A Repository for Future Tasks

The org-capture command provides a convenient way to capture ideas quickly; see the org manual for a complete introduction. When invoked, it will ask to select a capture template, which specifies a formatted string as the initial content of a captured entry and a location where to store the entry. After selection, it will prompt a temporary buffer where user can fill in or directly modify to write down anything they want.

We can create a capture template by customizing the org-capture-templates variable, which is a list of such templates. In my init file, I set it to

(setq org-capture-templates
 '(("f" "idea" entry (file+datetree "~/org/future-tasks.org")
      "* [#E] %?\n:PROPERTIES:\n:CREATED: %U\n:END:\n%i\n"
      :empty-lines 1)))

This template defines a prompt key f, which is used in selection after invoking org-capture. The description "idea" is also displayed in the selection buffer after f to aid selection. Captured item is set to type entry, a normal Org headline, and will be stored in file ~/org/future-tasks.org with a date tree structure. The last element is the template string, in which we can use special %-escaped codes. For example, %U will be expanded to a timestamp with date and time, and %i will be expand to contents of the active region; see the manual for a complete list of such codes and explanations. When creating a capture template, we can also specify additional options to control various behaviors. For example, the empty-lines determines how many blank lines wrap this entry when inserted to the target file; see also the manual for more details.

To use, invoke org-capture and hit f to select this template. Write down whatever we want and press C-c C-c to finish and store in ~/org/future-tasks.org. When necessary, use org-capture-goto-last-stored to visit the last stored capture entry.

Note that after selecting a capture template, Emacs will prompt a capture buffer where the template has been expanded and inserted.

As our capture template specifies the location as file+datetree, entries would be automatically stored with a date tree structure¹.

As time goes by, there would be more and more future tasks and it makes sense to prioritize them; see the org manual for a complete introduction. In Org mode, any headline can be assigned a priority value and support sorting in built-in commands or user-defined commands².

To quickly change the priorities, navigate to a headline and press S-UP or S-DOWN to increase/decrease its priority, or use C-c , (org-priority) to directly set the priority.

In my init file, I set the lowest, highest, default priority, and the face to display the priority value.

(setq org-lowest-priority ?F)
(setq org-highest-priority ?A)
(setq org-default-priority ?F)
(setq org-priority-faces
      '((?A . '(:foreground "#d33682" :weight extra-bold))
        (?B . '(:foreground "#268bd2" :weight extra-bold))
        (?C . '(:foreground "#dc322f" :weight extra-bold))
        (?D . '(:foreground "#2aa198" :weight extra-bold))
        (?E . '(:foreground "#6c71c4" :weight extra-bold))
        (?F . '(:foreground "#859900" :weight extra-bold))))

To review all future tasks and sort them by priority, we can create a custom agenda view; see the org manual for a complete introduction. The command org-agenda can select entries based on various criteria and display them in a separate agenda buffer. It provides several default agenda views to select and display entries in specific ways.

Here, we create a custom agenda view to select future tasks stored in ~/org/future-tasks.org and display them by sorting with their priority values. Here, we only display tasks with priority higher than F by searching entries with PRIORITY<"F" (priority value is a character, or equivalently an integer in lisp; for example, F is equivalent to 70 and E is equivalent to 69). Note that by default the org-agenda only collect entries stored in agenda files (specified by org-agenda-files). Therefore, we override its value when creating this agenda view. Besides, all tasks considered done are ignored; see also the manual for how to set TODO keywords.

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands
  '(("f" "Future Tasks"
     ((tags "PRIORITY<\"F\""
              ((org-agenda-overriding-header "Future Tasks:")
               (org-agenda-files '("~/org/future-tasks.org"))
               (org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(priority-down alpha-up))
               (org-agenda-prefix-format "  ")
               (org-agenda-skip-function
                '(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'todo 'done)))))
      nil)
))

To use, invoke org-agenda and hit f to obtain the defined agenda view. Use n or p for moving around to select tasks. Use + or - to increase/decrease the priority of the selected task. Use , to directly set the priority. To modify multiple entries quickly, mark them via m and hit B to activate bulk actions; see also the manual for more details.

To ignore a task entry, simply set its priority to F. To mark a task as done, change its TODO state to DONE. In either way, the entry will not show up in this agenda view.

I use the use-package macro to organize those settings in my init file. Below is the relevant sections in my ~/.emacs.d/init.el file.

(use-package org
  ;; org capture settings
  :bind (("C-c c" . org-capture))
  :config
  (setq org-capture-templates
        '(("f" "idea" entry (file+datetree "~/org/future-tasks.org")
           "* [#E] %?\n:PROPERTIES:\n:CREATED: %U\n:END:\n%i\n"
           :empty-lines 1)))
)

(use-package org
  ;; org priority settings
  :config
  (setq org-lowest-priority ?E)
  (setq org-highest-priority ?A)
  (setq org-default-priority ?E)
  (setq org-priority-faces
        '((?A . '(:foreground "#d33682" :weight extra-bold))
          (?B . '(:foreground "#268bd2" :weight extra-bold))
          (?C . '(:foreground "#dc322f" :weight extra-bold))
          (?D . '(:foreground "#2aa198" :weight extra-bold))
          (?E . '(:foreground "#6c71c4" :weight extra-bold))
          (?F . '(:foreground "#859900" :weight extra-bold))))
)

(use-package org
  ;; org agenda settings
  :bind (("C-c a" . org-agenda))
  :config
  (setq org-agenda-custom-commands
        '(("f" "Future Tasks"
           ((tags "PRIORITY<\"F\""
                  ((org-agenda-overriding-header "Future Tasks:")
                   (org-agenda-files '("~/org/future-tasks.org"))
                   (org-agenda-sorting-strategy '(priority-down alpha-up))
                   (org-agenda-prefix-format "  ")
                   (org-agenda-skip-function
                    '(org-agenda-skip-entry-if 'todo 'done)))))
           nil)))
)

Section 5 TODO Items in Emacs Org Manual

GNU. (2024). The Org Manual. Free Software Foundation. https://orgmode.org/manual/TODO-Items.html

Section 7 Properties and Columns in Emacs Org Manual

GNU. (2024). The Org Manual. Free Software Foundation. https://orgmode.org/manual/Properties-and-Columns.html

Section 10.1 Capture in Emacs Org Manual

GNU. (2024). The Org Manual. Free Software Foundation. https://orgmode.org/manual/Capture.html

Section 11 Agenda Views in Emacs Org Manual

GNU. (2024). The Org Manual. Free Software Foundation. https://orgmode.org/manual/Agenda-Views.html