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!"))))

On Technorati: emacs, pimpmyemacs, planner, productivity

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...)

Ever found yourself confronted with an inbox overflowing with general messages that you can ignore and messages that you and only you can act on? Here's something to help you sort the wheat from the chaff.

This indicates how personal messages are so you can immediately see which messages are just for you and which are part of a long Cc. Stephen Perelgut showed me the feature in Lotus Notes and I wanted to steal it sometime, so I did it while waiting for the Instant Rails archive.

To use it, add %ur to your .

(add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers 'To)
(add-to-list 'nnmail-extra-headers 'Cc)
(defvar sacha/gnus-count-recipients-threshold 5
  "*Number of recipients to consider as large.")

(defun sacha/gnus-count-recipients (header)
  "Given a Gnus message header, returns priority mark.
If I am the only recipient, return \"!\".
If I am one of a few recipients, but I'm listed in To:, return \"*\".
If I am one of a few recipients, return \"/\".
If I am one of many recipients, return \".\".
Else, return \" \"."
  (let* ((to (or (cdr (assoc 'To (mail-header-extra header))) ""))
         (cc (or (cdr (assoc 'Cc (mail-header-extra header))) "")))
    (cond
     ((string-match gnus-ignored-from-addresses to)
      (let ((len (length (bbdb-split to ","))))
        (cond
         ((= len 1) "!")
         ((< len sacha/gnus-count-recipients-threshold) "*")
         (t "/"))))
     ((string-match gnus-ignored-from-addresses
                    (concat to ", " cc))
      (if (< (length (bbdb-split (concat to ", " cc) ","))
             sacha/gnus-count-recipients-threshold)
          "/"
        "."))
     (t " "))))

(defalias 'gnus-user-format-function-r 'sacha/gnus-count-recipients)

Random Emacs symbol: dired-listing-switches - Variable: *Switches passed to `ls' for Dired. MUST contain the `l' option.

On Technorati: emacs, gnus, pimpmyemacs, emacslisp