Org-Mode

presentation.org

Org-mode

Basics

Emacs

Welcome!

Your editor of choice since 1976

Fun facts

• GNU Emacs by Richard Stallmann, 1984
• First Copyleft license, later to become GNU General Public License
• Written in Elisp. Emacs IS Elisp.
• Highly customizable, self-documenting
• Not an editor. A tool to build tools.
• Environment for the programming of specialized text editors.

Org-mode

• Started in 2003, ships with Emacs since 2006.
• Some tools/primitives to organize yourself, manage projects and do scientific research.
• It provides a lot of features, but you choose if/how they are used.

Plain Text Files

Outline

• You can create headings
• You can nest them
• You can fold them

Content

Simple text

Similar to markdown, but more coherent.

Code	Appearance
*bold*	bold
~code~	code
/italic/	italic
+strike through+	strike through
_underlined_	underlined
==verbatim==	verbatim

Lists

• One
• Two
• Three

Checklists

• [ ] One
• [ ] Two
• [ ] Three
• [ ] Show cookie stats!

Links

Link to this presentation in the browser

Notes

Code

JavaScript

var x = 1;
var y = 2;
return x + y;

HTTP

GET https://www.potterapi.com/v1/sortingHat

Shell

curl -s https://www.potterapi.com/v1/sortingHat

Tables

Favorite Beverages	Health	Joy
Water	8	3
Ice Tea	0	10
Peppermint Tea	8	8
Chococchino	1	10

Attachments

• New Attachment
• Attach file

Encryption

Theming

You can change anything.

Emacs Powertools

• Projectile
• Helm
• Ripgrep

Tasks

It’s really just a heading

States

Watch my state getting changed

Categories/Tags

See to the right -> Useful for filtering!

Priority

No TODO list without it…

Times

You can schedule tasks, set deadlines or just generic dates.

Capturing

Capturing in Emacs

Templates

Agenda Views

Predefined views

Reason: You can have as many org files as you like.

Agenda views work like dashboards that give you an outlook over your tasks.

Custom views

My Workflow

Task Attributes

• Title
• Content, lots of links attached
• Most have a scheduled time
• Routines as repeating tasks

Task States

skinparam monochrome true
scale 1.5

node task [
  Task States
]
node state1 [
  TODO
]
node state2 [
  WAIT
]
node state3 [
 NEXT
]
node state4 [
  CANCELLED
]
node state5 [
  DONE
]
task .. state1
task .. state2
task .. state3
task -- state4
task -- state5

File Setup and Workflow

scale 1.5

package "Capture" {
  [Drafts App]
  [Org Capture]
}

package "Org Files" {
  frame "Long Term" {
    [Archive]
    [Notes]
  }
  frame "Agenda" #Orange {
    [Inbox]
    [Tasks]
  }
}

[Org Capture] .[#Green]> [Inbox] : Add
[Drafts App] .[#Green]> [Inbox] : Add
[Inbox] .> [Tasks] : Refile
[Tasks] .> [Tasks] : Work
[Tasks] .> [Archive] : Archive

Capture Templates

Agenda

Refile

Archiving

Git Versioning

Mobile Org-Mode

• beorg for iOS
• Orgzly for Android
• Drafts as alternative? (yay, plain text!)

Is there even more?

• Note Keeping
• Task Management
• In combination with an Emacs mail client
• Sync it with calendars or Trello
• Use it with time ranges, repeating events, reminders
• For clocking tasks and generate invoices
• Literate programming
• Repeatable Research
• Really, anything!

Is Org-Mode for you?

Pro

• Part of mighty Emacs
• Highly customizable
• Battle-proven, open source, free
• Endless publications of other productivity freaks
• Full control over data, strong encryption

Contra

• Steep learning curve
• You also need to learn Emacs
• Mobile is an effort
• Emacs Stockholm Syndrome

Wrap up

Org-mode is crazy cool! It can do almost everything.

But it takes some effort to learn it.

However, it is easier to get started than you might think.

Just pick a couple of primitives and give it a try, enhance/expand later.

Going further

• Spacemacs!
• Other Communities: Todoist, Omnifocus
• My Productivity Boosters Blog Post
• Talk by Alex next week!

Questions?