Michael Jones wanted to know how I organized my Org Mode files. Here’s how I do things!

Org Mode for Emacs is an outliner that lets you add a little structure to plain text files. Not only can you use it to move around, hide, and show sections of your outline, but you can also:

• schedule tasks and mark them as complete,
• add hyperlinks and formatting,
• estimate effort and track time,
• export to HTML and other formats,
• and even include code that you can run in-line.

I started with a single Org Mode file (appropriately called organizer.org), but I’ve gradually fleshed this out into a number of files. My goals for organizing my files this way are to be able to:

• Publish some files while keeping other files private,
• Add or remove groups of tasks from my agenda, or focus my agenda/search on the current file,
• Simplify processing my weekly review (categorizing accomplishments/tasks),
• Get a quick overview of important things, and
• Have file-specific options, like columns.

I often use Org agenda custom commands to jump around. For example, one agenda command lists projects, and pressing RET on an agenda line will take me to that project. I also use org-capture to take a note from anywhere, and I use org-goto to navigate my files. For jumping to a specific file, I use ido-find-file.

I use several Org Mode files. The six files below have a little more than 1.3MB of text in total – tiny! – but they help me tremendously. I also have lots of other Org files like my Emacs configuration and my blog index (I often use Org for publishing), but these are my main files.

Personal tasks and notes: organizer.org

This is the catch-all for any tasks or notes that don’t belong to the files below. Here’s the rough structure:

• Quick notes: Tidbits that might not make it into their own blog posts, but which can be included in weekly reviews
• Reference: Hours, license keys, etc.
• Open loops: Anything I need to check on every so often
• Projects: High-level things I’m focusing on
• Financial goals: Things to save up for
• Someday/maybe: Projects to do someday
• Weekly review: Divided by year
• Monthly review: More summaries
• Plans: Personal plans
• 2011, 2012, 2013…: I use org-capture to quickly jot down notes. The datetree option automatically files them by day, which makes older ones easier to archive.
• Tasks: A bucket for miscellaneous tasks

Anything to do with business: business.org

I organize these by the types of tasks I focus on and the notes I want to keep.

• Earn
  • Clients
  • Leads
• Build
  • Projects
  • Research
  • Business ideas
  • Blog
  • Delegation
  • Planning
  • Business hygiene (accounting, etc.)
  • Learning
• Connect
  • Meetups
  • Hangouts
  • Other
• Reference
• Tasks

Relationships: people.org

I organize these by relationships so that I can remember who’s out there.

• Family
• Extended family
• Canada friends
• Hacklab
• Barkada
• Letters
• Meetups
• Bloggers
• Family friends
• Other tasks

Regular tasks: routines.org

I organize these by frequency and omit the tasks from my weekly review. This also contains my “In case of…” scenarios and my backup documentation.

• Every day
• Once a week
• Once a month
• Once a quarter
• Once a year
• When…

Outline for future blog posts: sharing/index.org

I organize this by topic. See http://sach.ac/outline for the published version

Decision review: decisions.org

I organize these by status. I also use org-choose markers (ex: CHOSEN, MAYBE) inside the categories, but the headings make it easier to review.

• Pending
• Current
• For review
• Someday / maybe
• Archive

Personal finance: ledger.org

I use John Wiegley’s command-line Ledger program to manage my finances. My financial data is in separate ledger-mode files, and I use an Org file with org-babel to make it easier for me to answer some questions about my finances. For example:

• Given my average monthly expenses and the amount of money I’ve set aside, how long can I sustain my early-retirement experiment?
• Am I ahead or behind in terms of household contributions?
• What did I spend on last month?
• Are my virtual envelopes balanced?

How do you organize your Org files or outlines?

Everyone’s got different ways of organizing outlines, and people also also change over time. How do you organize yours?