Re: planner or org or ...

[Tim X]

Xavier Maillard <xma@gnu.org> writes:

> Hi,
>
>    Thanks Tim for such a detailed response.
>    Its given me the push towards planner (for now)
>
> Would you mind explaining your "devotion" for planner over org ?
>
>       Xavier
> -- 

Sure. However, I'd like to be very clear that I think to a large extent, which
mode you use is partially down to which fits better with the way you like to
work and what you want to do with the mode. I should also say that I started
with planner mode first, which probably generates some bias towards it. 

While both of the modes can pretty much do the same thing, I find planner mode
is stronger on the personal information management front at a high and broad
level, while org mode is strong in the individual project and overview level -
at least thats how it feels to me. 

I really like the way in planner mode that I can quickly and easily get a day
overview or a project overview and I find its method of handling links far more
convenient. While some criticise planner mode for being too complex with
difficult to manage links between lots of different files, I catually find that
aspect very convenient. I like the fact I can get a higher level overview of
all my scheduled, unscheduled, completed etc tasks from all my projects in just
a couple of keystrokes. I really find the daily and project time logs useful -
at any point I can see how much time I've spent on different tasks in that day
and if necessary, jump from the day page to the project page to see how much
time in total and on each task has been spent. 

I like how easily I can embed links into my day/project pages from nearly
anything. I know org mode has similar functionality, but in planner mode, these
sort of links seem to almost just occur at the right places without me having
to remember to put them in. 

I like the fact my day pages also include entries from my diary, so I can see
my whole day laid out first thing in the morning. The support for various types
of reports, scheduling tasks with different priorities and urgency and grouping
of tasks into related projects/programmes within the day page is very useful.
It is also really easy to schedule tasks to commence on a specific date. Until
that date arrives, the task does not show up in your daily task list, creating
less clutter and making it easy to see exactly which tasks I *should* be
working on that day. 

Having said all of that, there are a number of planner mode features I don't
use and therefore don't even bother loading. There has been some parts, mainly
in the user contributed modules, that I've not liked or just didn't really
understand what they were for or why I needed them. 

I also make extensive use of muse-mode, which I've found to be an excellent
mode for taking notes and writing simple documents where you don't want/need
the full power of Latex (which is what I use for my more formal documents).
This is particularly handy as I work in an environment where 90% of the staff
are Windows users. When I need to send them some notes or minutes from a
meeting or the outline for a proposal etc, I can write it up very quickly as
either a simple muse file or put it in a planner mode file and publish it in a
myriad of different formats. 

As mentioned in the earlier post, I also use org mode. I find it is good for
organising my notes and thoughts and information for a specific project. Its
very handy when you want a high level view that allows you to drill down to
more detail. If I'm starting on a new software project, I will use org mode to
map that project out in increasing levels of detail. I find it is good for
organising my thoughts etc, while planner mode is great for higher level
planning of multiple projects and management of project related information. 

When you look at the feature list of both modes, there appears to be little
difference and they do provide much the same functionality. I just find planner
mode works better for me on a number of levels. In fact, when I first found org
mode was being included in emacs 22, I was all prepared to switch to usiing it
as I normally prefer to use packages that are bundled with emacs over ones that
you have to instlal/manage yourself. However, for me, it just didn't feel as
convenient. Many of the things I like about planner mode are there in the
default setup and work just how I want them. Similar functionality, while
doable in org mode, requires more configuration and customization. Planner mode
fitted with how I like to work more naturally. Org mode could do the same
thing, but to a greater extent, to get the same power, it felt like I had to
modify my way of working to fit with it more and it really didn't seem as
strong on the multiple separate projects front. 

So, I think that while the functionality is similar, the underlying philosophy
is a bit different and they approach things from a different perspective re:
planning and organising your work. On some levels, it is a bit like a
comparison of vi and emacs - both can achieve the same outcomes, but do it
differently and one way suits some people while another way suits others. My
main bias towards planner mode is probably a simple as it being the first mode
of this type I used under emacs and it has set my expectations. 

Tim
 
-- 
tcross (at) rapttech dot com dot au