[nanna]

> I use org-super-agenda and a central TODO file to manage my stuff

Hadn't heard of org-super-agenda, but looks great. Thanks!

https://github.com/alphapapa/org-super-agenda

> I've also started using org-roam and I'm loving it for capturing my thoughts.

I've tried with Org-Roam but I find the idea of breaking thoughts into little bits very awkward when I mostly work with philosophical books, where the priority is the relation of a concept to the others in the same book, then to the author, then maybe school, then to other authors. I haven't figured out how to model that in org-roam, but maybe there is a way? I also like to divide my notes into folders based on their author (awkward for multiple authors, I admit), but org-roam seems built to keep everything in one massive folder. I just use plain org files and grep around for relevant other stuff.

> the customizability lets me never be satisfied and spend more time screwing with stuff than actually working.

Yeah, I hear that. The one above is the most stable workflow I've come up with after numerous iterations. Keeping it as simple as possible, basically a super powered todo list or bullet journal, has helped, i think.

[jadenjohnch]

> I find the idea of breaking thoughts into little bits very awkward when I mostly work with philosophical books, where the priority is the relation of a concept to the others in the same book

Then don't! I'd just make a file node for each book and take regular notes within that.

> I also like to divide my notes into folders based on their author

You could roam-tag them or link them to a page for the author. I've only been using roam for about 2 weeks, but so far, I set up my file nodes like so:

  #+filetags: :tags:othertags:
  #+title: Something Interesting
  This is a brief description of something interesting. It's just a sentence or two.

  Links: [[id:12345][Something related]], [[id:23456][Very cool stuff]], [[id:34567][Absolutely amazing things]]

  * First section

  * Second section

And so on. It works pretty well so far.

> a super powered todo list or bullet journal

My main problem is I keep changing themes and the format/way I take notes. I haven't actually messed with my agenda or anything in about 6 months, and if I do, it's usually just something minor like adding a new group or sorting by lowest effort.

[nanna]

Thanks, I might just give org-roam another try!

[githubalphapapa]

See also https://github.com/alphapapa/org-ql which supports org-super-agenda grouping.

[jadenjohnch]

Hey Alphapapa! You're an absolute legend, thanks for all the work on those programs.

So is there an advantage to using org-ql over super-agenda and org-agenda?

[githubalphapapa]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad they're useful to you.

org-ql is a search tool. It provides an alternative to some parts of org-agenda and integrates with it to some extent. Its searching is much faster and more powerful than the built-in Org search tools; see its documentation for details.

org-super-agenda performs a different function, to group results in agenda buffers (which can be from org-agenda or org-ql). See https://github.com/alphapapa/org-super-agenda#faq