I have been struggling with keeping myself organized for some time now. I think just as much as anyone else out there. I have tried different todo apps and different techniques.
Before I switched to a ThinkPad as my main working horse I had a MacBook. Those Mac devs definitly know how to make apps nice and shiny, but no app really fitted my needs. They may be polished and integrate in OS X’ overall looks, but they implement a likely limited usability of Macintoshs aswell.
I have been using Emacs as my main development environment for some time on the mac so I gave org-mode a try. And just as much as I learned to love Emacs I learned to love org-mode.
As technique to force myself to focus on tasks that my brain refuses to keep focus on I became accustomed to the pomodoro technique. Some people may condemn it as a stupid timer flow and yes it’s nothing else. But at least anyone that hears the term knows what I’m talking about.
Let me introduce you to my org-mode configuration.
Most of the ideas come from Bernt Hansen. Check out his ingenious documentation.
For my configuration I took some of his ideas and tried to adapt them
to my needs. The results can be found in the org-helpers.el package.
I cleaned up some code and made some functions more generic. Because I
decided to go with the pomodoro technique I did not take over the
clocking functions. For the pomodoro functions I did a rewrite of the
org-pomodoro package which was written by Marcin Kozey. Have a look at my
Github project (leoc/org-pomodoro).
In the following sections I will explain my
.emacs.d/leoc/leoc-org.el.
The file extension associations, bindings and requirements are trivial.
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.org$" . org-mode))
(add-to-list 'auto-mode-alist '("\\.org_archive$" . org-mode))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c l") 'org-store-link)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c a") 'org-agenda)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c b") 'org-iswitchb)
(require 'org-habit)
(require 'org-helpers)
(require 'org-pomodoro)
Because I want to use pomodoro technique I clock into full
pomodoros. That makes clocking out obsolete. If I want to start a new
pomodoro I have to kill the running one first. This is done by the
org-pomodoro function.
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-x C-i") 'org-pomodoro)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c C-x C-o") 'org-pomodoro)
Tasks may be TODO, actionable tasks are declared as NEXT and
finished tasks are DONE. Then there are tasks that are inactive.
Eithere they are WAITING for an event to happen, they are on HOLD
for an unspecified amount of time (which means they have been worked
on), they are declared for SOMEDAY in the future or they are
CANCELLED.
(setq org-todo-keywords
'((sequence "TODO(t)" "NEXT(n)" "|" "DONE(d!/!)")
(sequence "WAITING(w@/!)" "HOLD(h@/!)" "SOMEDAY(o)" "|" "CANCELLED(c@/!)")))
The agenda tasks are split into different files. I added their archive files aswell, because I like to have a look in the logs aswell.
(setq org-agenda-files (list "~/.org/tasks.org"
"~/.org/tasks.org_archive"
"~/.org/projects.org"
"~/.org/projects.org_archive"
"~/.org/job.org"
"~/.org/job.org_archive"
"~/.org/calendar.org"))
I have a file called inbox.org where I put anything that comes to my
mind. When I
(setq org-capture-templates
'(("r" "Todo" entry (file+headline "~/.org/inbox.org" "Inbox")
"* TODO %?")
("j" "Journal" entry (file+datetree "~/.org/journal.org")
(file "~/.org/templates/review"))))
For those two capture templates I assigned specific key bindings.
(define-key global-map "\C-cr"
(lambda () (interactive) (org-capture nil "r")))
(define-key global-map "\C-cj"
(lambda () (interactive) (org-capture nil "j")))
To configure the habits I have found the following to be quite useful.
;; display teh tags farther right
(setq org-agenda-tags-column -102)
;; display the org-habit graph right of the tags
(setq org-habit-graph-column 102)
(setq org-habit-following-days 7)
(setq org-habit-preceding-days 21)
In the agenda mode I like to have the possibility to restrict to projects or subtrees at point. When widened the agenda only shows the top-level projects. When I restrict to a project alls subprojects and subtasks are shown. Furthermore I want to be able to quickly start pomodoros for tasks at point.
