Can anyone recommend articles or guides for learning org-mode? I'm interested in its use as an all-purpose information manager to combine TODO lists, daily notetaking, calendar and agenda planning into a single cross-referencing system, but I've never managed to get past the "make and navigate a simple outline" stage.
The part that was best for me was someone taking so much time to document, screenshot, and close the loop on most parts of managing information with org-mode.
I hope it treats you well!
Something I would also recommend: try to setting things as file-local variables or org comments at the top of an org file instead of dumping in init.el. Setting the configuration globally can make things confusing when you're just learning things.
The other comments have you covered I think but I wanted to reiterate how worth it learning org-mode and spending the time to customize your configuration is. It's a bit daunting at first, so it may take a bit of time and some learning, but it's absolutely worth it.
I use org-mode for my entire GTD workflow (calendar Agenda, next-actions, tickler, maybe, and projects), I use it for capturing quotes or blocks of text that I really want to save for later (my spark notes file), I use it for capturing my "recipes" of anything (software, realizations, food, etc...) in my grimoire file, I use it for capturing notes or thoughts while I'm reading books (with nice capture templates for guiding me through setting the page # and paragraph # in the property drawer), I use it for all of my web bookmarks (I have a bookmarklet integrated in Chrome that auto-fills fields in the capture template for the website), I use it for articles in my To Read list with a Chrome bookmarklet for auto-filling the capture template, AND I use it for my spaced repetition routine with org-drill.
I also use it extensively for work on-top of all the above. I have a capture template for my team's weekly standup meetings, I use it for taking notes during meetings and structuring action plans, etc...
The capture templates, org-protocol for external programs to activate a capture template and pre-fill with data, customized Agenda views (so I get a nice "HUD" for long-running tasks + my 4 day agenda), and refiling (this is one of my favorite parts of org-mode!!!) are absolutely invaluable and an incredible tool for my productivity.
Nothing matches it in breadth and depth, nothing. And as is the case w/ Emacs, you can customize everything to suit your workflow or make tweaks - maybe you have a great idea for improving something! For me I was able to create a highly customized Agenda view specific to my personal deficiencies (I forget about long-running important tasks that aren't a "SOLVE IT TODAY" task).
Sounds like it works for you (almost as much as you work for it :) - don't suppose you'd ever consider a simple textfile setup to capture and sort the same data?
Org files are regular text. Editing them in emacs' org "mode" makes certain text plain text elements behave dynamically (like cycling through or folding parts of an outline open/closed, etc, and more). The emacs text editor is super robust & extensible so you see people talk about custom set-ups, configurations, and workflows (which is a feature not a bug!) so it almost sounds over-the-top & superfluous to a non-user. The hardest part of using it for a non-coder is probably not getting bogged down with all that you can do and trying to follow how experts are using it before fully understanding the basics.
It is a simple text file, that's the beauty of it. The markup, that would necessary manually, is used by org-mode to help you the various possibilities (link, note, todo, outline...)
Except you need a variant of org-mode to use the file on another device, right? I've just posted my 'plain' plaintext file setup[0] if anyone cares to remark.
Resources mentioned in the official page[1] are quite good. Also I recall watching a video (can't dig it now - on a train & typing on my phone) by Prof Carsten Dominik, who started the Org-Mode project.
Meanwhile, FWIW, I'm happy to report (the age-old boring truth) that consistently using it in my daily workflow for the last one year -- didn't even break for a week, except when on holidays -- resulted in making the habit stick.
Seeing how someone else who lives on the platform does their configuration helped put it in perspective, then I just cherry-picked the ideas I liked from there in building my own.
Great idea! I actually never use TODO states, so this is a blind-spot for me. I should have checked how they export, but did not. Create an issue and I'll fix it.
