Introduction

I’ve been using Orgmode to implement the GTD methodology for the last 4 years.

Rather than explaining the GTD methodology itself or how Orgmode works, in this post I’ll detail how I use Orgmode to implement GTD.

If you don’t know Orgmode and are curious about it, you should head to its website first.

After 4 years of using #gtd daily with #orgmode, I now have 39,175 lines of orgmode in 4 files + archives. #emacs — Nicolas Petton (@NicolasPetton) June 27, 2017

The orgmode files

I split my GTD in four separate files:

inbox.org : where I collect everything;

: where I collect everything; gtd.org : where I put all my projects;

: where I put all my projects; someday.org : All inactive tasks that I might do at some point in the future, but don’t want to see all the time;

: All inactive tasks that I might do at some point in the future, but don’t want to see all the time; tickler.org : I put entries in this file with a timestamp to get reminded at the right moment.

It’s important to add these files to the agenda file (more on the agenda later), like the following:

( setq org-agenda-files ' ( "~/gtd/inbox.org" "~/gtd/gtd.org" "~/gtd/tickler.org" ))

1. The GTD inbox

One of the most important aspects of GTD is the inbox. Every thought should be collected there, and processed later on.

Orgmode has a great feature that fits really well with this concept: org-capture.

Capturing a thought is one key press away: simply Press C-c c , and a capture popup will appear in Emacs. Once you’re done capturing, C-c C-c and it will get stored in the inbox.

Here’s how I set it up:

( setq org-capture-templates ' (( "t" "Todo [inbox]" entry ( file+headline "~/gtd/inbox.org" "Tasks" ) "* TODO %i%?" ) ( "T" "Tickler" entry ( file+headline "~/gtd/tickler.org" "Tickler" ) "* %i%?

%U" )))

The syntax of capture templates is explained here. It offers lots of customization options.

I press C-c c t to add an entry to my inbox, and C-c c T to add an entry to the tickler (more on that later).

Here’s how my inbox looks like:

My inbox is then processed and emptied daily. When processing the inbox, I refile each entry that is actionable and belongs to a project using C-c C-w , moving the entry to the appropriate place. If need be, I create a new project out of it.

I have set up the refile targets as follows:

( setq org-refile-targets ' (( "~/gtd/gtd.org" :maxlevel . 3 ) ( "~/gtd/someday.org" :level . 1 ) ( "~/gtd/tickler.org" :maxlevel . 2 )))

So that C-c C-w prompts me either for a project, the tickler, or someday/maybe list.

2. The projects file

My main file is gtd.org . That’s where I keep all my active projects. I usually have around 30 active projects at the same time.

Each project contains actions to be performed. The first action of each project is called its “next action”, and that’s always the one I will do when working on a project. Once a task is done, I mark it as such using the DONE todo keyword.

Here’s an example project:

The completion percentage you see on the screenshot is yet another neat feature of Orgmode :)

Tagging is done using C-c C-c on a headline, whether it’s a project or action. I use tags for several purposes:

Regular categories, like :emacs: or :writing: ;

or ; Tags that link to people, like :daniel: ;

; GTD contexts.

GTD contexts are just regular tags, starting with @ . I make heavy use of them in custom Org Agenda commands.

My contexts tend to change over time, but I always have at least @home , @office , @travelling , @phone , @email , @errands to filter out next actions based on my current location for instance.

TODO keywords

I put a todo keyword in all project entries. I think I use fairly regular todo keywords: TODO , WAITING , DONE and CANCELLED mostly. The first two for are used for incomplete states, and the last two for completed states.

( setq org-todo-keywords ' (( sequence "TODO(t)" "WAITING(w)" "|" "DONE(d)" "CANCELLED(c)" )))

When on a headline, press C-c C-t to set the TODO keyword.

I tend to avoid using timestamps in my projects as much as possible. The reason is simple: unless an entry is an appointment (to the dentist for instance) or has a fixed deadline (a release scheduled with a customer), I should decide what to work on depending on the current context (among other things). This also keeps my agenda clean, free of any fake or self-imposed deadline or schedule.

