Yep. I'm amazed by how many different hacks, tools, and one-offs get proposed in threads like this when an amazing plain-text note/organization/GTD/life management ecosystem already exists and is supported by endless configurability. Of course, we're talking about org-mode.

(Religious org-mode user for approximately four years.)

I'm perpetually saddened because I work in aerospace where the IT policies are quite restrictive due to security clearances and whatnot, so I'm stuck on windows and can't install emacs :(

Every few months I toy with the idea of implementing a poor man's org-mode in VBA.

Emacs doesn't have to be installed on Windows, strictly speaking... you can run it out of a subdirectory without using an installer. IIRC the Windows installer just sets up some registry keys that make life a bit more convenient, but they aren't blockers to actually running the application.

That's tough, especially because emacs + org-mode is most usable when combined with a few melpa packages. Even if you could get emacs installed, you'd (probably) want melpa packages to make it more usable.

Is there a great intro to org mode that isn’t the docs? (Never used emacs but tempted because all I’ve heard of org mode)