Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by boothead | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

boothead

This seems similar to the idea of a spark file?

http://lifehacker.com/5941997/defrag-your-brain-with-a-spark...

edit Also do you have anything written down about using org-mode for todos and ideas?

View on HN

> This seems similar to the idea of a spark file?

Indeed! The concept of a "spark file" describes exactly what I'm doing.

> Also do you have anything written down about using org-mode for todos and ideas?

This is pretty basic Org-mode usage. My To-Do list is just nested headings, each with a TODO or DONE marker (Shift+Left, Shift+Right). My IDEAS list doesn't even have those markers, it is just nested headings and nested lists. The only "advanced thing" that I do is moving items via Mod+Up and Mod+Down. This is very handy, as that moves the whole subtree up and down. And I'm using the "Tab" key for folding and unfolding subtrees.

Org-mode offers much more than what I'm using here. I'm not yet a power-user of Org-mode. For example, the "agenda view" might simplify a lot of what I'm doing (not for IDEAS, but for TODO, meetings, etc). But I didn't find the time to dig deeper into Org-mode yet.

What editor are you using?

EDIT: Nevermind: http://orgmode.org/

I would add that setting up some captures[1] helps a lot. That way you can easily add notes or tasks while working on other things.

[1]: http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture.html

I would highly recommend learning some of agenda mode. I originally started with only using the tree editing features. But one of the coolest features is the agenda mode and the fact that you can create custom views which pull in all the details you want. Here is the view I use all the time:

  (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
      '(("w" "Agenda and Next todos"
         ((agenda "" ((org-agenda-ndays 1))) ;show anything scheduled for today including habits
          (todo "NEXT|IN PROGRESS"
                ((org-agenda-overriding-header "Working On"))) ;things that I am currently working on
          (todo "TODO"
                ((org-agenda-overriding-header "Check Todo's"))) ;Todo items to check on periodically
          (todo "WAITING"
                ((org-agenda-overriding-header "Waiting On"))))))) ;things I am blocking on

Hah, I've done this for years! I'm glad it has a name now. I call mine "halfbakery.txt", but it's not very catchy.

The "Where Good Ideas Come From in 4 Minutes" video in that link is good.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com