What is in your daily review?

[vauha27]

I'd be glad if some of you would just share their daily review workflow using omnifocus. How did you set up omnifocus, which folders, projects, tasks do you use, are there any special perspectives you use?

Thanks in advance

[curt.clifton]

I'd be glad if some of you would just share their daily review workflow using omnifocus. How did you set up omnifocus, which folders, projects, tasks do you use, are there any special perspectives you use?

I have a morning review that I do at work and an evening review that I do at home. Don't be put off by the complexity. These have evolved over time.

Morning Review:

- [ ] Process Email
- [ ] Empty In Folder
- [ ] Empty In Box
- [ ] Review Today's Calendar
- [ ] Empty OmniFocus Inbox
- [ ] Review active projects
Step through Active Projects due for review today
- [ ] Any projects to put On Hold or move to someday/maybe? (Be
draconian)
- [ ] Any projects that are stuck?
- [ ] Planning/clarity needed?
- [ ] True next action identified?
- [ ] Attach purpose, "success looks like", etc.
- [ ] Review Next Actions Lists
- [ ] Important perspective
- [ ] Urgent Radar perspective


Evening Review:

- [ ] Review Tomorrow’s Ticklers
- [ ] Check mirror for notes
- [ ] Empty Moleskine
- [ ] Empty Voice Memos
- [ ] Empty In Folder
- [ ] Empty In Box
- [ ] Process Email
- [ ] Empty OmniFocus Inbox
- [ ] Verify Next Actions for all Projects
- [ ] Review Tomorrow’s Calendar
- [ ] Print Errands tasklists
- [ ] Sync phone


Here are the perspectives I use:

OmniFocus Inbox Perspective opens in new window, project mode, focused on inbox, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, toolbar hidden
Active Project Review Perspective opens in new window, project mode, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, active projects, grouped by next review, unsorted, remaining actions, any duration, any flag status
Important Perspective opens in current window, context mode, active contexts, grouped by context, sorted by due date, available actions, any duration, flagged
Urgent Radar Perspective opens in current window, context mode, active contexts, grouped by due date, sorted by due date, remaining actions, any duration, any flag status
Ticklers Perspective opens in new window, context mode, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, remaining contexts, grouped by start date, sorted by due date, remaining actions, any duration, any flag status, all groups collapsed except start today and start tomorrow
Errands Perspective opens in new window, context mode, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, remaining contexts, grouped by context, sorted by flagged, available actions, any duration, any flag status, just Errands contexts selected in side bar


Additionally, I use a script to Verify Next Actions Exist (http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html#VerifyNA).

[whpalmer4]

Curt, any significance to the ordering of inbox, in folder, and email processing being different morning and evening?

Do you retain your review checklists for posterity, or just do them and discard?

Always interesting to see the details of someone's thoughtfully designed workflow...one of the things I like best about this forum!

[curt.clifton]

Curt, any significance to the ordering of inbox, in folder, and email processing being different morning and evening?

Mostly just to minimize my off-email time by pushing my last email check as close as possible to bed time and my first email check as close as possible to waking time.

Do you retain your review checklists for posterity, or just do them and discard?

I keep my checklists in OmniOutliner. I open the checklist, uncheck all items, then work through it. I actually have iCal events configured with "alarms" that open the checklists for me.

[steve]

Curt- What do you see as the advantage to keeping it in OmniOutliner as opposed to having your actions repeat daily in OmniFocus? I suppose one advantage is the ability to have certain checklists fire up on weekdays and perhaps another one on the weekend.

I am hoping for finer grain control over repeating actions, but that topic is in another thread.

[curt.clifton]

Curt- What do you see as the advantage to keeping it in OmniOutliner as opposed to having your actions repeat daily in OmniFocus? I suppose one advantage is the ability to have certain checklists fire up on weekdays and perhaps another one on the weekend.

I like having the checklist open automatically in a separate window at a specified time. I suppose I could make that happen with a properly focused perspective in OF, but I found a separate OO file easier to set up. (And truth be told, when I set up the review checklists OF didn't have perspectives. Come to think of it, OF didn't exist. ;-)

I don't really see an advantage personally to putting these checklists in OF. I don't need a record of having completed each step, and I complete all the steps in one sitting. Having the checklist in OO lets me Cmd-Tab between OF and OO and flip between windows and perspectives in OF without losing my checklist.

