# Orgmode - your life in plain text
Rainer König
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In this talk I'll give you a quick overview of my Orgmode GTD
system. We start with capturing a small project, scheduling
the tasks, doing all and then archiving the finished tasks.
To stay on focus, every morning I build a plan for the day
with the 3 most important tasks first and then some other
stuff that should be done. In this way I avoid getting
pulled down by an endless agenda view that I can't finish on
that day anyway.
Background info: I'm using Orgmode for many years now, and I'm not
exaggerating if I tell you that it saved me from a nervous breakdown
when my wife got diagonosed with severe illness and I was suddenly in
charge of everything. Orgmode was there and reminded me of the
important things so nothing was forgotten and I could focus on what
really matters.
In 2016 I recorded a
set of tutorial videos which are available
on my YouTube channel which gained more than 3600 subcribers because
of those tutorials.
In Summer 2020 I recorded the tutorials again for
a
course at Udemy which went online in October 2020 and is
supplemented by a 100+ pages course book.
For the Emacs Conference 2020 I created a coupon code EMACSCONF which is valid until December 2, 2020 11:58 AM PST, so you can get the course for the price of €9.99. You can use this code with this link.
- Actual start and end time (EST): End: 2020-11-28T13.16.44
# Questions
## What's the advantage of copying tasks from the agenda to a separate daily plan, rather than just managing them directly within the agenda?
- [Karl Voit]: I asked Rainer the very same question and his answer
was that his agenda is full with tasks. Copying them (via keyboard
shortcuts) to a manually curated daily list provides a condensed
daily agenda showing only the tasks he is going to do (when the day
goes as planned).
- I feel it can reduce some mental stress.
- Yes, this is it, I want to decide in the morning (I can never do all
what is in the agenda) and then I'm no longer overwhelmed by that
long agenda.
- This may also be relevant: .
- OK thanks - but then why not just create custom agenda views for a)
building the daily list and then b) just viewing the daily list
without distractions? e.g. via org-super-agenda or org-ql?
- Sometimes I also want to review my previous tasks I've done.
- There is build-in org-agenda-log-mode (v l) to do this. One just
need to make sure that the task state changes are actually
logged (see `(apropos "org-log-*")`).
- I suspect that could also be achieved via org-ql or similar but
admit it's probably a more complex solution. Just naturally
averse to anything which duplicates data and could lead to
inconsistencies :)
- Exactly. It is just very easy to do it in such a format, but
it can definitely be achieved by super-agenda/org-ql
## How long does it usually take you to manage/maintain your agenda on a daily basis?
- Five minutes a day.
- Extensively uses org-capture to get thoughts down and schedule
things for later — gets things out of head and saves the task for
later.
- Weekly review to go through checklists — usually takes about half an
hour.
## What version of Emacs and of Org do you currently use?
- Emacs: 25.3.1
- Orgmode version: 9.1.5
## Do you keep Emacs open with you all day, or just when you need to add tasks or reference todos?
It's open all the day. Two monitor setup, Emacs is always opened on
one (usually the non-main one, apparently, but moved back to the main
one if necessary).
## Where do your notes/tasks end up after you complete them (lurst asked that first on IRC)?
In archives (missed some details here, sorry).
## Do you use Org mode on a mobile device as well? If so how do you do it?
On the road I have a real old fashioned paper notebook with a
ballpoint pen ;-)
## How did you add the super fast typing?
- A) I learned touch typing at school around 45 years ago.
- B) Kdenlive can accelerate video material. You need to mark it (cut
it left and right) and then press Shift-Ctrl and the mouse to drag
it, that adds the time lapse effect.
## Do you export your Org files or Agenda files for others?
I once tried it at work, but it didn't work out. For me Org is a
**personal** prodcutivity system and not a sort of
groupware. Nevertheless, I have a ToDo keyword "DELEGATED" to monitor
e.g. errands that I give to my kids.
## Do you use Emacs for everything or just a few things like time management, programming, etc.?
Emacs is my primary editor for shell scripts, LaTeX files, even
LilyPond (remember that talk in the morning). I wrote all the LaTeX
files for the book I prepared for my course in Emacs.
## Do you keep your project notes and backup information with the to do items in your agenda or in separate files?
The notes are all in the :LOGBOOK: drawer of each task. So I have a
sort of "micro blog" there that clearly shows what happened with that
task so far. I even see all the "RESCHEDULED on…" timestamps
which helps me to identify the tasks I procrastinate. ;-)
## Not a question but thank you so much for your videos Rainer
- You're welcome. What started as a "I need to show Org to a few
people" turned out helpful to a lot more than I ever expected. ;-)
- These videos helped me so much! Thank you!
