How I use Emacs and Org-mode to implement GTD | Hacker News Reader

How I use Emacs and Org-mode to implement GTD

members.optusnet.com.au

57 pointsecounysis13 comments

Org-mode is an unmatched tool for keeping track of your day to day tasks. I have yet to find an alternative that offers scheduling tasks with as much flexibility as org-mode. The biggest barrier for me, however, is that org-mode runs inside of Emacs. As a Vim user, I have tried all of the org-mode implementations for Vim and have yet to find one that can come even close. Further, fitting something similar to org-mode into Vim goes against the simplicity of Vim which I value so much already.

Taskwarrior is a decent command line alternative to org-mode, but is lacking in the scheduling of tasks department.

Why don't you just shell out to Emacs for the things you need?

E.g. I have a Git repository that hosts an Org-mode file, when you push to it emacs is invoked on the server and converts the file to a HTML file that serves as a shared TODO / Bug list.

You don't have to use Emacs for everything to use Org, just have it export the data you need from the text you're editing in your $EDITOR of choice.

Procrastination at his best! Writing a blog post about how to optimize your tasks by customizing and configuring a mode of Emacs!

Obviously, I'm not totally serious here since it seems that he use it effectively each weeks; And I'm also happy that he shared it with us. However, talking for me, my best todo process consists of "Do it NOW else write it in todo.txt".

I know!

He could probably better optimize his tasks by typing C-x C-c, then going out & buying a small notepad & pen ;)

(I kid! I kid! Cool project really)

[edit] downvoted! I'll C-c r & remind myself not to make cheap emacs jokes in future.

Here's another good overview of an org-mode workflow, goes WAY more in-depth that just GTD:

http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html

I use orgmode every day. There is also a nice iPhone/iPad app to have your schedule on the go. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobileorg/id335805599?mt=8

You're all almost making me switch. Almost...

Quick! Help me, vimsters.

I was a vimmer then org-mode got me and beat me down. Now I'm part of the Cult of Emacs. ;)

Let alone the switch to Emacs, but I've been trying to implement GTD since college, using all sorts of tools, and I've read the book I don't know how many times, and I still feel like it's over my head.

Are there any alternatives?

Try Autofocus [1]. I quite liked it though I eventually gave it up as too simple.

[1] http://www.markforster.net/autofocus-system/

Thanks, I tried that too, though it was a few years ago. What made you think it was too simple to work though?

Does anyone know where you can see other user's org configurations? Or a canonical configuration? It'd be interesting to see how users use org-modes capabilities in different ways. (I don't mean blog posts, just raw configs)

Lots of people store their .emacs files on github, so you can start plugging variations of "org-mode" into search and it'll usually hit on either filenames (for those of us that split our .emacs into multiple files) or setup code itself. Will probably be a bit messy against all of the people forking org, but it's still worth a shot.

If you want to stare into the abyss, mine's at

http://www.github.com/qdot/conf_emacs

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