• My org-mode usage
• Integrating with macOS / iOS
• Enter Apple Shortcuts
  • Store your org folder on iCloud
• Shortcut 'Installation'

My org-mode usage

I use spacemacs and org-mode for pretty much everything I do.

• I have written a textbook using org and LaTeX
• I read and post on mastodon using mastodon.el
• I take all of my personal and work notes with org-mode
• I track all of my personal and work todo lists with org-mode
• I write blog posts using ox-hugo
• I read my rss feeds using elfeed
• I code using emacs and magit
• … and probably a million other things that don't immediately come to mind

Integrating with macOS / iOS

The machine I use most is an M1 macbook pro, and my mobile device is an iphone.

It is simple to add a todo or a note using org-mode capture templates, when inside of emacs on the macbook. (C-c c).

On the iphone, it is nearly impossible to achieve the workflow I normally use.

I wanted a way to basically use org-capture on the iphone. There are various apps that come so close to solving this problem (beorg, mobile org, plain org), but none of them really had the functionality I was looking for. (They are all great iOS apps, and do have their use cases)

Enter Apple Shortcuts

I created a shortcut using Apple Shortcuts that meets my use case:

• Accepts quick input for personal todos and notes, and work todos and notes.
• Functions identically on macOS and iOS

Here is a link to the shortcut file: org-capture-shortcut GitHub

Store your org folder on iCloud

Your org folder must be on your iCloud drive.

/Users/<your username>/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/org

I symlink mine to my home directory

ln -s /Users/<your username>/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/org /Users/<your username>/org

Shortcut 'Installation'

When importing this shortcut, it should ask you a few questions as a setup:

• Folder location for your personal org files (example: your iCloud org folder)
  • Filename (without path) of your personal TODO file (example: todo.org)
  • Filename (without path) of your personal notes file (example: notes.org)
• Folder location for your work org files (example: your iCloud org folder/work/)
  • Filename (without path) of your work TODO file (example: todo.org)
  • Filename (without path) of your work notes file (example: notes.org)

That being said, this shortcut is based on my use-case. If you also need personal and work todos and notes, it should work out of the box for you. You can otherwise edit it to meet your own use-case.

If you find this shortcut useful, I only ask that you link back to me at this blog or at my mastodon account.

Thanks for reading!