# Notes
- Showcases org-capture, org-agenda, rescheduling from the agenda.
- The idea of "The 3 most important tasks" is important to make a
clear target on day to day basis.
- Just in case Rainer is not checking the IRC: lots of compliments!
Also for your courses (on YouTube)!!
- How Org Mode Saved My Life - Programmer Interview With Rainer König
On Emacs Org Mode
-
-
- Udemy Course URL:
- Very interesting thing to know: Rainer is not using a substantial
customized setup. It's rather out-of-the-box only.
- Org-mode tutorial YouTube playlist:
# Transcript
00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:22.560
Hi there, this is Rainer. I have a
10-minute time slot at the EmacsConf and
I will show you a quick walk through my
GTD system in Org mode, so let's start
with capturing. We want to capture what
we do here.
00:00:22.560 --> 00:01:03.600
So the idea is I press F6 and I say: "I
want to make a small project because
this video will be a small project," so
the thing is: "Record a video for Emacs
Conf 2020." Video is recorded, edited,
and uploaded. We can also set the
timeline because we want to upload it.
The time, the deadline for uploads
is--we know it already--the 14th of
November. so let me put this in here.
See, this is done.
00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:40.400
Now, because it's a project... I mean, I
could say just one task to record a
video, but it's too much, so let's split
it down in a few small tasks. The next
one...
00:01:40.400 --> 00:02:18.560
So you see, I've just typed a few quick
tasks. We can see them if we look in the
capture file. You see, there's my
project entry and there are all my
tasks. Since it's a project, I can now
make it easy. I just indent every task
by one and then, so...
00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:45.599
Okay, so you see we have one project
here, and this one we refile now to our
backlog. So if we look in our backlog,
you see my project with all the tasks.
00:02:45.599 --> 00:03:30.879
So now, next one. I pretend now I'm
doing a weekly review. C-c x b. And I
already did some things, and now the
point where I am is scheduled tasks with
no date. Those are all those tasks. So I
have a weekly review helper that says,
okay, show me everything that I need to
schedule, plan. So schedule this class.
We do everything.
00:03:30.879 --> 00:04:03.200
So everything is scheduled now, and we
can check off that and so on. We can...
I have a plan for every day. That's my
free plan. I press F6, and I say p p
plan. Private things. You see there is
the first day, 12th of November, German.
And now I can look at what I have to do
today.
00:04:04.239 --> 00:04:37.680
My agenda view is very long, and I just
want to focus on a few tasks, so I
copied them to my daily plan. I just
want to show you. So I have a daily plan
for every day, and that means this one
is what I see, and this one is gone.
00:04:37.680 --> 00:05:15.605
So now, let's pretend we are working on
the first: we find the requirements for
the video. We had a look. Okay, I can
mark this task as done here because I
knew the requirements. C-c t. Done.
Format is 720p, webm codec. So this one
is done and I can mark it off here as
well. So now I have marked it off
everywhere.
00:05:15.605 --> 00:05:24.639
The good thing of my daily plan is that
I can really see it all the day. I stick
to this, what I decided in the morning
what I want to do.
00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:58.319
So let's go to the next one. Make a
quick test. Yeah, I did the test
already. I will do a small trick. I say,
okay, I record the video here. Video
recorded. Then let me do what to show.
Now I'm recording the video.
00:05:58.319 --> 00:07:02.560
Let's see. What we do: we had capture,
we had weekly review, we had daily
planning. How are we processing this?
Very nice. So let's pretend the video is
recorded C-c t done. Let me put this to
NEXT again. Start kdenlive to time
lapse. After recording it, I pretend
this is done now. C-c t done. Then I
have a video ready. Let's pretend I did
the upload as well. Done. Video
uploaded. So I can say everything now is
done. Save it, so tomorrow I see what I
did yesterday. Here I'm completely done.
00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:40.455
We have the weekly review. We put
another buffer here because I want to
show you the final step of my weekly
review. If you see, there's a final step
that says: select finished tasks and
make a bulk archive action. So if you
look at my EmacsConf thing, okay, the
project is done as well. Project C-c t
done. And then, what I can do is now see
a weekly review helper. Finished tasks.
00:07:40.455 --> 00:08:00.320
I could make a bulk operation that says
archive everything, but at the moment I
don't need to do that because we have a
tree structure, so it's C-c x a I have
this task away, and the task is done. So
that's it.
00:08:00.320 --> 00:08:21.959
That's my system you see: from capturing
tasks, to scheduling tasks, to putting
it on the daily plan, performing it, and
at the end, when everything is done, the
next weekly review they will go to the
archive file, because it's finished.
Thank you for watching. That's it.