This is great! It should be in the tutorial or something. I'm printing it
out to keep.

On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 12:45 AM, Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>
wrote:

> scrawler@gmail.com writes:
>
> > On Wed, Aug 12, 2015 at 10:27:29AM +0800, Eric Abrahamsen wrote:
> >>
> >> My take on what you've shown here is that you've got it a bit backwards.
> >> Apologies if you've tried many things and you settled on this on
> >> purpose, but it looks like you're trying to organize the Org file to
> >> look like the Agenda.
> >>
> >> It took me a while to get used to this, too. I think you'll find the Org
> >> tools work better if you forget about what the file itself looks like,
> >> and just look at the Agenda. So your Org file would look like:
> >>
> >> * All to Do [1/1]
> >> ** finished iron the cat <2015-08-11 Tue>
> >>
> >> And the Agenda will show you everything under its proper date heading.
> >>
> >> I've got scheduling Org files I hardly ever look at directly: todos go
> >> in with capture, and are examined, resolved and archived via the Agenda.
> >> It can be freeing, once you let the file itself go!
> >
> > I think you may be on to something. I use org every day, but I've been
> > using it for longer than I'd like to admit in underpowered and goofy
> > ways. I get inspired by power-user setups, go for it, get swamped by
> > complexity, throw up my hands.
> >
> > I'm trying something new here by going as dead-simple as I can. I can
> always add stuff as the need arises.
> >
> > I need to keep things reeeeeaaaaaallllly easy while still doing things
> "the org way." I'll try to use an active timestamp and just try to remain
> calm.
> >
> > Oh, and while all the property drawers and options lines and everything
> are really cool and useful, all the junk that can fill up a buffer can sure
> get ugly and distracting.
> >
> > So I can avoid looking at all that?
>
> Sure, in principle you don't need that stuff at all! It depends on what
> you're using Org for, but if you're really trying to start simple and
> build up, then ignore properties etc for now.
>
> Starting off simple probably means just dumping all your TODOs under one
> heading. Use timestamps for events (going to the doctor), SCHEDULED for
> tasks you plan to do at a certain time ("iron the cat" above should
> probably have been a schedule, not a timestamp), and DEADLINE for tasks
> that need to be done by a certain time.
>
> An event should have a timestamp, but not a SCHEDULED or DEADLINE. A
> task should have one or both of SCHEDULED and DEADLINE (having both
> would mean "this has to be done by tomorrow morning, and I'm working on
> it this afternoon").
>
> Use two todo keywords: TODO and DONE.
>
> Then just stay in the Agenda. Use "t" to change todo status, and ">",
> "C-c C-s" and "C-c C-d" to manipulate the times. Nearly everything you
> want to do can be done using Agenda commands -- read that section of the
> manual a couple of times, and don't go to the file unless you have to.
>
> Stick with that until you really start to feel the need for more
> complexity. That might be more todo keywords, or maybe tag filtering. Or
> customizing how things are shown in the Agenda. My guess is you'll be
> able to go pretty far with just the above setup.
>
> Good luck,
> Eric
>
>
>