(defun custom-org-agenda-mode-defaults ()
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map "W" 'oh/agenda-remove-restriction)
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map "N" 'oh/agenda-restrict-to-subtree)
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map "P" 'oh/agenda-restrict-to-project)
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map "q" 'bury-buffer)
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map "I" 'org-pomodoro)
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map "O" 'org-pomodoro)
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-x C-i") 'org-pomodoro)
(org-defkey org-agenda-mode-map (kbd "C-c C-x C-o") 'org-pomodoro))
(add-hook 'org-agenda-mode-hook 'custom-org-agenda-mode-defaults 'append)
Now we come to the heart of my configuration. The custom agenda
commands. I have the same overview as Bernt Hansen does. It works
pretty well. Tasks declared SOMEDAY are not shown in any
agenda. I use the main agenda a most of the time, which is a
combination of all the different views. First there is the daily
agenda, then I have the tasks to refile. Then the List of stuck
projects and the list of actionable NEXT tasks.
Then there is a list of available tasks, which shows only single tasks unless the agenda is restricted to a subtree. If it is, then the available tasks for this subtree are shown.
As described earlier the list of projects lists only the top-level projects, unless you have restricted the view to a subtree. Then the subprojects of that particular subtree are shown.
Last, there is a list of “Waiting or Postponed Tasks”, where tasks
declared WAITING or HOLD are shown.
(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
'(("a" "Agenda"
((agenda "" nil)
(alltodo ""
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Tasks to Refile")
(org-agenda-files '("~/.org/inbox.org"))
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :headline-if-restricted-and '(todo)))))
(tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!-HOLD-WAITING"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Stuck Projects")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(inactive non-project non-stuck-project habit scheduled deadline)))))
(tags-todo "-WAITING-CANCELLED/!NEXT"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Next Tasks")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(inactive project habit scheduled deadline)))
(org-tags-match-list-sublevels t)
(org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(todo-state-down effort-up category-keep))))
(tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!-NEXT-HOLD-WAITING"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Available Tasks")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :headline-if '(project)
:subtree-if '(inactive habit scheduled deadline)
:subtree-if-unrestricted-and '(subtask)
:subtree-if-restricted-and '(single-task)))
(org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(category-keep))))
(tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Currently Active Projects")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(non-project stuck-project inactive habit)
:headline-if-unrestricted-and '(subproject)
:headline-if-restricted-and '(top-project)))
(org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(category-keep))))
(tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!WAITING|HOLD"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Waiting and Postponed Tasks")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(project habit))))))
nil)
("r" "Tasks to Refile" alltodo ""
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Tasks to Refile")
(org-agenda-files '("~/.org/inbox.org"))))
("#" "Stuck Projects" tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!-HOLD-WAITING"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Stuck Projects")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(inactive non-project non-stuck-project
habit scheduled deadline)))))
("n" "Next Tasks" tags-todo "-WAITING-CANCELLED/!NEXT"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Next Tasks")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(inactive project habit scheduled deadline)))
(org-tags-match-list-sublevels t)
(org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(todo-state-down effort-up category-keep))))
("R" "Tasks" tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!-NEXT-HOLD-WAITING"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Available Tasks")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :headline-if '(project)
:subtree-if '(inactive habit scheduled deadline)
:subtree-if-unrestricted-and '(subtask)
:subtree-if-restricted-and '(single-task)))
(org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(category-keep))))
("p" "Projects" tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Currently Active Projects")
(org-agenda-skip-function
'(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(non-project inactive habit)))
(org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(category-keep))
(org-tags-match-list-sublevels 'indented)))
("w" "Waiting Tasks" tags-todo "-CANCELLED/!WAITING|HOLD"
((org-agenda-overriding-header "Waiting and Postponed Tasks")
(org-agenda-skip-function '(oh/agenda-skip :subtree-if '(project habit)))))))
The main helper method here is the oh/agenda-skip functions, which
allows to generically skip headlines or subtrees, whether restricted
or unrestricted.