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If you like the challenge of a steep learning curve, might I suggest org-mode for emacs? It's got tasks, todos, built in agenda calculation, and so on. Also i

If you like the challenge of a steep learning curve, might I suggest org-mode for emacs? It's got tasks, todos, built in agenda calculation, and so on. Also it's shipped as default with emacs. For something like a "waiting" status, you can easily reconfigure the default to-do states on a global or per file basis, and even have several different sets of states for tasks. Here's a pretty handy guide showing what you can do with it, and then there's allways the org-mode documentation which outlines all features. http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html I've got a friend of mine who uses it for literally everything from notetaking to planning projects and billing project time, and I'm slowly getting into it as well. If Evernote's greatest strenght is flexibility, this will certainly give it a run for its money.

dj-wonk 12y ago
Most org-mode documentation I see is painfully long. Can you recommend a short video or document that makes a compelling argument that org mode is worth the trouble? I currently can't get a sense of the learning curve relative to the benefits. As a matter of context, I use Markdown text files when I want something lightweight and OmniFocus for when I need more structure.
- solistice 12y ago
  Well, that is mostly due to the quantity of things you can do with it as well as the literal 1000 keyboard shortcuts it has (I got halfway through compiling an ankii deck, and i counted 400, I'll get down to doing the rest once I have time again). The link I have in the post above outlines an efficient org-mode workflow [http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html], but since that one is fairly mature and detailed, it's a long document as well. Then there's this fairly short video that just showcases the basic features [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsGYet02bEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsGYet02bEk] or structure manipulation. I could give a short overwiev a shot though. Tree based document structure : Start a line with * to create a top level headline, two * to do a subheadline, use as many ""s as you want to infinitely subdivide tasks and ideas. Toggle entire subtrees from view with a single key combination, or generate a sparse tree that only contains what you need. Tables: Autoformatting ASCII tables that start on a new line with "|". Mutate rows, columns, use emacs-calc inside of the table. Todo Items: Create todo's by writing a headline that contains "TODO" as in " TODO sth". Or pressing C-c C-t. Define different sets of todo states globally of per file. (Say BUG | RESOLVED WONTFIX) with any number of intermediate steps or finished states. Create TODO dependencies (just have sub-TODOs under existing TODOs). Add automatic notes to todo states, and or timestamps. Track how much time you've spent on TODOs exactly (say for billing). Refile entire regions into different files entirely. Say you had your "in"-file, and you're in your project view. You suddenly remember to go pick up milk. Type it into your project view, C-c C-w, autocomplete to your "in" file, refiled. Agendas : Agendas will cull TODOs, Deadlines, Scheduled tasks and Habits from all your buffers automatically. Want to know what needs to get done at work today? Generate an agenda of all TODOs, Deadlines and Scheduled tasks that have the tag :Work:. Done. The beauty of it is that you don't have to learn how to do all of that right away. If you know the basic commands you can already get a lot of use out of it, hell, if you know the syntax for TODOs and headlines it's allready usable. But org-mode is there for people who like to tweak their workflow. Everything is tweakable, rebindable, extendable, and it's not limited to usage as a personal planning tool. You can write HTML with it, or insert LaTeX and export to PDF. A lot of those long guides for org-mode have been written in org-mode. Edit: Now Hackernews formatting is messing with this a little, and thinks double stars mean indentation...now way to escape that though.
taude 12y ago
I used to use Emacs org-mode. But now been using Plain Tasks [1] in Sublime 3. (I lost an Emacs config file and haven't looked back.) [1] https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/PlainTasks https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/PlainTasks

dj-wonk 12y ago

Most org-mode documentation I see is painfully long. Can you recommend a short video or document that makes a compelling argument that org mode is worth the trouble? I currently can't get a sense of the learning curve relative to the benefits. As a matter of context, I use Markdown text files when I want something lightweight and OmniFocus for when I need more structure.

solistice 12y ago
Well, that is mostly due to the quantity of things you can do with it as well as the literal 1000 keyboard shortcuts it has (I got halfway through compiling an ankii deck, and i counted 400, I'll get down to doing the rest once I have time again). The link I have in the post above outlines an efficient org-mode workflow [http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html], but since that one is fairly mature and detailed, it's a long document as well. Then there's this fairly short video that just showcases the basic features [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsGYet02bEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsGYet02bEk] or structure manipulation. I could give a short overwiev a shot though. Tree based document structure : Start a line with * to create a top level headline, two * to do a subheadline, use as many ""s as you want to infinitely subdivide tasks and ideas. Toggle entire subtrees from view with a single key combination, or generate a sparse tree that only contains what you need. Tables: Autoformatting ASCII tables that start on a new line with "|". Mutate rows, columns, use emacs-calc inside of the table. Todo Items: Create todo's by writing a headline that contains "TODO" as in " TODO sth". Or pressing C-c C-t. Define different sets of todo states globally of per file. (Say BUG | RESOLVED WONTFIX) with any number of intermediate steps or finished states. Create TODO dependencies (just have sub-TODOs under existing TODOs). Add automatic notes to todo states, and or timestamps. Track how much time you've spent on TODOs exactly (say for billing). Refile entire regions into different files entirely. Say you had your "in"-file, and you're in your project view. You suddenly remember to go pick up milk. Type it into your project view, C-c C-w, autocomplete to your "in" file, refiled. Agendas : Agendas will cull TODOs, Deadlines, Scheduled tasks and Habits from all your buffers automatically. Want to know what needs to get done at work today? Generate an agenda of all TODOs, Deadlines and Scheduled tasks that have the tag :Work:. Done. The beauty of it is that you don't have to learn how to do all of that right away. If you know the basic commands you can already get a lot of use out of it, hell, if you know the syntax for TODOs and headlines it's allready usable. But org-mode is there for people who like to tweak their workflow. Everything is tweakable, rebindable, extendable, and it's not limited to usage as a personal planning tool. You can write HTML with it, or insert LaTeX and export to PDF. A lot of those long guides for org-mode have been written in org-mode. Edit: Now Hackernews formatting is messing with this a little, and thinks double stars mean indentation...now way to escape that though.

taude 12y ago

I used to use Emacs org-mode. But now been using Plain Tasks [1] in Sublime 3. (I lost an Emacs config file and haven't looked back.) [1] https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/PlainTasks https://sublime.wbond.net/packages/PlainTasks