Org Roam: The Best Way to Keep a Journal in Emacs

[@ViniciusProvenzano]

I really do prefer this kind of content than the long streaming ones. Those are great, but it takes time to absorb.

[@SystemCrafters]

Thanks! I intentionally tried to make this one shorter to experiment with giving the same amount of value in less time, I'm glad it worked out!

[@tennisfreak312]

Thanks to your videos, I am _slowly_ but *surely* going to live 100% within emacs.

[@ganainm01]

I'd like to see a video about integration with the common org-mode stuff like agenda views. How can org-roam and org-mode be combined to create a comprehensive planning/journaling/documenting system?

[@ablian3]

I am also interested in this.

[@JadeCurty]

Me too :)

[@vagrant1943]

Man this channel is gold! Love emacs!

[@mishaerementchouk]

Thanks for a good and informative video. I disregarded org-roam's dailies so far, as I didn't see where they would fit my workflow, but your presentation made me reconsider. I am still undecided on monolithic vs multiple files organization as there are benefits and disadvantages on both sides. It seems using multiple files is a safer initial choice: it is much easier to merge sanitized org-roam files than to generate an org-roam network. I will need to dig into how to work with several org-roam roots, though. Another something I have postponed for a while. Thanks again for your videos. Very professional and training-ready.

[@camrouxbg]

I totally agree - these videos are quite professional. My only suggestion would be to slow down the talking speed a bit (I know I can on KZbin, but then it starts sounding weird) as he speaks quite fast. Also, not being live it seems he doesn't stumble on words and such quite as much :) But I still love the live streams!

[@mifkan]

I sort of like keeping my Journal and ongoing TODOs in one file to use with org-agenda, but one interesting use case for this I thought of would be to use it to refile completed tasks into dailies instead of an archive file to more easily access when I completed or cancelled tasks. Going to try to see if I can find a good way to automate this with a dailies template.

[@noblesavage149]

Thanks for all your tutorials. Decided to do your emacs from scratch after using neo/vim for a couple of years. Going to see if I can go fully into emacs or will still have to use vim for some things (I have to use niche language frameworks at the moment lol). Keep up the good work!

[@SystemCrafters]

KZbin deleted your comment, I only delete spam comments

[@AndersJackson]

Emacs have modes for most languages I can think of. But unless that is some new strange format, you should be able to find a Emacs mode for it. But it is ok to also use vim with Emacs.

[@noblesavage149]

@@AndersJackson Nativescript. Heard of it? Nope, neither have most people unfortunately...

[@AndersJackson]

@pili pili just because your comment didn't get sent to YT, doesn't have anything about the quality of the video. You should probably tried to send it again. But as you have stated the video is not for you, why don't you just get lost into some video you like more?

[@AndersJackson]

@@noblesavage149 a framework in typescript/javascript for writing apps for Apple and Android phones. At least that is what the "Choose editor" in the documentation say. So yes, there are modes for those in Emacs. As long you can use CLI to do the different steps, that should not be that hard. And there are LSP for JS and TypeScrip that you can connect to Emacs. But then again, if you feel more comfortable with VS, you should totally continue using that if you are in the middle of a project.

[@regather59]

I've been watching your videos with lots of curiosity. For years I've been doing all of my journaling, documenting, and coding (various scripting languages) from a highly configured gVim setup. It'd be hard for me to move around my text files at any closer speed to my thoughts. For example, my current private journal is over 16000 lines long, many of them long lines of my daily thoughts over many years, but it's all folded up, thus easy to navigate. In just a few keystrokes I can highlight "System Crafters", switch over to my IT notes, and find all my notes about your tutorials. I'm currently delving into Spacemacs as a way into the alternative (to Vim) power of Emacs.

[@bsseely]

I suspect that you have already heard this, but there appears to be a typo in the show notes. It says: Go back one existing date file with org-roam-dailies-goto-next-note (C-c n d b) Go forward one existing date file with org-roam-dailies-goto-previous-note (C-c n d f) The function names are switched (but the key bindings are correct). C-c n d f is for org-roam-dailies-goto-next-note C-c n d b is for org-roam-dailies-goto-previous-note

[@camrouxbg]

OMG man, this is so great. This will help me a lot as a teacher, I'm sure of it. And with my Toastmasters responsibilities. So stoked. I love this format, too. Short, just cover one chunk. Don't get me wrong -- I love the live streams too. But this is also a really good format. Just going over now to check out the discord and other communities. Thanks!

