Is there a tutorial for using org-mode only for a simple TODO list that anyone can recommend? I had a brief look around, but don't have the time to read the entire manual at the moment.
As an indirect response to the OPs question the next step after that good intro tutorial is something like this, which is a medium level application of org mode once you get the basics down, in a well known format: (Edited to emphasize if you know the basics of GTD, and its not terribly complicated, this is a good example of applying org mode tools to a known problem, presumably this will help you in applying org mode to your individual problem, assuming its not just setting up GTD of course)
I actually used this, or many ideas strongly borrowed from this, for some time until I was kind of forced into evernote in order to inter operate both mobile and with some evernote users (OK specifically the other user is my wife). It turned out to be easier to implement something like GTD in evernote than to teach my (techie, pbx programmer) wife how to use emacs. But emacs org mode did work perfectly and was quite effective and fast while I used it.
The mobile client for evernote a couple years ago was far superior to the mobile org mode client. As of years ago. This may have changed. The big problem from memory with the mobile clients is the mobile app model is inherently windows-ish where all the worlds features are in one self contained app, so you gotta make a good gui and a good sync in one app, where as the unix-ish philosophy of using a suite of tools perfectly designed for individual jobs is not permitted in mobile, so its a hard fit. Although the evernote guys got it to work pretty well, so its obviously possible.
slightly irrelevant, but since you mentioned GTD I'd like to add that there is quite a nice open source project for that workflow. It's called Getting Things Gnome [0] (there is also a version for windows, mind you)
That might be a good idea for people who are not living in emacs. The only thing I dislike about it is the fact that it stores your tasks in a single xml-files.
For a simple TODO list just open a .org file (so org-mode is actually enabled). Make a new TODO item by pressing ctrl-shift-return. Clock in with C-c C-x C-i, mark it finished with C-c C-t d. That should be all you need to get started, and when you want to do something else scour the cheat sheet to see if it's there.
