Reminders with alarms

Reminders with alarms

[Stephen Nelson-Smith]

Hi there,

I'm just starting to explore orgmode.  I'm an experienced GTD-er (6
yrs) and have looked with interest at a few articles on using orgmode
for this.  The one area I can't seem to work out is how to set a
reminder with an alarm and attach it to an entry.

Suppose I have an entry like:

** My project
*** My action 1 :home:
*** My action 2 :follow up:

I would like to be able to set a reminder that makes a visible (and
maybe audible) alert - in say 4 hrs, 2 days, at 1530 next wednesday
etc.  I see that I can set schedules for when to start work, but I've
been unable to get it to remind me at all.

Any suggestions?

S.

Re: Reminders with alarms

[Eric S Fraga]

Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi there,
>
> I'm just starting to explore orgmode.  I'm an experienced GTD-er (6
> yrs) and have looked with interest at a few articles on using orgmode
> for this.  The one area I can't seem to work out is how to set a
> reminder with an alarm and attach it to an entry.
>
> Suppose I have an entry like:
>
> ** My project
> *** My action 1 :home:
> *** My action 2 :follow up:
>
> I would like to be able to set a reminder that makes a visible (and
> maybe audible) alert - in say 4 hrs, 2 days, at 1530 next wednesday
> etc.  I see that I can set schedules for when to start work, but I've
> been unable to get it to remind me at all.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> S.

Yes, depending on what system you are using...  Assuming Linux, see
below.  For any system, org will interface with Emacs's own appointment
system; again, see below but only some parts will be relevant.

You should use active time stamps and look at the Emacs Wiki for how to
get an on screen display:

   http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/OrgMode-OSD

(courtesy Richard Riley).  Also look at this email by Nick Dokos from
the mailing list archives:

   http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/5271

HTH,
eric
-- 
: Eric S Fraga (GnuPG: 0xC89193D8FFFCF67D) in Emacs 24.0.50.1
: using Org-mode version 7.7 (release_7.7.257.g0dd1)

Re: Reminders with alarms

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On Wed, Sep 07 2011, Stephen Nelson-Smith wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I'm just starting to explore orgmode.  I'm an experienced GTD-er (6
> yrs) and have looked with interest at a few articles on using orgmode
> for this.  The one area I can't seem to work out is how to set a
> reminder with an alarm and attach it to an entry.
>
> Suppose I have an entry like:
>
> ** My project
> *** My action 1 :home:
> *** My action 2 :follow up:
>
> I would like to be able to set a reminder that makes a visible (and
> maybe audible) alert - in say 4 hrs, 2 days, at 1530 next wednesday
> etc.  I see that I can set schedules for when to start work, but I've
> been unable to get it to remind me at all.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> S.

Pretty much everything interesting that can be done with TODOs and
scheduling is done via the entry point of Agenda Views. When you say you
want a "reminder", my guess is that a scheduled todo showing up on the
day/week agenda view is probably what you mean. Try calling `org-agenda'
and then choosing 'a': is that what you were after? I keep one agenda
view or another open all day long as I work, that's how it reminds me.

I think I've heard of people setting audible alarms, but I don't know
any details, sorry…

Eric

Re: Reminders with alarms

[Bernt Hansen]

Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi there,
>
> I'm just starting to explore orgmode.  I'm an experienced GTD-er (6
> yrs) and have looked with interest at a few articles on using orgmode
> for this.  The one area I can't seem to work out is how to set a
> reminder with an alarm and attach it to an entry.
>
> Suppose I have an entry like:
>
> ** My project
> *** My action 1 :home:
> *** My action 2 :follow up:
>
> I would like to be able to set a reminder that makes a visible (and
> maybe audible) alert - in say 4 hrs, 2 days, at 1530 next wednesday
> etc.  I see that I can set schedules for when to start work, but I've
> been unable to get it to remind me at all.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> S.

