25.10.1 Org as an organizer

You can tag an Org entry as a TODO item by typing C-c C-t ( org-todo) anywhere in the entry. This adds the keyword ‘ TODO’ to the heading line. Typing C-c C-t again switches the keyword to ‘ DONE’; another C-c C-t removes the keyword entirely, and so forth. You can customize the keywords used by C-c C-t via the variable org-todo-keywords.

Apart from marking an entry as TODO, you can attach a date to it, by typing C-c C-s ( org-schedule) in the entry. This prompts for a date by popping up the Emacs Calendar (see The Calendar and the Diary), and then adds the tag ‘ SCHEDULED’, together with the selected date, beneath the heading line. The command C-c C-d ( org-deadline) has the same effect, except that it uses the tag DEADLINE.

Once you have some TODO items planned in an Org file, you can add that file to the list of agenda files by typing C-c [ ( org-agenda-file-to-front). Org mode is designed to let you easily maintain multiple agenda files, e.g., for organizing different aspects of your life. The list of agenda files is stored in the variable org-agenda-files.

To view items coming from your agenda files, type M-x org-agenda. This command prompts for what you want to see: a list of things to do this week, a list of TODO items with specific keywords, etc. See Agenda Views in The Org Manual, for details.