Org-Mode

Published

A package built into Emacs which combines outlining, task management, scheduling, code execution, spreadsheet, and much more. .org files have a specific syntax which can not be parsed using a formal grammar such as EBNF.

See also:

  • Using Vale With Emacs for Prose Linting

    After looking into linting prose in Emacs, I found a way to roll your own prose linter setup using vale (an extensible prose linter), efm-langserver (a generic language server), and eglot (a language server mode for Emacs).

  • Emacs

    A free/libre text editor that has so much functionality that it’s often joked about being an operating system that has an ok text editor.

  • Org-Roam-Ui Helps You Peer into Your Brain

    The org-roam-ui is a visualization and exploration companion to org-roam. The force-directed graph of notes (nodes) and links (edges) shows how concepts fit together and relate. I thought it was primarily eye candy, it’s useful for 1) spotting connections you haven’t already made and 2) identifying orphaned notes that could be linked to other notes.

  • Exporting Org-Mode Documents With Many Org-Id Links Is Slow

    Exporting org-mode documents using ox is very slow when there are many org-id links in the contents.

  • Literate Programming

    Intertwines documentation and source code which emphasizes the need for code to not only be understood by the compiler, but also by future engineers trying to reason about your code.

  • How to Take Smart Notes (Literature Notes)

    A book by Sönke Ahrens about taking notes to improve productivity and writing which is incredibly convincing but extremely impractical in describing what to actually do.

  • Using Org-Agenda for Work

    This is a work-in-progress as I’m still refining an org-agenda centric workflow. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

  • Org Capture on Ios Using Shortcuts and Beorg

    One of the most important parts of org-mode is the ability to capture items quickly. It works great when you are at your computer but what about when all you have is your phone?

  • The Downside of Using Org-Id Links in Org-Roam

    In org-roam v2, a new requirement was added for all notes to have an org ID. This has a few notable downsides.

  • Emacs Sticky Buffer

    Sometimes I want an emacs buffer to always be visible but I want to ignore it when navigating between buffers.

  • Emacs Hyperbole

    Hyperbole is an emacs package that matches text and turns it into links (buttons in hyperbole parlance). Links can execute arbitrary code so it’s kind of like a universal emacs subsystem for linking things together (i.e. hypertext).

  • AI for Notes

    Now that my Zettelkasten has over a thousand notes, I’d like to try to quite literally create the experience of a conversation with my second brain. The AI interface should be conversational rather than search queries. It should draw from the knowledge in my notes and respond in natural language. Finally, it should be useful in helping me make connections between ideas I hadn’t thought of before.

  • Steven Wolfram - Seeking the Productive Life - Literary Notes

    I read about Steven Wolfram’s personal infrastructure. He develops his approach to just about everything using the tools that he built. I’m guessing this approach works great for building Wolfram as a giant feedback loop but not directly transferable to others.

  • EBNF

    A context-free grammar can be described using Extended Backus–Naur form (EBNF) notation. This higher ‘metasyntax’ describes how another grammar should be parsed. This makes it a useful portable format for multiple programming languages to parse the same thing (if your system can read EBNF grammars it can parse a multitude of other grammars).

  • Personal Infrastructure

    It’s useful to think about the underlying utilities that go into running one’s life and business with the same rigor used to build something significant. Afterall, the things we rely on every day can have an outsized impact on our own performance so why not treat it that way?

  • Why All My Business Writing Is in Latex

    In my day-to-day business dealings, people are surprised when they receive LaTeX-generated documents for business proposals, memos, etc. from me.

  • Using Org-Roam as a CRM

    Using org-mode and org-roam can make a rudimentary CRM system for logging interactions with people, companies, or any other contact.

  • Org-Ql Query Prompt

    Use the following prompt to return an org-ql s-expression based on the user’s input. This can be used along with calling org-ql from the command line to make an LLM tool that can query org-mode tasks and headings.

  • Org-Mode Inline Macro in the Buffer

    In org-mode, macros can be used to expand text but are only visible when exported. However, by combining org-macro and emacs' built in font-locking system, you can expand macros inline in the buffer.

  • At Mentions for Org-Mode

    A pattern I really like in Notion is that you can a @ (at) mention any page with search as you type and autocomplete. I’d like to do something similar in org-mode so that I can quickly link related headlines.

  • Using Chatgpt With Emacs

    There are a few packages and libraries that are being built to use ChatGPT along with Emacs.

  • GCMH Fixes Emacs Garbage Collection Pauses

    When working in emacs, especially in large org-mode files and completion lists, garbage collection pauses cause the experience to feel sluggish. By deferring garbage collection until there is no user input (e.g. you stop typing or step away), the Garbage Collector Magic Hack (GCMH) keeps the Emacs feeling snappy.

  • Capture and Refile

    The two most important parts of a personal productivity system that I’ve learned are capturing and refiling.

  • Turn Emacs into a Focused Writing Tool

    Emacs can be customized to create a beautiful, focused writing environment akin to Ulysses, iA Writer, Bear, or other minimalist markdown editors.

  • Tag Vocabulary

    Tags are used to create heterarchical systems that lets you iterate on retrieval. The tag names are abstractions like categories, projects, or ideas that are encoded on top of a set of items (like notes) to make it easy to find later.

  • How to Get Org-Mode Filetags

    I recently needed to change the behavior of a library (org-download) based on the tags of the current buffer. Most of the answers I found online are incorrect (and so was ChatGPT) for Org version 9.5.

  • My Tag Vocabulary

    I don’t use tags as a way of querying topics. Instead, I use a use a small set of tags (FILETAGS in org-mode) to drive functionality for task management and notes.

  • Org-Mode Count the Number of Headings in a Region

    Sometimes I want to see how many headings are in an org-mode file I’m working in. For example, I like to know the number of items I have to refile.

  • Why I Like Ring Binders - Plotter Notebook

    The Plotter notebook from Designphil is a minimal ring binder for planning and writing. I use the A5 size for work and journaling in addition to org-mode for managing tasks and writing permanent notes.

  • Org-Roam

    An Emacs library that recreates Roam (software that implements a Zettelkasten-like system) using org-mode.

  • Org-Mode Export to Notion

    I use org-mode for taking notes and keeping track of tasks. I use Notion for work as an internal wiki.

  • Org-Ql from the Command Line

    Most of my tasks and projects are organized using org-mode. I was looking for a way to query them from an LLM and, rather than recreate an index and a database, I can use what I normally use, org-ql using emacs in batch mode.

  • Capture Output of Chatgpt-Shell in Org-Mode

    I’m messing around with ChatGPT in Emacs and I want to capture the results of a session in org-mode. Since chatgpt-shell is just a buffer (like everything else in emacs), we can write an elisp source block to grab the contents of buffer. Even better, we can tell org-mode to export the results as a markdown block since the code examples all use code fences (the triple backtick).