This is what I use:

http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html#Reminders

-Bernt

Re: Reminders with alarms

[Martyn Jago]

Hi

Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi there,
>
> I'm just starting to explore orgmode.  I'm an experienced GTD-er (6
> yrs) and have looked with interest at a few articles on using orgmode
> for this.  The one area I can't seem to work out is how to set a
> reminder with an alarm and attach it to an entry.
>
> Suppose I have an entry like:
>
> ** My project
> *** My action 1 :home:
> *** My action 2 :follow up:
>
> I would like to be able to set a reminder that makes a visible (and
> maybe audible) alert - in say 4 hrs, 2 days, at 1530 next wednesday
> etc.  I see that I can set schedules for when to start work, but I've
> been unable to get it to remind me at all.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> S.

I use the growl notification system (on MAC) along with todochiku.el for
simple timer notification out of Emacs. Growl can be set to 'speak' the
notification (not sure about other sounds). 

todochiku also works with (snarl/libnotify) on other OSs.

The command todochiku-message allows you to add a notification to a hook
such as org-timer-done-hook (in your init file)...

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
 (defun mj-notify-timer-done ()
  (todochiku-message "Title here" "Further text here"
 (todochiku-icon 'bell)))
 (add-hook 'org-timer-done-hook  'mj-notify-timer-done))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Regards

Martyn

Re: Reminders with alarms

[Jude DaShiell]

In debian, there's a cowsay package you can use to make the computer 
speak.  Also packages that produce different types of beeps are 
available.   So far as I now know, they would need to be run as part of 
a bash script or the equivalent within emacs in order to work though.

On Wed, 7 Sep 2011, Martyn Jago wrote:

> Hi
> 
> Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > Hi there,
> >
> > I'm just starting to explore orgmode.  I'm an experienced GTD-er (6
> > yrs) and have looked with interest at a few articles on using orgmode
> > for this.  The one area I can't seem to work out is how to set a
> > reminder with an alarm and attach it to an entry.
> >
> > Suppose I have an entry like:
> >
> > ** My project
> > *** My action 1 :home:
> > *** My action 2 :follow up:
> >
> > I would like to be able to set a reminder that makes a visible (and
> > maybe audible) alert - in say 4 hrs, 2 days, at 1530 next wednesday
> > etc.  I see that I can set schedules for when to start work, but I've
> > been unable to get it to remind me at all.
> >
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> > S.
> 
> I use the growl notification system (on MAC) along with todochiku.el for
> simple timer notification out of Emacs. Growl can be set to 'speak' the
> notification (not sure about other sounds). 
> 
> todochiku also works with (snarl/libnotify) on other OSs.
> 
> The command todochiku-message allows you to add a notification to a hook
> such as org-timer-done-hook (in your init file)...
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>  (defun mj-notify-timer-done ()
>   (todochiku-message "Title here" "Further text here"
>  (todochiku-icon 'bell)))
>  (add-hook 'org-timer-done-hook  'mj-notify-timer-done))
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> Regards
> 
> Martyn
> 
> 
> 

Jude <jdashiel@shellworld.net>
"I love the Pope, I love seeing him in his Pope-Mobile, his three feet
of bullet proof plexi-glass. That's faith in action folks! You know he's
got God on his side."
~ Bill Hicks

Re: Reminders with alarms

[brian powell]

*Recommend using "flite" (FestivalLite) for text-to-speech: cat
blah.reminder | flite

** Could get really over-the-top and do something like this:

http://gizmodo.com/5522802/twitter-chumby-and-a-cuckoo-bird-walk-into-a-clock?tag=chumby

--you could use the Twitter API and send OrgMode Tweets (complete with
reminders) to your personalized Chumby Cuckoo Clock!!

;-)

P.S. I've used calendar/*Fancy Diary Entries* and appt.el for many
years--works great--I just have it pop up a big blank emacs screen
with the alarm reminder--I usually set it for 15 minutes ahead of the
important reminder:
;;; appt.el --- appointment notification functions.
;; Copyright (C) 1989, 1990, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
;; Author: Neil Mager <neilm@juliet.ll.mit.edu>
...
(setq appt-message-warning-time 15)
(setq appt-display-interval 5)

