Add draft for a post about using emacs org mode

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 description: projects and coding adventures
 
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_drafts/getting-organized-with-org-mode.org

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+#+TITLE: Getting Organized with Org Mode
+#+AUTHOR: Correl Roush
+#+STARTUP: indent
+#+OPTIONS: toc:nil num:nil
+
+* Project Management
+I've been using Emacs Org mode for nearly a year now, mostly as a
+tool for breaking down large projects at work into tasks and
+subtasks, and found it to be extremely enter projects in as a
+hierarchy of tasks and task groupings. Using columnview, I was able
+to dive right into scoping them individually and reporting total
+estimates for each major segment of work. Because Emacs and Org
+Mode make building and modifying an outline structure like this so
+quick and easy, I'd build and modify the project org document as I
+planned it out with my team. Once done, I'd then manually load that
+information into our issue tracker and get underway.
+* Organizing Notes and Code Exercises
+More recently, I've been looking into various ways to get more
+things organized with Org mode. I've been stepping through
+[[http://sarabander.github.io/sicp/][Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]] with some other
+folks from work, and discovered that Org mode was an ideal fit for
+keeping my notes and exercise work together. The latter is neatly
+managed by [[http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/intro.html][Babel]], which let me embed and edit source examples and
+my excercise solutions right in the org document itself, and even
+export them to one or more scheme files to load into my
+interpreter.
+* Exporting and Publishing Documents
+Publishing my notes with org is also a breeze. I've published
+project plans and proposals to PDF to share with colleagues, and
+exported my SICP notes to html and dropped them into a site built
+with [[http://jekyllrb.com/][Jekyll]]. Embedding graphs and diagrams into exported documents
+using [[http://www.graphviz.org/][Graphviz]], [[http://www.mcternan.me.uk/mscgen/][Mscgen]], and [[http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/][PlantUML]] has also really helped with
+putting together some great project plans and documentation.
+* Emacs Configuration
+While learning all the cool things I could do with Org mode and
+Babel, it was only natural I'd end up using it to reorganize my
+Emacs configuration. Up until that point, I'd been managing my
+configuration in a single init.el file, plus a directory full of
+mode or purpose-specific elisp files that I'd loop through and
+load. Inspired primarily by the blog post, [[http://zeekat.nl/articles/making-emacs-work-for-me.html]["Making Emacs Work For
+Me"]], and later by others such as [[http://pages.sachachua.com/.emacs.d/Sacha.html][Sacha Chua's Emacs configuration]],
+I got all my configs neatly organized into a single org file that
+gets loaded on startup. I've found it makes it far easier to keep
+track of what I've got configured, and gives me a reason to
+document and organize things neatly now that it's living a double
+life as a [[https://github.com/correl/dotfiles/blob/master/.emacs.d/emacs.org][published document]] on GitHub.
+* Tracking Habits
+Another great feature of Org mode that I've been taking advantage
+of a lot more lately is the [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-Views.html][Agenda]]. By defining some org files as
+being agenda files, Org mode can examine these files for TODO
+entries, scheduled tasks, deadlines and more to build out useful
+agenda views to get a quick handle on what needs to be done and
+when. While at first I started by simply syncing down my google
+calendars as org-files (using [[http://orgmode.org/worg/code/awk/ical2org.awk][icadl2org.awk]]), I've started
+managing TODO lists in a dedicated org file. By adding tasks to
+this file, scheduling them, and setting deadlines, I've been doing
+a much better job of keeping track of things I need to get done
+and (even more importantly) /when/ I need to get them done.
+
+This works not only for one-shot tasks, but also [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Tracking-your-habits.html][habits and other
+repetitive tasks]]. It's possible to schedule a task that should be
+done every day, every few days, or maybe every first sunday of a
+month. For example, I've set up repeating tasks to write a blog
+post at least once a month, practice guitar every two to three
+days, and to do the dishes every one or two days. The agenda view
+can even show a small, colorized graph next to each repeating task
+that paints a picture of how well (or not!) I've been getting
+those tasks done on time.
+* Keeping a Journal and Tracking Work
+The last thing I've been using (which I'm still getting a handle
+on) is using [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Capture.html][Capture]] to take and store notes, keep a journal, and
+even [[http://orgmode.org/manual/Clocking-work-time.html][track time on tasks at work]].
+
+For my journal, I've configured a capture template that I can use
+to write down a new entry that will be stored with a time stamp
+appended into its own org file, organized under headlines by year,
+month and date.
+
+For work tasks, I have another capture template configured that
+will log and tag a task into another org file, also organized by
+date, which will automatically start tracking time for that
+task. Once done, I can simply clock out and check the time I've
+spent, and can easily find it later to clock in again, add notes,
+or update its status. This helps me keep track of what I've gotten
+done during the day, keep notes on what I was doing at any point
+in time, and get a better idea of how long it takes me to do
+different types of tasks.
+* Conclusion
+There's a lot that can be done with Org mode, and I've only just
+scratched the surface. The simple outline format provided by Org
+mode lends itself to doing all sorts of things, be it organizing
+notes, keeping a private or work journal, or writing a book or
+technical document. There's tons of functionality that can be
+built on top of it, yet the underlying format itself remains
+simple and easy to work with. I've never been great at keeping
+myself organized, but Org mode is such a delight to use that I
+can't help trying anyway. If it can work for me, maybe it can work
+for you, too :)