[steve]

Curt, as always, you are right. It is working out much better for me to have the list outside of omnifocus. As you say, I don't need to track this in anyway and I prefer the ability to have lists pop up when I need them.

Steve

[curt.clifton]

Curt, as always, you are right. It is working out much better for me to have the list outside of omnifocus. As you say, I don't need to track this in anyway and I prefer the ability to have lists pop up when I need them.

That's pretty high pressure to always be right! But thanks for the kind words. I'm glad the technique is working for you.

[Quorcork]

Funny, i came to using oo for the checklists, too. :-)
My daily review task contains a link to the corresponding daily review.oo template, as do the other reviews...
So yeah, more pressure: I'd say, too, that it seems you were right...

Cheers
Silvan

[Christopher]

I have a morning review that I do at work and an evening review that I do at home. Don't be put off by the complexity. These have evolved over time.



Curt, these are very helpful. Thank you for posting them. Do you have similar lists for a weekly review? How do you handle that?

[curt.clifton]

Christopher,

I'm glad these were helpful. Here's my weekly review checklist:


- [ ] Collect: Empty your head, brainstorm actions, projects, and
somedays
Just dump ideas into Inbox. If you try to put them into your
system now you'll just find yourself processing and
organizing instead of collecting.
- [ ] Review Monthly Goals for triggers
- [ ] Review Active documents for triggers
- [ ] Identify any issues to discuss w/ Lisa
- [ ] Review past week's calendar to trigger other ideas/actions
- [ ] Review next week's and month's calendar for actions
- [ ] Review on-hold projects, any items to make active? to delete?
Show On-Hold Projects Review perspective
- [ ] Process: Integrate all your notes from the collection phase into
your system
- [ ] System Review
- [ ] Review action lists
- [ ] Review waiting-for list — reminders needed?
- [ ] How's your balance?
- [ ] Review distribution of completed tasks across roles


And here's my monthly review checklist, heavily laden with Steven Covey's first-things-first ideas:

- [ ] Go somewhere calm
- [ ] Review Personal Mission Statement.
- [ ] Consider each role
- [ ] Brainstorm for any projects that should be started or put on
Someday/Maybe
- [ ] Are there any projects that are stalled or ideas that keep
popping up?
- [ ] Do you need to do some project planning?
See Allen's natural planning model (see GTD, ch. 3)
- [ ] Is the purpose of the project clearly defined? Why
do it?
- [ ] Have you envisioned what a successful outcome looks
like? What is success on this project?
- [ ] Have you brainstormed possible routes to success?
- [ ] Have you organized the steps in the process?
- [ ] Have you identified clear, actionable next actions?
- [ ] Need more clarity about what to do? Move up the list.
- [ ] Need more to be happening? Move down the list.
- [ ] Review Someday-Maybe Ideas
- [ ] Review Past Monthly Goals
- [ ] Evaluate performance
- [ ] Consider reasons for success
- [ ] Determine reasons for failures, plan remediation
- [ ] Review general performance issues
- [ ] Are you being conscientious about daily and weekly reviews?
- [ ] Are you keeping appointments with self?
- [ ] Have you maintained balance across roles & responsibilities?
- [ ] Set monthly goals in each role
- [ ] Relate to One and Five Year Goals
- [ ] “What are the one or two most important things I could do in
this role this month that would have the greatest positive
impact.”
- [ ] Big Rocks First
- [ ] Effective Goals:
- [ ] are driven by conscience
- [ ] are often Quadrant II goals
- [ ] Q1 Urgent & Important
- [ ] Q2 Not urgent but important
- [ ] Q3 Urgent but not important
- [ ] Q4 Neither urgent nor important
- [ ] reflect our four basic needs (to live, to love, to learn,
to leave a legacy) and capacities (conscience, creative
imagination, independent will, self-awareness)
- [ ] are in our Center of Focus
- [ ] are either determinations or concentrations
- [ ] Flag monthly goals in project outline
Show all flagged in project mode, select all, Cmd-Shift-L
Set more frequent review intervals for flagged goals.


These checklists have evolved over time. My monthly review checklist is particularly detailed, because I need more help to do that well, and it happens less often.

