Benefits of org-mode's Simple Date Insert

I wrote before about how easy it is to insert the current date, in org-mode, I just type: C-c !

As I use the Getting Things Done system - having a date on every line of my lists really help - two keystrokes and there’s the current date!

Where the date comes in really useful is when a list gets long - I have another metric to judge against:

How long ago did I put that itme on the list??

This is beneficial as:

• I can look up when I thought of the idea.
• the item might have been priority one at the time.
• another priority came up and overrided the item.
• the item is not as good or important as it seem.
• I just didn’t care about that item as much as I thought I did.
• give me knowledge how old an idea is.

The last one is important because I have a three day rule for blog items. Also, looking at my blog idea list, I have items over three months old on there.

With dates, I use that to clean up lists quickly.

If it’s over a month old, let’s just archive it and keep my list clean.

By having a super simple way to put in the present date, I get another way of cleaning up my lists that is simple and fast!