The Omni Group

You're struggling with something even GTD fans struggle with.  Part of the trick is making OmniFocus a part of your daily routine, like reading e-mail or playing on Facebook.  And the way to make that happen is to put sufficient interest in using OmniFocus.  You can do this by either making it fun to use OmniFocus (or if not fun, at least desirable, because you know you will feel better after using it, which comes down to using it in a manner that helps you get things done) or by making it necessary to use OmniFocus (the way you have to check your e-mail so you don't get fired for not seeing a memo).  And even once you get into the habit, most people find it takes about two years to really “get” GTD or other task management systems.

So don't loose heart.  If you keep falling off, look for things like podcasts and blogs and forums that can help keep you on track.

Hmm, I've been thinking about writing a post along these lines, about how I use OmniFocus, but keep putting it off (... ah the irony ...)

But, in all seriousness, I actually have been using the system since the Kinkless days and rely on OF for much if not all of my task management.  Boasting only a little, I do get a lot of things done in various spheres of life.

Briefly, my system is as follows:

Perhaps, similar to Bill, I assign start dates to things I want to do today.  Some of these are on repeat - daily, weekly or otherwise.  It is a good skeleton structure around which everything can revolve.  These tasks can be as simple as check the mail or complex like work on billing - broken down into individual tasks, etc ...

My main view then is context view with the start date as the grouping characteristic and “available” as the grouping filter. 

Anything that really needs a due date gets one, but I try to stay away from that as much as possible.  I think I'm allergic to the orange and red.

This is basically my make-it-through-the-day setup.  However, I have flagged those projects I would like to remain in my conscious focus.  I try to select one of these projects as its own window and leave it minimized to my side bar.  When I can, I open it and work on it.  It is my project of the moment.  (This is when I am good about focusing - usually I actually have several of them open.)

This way - whenever something comes to mind that I'd like to get done today comes to mind, I can get to quick entry and enter today's date as the start date and it will show in my get-through-the-day context view.  It will wait for me until I feel ready to go back there from my main project.

There's more than this, but hmm, maybe this is the impetus I needed to write that blog post ...

Yea, very common indeed.  The solution for me has been to truly make OF my external brain.  I'm at the puter all day working, with loads of projects going on at any given time.  And, though it's great to be able to look at a project one at a time and see just what's up with that, my workflow looks more like this:

• Surfing some site… realize i want to read it, quick-key new quick entry task [enter project “learning” context “work” due date “5p”]... done

• or, I'm in Entourage… each email that isn't a quick response becomes a task through the Entourage script for Omnifocus, which brings the email into my quick-entry box (with link back to original message in entourage!).  Again, adding project, context, due date, and sometimes start date if I don't want to see it till next week.

Then, when I'm actually working, i'm in context mode, with everything sorted by due date.  Kicking assets and checking boxes… oh, and changing due dates when i'm not kicking/checking.

—

The truth is, when you have your birds-eye view of everything on your plate, you’re way better off than if you have some todo’s and projects… So, for me the solution has been to bring just about everything into OF.  I filter everything (my email, articles to read, calls to make, etc) into OF so that I have one place to keep it all. 

This keeps me coming home to OF whenever I get that vague feeling like I should be working right now.

Hope it helps.  I hope to be bringing only relevant info on productivity to http://www.fertilework.com soon.  OF will be a big part of that.

1) Put every thing that could be considered an action or a project immediately into OF (I use QuickEntry a lot for, well, quick entry)—even if any of the following are not clear or defined in the moment: context, project, or actions themselves. Actions with no context and/or project, placed in the inbox (via OF or QuickEntry) don't get cleaned up until you have a context and projects (your prefs need to be set up that way). If you have a vague action or project, do the same, just be sure to *not* fill in either context or project. I leave off a (sentence) period for actions that need re-writing, and for projects or group listing (hang with me).

For a quick project or group idea that isn't fleshed out, I leave off the period. I optionally add some 'to be actions' or notes in the notes field. You can drag it over to the sidebar to become a project later, and then flesh out actions from the notes field later.

Now you got the thing *into* OF. That is huge. Next, bite the bullet, and at least once a day, clean everything up.