But scheduling sometimes makes sense. To do that, press C-c C-s on an entry, and enter the date and/or time. To add a deadline, press C-c C-d . Note that Orgmode is quite smart about how you can enter a date, if you don’t know about it, refer to the manual entry.

Filtering projects & actions

When deciding what to work on, I use either sparse trees – which makes it easy to filter the content of my GTD projects by tag, search term, etc., or I use custom agenda commands. When discovering Orgmode, most people think that its agenda is just a regular agenda. Sure, it does daily/weekly agendas, but it offers much more than that. Quoting the manual:

Org-mode’s built-in agenda commands are powerful tools for searching your notes and for gathering, sorting, filtering, and displaying your tasks.

I use custom agenda commands mostly to get an overview of actions by context or tag. Here’s an example custom agenda command that will display all actions for the @office context:

( setq org-agenda-custom-commands ' (( "o" "At the office" tags-todo "@office" (( org-agenda-overriding-header "Office" )))))

Following the GTD principle, what I usually want is to only show the first action to be done (or next action) for each project with the @office tag.

That can be achieved using a skipping condition:

( setq org-agenda-custom-commands ' (( "o" "At the office" tags-todo "@office" (( org-agenda-overriding-header "Office" ) ( org-agenda-skip-function #' my-org-agenda-skip-all-siblings-but-first ))))) ( defun my-org-agenda-skip-all-siblings-but-first () "Skip all but the first non-done entry." ( let ( should-skip-entry ) ( unless ( org-current-is-todo ) ( setq should-skip-entry t )) ( save-excursion ( while ( and ( not should-skip-entry ) ( org-goto-sibling t )) ( when ( org-current-is-todo ) ( setq should-skip-entry t )))) ( when should-skip-entry ( or ( outline-next-heading ) ( goto-char ( point-max )))))) ( defun org-current-is-todo () ( string= "TODO" ( org-get-todo-state )))

Creating custom agenda commands can be a bit tricky at first, one easy way is to customize them via M-x customize-variable RET org-agenda-custom-commands .

To select an agenda command to execute, press C-c a .

3. The “Someday/Maybe” list

Did you notice that someday.org is not part of the agenda files set in org-agenda-files ?

That’s because I do not want to see any entry from this file appearing in my agenda buffers, unless I’m doing my weekly review. That’s exactly the purpose of the “Someday/Maybe” list.

This file should be reviewed once a week as part of the weekly review (which I do this on Sunday evenings).

During each weekly review, I move projects back and forth between the “active” state (in gtd.org ) and “later” state (in someday.org ).

For instance, if a project has moved forward to a certain point, but I know that it will stall for a few weeks for some reason, I move it to someday.org . During a later weekly review, I’ll move it back to gtd.org when it will become active again.

To move projects around, I also use refiling.

4. The tickler

The tickler is one of the best concepts of GTD in my opinion.

Let’s say you will have to pay a bill in a month. You need to write it down in your GTD if you don’t want to miss the deadline. But you also don’t want to be reminded of that each and every time you browse through your GTD projects: now is not the time to pay it.

That’s where the tickler kicks in: Add an entry to your tickler file with a timestamp, and forget about it!

When time will come, the action will appear in your Org Agenda, reminding you of the bill you have to pay, and all you will have to do is moving it to your inbox. Until then, you can just focus on something else and free your mind from this task.

References

All reference documents are put in a references folder next to my Orgmode files. They are then linked (using org-store-link ) from Dired buffers into my projects for quick access.

I also link emails (which I happen to read within Emacs) using org-store-link .

Archiving

During my weekly reviews, I archive done projects using C-c C-x C-a ( org-archive-subtree-default ), which moved the entry at point to an archive file.

This way my GTD files remain uncluttered and I never delete any data.

Conclusion

This is a very wide topic, so obviously I haven’t covered everything, but I hope that explains the basics of how I use Orgmode to implement GTD.

This is really only my way of doing it. Orgmode is such a moldable tool that I don’t think that there are 2 exactly identical setups.