Providing clock context when stopping the clock (enhancement request)

[Peter Frings <peter.frings@agfa.com>]

Hi all,

summary: provide the context of the running clock in the note buffer  
when clocking out.


I might not be doing well in the 'getting organized' department,  
because I often forget what I was doing... :-)  So I have a little  
enhancement request that would make my life a little easier...

Here's the situation: I have org-log-note-clock-out set so I can enter  
a little note about what it was I was doing. Now, I often get  
interrupts while banging away at the keyboard (not necessarily in  
emacs). Often, I don't get the time (or I simply forget) to switch to  
emacs, clock out and describe what I was doing. Especially not when  
someone is standing next to me jumping up and down in a very stressful  
manner.

So, when I return to my desk, maybe a hour later, I need to enter the  
interrupt in my time sheets. So I enter a brief note under the right  
heading in my time sheet, clock in, and org-mode of course first wants  
me first to clock out. It prompts me for what I was doing... and I  
don't know anymore (it's not uncommon to work on several different  
things during a single day, interrupting one interrupt for another --  
and sometimes getting a stack overflow...). So there I am, staring at  
the clock-out note buffer, trying to remember what the heck I was  
doing before I got interrupted. Now, org-mode helpfully mentions the  
time on which the active clock was started, which is nice, but not  
enough. It would be *really* helpful when it would show the heading  
(maybe context) of the running clock, right there, in the note buffer,  
staring at my face.[1]

I know one can first jump to the active clock, read it, and then  
proceed to clock out/in. But you wouldn't need to do all that when the  
note buffer shows the context, would you? It sure would help me.

Does this make sense?

Thanks,
Peter -- who is still learning org-mode, and appreciating it a lot!


BTW: there's a small typo in the description of org-log-note-clock-out:
"Non-nil means, recored a note when ..."
s/recored/record/


[1] slightly off-topic: this is similar to what Don Norman (in "The  
Psychology of Everyday Things") refers as 'knowledge in the world'  
versus 'knowledge in the brain'. The more info and context a system  
provides, the less the user has to remember, and the easier it is for  
him to use the system.