sacha chua :: living an awesome life

There's more than one way to plan your day in Emacs, just like there's more than one way to do everything in Emacs. The basic end of the spectrum includes Diary, Calendar, and Appt. More sophisticated modules include Org (part of Emacs 22) and Planner (available separately). Then there are Emacs modules to export and import calendar data to and from external programs, such as Remind.

If all you need to do is keep track of recurring events such as birthdays and anniversaries, then Diary can be a good fit for you. All it takes is one text file specifying the dates and descriptions of one-time or recurring events, and one line in your ~/.emacs file to display the diary entries for today whenever you start up. If you switch to either Org or Planner later on, you can configure your Emacs to include information from your old diary file.

If you find yourself wanting more integration with your task list and your notes so that you can see everything related to the day, then you'll want to go for either Org or Planner. The choice between the two depends on how you want to plan your day. ...

If you've worked with a paper-based planner or a typical calendar application for a while, then Planner might be a good fit for the way you think. Planner has a strong day orientation. With Planner, you plan your schedule in terms of day pages, and optionally cross-reference the tasks with project pages. You can keep your schedule as plain text on your day page, or you can follow the format suggested by Planner so that your scheduled tasks and appointments will be added to Emacs' appointment reminder system. Planner is similar to the scheduling method of Franklin-Covey day planners and other paper organizers. I like Planner because it's easy to scribble notes onto my daily schedule, just like I would pencil comments into my paper planner.

Org focuses on projects instead of days. With Org, you plan your projects first, and then schedule specific tasks or appointments onto your calendar. Your daily view is then dynamically generated from the headlines of the outline nodes that are scheduled for the day. You need to use a special format, but built-in commands make it easy to create and edit timestamps. Org has great support for David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity technique. If you think in terms of next actions or outlines, Org is a good fit for you.

You can still think in terms of projects with Planner, but you'll need to remember to use the built-in commands for editing functions so that your changes are also reflected in the day pages. You don't need to organize your Org file by project. You can throw everything into one outline if you want. However, you'll still need to use the dynamically-generated summary view (org-agenda-list) to see your daily or weekly schedule, and reading all the text associated with the day could mean some jumping around.

In short:

• If you think in terms of day schedules, start with Planner.
• If you think in terms of projects or outlines, start with Org.

If you haven't figured out how your brain works yet, I recommend starting with Org. I think that the project-based approach will probably help more people out in the long run. I have to admit that I love Planner and I've been using it very happily for more than four years. I love being able to add all sorts of free-form notes while going through the day, and Planner makes it easy to publish that as my blog. (Automatically removing all my private notes, of course!) I've gotten used to the way Planner works, and because of my extensive modifications, Planner's gotten used to the way I work as well. If you're starting from scratch, you might like Org's better support for projects, outlines, and overviews. Give Org a try first. If you find yourself wanting more flexibility in your day view, try Planner next.

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If you've tried both, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the differences between them. I'm trying to figure out when one fits better than the other because I'm working on a book called "Wicked Cool Emacs". I love Planner, I'm getting the hang of Org, and I'd love to hear from other people who have given both a shot. =)

Random Emacs symbol: message-forward-decoded-p - Variable: Non-nil means the original message is decoded.

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