Using Org Mode to Stay Organized and Productive

As many emacs users will know, org-mode is an extremely useful tool within emacs. It has become an important pasrt of my workflow to be able to stay busy and organized, both at work and at home.

Notes in Org

Org is a markup language similar to Markdown with relatively simple syntax that is powerful at the same time. The other features that org provides uses the org syntax, however, the file itself is extremely portable and can be edited on any system with a text editor. This post will not get into the specifics of the syntax for org; however, if the reader would like to know more, information is available here.

Tasks and Todo lists in Org Agenda

Agenda views takes the syntax that Org uses, and gives the ability to create todo lists and schedule tasks. This is the feature that really gives Org its value for me. I use Org Agenda daily to schedule tasks and take notes on each task.

Orgzly

I use an app on my phone to help keep my personal life organized as well. That app is Orgzly. The main issue I have with the app is the ‘sync’ options that it provides. Currently it is limited to local storage sync or Dropbox. It also has limitied support for Git repositories, however, that feature is in beta and not technically a supported option.

Using Spacemacs in WSL

I recently switched back to using a Windows machine at work from using a Mac. While Windows does have some advantages that MacOS does not provide, it is much easier to use spacemacs and get my Org Agenda file working as intended.

WSL has made installing emacs and spacemacs easier than installing emacs natively on Windows, but it still work much better on MacOS than it does even in WSL. Another issue I ran into is syncing my Org Agenda file from my OneDrive so that it would be backup in case my computer exploded. For some reason I could not get the .org file that Agenda uses to store tasks to default to the one I have in OneDrive. I ended up using a sym link to resolve the issue because I did not have time to give the problem a ‘proper’ solution.