[curt.clifton]

jenniferp asked for more detail about how I set up iCal to open the review checklists. Here's what I did to automatically open my Evening Review checklist:


I created a new calendar in iCal called Reminders. Having a separate calendar lets me hide the items that trigger the reviews so my usual iCal view isn't any more cluttered.
I created a new event in iCal set for 9:45pm with time zone floating. (This makes the event happen at a consistent local time, even when I'm traveling.)
I set the event to repeat every day with no end date.
I added an Alarm to the event to open my Evening Review file.
Finally, I selected a different calendar in the sidebar and unchecked the Reminders calendar. This hides the reminders, but they still fire.


There's only one catch. We have an old PB in our family room that we use as a media server. I sync calendars on it and my MBP using MobileMe. When the Evening Review alarm fires on the PB, it can't find the checklist file, so I get an error dialog on that machine. Not really a big deal, but something to be aware of.

[jenniferp]

Great, thanks for sharing!

[bigcloits]

I don't really see an advantage personally to putting these checklists in OF. I don't need a record of having completed each step, and I complete all the steps in one sitting. Having the checklist in OO lets me Cmd-Tab between OF and OO and flip between windows and perspectives in OF without losing my checklist.

I evolved something almost exactly like that. I call my review checklist my “morning meta”, and it’s actually a nicely typeset .pdf — it’s typographic strength is somehow emboldening to me, makes my review a little more formal and firm feeling. I follow the steps laid out for me, frequently Cmd-Tabbing back to the checklist Preview as I bounce around the system processing various virtual inboxes.

[Grail]

I'm not always near my computer (no, not even my laptop is always with me), but I am always near my iPhone. I have a "Note" note which reads as follows:


GTD Daily Review

Start iPhone sync and laptop backups
Collect stuff from mailbox -> intray
Loose papers from backpack or computer bags -> intray
Mouse and camera batteries on charge

c/f GTD Flow Chart
Paper mail
email
Delicious "todo" bookmarks
Tickler & Daily folders
Check calendar for the coming week

Paper, email and OmniFocus inboxes empty?

What is my next action?


As you can see it's rough and ready - when I am not home I can still go through it (I collect my PO Box mail, at the very least) and be somewhat organised.

Not as thorough as Curt's lists, but it is enough for me to get focus my attention onto planning things in my life instead of having life happen to me.

[lucaatalla]

* OmniFocus Inbox Perspective opens in new window, project mode, focused on inbox, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, toolbar hidden
* Active Project Review Perspective opens in new window, project mode, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, active projects, grouped by next review, unsorted, remaining actions, any duration, any flag status
* Important Perspective opens in current window, context mode, active contexts, grouped by context, sorted by due date, available actions, any duration, flagged
* Urgent Radar Perspective opens in current window, context mode, active contexts, grouped by due date, sorted by due date, remaining actions, any duration, any flag status
* Ticklers Perspective opens in new window, context mode, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, remaining contexts, grouped by start date, sorted by due date, remaining actions, any duration, any flag status, all groups collapsed except start today and start tomorrow
* Errands Perspective opens in new window, context mode, sidebar closed, view bar hidden, remaining contexts, grouped by context, sorted by flagged, available actions, any duration, any flag status, just Errands contexts selected in side bar


Curt:

I was studying the perspectives you've listed and one thing caught my attention: you only have one perspective in project mode and it has the side bar hidden. Is it not confusing to browse through all your projects this way?

Also, don't you have any Someday perspective?

Regarding your routine (Morning review, to be more specific), you first review all actions and later you actually do them, right?

So, when is the actual time to do, which perspective do you use?

[curt.clifton]

I was studying the perspectives you've listed and one thing caught my attention: you only have one perspective in project mode and it has the side bar hidden. Is it not confusing to browse through all your projects this way?


I didn't list all of my perspectives. For project planning I have a separate perspective that is like the built-in Project perspective, but only shows Active projects.


Also, don't you have any Someday perspective?


No, I don't. I have an On-Hold Project Review perspective that I use during weekly reviews. It's just like my Active Project Review perspective, but it shows only on-hold projects. I keep my Someday/Maybe items in a separate OmniOutliner document.


Regarding your routine (Morning review, to be more specific), you first review all actions and later you actually do them, right?


Right. A cardinal rule is to separate collecting from processing from doing. So, my inbox items get filed to the right context and project during the review. Any emails that take more than a few seconds to deal with get turned into OF actions. (Also, I do not review all available actions everyday, only the Urgent ones and the Important ones. I do a full action review weekly.)

So, when is the actual time to do, which perspective do you use?

