130 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
130 lines
5.2 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: My Org Mode Flow
|
|
date: 2020-09-08
|
|
tags:
|
|
- emacs
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
# My Org Mode Flow
|
|
|
|
At almost every job I've worked at, at least one of my coworkers has noticed
|
|
that I use Emacs as my main text editor. People have pointed me at IntelliJ, VS
|
|
Code, Atom and more, but I keep sticking to Emacs because it has one huge ace up
|
|
its sleeve that other editors simply cannot match. Emacs has a package that
|
|
helps me organize my workflow, focus my note-taking and even keep a timeclock
|
|
for how long I spend working on tasks. This package is called Org mode, and this
|
|
is my flow for using it.
|
|
|
|
[Org mode](https://orgmode.org/) is a TODO list manager, document authoring
|
|
platform and more for [GNU Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/). It uses
|
|
specially formatted plain text that can be managed using version control
|
|
systems. I have used it daily for about five years for keeping track of what I
|
|
need to do for work. Please note that my usage of it _barely scratches the
|
|
surface_ of what Org mode can do, because this is all I have needed.
|
|
|
|
## `~/org`
|
|
|
|
My org flow starts with a single folder: `~/org`. The main file I use is
|
|
`todo.org` and it looks something like this:
|
|
|
|
```org
|
|
#+TITLE: TODO
|
|
|
|
* Doing
|
|
** TODO WAT-42069 Unfrobnicate the rilkef for flopnax-ropjar push...
|
|
* In Review
|
|
** TODO WAT-42042 New Relic Dashboards...
|
|
* Reviews
|
|
** DONE HAX-1337 Security architecture of wasmcloud
|
|
* Interrupt
|
|
* Generic todo
|
|
* Overhead
|
|
** 09/08/2020
|
|
*** DONE workday start...
|
|
*** DONE standup...
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Each level of stars creates a new heading level, and these headings can be
|
|
treated like a tree. You can use the tab key to open and close the heading
|
|
levels and hide those parts of the tree if they are not relevant. Let's open up
|
|
the standup subtree with tab:
|
|
|
|
```org
|
|
*** DONE standup
|
|
CLOSED: [2020-09-08 Tue 10:12]
|
|
:LOGBOOK:
|
|
CLOCK: [2020-09-08 Tue 10:00]--[2020-09-08 Tue 10:12] => 0:12
|
|
:END:
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Org mode automatically entered in nearly all of the information in this subtree
|
|
for me. I clocked in (alt-x org-clock-in with that TODO item highighted) when
|
|
the standup started and I clocked out by marking the task as done (alt-x
|
|
org-todo with that TODO item highlighted). If I am working on a task that takes
|
|
longer than one session, I can clock out of it (alt-x org-clock-out) and then
|
|
the time I spent (about 20 minutes) will be recorded in the file for me. Then I
|
|
can manually enter the time spent into tools like Jira.
|
|
|
|
When I am ready to move a task from In Progress to In Review, I close the
|
|
subtree with tab and then highlight the collapsed subtree, cut it and paste it
|
|
under the In Review header. This will keep the time tracking information
|
|
associated with that header entry.
|
|
|
|
I will tend to let tasks build up over the week and then on Monday morning I
|
|
will move all of the done tasks to `done.org`, which is where I store things
|
|
that are done. As I move things over, I double check with Jira to make sure the
|
|
time tracking has been accurately updated. This can take a while, but doing this
|
|
has caught cases where I have misreported time and then had the opportunity to
|
|
correct it.
|
|
|
|
## Clocktables
|
|
|
|
Org mode is also able to generate tables based on information in org files. One
|
|
of the most useful ones is the [clock
|
|
table](https://orgmode.org/manual/The-clock-table.html#). You can use these
|
|
clock tables to make reports about how much time was spent in each task. I use
|
|
these to help me know what I have done in the day so I can report about it in
|
|
the next day's standup meeting. To add a clock table, add an empty block for it
|
|
and press control-c c on the `BEGIN` line. Here's an example:
|
|
|
|
```org
|
|
#+BEGIN: clocktable :block today
|
|
#+END:
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This will show you all of the things you have recorded for that day. This may
|
|
end up being a bit much if you nest things deep enough. My preferred clock table
|
|
is a daily view only showing the second level and lower for the current file:
|
|
|
|
```org
|
|
#+BEGIN: clocktable :maxlevel 2 :block today :scope file
|
|
#+CAPTION: Clock summary at [2020-09-08 Tue 15:47], for Tuesday, September 08, 2020.
|
|
| Headline | Time | |
|
|
|-----------------------------|--------|------|
|
|
| *Total time* | *6:14* | |
|
|
|-----------------------------|--------|------|
|
|
| In Progress | 2:09 | |
|
|
| \_ WAT-42069 Unfrobnica... | | 2:09 |
|
|
| Overhead | 4:05 | |
|
|
| \_ 09/08/2020 | | 4:05 |
|
|
#+END:
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
This allows me to see that I've been working today for about 6.25 hours for the
|
|
day, so I can use that information when deciding what to do next.
|
|
|
|
## Other Things You Can Do
|
|
|
|
In the past I used to use org mode for a lot of things. In one of my older files
|
|
I have a comprehensive list of all of the times I smoked weed down to the amount
|
|
smoked and what I felt about it at the time. In another I have a script that I
|
|
used for applying ansible files across a cluster. The sky really is the limit.
|
|
|
|
However, I have really decided to keep things simple for the most part. I leave
|
|
org mode for work stuff and mostly use iCloud services for personal stuff. There
|
|
are mobile apps for using org-mode on the go, but they haven't aged well at all
|
|
and I have been focusing my time into actually doing things instead of
|
|
configuring WEBDAV servers or the like.
|
|
|
|
This is how I keep track of things at work.
|