
ticking. When I postpone or close a task, the system clocks out
automatically.

I find that my attention occasionally strays. Sometime ago, I wrote a
function to help me keep track of what I'm supposed to be doing.
Today, I've decided to try estimating task completion times for more
of the tasks on my list. I modified my old function to tell me how
much time has elapsed since I started the task. This doesn't take into
account previous clock-in/clock-outs, but it will do for now.

We'll see how well it works. =)

;; I've bound sacha/planner-what-am-i-supposed-to-be-doing to F9 F11. I
;; start out by clocking into the task (use planner-timeclock.el and
;; C-c TAB to mark a task as in progress). Then, when I find myself
;; getting distracted, I hit F9 F9 to see my current task in the
;; minibuffer. C-u F9 F9 jumps back to the task so that I can either
;; mark it as postponed. M-x planner-task-pending (bound to C-c C-p in
;; my local config) and M-x planner-task-done (C-c C-x) both clock out
;; of the task. If I want to jump back to the previous window
;; configuration from that planner page, I can just hit F9 F9 again.

(defvar sacha/window-register "w"
  "Register for jumping back and forth between planner and wherever I am.")
(defvar sacha/planner-current-task nil
  "Current task info.")
(defadvice planner-task-in-progress (after sacha activate)
  "Keep track of the task info."
  (setq sacha/planner-current-task (planner-current-task-info)))

(defun sacha/planner-what-am-i-supposed-to-be-doing (&optional prefix)
  "Make it easy to keep track of what I'm supposed to be working on.
If PREFIX is non-nil, jump to the current task, else display it
in a message. If called from the plan page, jump back to whatever
I was looking at."
  (interactive "P")
  (if planner-timeclock-current-task
      (if (string= (planner-task-page sacha/planner-current-task)
                   (planner-page-name))
          (jump-to-register sacha/window-register)
        (if (null prefix)
            (message "%s %s"
                     ;; Minutes so far
                     (timeclock-seconds-to-string (timeclock-last-period))
                     planner-timeclock-current-task)
          (frame-configuration-to-register sacha/window-register)
          (planner-find-file (planner-task-page sacha/planner-current-task))
          (planner-find-task sacha/planner-current-task)))
    (if prefix
        (planner-goto-today)
      (message "No current task. HEY!"))))

Random Emacs symbol: cal-tex-mouse-filofax-week – Command: Two page Filofax calendar for week indicated by cursor. (Hey, I didn't know we could print Filofax calendars from Emacs cal…)