I use an Urgent perspective first. Once the fires are put out I use an Important perspective. Urgent is like my Urgent Radar perspective, but only shows available actions. Important is like the built-in Flagged perspective, but also only shows available actions. From those perspectives, I'll frequently double-click items to open projects and then crank through a series of actions on a single project.

[lucaatalla]

Curt: Great tips, like you always give.

If I were you, I would create an active project to "Write a book on how to implement GTD with OmniFocus".

Actually, it could be even better (and broader): GTD in a Mac Environment -- Tools, Programs and Configuration (with a more creative title, of course).

I guess all members here would push it to #1 in the NYTimes list.

Thanks for the advice... If you liked martial arts, I would send you an annual subscription of GRACIEMAG (www.graciemag.com) as a gift -- didn't find anything referring to that in your website though.

PS. Would be great to see all your perspectives... But I guess it is too much to ask.

[curt.clifton]

Curt: Great tips, like you always give.

If I were you, I would create an active project to "Write a book on how to implement GTD with OmniFocus".

...snip...

PS. Would be great to see all your perspectives... But I guess it is too much to ask.

Kind words. Thanks! Starting a blog on the topic is on my someday/maybe list.

This thread captures most of my perspective. The others are variants of these that focus on certain projects or certain contexts (e.g., Home Actions--Urgent).

[mianwright]

Okay. Good stuff. Re: the alarms on your PowerBook. I too share machines and calendars with others. How can I send myself alarms outside of iCal. (I guess I am asking for app recommendations. Does OO do this?)

[mianwright]

Well, I just set up Google calendar to SMS me. We'll see how it works.

[malisa]

Just a revival for a thank you.

I'm back for a third swing at OF after getting overwhelmed twice by trying to make it do EVERYTHING (and working on a sickly old Powerbook). I'm back on my new MBP, coming from working on paper and slowly adding back parts that make sense, as the need seems to arise. I added my errands and calls contexts first so I could carry them on my iphone. Last weekend I added my project titles. This weekend, I added the actions on my active projects.

I'm using OO for everything below and above actions and projects. Below (not really below, but I'm using it for recurring things that always overwhelmed my OF system. And above, meaning Areas of Focus (hopefully above that in the near future) and also for Someday/Maybe stuff.

I remembered this thread and Curt's checklists. I'm glad I could dig it up. So thanks to Curt and all those who participated. I got some questions answered that I knew I was searching for answers to, and some that I hadn't defined as questions, but I had them as questions none the less.

I've set up an iCal Review calendar and have practiced having it to pop up OO lists. :D

I've been working off a paper system at work but this makes me REALLY want to take my MBP to work now. But I'll bide my time. One step at a time.

Thank you. Thank you.

[fedex]

Christopher,

....

And here's my monthly review checklist, heavily laden with Steven Covey's first-things-first ideas:

- [ ] Go somewhere calm
- [ ] Review Personal Mission Statement.
- [ ] Consider each role
- [ ] Brainstorm for any projects that should be started or put on
Someday/Maybe
- [ ] Are there any projects that are stalled or ideas that keep
popping up?
- [ ] Do you need to do some project planning?
See Allen's natural planning model (see GTD, ch. 3)
- [ ] Is the purpose of the project clearly defined? Why
do it?
- [ ] Have you envisioned what a successful outcome looks
like? What is success on this project?
- [ ] Have you brainstormed possible routes to success?
- [ ] Have you organized the steps in the process?
- [ ] Have you identified clear, actionable next actions?
- [ ] Need more clarity about what to do? Move up the list.
- [ ] Need more to be happening? Move down the list.
- [ ] Review Someday-Maybe Ideas
- [ ] Review Past Monthly Goals
- [ ] Evaluate performance
- [ ] Consider reasons for success
- [ ] Determine reasons for failures, plan remediation
- [ ] Review general performance issues
- [ ] Are you being conscientious about daily and weekly reviews?
- [ ] Are you keeping appointments with self?
- [ ] Have you maintained balance across roles & responsibilities?
- [ ] Set monthly goals in each role
- [ ] Relate to One and Five Year Goals
- [ ] “What are the one or two most important things I could do in
this role this month that would have the greatest positive
impact.”
- [ ] Big Rocks First
- [ ] Effective Goals:
- [ ] are driven by conscience
- [ ] are often Quadrant II goals
- [ ] Q1 Urgent & Important
- [ ] Q2 Not urgent but important
- [ ] Q3 Urgent but not important
- [ ] Q4 Neither urgent nor important
- [ ] reflect our four basic needs (to live, to love, to learn,
to leave a legacy) and capacities (conscience, creative
imagination, independent will, self-awareness)
- [ ] are in our Center of Focus
- [ ] are either determinations or concentrations
- [ ] Flag monthly goals in project outline
Show all flagged in project mode, select all, Cmd-Shift-L
Set more frequent review intervals for flagged goals.


