EmacsConf2020: Lead your future with Org

Lead your future with Org

This is the presentation I gave at EmacsConf2020 about how lead my future with Org Mode. The abstract:

Title: Lead your future with Org


Preferred format: Standard talk (or even Lighting talk by only giving
references to the modes I plan to show)

Abstract:

The world is full of possibilities. A person life is rather short
though, and one can easily end up carry on without focus.

In this short talk I want to share how Org mode empowers me into
organizing and monitoring my tasks to make sure I am working towards
achieving my vision.

The emphasis of the talk is on defining a direction, monitoring the
progress towards your planned destination, and keeping a trail of your
actions to review and set up a healthy feedback loop.

Tools for the job that I will (at least) mention: Org files, Org
agenda, Org archive, org-ql, and Org-roam.

In the following presentation you can find a source block that lets you setup an Emacs instance ready for testing this file out. I suggest to copy the source Org file for this blog as /tmp/test.org, and run the block to try things out.

Who am I

I am Andrea.

I work as a Scala software engineer somewhere in the middle of The Netherlands.

I inherited my passion for Emacs from my Ph.D. supervisor and I got in synergy with it.

Find more about me at: https://ag91.github.io

Why I needed a vision

Too many interests
Too little time

The need to act

Even when you have a vision you need goals to get there

How I keep track of my vision progress with Org Agenda

Running example vision: I want to bring joy to people, I want to live in synergy with the planet

(require 'package)
(eval-and-compile
  (setq
   package-archives
   '(("melpa-stable" . "https://stable.melpa.org/packages/")
     ("melpa" . "https://melpa.org/packages/")
     ("marmalade"   . "https://marmalade-repo.org/packages/")
     ("org"         . "https://orgmode.org/elpa/")
     ("gnu"         . "https://elpa.gnu.org/packages/"))))
(package-initialize)

 ;;; Bootstrap use-package
;; Install use-package if it's not already installed.
(unless (package-installed-p 'use-package)
  (package-refresh-contents)
  (package-install 'use-package))
(setq use-package-always-ensure 't)
(require 'use-package)
(require 'diminish)
(require 'bind-key)
;; extra for talk
(write-region "#+TITLE: I want to bring joy to people\n#+CATEGORY: Bring joy to people" nil "/tmp/BringJoy.org")
(write-region "#+TITLE: I want to live in synergy with the planet\n#+CATEGORY: Synergy with planet" nil "/tmp/SynergyWithPlanet.org")
(setq org-capture-templates
      (list
       '("b" "Joy task"
         entry
         (file "/tmp/BringJoy.org")
         "* TODO %^{Short description} :%(completing-read \"Choose tag\" (list \"0yr\" \"5yr\" \"10yr\" \"20yr\")):\n  SCHEDULED:%t\n\n %?"
         :empty-lines 2)
       '("s" "Synergy task"
         entry
         (file "/tmp/SynergyWithPlanet.org")
         "* TODO %^{Short description} :%(completing-read \"Choose tag\" (list \"0yr\" \"5yr\" \"10yr\" \"20yr\")):\n  SCHEDULED:%t\n\n %?"
         :empty-lines 2)))
(defun my/org-agenda-sort-longterm-tags (el1 el2)
  "Prioritize agenda items EL1 and EL2 that contains tags in the form :[0-9]yr: relatively to the number of years."
  (let* ((regex ":\\([0-9]+\\)yr:")
         (years-el1 (progn
                      ;; this can fail because the regex is not found or there is no tag for :Xyr:, so I am handling with the zeros
                      (if (string-match regex el1)
                          (string-to-number (or (match-string 1 el1) "0"))
                        0)))
         (years-el2 (progn
                      (if (string-match regex el2)
                          (string-to-number (or (match-string 1 el2) "0"))
                        0))
                    ))
    ;; TODO I am sure there is a cleaner way to implement this comparison...
    (if (> years-el1 years-el2)
        1
      (if (> years-el2 years-el1)
          -1
        nil))))

(setq org-agenda-cmp-user-defined 'my/org-agenda-sort-longterm-tags)