[@thecashewtrader3328]

this.

[@AmirHosseinHonardust]

Great video. I think org-roam is a very interesting thing. Because it combines the central functionality of obsidian and dendron, on the extremely powerful foundation of org mode. Which is awesome. But the problem is that each time I tried these approaches before they came to some strong stability, the maintainance of the links which were broken because of some bug, became extremely frustrating. Considering that each system uses a completely different infrastructure and syntax, considering the price of migration from one system (dendron to org-roam or to obsidian or ...) becomes a problem when considering that only a few developers are maintaining each software, and they have been doing it only for one or two years at most. So putting all your life on that foundation becomes a worrisome problem where if for example for any reason org-roam or any other break a each point, the huge number of files become unusable. Nevermind the problem of accessing your files in mobile phones and etc...

[@SystemCrafters]

I agree with you that it can be risky to depend on young tools, though I think Org Roam v2 has simplified things internally to such a degree that it will be easier to maintain and fix going forward, or at least that seems to be the goal. If enough people are invested in using it, I don't think there will be any trouble finding new maintainers who can fix bugs and keep it moving forward.

[@AmirHosseinHonardust]

@@SystemCrafters yeah I agree with you that it is a safe bet that they would not disappear, especially considering that most of these tools are extremely reliant on other tools with huge stability. But I think the functionality of the org mode is so powerful which makes the need a bit more minor. So my argument is that considering the complex nature of maintaining and using these systems, I think that the need should be as much to justify relying on them. For markdown, the benefits of these are uncountable. For org-mode, already a big org mode file can achieve most of the things one expect from these tools. To be honest I'm just talking from pain of moving so much and trying to adapt my vault from system to system. Otherwise org-roam is in great shape.

[@diegonayalazo]

Thanks David. Great content as always.

[@Xdavidel]

I'm trying to decide between org-roam and org-brain. It's seems that org-roam has more to it - but I really like that brain has it all built in lisp.

[@SystemCrafters]

Haven't tried org-brain yet! After finishing the videos I have in mind for Org Roam, I'm planning to make one on Org-brain to contrast them

[@laalbujhakkar]

I really wish there were some tutorials on basics of emacs org mode, most "beginner tutorials" seem to be done by experts for experts.

[@abarocio80]

This is so useful for my work! Thank you!

[@denis_txt]

Is there a video about this beautiful setup? Text slides/eshell etc.?

[@SystemCrafters]

Thanks! I don't have a single one that explains all of it, you can check out the link to my configuration in the description to see how I did it

[@mikethelma]

I love your video. I tried to use your config and I ran into loads of problems. Not in using it, but in loading the bits and bobs. The latest error has something to do with needing a C compiler! "Could not find C compiler, skipping SQLite build" Any thoughts? I have lots of iSpell not found types of errors sprinkled through the message buffer but that does not seem so important, but who knows..

[@AndrewLuhring]

what I wanna see is someone actually use this. like... I wanna see an author who uses org roam to write stuff. like actual zettles n stuff

[@NijiDash]

Found out about your channel by watching DistroTube, this is the first video I've watched and it seems to be a great resource so far. I'm currently using Vim quite extensively and have gotten quite used to it. Not a serious programmer or anything, just a (sort-of) power user who likes to write (mostly blogs and crappy fanfiction lol) and take notes. I'd like to take Emacs for a spin, but watching this video it just blows my mind how many keybindings there are to memorize! Any encouragement/advice on this? Thanks!

[@SystemCrafters]

Thanks! Emacs has a lot of key bindings but there is a great package called which-key which can make them easier to remember. You just press the first part of a key sequence and a pop-up will tell you everything that comes next.

[@NijiDash]

@@SystemCrafters Thanks for the tip! I've installed Emacs and am following the built-in tutorial to give it a fair shot. The Org-mode goodies are what makes the effort worth it for me.