2) Do a weekly review. I have a weekly review perspective set up that is based on GTD, and some of the actions are like: 'Run through Due Soon Perspective.

Well, I've written a guide I consider for the “advanced user” as a take off from my comments above.  I hope you find it useful :-)

http://kouroshdini.com/2009/04/23/how-to-use-omnifocus-a-guide-for-the-advanced-user/

I'm in the same boat as you, Linda. I'm an attorney, so organized to-do lists etc. are all but mandatory if I don't want to have a) upset clients; b) missed court deadlines; c) a legal malpractice suit served on me by the friendly sheriff.

But I must confess that OF gets used poorly by me. I think it's not necessarily a problem that you or I have that comes from the software itself. Gordon nails it, I think: we're not motivated sufficiently to use any sort of organizational system. (For a lawyer, that has to be some sign of mental illness.)

I have an easy time dumping things in (like cases and tasks in those cases) but following through with new things doesn't go easily. Maybe it's because I don't find OF fun to use. Perhaps I too am allergic to orange and red (but in my job deadlines are a fact of life). But I think for some people out there, we spend an awful lot of time looking for the “right system” that will solve the problem, when perhaps the problem cannot be solved by any method or software application. Often, by the time we reach adulthood, the habits are set in place, and it takes a lot of motivation to unlearn those.

Still, I find it nice to dump something into OF when I think of it. Maybe I just need to get used to using it as a simple to-do manager, and then start looking for more complex ways of using it.

I had a problem to remember to check what's due in OF. I solved it by using iCal and settin up repeating tasks to open OF automatically twice a day.

Hi,

Must say I recognize much that was written. I do use and love OF. But am not disciplined in reviewing weekly.

What helps me is to one in a while re-read GTD or listen to the read version through my iPod. That re-explains the ideas and by that re-energizes me. Hope after some time it will be fully part of me.

Jeroen

P.S. What annoys me is that I also use OF on my iPhone but cannot call directly from an action. It does nog recognize a phone number.  I have a context calls. Would be handy.

I usually use a “brain dump” into my inbox.  Just get everything out of my head and into the inbox of Omnifocus on my Mac.  Then, I start adding contexts and due dates on each entry.  If I have more than 2 items that fall under the same idea, I would add it to a Project. 

My problem is that sometimes I have to do these dumps at work and I am limited by using a Windows PC.  And personally, I feel that dumping stuff into my Omnifocus via my iPhone app it is a tedious process.  I wish there was an online component that syncs with the desktop and the iPhone app.  I know I am asking for too much, but in reality many of us do work in Windows environments and we are left with entering all of our information via the iPhone app, which can get complicated.

With that said, I do enjoy the iPhone app, but wish it opened a bit faster.

The biggie for me is to set up a hotkey to the Quick Entry and make it second nature. Then use it to jot even the quickest note when I think of something I need to do/remember. I clarify and organize these items later when I've got time.

Two things I wish:

1. I wish I could hit the Quick Entry key from _anywhere_ and have the document I'm looking for automatically be linked. This works in some apps, but not a lot.

2. I wish the iPhone app had a Quick Entry that didn't have the startup time that the main app does. I need a lower barrier to make quick notes on the road.

I'm very, very disorganized and got Omni Focus in an effort to get a bit more organized.  I've read the GTD book and sort of understand it. The problem is applying it to my life.  And the great thing about OF (lots of feature) is also it's biggest drawback.  I actually found iGTD more simple, but with development almost at a standstill, I turned to OF. 

Lately I've been looking through the forum, and plan to be taking an another look at the manual.  I'm coming to realize that I don't have to be rigid, that I can find a way to make OF work for me and not feel so rigid.  One thing that would help is if OF was able to somehow automatically pop up a reminder if I set a date, and alarm.

[...] my last post, I confessed my slackerdom when it comes to personal task management, and the subsequent dust that [...]

[...] This post from the OmniGroup blog inspired me to chronicle some of my GTD habits. [...]

Just created Part II of using OmniFocus with a focus on integrating with email:  http://kouroshdini.com/2009/05/04/part-ii-how-to-use-omnifocus-integrating-email/