By default Emacs Orgmode uses uppercase words for todo keywords. But having tens of entries marked with TODO and DONE in my file looked horribly cluttered to me. So I searched for alternatives. After a few months of experimentation, I decided on the following scheme. It served me well ever since:

• ❢ To do
• ☯ In progress
  • ⚙ A program is running (optional detail)
  • ✍ I’m writing (optional detail)
• ⧖ Waiting
• ☺ To report
• ✔ Done
• ⌚ Maybe do this at some later time
• ✘ Won’t do

To set this in org-mode, just add the following to the header (and reopen the document, for example with C-x C-v):

#+SEQ_TODO: ❢ ☯ ⧖ | ☺ ✔ ⌚ ✘

or for the complex case (with details on what I do)

#+SEQ_TODO: ❢ ☯ ⚙ ✍ ⧖ | ☺ ✔ ⌚ ✘

Then use C-c C-t or SHIFT-→ (shift + right arrow) to switch to the next state or SHIFT-← (shift + left arrow) to switch to the previous state.

Anything before the | in the SEQ_TODO is shown in red (not yet done), anything after the | is show in green (done). Things which get triggered when something is done (like storing the time of a scheduled entry) happen when the state crosses the |.

And with that, my orgmode documents are not only very useful but also look pretty lean. Just as good as having a GUI with images, but additionally I can access them over SSH and edit the todo state with any tool - because it’s just text.