Wish list: skip current item while processing inbox

[dmgerman]

I wish there was a way to skip the current item being processed (I guess it not very GTD :)

[Trevoke]

Yeah, this is a request that comes up now and again. You're quite right, as well, that it isn't GTD-like at all, and therefore I don't really want to implement it.

The book does mention that there are folks who benefit from seeing the top two or three items because their brain functions better that way, and that's a slightly bigger undertaking, I don't quite know how to make this work from a UI perspective, but I do think it should be an option - to either have just one clarify buffer, or to have the top two-three clarify buffers that you can navigate between, maybe similar to the occur/search buffers that you can navigate with M-n ...

[Trevoke]

In the end maybe I should implement "skip this one", even though that's kind of a pain because it requires a whole additional state to keep track of what got skipped in the inbox (and then figure out how to... uh... not-skip-it-later).. It feels painful to implement, honestly.

[dmgerman]

what about moving refiling it to the end of the inbox? Basically, moving to the end :)

…

On Sun, May 21, 2023 at 6:06 PM Trevoke ***@***.***> wrote: In the end maybe I should implement "skip this one", even though that's kind of a pain because it requires a whole additional state to keep track of what got skipped in the inbox (and then figure out how to... uh... not-skip-it-later).. It feels painful to implement, honestly. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#162 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AABIZ4F42AKKLWFZ4CJ255DXHK32NANCNFSM6AAAAAAYJXRH2U> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- --dmg

--- D M German http://turingmachine.org

[Trevoke]

It's a possibility. We do have to handle the "edge case" of someone skipping/refiling forever the last item to the inbox - because it might look like emacs is stuck or not doing anything.

[doolio]

I think this feature would certainly be desirable as part of step 4 (Reflect) of the GTD methodology.

[Trevoke]

I think this feature would certainly be desirable as part of step 4 (Reflect) of the GTD methodology.

@doolio I don't understand. How is the way a user processes the inbox (arguably step 2 of the flow) impactful on the review/reflect step, which as you say is part 4 of the flow?

[doolio]

It's not but I think the process is similar. I recall now why I let my GTD practice slip because I don't think this package had org-gtd-review.el when I first discovered it.

In my mind (so please correct me if I'm mistaken), processing of one's GTD inbox is a combination of step 2 (Clarify) and step 3 (Organize) of the GTD methodology. I don't understand the desire to skip an item when processing the inbox as I believe you should want to process (clarify+organize) those items as quickly as possible i.e. you shouldn't want them just sitting in your inbox for a prolonged period and I think the prevailing recommendation is to clear it at least every 24-48 hrs. Saying that, I would have no objection if we provide the option to skip an item.

Now, when it comes to step 4 (Reflect), whether daily or weekly are we not processing our various lists apart from our inbox list? In doing so, to skip an item when reviewing these lists may be on reflection (!) a desirable action. It will remain in its current state in whatever list it resides until we come to reflect upon it again in the next review.

The book does mention that there are folks who benefit from seeing the top two or three items because their brain functions better that way, and that's a slightly bigger undertaking, I don't quite know how to make this work from a UI perspective

Do you mean 2-3 items in the inbox? But what if they are completely unrelated items wouldn't that just be confusing? Or do you mean to be able to see the next 2-3 subtasks within a project during a review because I can totally see that being useful. In any case, you can narrow to a region as well as to a headline. So perhaps we could have a customizable option to process a region comprising 2-3 headlines rather than a single headline?