Cheong Yiufung has another great post up in his Org-mode Hidden Gems series. The latest post takes a look at Org-mode TODO functionality. As usual, I learned some new things proving again that the “hidden gems” tag is appropriate, at least for me.
Most Org users know that you can specify your own TOTO tags and make them anything you want. Yiufung shows how you can use that fact to implement a sort of lightweight task assignment system. I’d probably implement this with check boxes under a project heading but you may like Yiufung’s system better: take a look and see.
Next, he discusses TODO statistics. Those are the cookies that tell you how much of a task has been completed. Normally, the statistics cover the entire subtree so that even subtasks are counted. It’s possible, though, to specify that you want them to act in a hierarchical manner. Then, each (sub)subtree is treated as a unit and can have it’s own counter. Yiufung has a video that shows this and makes it clear how the two modes differ.
Finally, he looks at the Org habits functionality. This is useful for repetitive tasks such as exercising when you want to track your progress. Org gives you a nice graphical summary of how well you’re doing. Again, take a look Yiufung’s video to see what it looks like.