I am a retired programmer and I have various software projects that currently exist and hopefully new projects that will be created in the future. I want to keep track of hours for each project and along with that a list or description of what I did during that time. The end results will be the ability to ask “How was this project developed?” and have a list of items be produced with dates and time spent on each. An “Item” may be a particular feature of the project or a stray thought that went no where.
My current system is to keep an “hours.org” file in each project with headings and subheadings and a LOGBOOK with clock-in and clock-out entries under each header. This is working “Ok” but it is flat and does not connect in any way to other projects.
What happens is I will be working on a project and, for example, my Emacs config needs a refit in some area so I will go off and spend a half day on that. That time and activity should be connected to both the project I’m working on because that is what caused the tangent to be taken as well as the project of my Emacs configuration.
I intend on writing various functions and hook them up to keys so that I can switch what I’m doing quickly, clock out of the previous one and clock into the new one, and make connections between the projects and the items within them. And, of course, there will be topics / cards that I want to add that are not connected to any project.
My knowledge of org-roam is close to zero. I’ve watched a few videos and I have it set up but I’ve not used it. I know that it has links between the cards and it can determine the back links to a card and I know that there are tags.
My question is how to use these features. Should each project be its own separate card? Should each “item” (activity, changed, etc) be a separate card linked to the project or perhaps headings within a project’s card. Or maybe projects should just be tags and then the items / activity cards could just be tagged with the project they are for.
Last, I have no strong desire to reinvent the wheel… if there is another package that implements the type of record keeping I have described, I would welcome a pointer to it.
Thank you for your time
