org-mode agenda -- what does "Sched. 5x" mean?

3
votes

tl;dr: In emacs org-mode agenda view, I don't understand why some of my TODO's are telling me how many days over their scheduled date they are, and others are not.

In emacs org-mode, if I type C-c a a I see my agenda for the current day. Right at the top there are typically a few entries in red, of the form

projects:    Sched. 5x: TODO [#A] Do this job

It seems to me that the reason it says Sched. 5x is that this is a TODO which was scheduled for 5 days ago. Indeed here is a complete entry in one of my org files:

** TODO [#A] Do this job.                          
   SCHEDULED: <2016-09-23 Fri .+21d>

and today it's the 28th, 5 days later. However I just noticed that I have some jobs which are scheduled to be done several days ago, and they are coming out in green. Here is another entry in one of my org files.

** TODO [#A] Stack Overflow test.
   SCHEDULED: <2016-09-23 Fri .+1d>

and given that it is now 28th, five days after 23, I would again expect a red entry in my agenda, with a "Sched. 5x" or something. But I get a green

test1:      Scheduled:  TODO [#A] Stack Overflow test.

right at the bottom of the list of things I should be doing on or before today. I am hoping to get this thing right to the top somehow, because it's 5 days late. Why is it not there in red? Have I done something stupid?

Edit: the value of org-scheduled-delay-days is 0.

3
emacsorg-mode
it means it's 5 days overtime. With recurring events you have to be careful with what org-mode does when you 'DONE' a task. - mike3996
My question is exactly why some jobs that are 5 days overtime are not marked as "Sched 5x". Can you be more explicit about how I have to be careful? I want "Test for SO question" above to be marked as overdue and in red at the top of my list, if I have not done it for several days. Do you know how to change the TODO above so that this happens? - znt
@znt to help us diagnose the problem. Would you post the full text of two real TODOs in your question; one where you are seeing 5x and one where you think you should be seeing it but aren't? Also, check the value of org-scheduled-delay-days: M-x describe-variable RET org-scheduled-delay-days - elethan
Done. Am I misunderstanding the agenda view? I can't guess why one is Sched 5x and the other isn't. They were both scheduled for 5 days ago. - znt

3 Answers

3
votes

you can erase it to type M-x customize-variable ==> org-scheduled-past-days ==> 0

2
votes

Because of the +1d in the schedule line the todo should be done every day. So it's actually scheduled (at least) twice. Once today and again for the entry we missed yesterday. The agenda shows only one: today's. It's late and on-time simultaneously and org-mode doesn't understand that.

0
votes

This Sched.xx feature on the agenda was driving me crazy. The answer didn't quite clarify it for me. My understanding was improved by this post which says to remove the SCHEDULED attribute which is what's causing it to continue to appear. In that thread this faq is also referenced which explains the difference between a scheduled entry and one with an active time stamp. In short: be careful what you schedule. An active timestamp might be what you want.