(setq org-agenda-sorting-strategy
      '((agenda habit-down time-up user-defined-down priority-down category-keep)
        (todo priority-down category-keep)
        (tags priority-down category-keep)
        (search category-keep)))
(setq org-agenda-files '("/tmp/BringJoy.org" "/tmp/SynergyWithPlanet.org"))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c o a")  'org-agenda)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c o c")  'org-capture)
(use-package org-ql
  :ensure t)

(defun my/get-stats-tasks (todo-tag from &optional tag to files category)
  "Get stats for tasks of last week with TODO-TAG TAG FROM optionally define TO date and source FILES to use."
  (let ((tasks
         (org-ql-query
           :from (or files (org-agenda-files))
           :where
           `(and (todo ,todo-tag)
                 (if ,tag (tags ,tag) t)
                 (if ,category (category ,category) t)
                 (ts :from ,from :to ,(or to 'today))))))
    `((tasks . ,(length tasks))
      (tasks-per-day . ,(/ (length tasks) (abs from))))))

(use-package org-roam
  :diminish
  :pin melpa-stable
  ;; :hook (org-mode . org-roam-mode)
  :custom
  (org-roam-link-file-path-type 'noabbrev)
  (org-roam-update-db-idle-seconds 30)
  (org-roam-rename-file-on-title-change nil)
  (org-roam-db-location "/tmp/org-roam.db")
  (org-roam-directory "/tmp/notes/")
  (org-roam-index-file "/tmp/index.org")
  (org-roam-capture-templates
   (list '("d" "default" plain (function org-roam--capture-get-point)
           "- tags :: %?"
           :file-name "%<%Y%m%d%H%M%S>-${slug}"
           :head "#+TITLE: ${title}\n\n"
           :unnarrowed t
           :immediate-finish t)))
  :bind (("C-c n i" . org-roam-insert)
         ("C-c n l" . org-roam)
         ("C-c n f" . org-roam-find-file)
         ("C-c n g" . org-roam-graph)
         ("C-c n j" . org-roam-jump-to-index)) 
  :config
  (use-package emacsql-sqlite)
  (require 'org-roam-protocol))

(use-package org-crypt
  :ensure nil
  :after org
  :custom
  (org-crypt-disable-auto-save 't)
  (org-tags-exclude-from-inheritance (list "crypt"))
  (org-crypt-key "8197AC77B80C848FA0C99EDA2E4FA6504167C2AC")
  :config 
  (defun my/with-catching-all-drawers (fn)
    (let ((org-property-drawer-re
           (concat "^[ 	]*:[A-Z]*:[ 	]*\n"
                   "[^*]*"
                   "[ \t]*:END:[ \t]*$")))
      (funcall fn)))

  (advice-add
   'org-encrypt-entry :around
   'my/with-catching-all-drawers)

  (advice-add
   'org-decrypt-entry :around
   'my/with-catching-all-drawers)

  (org-crypt-use-before-save-magic))

emacs -Q -l /tmp/running-example.el /tmp/test.org

Categorize tasks according to vision

Create files with category

(setq org-agenda-files "/tmp/BringJoy.org" "/tmp/SynergyWithPlanet.org")

#+TITLE: I want to bring joy to people
#+CATEGORY: Bring joy to people

#+TITLE: I want to live in synergy with the planet
#+CATEGORY: Synergy with planet

Use tags to prioritize

Make 5yr, 10yr and 20yr tags to know how effective a task is

Exploit Org Capture

Make a template for each category and estimate effectiveness on the fly

(setq org-capture-templates
      (list
       ("b" "Joy task"
        entry
        (file "/tmp/BringJoy.org")
        "* TODO %^{Short description} :%(completing-read \"Choose tag\" (list \"0yr\" \"5yr\" \"10yr\" \"20yr\")):\n  SCHEDULED:%t\n\n %?"
        :empty-lines 2)
       ("s" "Synergy task"
        entry
        (file "/tmp/SynergyWithPlanet.org")
        "* TODO %^{Short description} :%(completing-read \"Choose tag\" (list \"0yr\" \"5yr\" \"10yr\" \"20yr\")):\n  SCHEDULED:%t\n\n %?"
        :empty-lines 2)))