[@MichaelDiamondMusic]

Awesome video! I just started using org-journal but I might have to switch over. Are backlinks the advantage of the org roam version over org journal? What are your thought on adding tags to roam journal entries?

[@andrewemerson6662]

loved this one

[@benslinuxadventures581]

I have really need to get back into emacs

[@00mickeyhp]

Thanks for all your great videos. I have one question: how do you make capture window in a vertical split?

[@SystemCrafters]

That happens in Emacs automatically when the frame is wide enough, check out the window-min-width and window-min-height variables

[@isaacraja]

was waiting for this video

[@pvgelder1976]

Same here :-)

[@drishalballaney]

Same 😉😉 (Tbh I still have to learn about org roam properly)

[@AlvarMaciel]

Thnnks for the Raom series, can I ask for a video of ox-hugo+roam to make a public site :)

[@SystemCrafters]

I'm about to make a whole series on generate websites from Org Mode files! One aspect of that will be Org Roam

[@AlvarMaciel]

@@SystemCrafters Great!!!!!

[@peterklenner2563]

In a monolithic org-file (as I use it), I have everything at a glance. Search is quick. Narrowing down to headlines for better focus is easy. The built-in ID functionality of org even allows to link headlines across files. Even back-linking can be emulated with occur or projectile. So, I guess, I am still on the fence regarding org-roam.

[@SystemCrafters]

If what you're using works for you, stick with it! Org Roam is just one tool in the infinite toolbox that is Emacs.

[@AmirHosseinHonardust]

I'm coming from obsidian and many files approach. But i'm kinda siding with you in this regard. I'm not sure what advantages many files offer org-mode. (While markdown editors obviously need these functionalities)

[@peterklenner2563]

@@AmirHosseinHonardust Incidentally, I really want to like Obsidian ;) But I am put off by three things: 1) The switching between editing and rendering, 2) The madness of random files created on my drive, 3) The lack of macros for text-editing.

[@AmirHosseinHonardust]

@@peterklenner2563 let me add electron as well. Obsidian is amazing. The developers are very wise and awesome. The community is beautiful. But I think if you have org mode and org roam, obsidian only has awesome mobile development and out of box experience for it. Learning emacs and doom and org has been a pain in the back for me, but honestly, it has been worth it for me.

[@rafeu2288]

As a single org-file can have bidirectional (back)links to headings from the same file, I think a multiple file approach advantage would be integrating outside notes inside your system. But in this case, maybe something like the federated wiki is to be prefered ^^

[@hoki2889]

Thanks for another great video! So, coming back to Zettelkasten, I believe that these daily captures might make for a good way to deal with fleeting notes. I understand those are originally meant to be thrown away; but this approach might be a neat combination of collecting such thoughts to be integrated into ZK and keeping a journal of what happened when. Any thoughts on this?

[@SystemCrafters]

Yep, I also treat it as a way to log things that happened on particular days, especially what I was thinking at that time. As long as the daily notes aren't treated as core reference material in the ZK it seems fine to keep them around!

[@silinsi6837]

great video, but it works for me only without the changing of org-roam-setup to org-roam-db-autosync-mode, otherwise org-roam-node-find can't find the node in /journal folder

[@SystemCrafters]

That is frustrating, they changed the name of that function recently so different people may see different function names depending on version. Glad it worked for you after all!

[@dribrahimel-nahhal2477]

Thank you

[@QiWei_cs]

hi, which system you use emacs? windows? linux? or MacOS?

[@SystemCrafters]

Linux, particularly GNU Guix

[@terinjokes]

How would you compare and contrast these dailies with org-agenda views? Would you use one over the other, or is there a good way to use them together?

[@camrouxbg]

I would think they could be used together. The dailies are more of a journal, where the agenda is a schedule. But maybe roam has something for that as well?

[@arvydasgasparavicius7231]

Hey, can I implement something like "(file "~/RoamNotes/Templates/BookNoteTemplate.org")" like you did in this video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6nKcmiwZ7djbqs BUT for dailies? Whenever a NEW daily entry is created, use a template I have predifined in a separate fie. Thanks!

[@gozzilla78]

This is what I call a true overkill! Well done! The advice to use eMacs org mode to keep a journal is hilarious!!