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 11:10 PM, Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@shellworld.net> wrote:
> In debian, there's a cowsay package you can use to make the computer
> speak.  Also packages that produce different types of beeps are
> available.   So far as I now know, they would need to be run as part of
> a bash script or the equivalent within emacs in order to work though.
>
> On Wed, 7 Sep 2011, Martyn Jago wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> Stephen Nelson-Smith <sanelson@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > Hi there,
>> >
>> > I'm just starting to explore orgmode.  I'm an experienced GTD-er (6
>> > yrs) and have looked with interest at a few articles on using orgmode
>> > for this.  The one area I can't seem to work out is how to set a
>> > reminder with an alarm and attach it to an entry.
>> >
>> > Suppose I have an entry like:
>> >
>> > ** My project
>> > *** My action 1 :home:
>> > *** My action 2 :follow up:
>> >
>> > I would like to be able to set a reminder that makes a visible (and
>> > maybe audible) alert - in say 4 hrs, 2 days, at 1530 next wednesday
>> > etc.  I see that I can set schedules for when to start work, but I've
>> > been unable to get it to remind me at all.
>> >
>> > Any suggestions?
>> >
>> > S.
>>
>> I use the growl notification system (on MAC) along with todochiku.el for
>> simple timer notification out of Emacs. Growl can be set to 'speak' the
>> notification (not sure about other sounds).
>>
>> todochiku also works with (snarl/libnotify) on other OSs.
>>
>> The command todochiku-message allows you to add a notification to a hook
>> such as org-timer-done-hook (in your init file)...
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>>  (defun mj-notify-timer-done ()
>>   (todochiku-message "Title here" "Further text here"
>>  (todochiku-icon 'bell)))
>>  (add-hook 'org-timer-done-hook  'mj-notify-timer-done))
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Martyn
>>
>>
>>
>
> Jude <jdashiel@shellworld.net>
> "I love the Pope, I love seeing him in his Pope-Mobile, his three feet
> of bullet proof plexi-glass. That's faith in action folks! You know he's
> got God on his side."
> ~ Bill Hicks
>
>

Re: Reminders with alarms

[Ivan Vilata i Balaguer]

brian powell (2011-09-08 17:42:02 +0200) wrote:

> P.S. I've used calendar/*Fancy Diary Entries* and appt.el for many
> years--works great--I just have it pop up a big blank emacs screen
> with the alarm reminder--I usually set it for 15 minutes ahead of the
> important reminder:
> ;;; appt.el --- appointment notification functions.
> ;; Copyright (C) 1989, 1990, 1994 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> ;; Author: Neil Mager <neilm@juliet.ll.mit.edu>
> ...
> (setq appt-message-warning-time 15)
> (setq appt-display-interval 5)

I also use appt.el, but I've written a notification function that calls
a little script to use FreeDesktop.org's notifications and send a
message to Screen sessions.  The script is only called from the Emacs
server process to avoid repeated messages, since I may have other Emacs
processes running.

The function is (customize appt-disp-window-function to use this):

----8<----
(defun ivb/appt-disp-window (min-to-app new-time appt-msg)
  (if (condition-case nil
          (server-running-p)
        (void-function nil))
      (call-process "notify" nil 0 nil "Reminder" appt-msg))
  (appt-disp-window min-to-app new-time appt-msg))
----8<----

The "notify" script contains:

----8<----
#!/bin/sh

case $# in
1)   title="Notification" message="$1" ;;
2)   title="$1" message="$2" ;;
*)   echo "Usage: $(basename $0) [TITLE] MESSAGE" > /dev/stderr
     exit 1
esac

# Show X notification on current display.
test "$DISPLAY" && notify-send -t 0 "$title" "$message"

# Notify screen sessions.
for scrname in $(screen -ls | sed -ne 's/^\t\([^\t]*\)\t.*/\1/p')
do
        screen -S $scrname -X wall "$title: $message"
done
----8<----

It should be executable and placed in your $PATH.  On Debian/Ubuntu
you'll need the libnotify-bin and screen packages.

Customize appt-display-duration, appt-display-interval and
appt-message-warning-time to your liking, then run:

----8<----
(appt-activate +1)
(bh/org-agenda-to-appt)
----8<----

HTH,
-- 
Ivan Vilata i Balaguer -- http://elvil.net/