Org log into drawer

Note

A short one today, but it's something that I can't believe I didn't discover earlier. Whenever an org-mode TODO's state is changed (it's closed / rescheduled), you get a CLOSING NOTE under the TODO heading (provided you've set org-log-done to t as I have, as I want to add notes when I finish a task). Something like this:

*** DONE Do something interesting
CLOSED: [2999-99-99 Mon 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2021-02-01 Mon 22:39]

This is fine, but when the task is recurring, we get something like this:

*** TODO Do something interesting every day
SCHEDULED: <2999-99-99 Mon .+1d>
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-99 Mon 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-98 Sun 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-97 Sat 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-96 Fri 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-95 Thu 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-94 Wed 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-93 Tue 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-92 Mon 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-91 Sun 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-90 Sat 99:99]

And so on. This easily gets out of hand, especially if you have a description of the task lying around there, it can get lost in the clutter quickly.

These closing note lines can be hidden away with one simple setting - org-log-into-drawer.

When you switch it on, it'll neatly place all the logs of the task's completion/rescheduling in the :LOGBOOK: drawer, where your clock entries usually end up.

So the task will now look like this:

*** TODO Do something interesting every day
SCHEDULED: <2999-99-99 Mon .+1d>
:LOGBOOK:
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-99 Mon 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-98 Sun 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-97 Sat 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-96 Fri 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-95 Thu 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-94 Wed 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-93 Tue 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-92 Mon 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-91 Sun 99:99]
- CLOSING NOTE [2999-99-90 Sat 99:99]
:END:

The drawer can be toggled, leaving the task clean of clutter, while keeping the closing / clock times intact.

*** TODO Do something interesting every day
SCHEDULED: <2999-99-99 Mon .+1d>
:LOGBOOK:...

This setting has definitely improved the look of my recurring tasks and has made my org files a lot less cluttered.

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