A LONG time ago now I went kinda all-in on OrgMode in emacs. I'd dabbled with emacs for years (I'm 52) but it never "took" for me as a full-time editor for lots of reasons.
However, my endless search for a proper to-do management tool eventually led me there, because what I really wanted and needed is more or less Org's whole reason for being: being able to intermingle notes and TODO items, and then being able to generate a dynamic "view" of the TODOs from across a corpus of notes.
Most Todo apps I'd tried, including lots of them based on the last big geek productivity obsession, GTD, had only paltry note features. That didn't work for me or my job AT ALL. I wanted One Trusted System, and Org gave me that.
Now, if I was coming to this need NOW I think I'd probably look more closely at linked, syncing tools like Obsidian. You can mimic the "show me my todos" thing with Obsidian, though it's less organic than with Org -- but on the other hand, Obsidian has mobile apps that are very good, and I have yet to find an iOS tool that meshes will with my work style in OrgMode. Obsidian also has a MUCH MUCH LESS ONEROUS learning curve. I love orgmode, but I would absolutely not suggest that most people undertake learning emacs just for a productivity tool. ;)
If you're using obsidian for todos, I definitely recommend trying out the tasks plugin (if your todos are markdown list items) or dataview (if your todos are their own notes)
I'm in OrgMode. I test the waters with Obsidian periodically, but I also really, really hate Electron apps so I'm unlikely to make the jump from Org into something unless it's got a truly native Mac app.
I've heard this sentiment before. What (for a very non-code, non-dev person like me) could you say about why you dislike Electron apps. From a user perspective especially. Thanks. :)
They're fat/inefficient because of the electron base, so they use more RAM and resources to run than a native app would.
Obsidian, for example, takes over 2x as much RAM on my computer as Emacs does, which is crazy.
Add to this the fact that they all have to work with basically the lowest common denominator of interfaces, which means they're consistent across platforms but also completely eschew anything native on any of those platforms. In the Mac world, this is especially egregious because we as a tribe tend to actually LIKE the way the Mac does things.
There's a phrase popularized by Brent Simmons about this: Mac-assed Mac apps. See
Thanks for the reply. Any place you'd recommend an Obsidian user / emacs noob like me to start learning more about emacs? Am always curious to learn about this stuff. Especially when "bloat" comes into the conversation. Also, curious cuz to me, who uses Obsidian on a Mac, it feels lightning fast! So, I can't even imagine what you're speaking about as far as RAM etc is concerned. Curious!
I mean obsidian, at least the last time I tried to use it, took more RAM than seemed reasonable on my Mac, which has been par for the course with electron/non-native apps generally.
And as I noted, it doesn't feel like a Mac app, either.
Both issues are pretty big negatives for me, even thought I have the RAM to run fat things, but my issues are not YOUR issues. If Obsidian is working for you, there are advantages to that.
A LONG time ago now I went kinda all-in on OrgMode in emacs. I'd dabbled with emacs for years (I'm 52) but it never "took" for me as a full-time editor for lots of reasons.
However, my endless search for a proper to-do management tool eventually led me there, because what I really wanted and needed is more or less Org's whole reason for being: being able to intermingle notes and TODO items, and then being able to generate a dynamic "view" of the TODOs from across a corpus of notes.
Most Todo apps I'd tried, including lots of them based on the last big geek productivity obsession, GTD, had only paltry note features. That didn't work for me or my job AT ALL. I wanted One Trusted System, and Org gave me that.
Now, if I was coming to this need NOW I think I'd probably look more closely at linked, syncing tools like Obsidian. You can mimic the "show me my todos" thing with Obsidian, though it's less organic than with Org -- but on the other hand, Obsidian has mobile apps that are very good, and I have yet to find an iOS tool that meshes will with my work style in OrgMode. Obsidian also has a MUCH MUCH LESS ONEROUS learning curve. I love orgmode, but I would absolutely not suggest that most people undertake learning emacs just for a productivity tool. ;)
(I still don't code in it.)