Adapt agenda

Order your agenda by tags priority

(defun my/org-agenda-sort-longterm-tags (el1 el2)
  "Prioritize agenda items EL1 and EL2 that contains tags in the form :[0-9]yr: relatively to the number of years."
  (let* ((regex ":\\([0-9]+\\)yr:")
         (years-el1 (progn
                      ;; this can fail because the regex is not found or there is no tag for :Xyr:, so I am handling with the zeros
                      (if (string-match regex el1)
                          (string-to-number (or (match-string 1 el1) "0"))
                        0)))
         (years-el2 (progn
                      (if (string-match regex el2)
                          (string-to-number (or (match-string 1 el2) "0"))
                        0))
                    ))
    ;; TODO I am sure there is a cleaner way to implement this comparison...
    (if (> years-el1 years-el2)
        1
      (if (> years-el2 years-el1)
          -1
        nil))))

(setq org-agenda-cmp-user-defined 'my/org-agenda-sort-longterm-tags)

(setq org-agenda-sorting-strategy
      '((agenda habit-down time-up user-defined-down priority-down category-keep)
        (todo priority-down category-keep)
        (tags priority-down category-keep)
        (search category-keep)))

How I retrospect weekly on my progress with org-ql

Review how much progress you have done
And celebrate progress!

(use-package org-ql
  :ensure t)

(defun my/get-stats-tasks (todo-tag from &optional tag to files category)
  "Get stats for tasks of last week with TODO-TAG TAG FROM optionally define TO date and source FILES to use."
  (let ((tasks
         (org-ql-query
           :from (or files (org-agenda-files))
           :where
           `(and (todo ,todo-tag)
                 (if ,tag (tags ,tag) t)
                 (if ,category (category ,category) t)
                 (ts :from ,from :to ,(or to 'today))))))
    `((tasks . ,(length tasks))
      (tasks-per-day . ,(/ (length tasks) (abs from))))))

(let ((files (org-agenda-files)))
  (-->
   (my/get-stats-tasks "DONE" -31 nil  nil files)
   (s-concat 
    "\n"
    (format "Tasks marked DONE last month (today is: %s): %s\n" (current-time-string) it)
    (format "    Tasks done last month (%s) with category\n\n" (current-time-string))
    (format "    Bring joy to people  %s\n" (my/get-stats-tasks "DONE" -31 nil nil files "Bring joy to people"))
    (format "    Synergy with planet  %s\n" (my/get-stats-tasks "DONE" -31 nil nil files "Synergy with planet"))))

How I form ideas with Org Roam

Explore ideas and link relevant information for review

(use-package org-roam
  :diminish
  :pin melpa-stable
  ;; :hook (org-mode . org-roam-mode)
  :custom
  (org-roam-link-file-path-type 'noabbrev)
  (org-roam-update-db-idle-seconds 30)
  (org-roam-rename-file-on-title-change nil)
  (org-roam-db-location "/tmp/org-roam.db")
  (org-roam-directory "/tmp/notes/")
  (org-roam-index-file "/tmp/index.org")
  (org-roam-capture-templates
   (list '("d" "default" plain (function org-roam--capture-get-point)
           "- tags :: %?"
           :file-name "%<%Y%m%d%H%M%S>-${slug}"
           :head "#+TITLE: ${title}\n\n"
           :unnarrowed t
           :immediate-finish t)))
  :bind (("C-c n i" . org-roam-insert)
         ("C-c n l" . org-roam)
         ("C-c n f" . org-roam-find-file)
         ("C-c n g" . org-roam-graph)
         ("C-c n j" . org-roam-jump-to-index)) 
  :config
  (use-package emacsql-sqlite)
  (require 'org-roam-protocol))

Keep things private with Org Crypt

Keep heading contents readable only by you

(use-package org-crypt
  :ensure nil
  :after org
  :custom
  (org-crypt-disable-auto-save 't)
  (org-tags-exclude-from-inheritance (list "crypt"))
  (org-crypt-key "8197AC77B80C848FA0C99EDA2E4FA6504167C2AC")
  :config 
   (defun my/with-catching-all-drawers (fn)
     (let ((org-property-drawer-re
            (concat "^[ 	]*:[A-Z]*:[ 	]*\n"
                    "[^*]*"
                    "[ \t]*:END:[ \t]*$")))
       (funcall fn)))

   (advice-add
    'org-encrypt-entry :around
    'my/with-catching-all-drawers)

   (advice-add
    'org-decrypt-entry :around
    'my/with-catching-all-drawers)

   (org-crypt-use-before-save-magic))

Where parallels cross