Comment by e19293001 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by e19293001 | Hacker News Reader

Here[0] is a demonstration of a good set-up in org-mode. This was written in org-mode and generated the html file. You can tangle the source code[1] and try it. This had greatly helped me to get started in organizing everything.

One of the feature I like is time clocking[2] where in you time all everything that you do (including sleep![3]) and eventually review after a week/month/year, you can generate some analysis on what task took most of your time.

org-drill[4] helped me a lot when there are things that I need to memorize.

I used vim for one year before moving to emacs. Indeed, I can edit files faster in vim rather than emacs but I can get more stuffs than in emacs rather than vim because of org-mode. Therefore, I choose emacs for the reason that org-mode helps me organize everything.

[0] http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html

[1] http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.org

[2] http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#Clocking

[3] http://sachachua.com/blog/2015/11/weekly-review-week-ending-...

Doesn't have to be that complicated, though. I recommend starting with a simple workflow.

As a former Vim user, I can recommend evil-mode and the SpaceMacs project:

https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs

https://bitbucket.org/lyro/evil/wiki/Home

> An Emacs distribution - The best editor is neither Emacs nor Vim, it's Emacs and Vim!

Evil is a very, very complete Vim emulation in Emacs. I have yet to find a feature which is missing. Some features work better than the original.

> Doesn't have to be that complicated, though. I recommend starting with a simple workflow.

Definitely agree. I tried to force myself into using tags and agenda when I first started and it didn't end well. Instead you should start out using it as a simple TODO list manager and slowly use more advanced features when you figure out how they could fit in with your workflow. I think Carsten Dominik (the original author of Org-mode) put it best:

>What people miss when they are new to Org-mode is this:

>Don't try to set up the "final" task managing system from the start. Because you have no idea yet what your system should look like. Don't set up many TODO states and logging initially, before you actually have a feeling for what you working flow is. Don't define a context tag "@computer" just because David Allen has one, even though you are sitting at a computer all the time anyway! Start by creating and managing a small TODO list and then develop your own system as the needs arises. I wrote Org-mode to enable this development process.

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-orgmode/2008-04/msg...

Just use org-mode like you would use a paper todo list, and then add the bells and whistles when you need them. No need to spend a week setting it up.

I entirely approve of starting small, including avoiding tags and many different TODO keywords, but I think avoiding the Agenda is a bad idea. If your files start out simply, the Agenda will be easy to use. And once you learn its commands, and how to manipulate Org files through the Agenda (instead of editing the file itself), you will have gained a power that will continue to pay dividends later, as you get better at Org.

To me, learning to use the Agenda early on is as important as learning to use Emacs' basic movement commands early on: it will make everything after that much easier.

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