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I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

kevinkle.in

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Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#31

Post by ParetoOptimal »

kovek wrote: post #30
rayiner wrote: post #29

Org Mode is amazing! As an attorney I spend a lot of my time taking notes, tracking moving parts, and working with voluminous PDFs. I've tried a lot of different tools over the years (OneNote, etc.) for this purpose, but they all have serious shortcomings. I used to use Emacs in my previous life as a programmer, but had never used Org Mode before. I've got the following workflow: - Org Mode (with org-superstar) for t…

Do you have smooth scrolling in Emacs? How do you sync your work with your smartphone?

> Do you have smooth scrolling in Emacs?

Yes, but one of the smooth scrolling modes was too slow for me and I use `pixel-scroll-precision-mode` which requires Emacs 29.

> How do you sync your work with your smartphone?

I use syncthing for this and Orgzly, emacs in termux, and organice.

I bet most would prefer and could get away with just using organice.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#32

Post by BeetleB »

tconfrey wrote: post #25
nonrandomstring wrote: post #19

There's a school of throught, prevalent at the last Emacs conference (See Karl Voit's talk), that Org is also a notation/markup. So-called "org-down" has been put forward with foundational semantics, headings, lists, emphasis and other basics. https://karl-voit.at/2021/11/27/orgdown/ I'd actually love to see Gemini and HN adopt orgdown. Just sayin... :)

Thats the cool thing about org, its not just a great outliner tool and the best markdown, it also covers the full gamut of productivity and personal knowledge management functions (todos, calendaring, linking etc). That said, what would it mean for HN to adopt orgdown?

It means one can use the orgdown syntax when writing comments.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#33

Post by BeetleB »

Rochus wrote: post #17
imiric wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does your tool do that Org Mode doesn't? I.e. what are those limitations you ran into?

E.g. more typing, or you have to look to the screen when navigating; in Crossline - even more than in Ecco Pro - I can operate with shortcuts, but shortcuts optimized for an outliner, not just an editor with structured formating; Crossline allows me to look at the people I discuss with during the meeting and take structured notes at the same time without taking my hands off the keyboard and without looking to my lapt…

I found a similar problem with Org mode when it comes to writing elisp code to handle org documents - it's almost all based on text parsing vs nodes. So simple automations I can program in a node based editor like the Leo Editor took a lot of effort in Org mode.

As an example, if you want the body (text) of a node, you have to get the substring from the beginning to the end. There wasn't (probably still isn't) an API to get the body. If you want to do a depth-first/breadth-first traversal of nodes, it's not as straightforward as one would think.

I hope someone comes up with a node based API for Org mode.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#34

Post by BeetleB »

sva_ wrote: post #9

I tried using Org and Org-Roam for a while, but I think I gave up on it. The overhead of constantly updating and fiddling to make your config comply with the updates didn't seem worth it. The alternative would be to just stay on an old version, but that goes against my principles of running a rolling release distribution. And hell, if you decided to update after a year or two, you could probably start over with most…

I rarely need to update my config for Org - they rarely break compatibility. Perhaps once every 2-3 years.

Org roam - that's not a mature project and it frequently breaks. If the current Roam is doing what you need, do not let it upgrade automatically.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#35

Post by kkleindev »

ParetoOptimal wrote: post #31
kovek wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have smooth scrolling in Emacs? How do you sync your work with your smartphone?

> Do you have smooth scrolling in Emacs? Yes, but one of the smooth scrolling modes was too slow for me and I use `pixel-scroll-precision-mode` which requires Emacs 29. > How do you sync your work with your smartphone? I use syncthing for this and Orgzly, emacs in termux, and organice. I bet most would prefer and could get away with just using organice.

Last time I checked organice didn't support offline editing on mobile. If that worked it would likely also be my weapon of choice!

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#36

Post by BeetleB »

> I wrote a script to apply that template to every week and month of the year. Hence $ ls ~/org/weeks/ returns the following:

You don't need this - you can use Org's capture templates with datetree type. It will then have it all in one file with appropriate headings.

Tip I didn't realize for years: Sometimes you forget to log it on the day intended (e.g. for the post-month you log it 5 days after the new month when you should have done it on the 1st day). Prefix your capture command with C-1, and it will prompt you for the date to file it as.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#37

Post by Rochus »

BeetleB wrote: post #33
Rochus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

E.g. more typing, or you have to look to the screen when navigating; in Crossline - even more than in Ecco Pro - I can operate with shortcuts, but shortcuts optimized for an outliner, not just an editor with structured formating; Crossline allows me to look at the people I discuss with during the meeting and take structured notes at the same time without taking my hands off the keyboard and without looking to my lapt…

I found a similar problem with Org mode when it comes to writing elisp code to handle org documents - it's almost all based on text parsing vs nodes. So simple automations I can program in a node based editor like the Leo Editor took a lot of effort in Org mode. As an example, if you want the body (text) of a node, you have to get the substring from the beginning to the end. There wasn't (probably still isn't) an API…

I implemented my own NoSql database for Crossline which supports an efficient storage and traversal of outline items (see https://github.com/rochus-keller/Udb). Even if there was a dedicated API in Emacs/Org-mode it's still file based text buffer interpretation and management behind the scenes.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#38

Post by xenodium »

Arubis wrote: post #18
xenodium wrote: post #2

Interesting to see habits tracked using an org property drawer. I hadn't considered this before. Org itself has habit-tracking support https://orgmode.org/manual/Tracking-your-habits.html using :STYLE: habit. I'm head-in org land. For habit-tracking, I found removing friction from the tracking process itself absolutely fundmental for longer term success (Atomic Habits, the book, corroborates). Like the author, I also…

Your work is contributing to the org-mode renaissance; users of the world appreciate you! Now if I could just get multi-platform sync working correctly (iCloud doesn't play nice with Linux)...

Hey, that's nice to hear. Have you seen some of the syncing alternatives? https://plainorg.com#cloud-providers

Mileage varies across iOS providers, but some users have reported being fairly happy with either WorkingCopy or Syncthing/MöbiusSync which would work on Linux. I'm on iCloud though.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#39

Post by 70rd »

BeetleB wrote: post #32
tconfrey wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats the cool thing about org, its not just a great outliner tool and the best markdown, it also covers the full gamut of productivity and personal knowledge management functions (todos, calendaring, linking etc). That said, what would it mean for HN to adopt orgdown?

It means one can use the orgdown syntax when writing comments.

In the meantime, there's https://github.com/tecosaur/emacs-everywhere.

Re: I use Org Mode for personal logging/journalling

#40

Post by xenodium »

ungamedplayer wrote: post #23
Arubis wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your work is contributing to the org-mode renaissance; users of the world appreciate you! Now if I could just get multi-platform sync working correctly (iCloud doesn't play nice with Linux)...

WebDAV is the fuuuuuuture.

Do you happen to know of an iOS solution that plugs into https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206481#thirdparty that you're happy with?
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