How to keep indented under plain list items in org-mode

Question

While regular paragraphs are happily indented under plain list items (using [SPACE] bar to indent the first line takes the rest along with) I have noticed that code blocks do not like to cooperate. Is there any way to fix this?

Right now, this is what I have:

- [ ] My plain list item

  Nicely indented paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah.

  #+BEGIN_SRC elisp
; Uncooperative code block -> notice that only the first line indents.
(lambda () (do-something-amazing))
(blah-blah-blah)
#+END_SRC

I would like to get this:

- [ ] My plain list item

  Nicely indented paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah.

  #+BEGIN_SRC elisp
  ; Happily indented code block -> notice that all code follows with :)
  (lambda () (do-something-amazing))
  (blah-blah-blah)
  #+END_SRC

Answer 1

Try this

I use the following methods to fix the indentation of src blocks under plain lists. After indentation is setup correctly, always use M-S-left and M-S-right to maintain the list indentation.

Fix Formatting for New Code Blocks

First indent cursor and then use built-in template <s when creating a new src block under a plain list.

e.g. tab <s tab language return

- [ ] My plain list item

  Nicely indented paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah.

  <s

Fix Formatting for Existing Code Blocks

Step 1 - Figure out desired indent column number. For the example below use 2.

---

- [ ] My plain list item

  Nicely indented paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah.

  #+BEGIN_SRC elisp
; Uncooperative code block -> notice that only the first line indents.
(lambda () (do-something-amazing))
(blah-blah-blah)
#+END_SRC

---

Step 2 - Place cursor at beginning of #+END_SRC line then do M-xindent-to-column 2 return. After which you should see the following:

---

- [ ] My plain list item

  Nicely indented paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah.

  #+BEGIN_SRC elisp
; Uncooperative code block -> notice that only the first line indents.
(lambda () (do-something-amazing))
(blah-blah-blah)
  #+END_SRC

---

Step 3 - Open and close src block by placing cursor inside block and using C-' C-'.

---

- [ ] My plain list item

  Nicely indented paragraph, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
  blah blah blah.

  #+BEGIN_SRC elisp
   ; Uncooperative code block -> notice that only the first line indents.
   (lambda () (do-something-amazing))
   (blah-blah-blah)
  #+END_SRC

---

Thanks for asking your question.
Hope that helped!

---

This answer was tested using:
GNU Emacs 25.3.1
org-mode: 9.1.13