These checklists have evolved over time. My monthly review checklist is particularly detailed, because I need more help to do that well, and it happens less often.

Curt,

your monthly review template has some project planning steps under "Consider each role". Why do you brainstorm projects and next actions this early on in the monthly review, even before getting into next months goals? To me, this seems very operative on this high level review and something I do on a weekly basis. Does this has anything to do with reviewing current roles?

I'm also in the process of connecting GTD and Covey and your kind sharing of your lists has really helped me a lot.

Thanks!

//Mattias

[curt.clifton]

Mattias,

I've found weekly reviews too frequent for a full, role-based mind sweep. My monthly review feels like about the right frequency for that. I like to do that early in the monthly review, because it feels like part of the collection process to me. Later in my review, when I'm actually setting goals, I'm focused on choosing from my identified projects and longer term goals. That's not the right time for me to add new projects to my system, lest I focus too much on new ideas instead of important ones.

[wilsonng]

I think a weekly review is a general guideline and not really a set rule. Many people seem to be OK with doing an intensive review once a week. Some other lucky folks who don't have as intensive a life can get by with doing it every couple of weeks.

Some other folks need to do it every 3 or 4 days just to stay on top of stuff.

I think the general rule is to do an intensive review as often as you need it.

I do like OmniFocus' ability to set the review frequency. Some projects need to be reviewed only once a month. Others need to be reviewed weekly. That's something I can't do in Things. In Things, I'd have to review everything!

[poritsky]

While contemplating ways to revamp my website, workflow, life, etc., I happened upon this thread. Curt, as always, you are a master. Not sure if this fits for me, but I put it all down into an OmniOutliner document so I can visualize/tweak. Sharing that here since it seems useful. Contains only Curt's input posted here in the same hierarchical setup. All 4 reviews are in this one doc, so you can pull them out as you please. Uploading OPML as well so you can use [insert tool here] if you please. On the go, I use CarbonFin's Outliner on iPhone and iPad. A worthy stand in until Omni unleashes OmniOutliner for iPad. Ooooh, I wonder what that app's gonna be like. Should we get on their case yet? ;)

[macula]

Curt, thanks for these posts.

A couple of questions, if I may, with respect to your monthly review:

1. These "monthly goals" are explicitly entered into OF, and if so, what is their exact form? Action groups, perhaps?

1a. Likewise, do you keep your 1- and 5-yr goals in OF or elsewhere?

2. Do monthly goals carry explicit deadlines? If so, doesn't this run counter to GTD principles? If not, in what sense are they "monthly"?

Also, may I ask you to clarify "concentrations" and "determinations"?

Thanks again.

[curt.clifton]

Curt, thanks for these posts.

A couple of questions, if I may, with respect to your monthly review:

1. These "monthly goals" are explicitly entered into OF, and if so, what is their exact form? Action groups, perhaps?

1a. Likewise, do you keep your 1- and 5-yr goals in OF or elsewhere?

I track all the goals in OmniOutliner. (I also keep a copy in SimpleNote so I can do reviews on my iPad. Can't wait for OO for iPad!)

2. Do monthly goals carry explicit deadlines? If so, doesn't this run counter to GTD principles? If not, in what sense are they "monthly"?

By definition, a monthly goal is something to complete this month, so in that respect it has a deadline. I don't think Allen says that deadlines are wrong. We all have deadlines that we have to meet. He just says that it isn't helpful to set artificial deadlines. I treat my monthly goals as agreements that I've made with myself to focus on certain things. I'm free to renegotiate those deadlines if my world changes. It isn't unusual for me to decide during a weekly review that a monthly goal just isn't reasonable. If so, I strike through the item in OO and add a note about why I put it off. (The note is useful, because I like to look back over my monthly goals occasionally to see how I'm doing with my goal setting.)

Also, may I ask you to clarify "concentrations" and "determinations"?

This is a Stephen Covey thing. A "concentration" might be something like "remained open and communicative about Lisa's grad school plans". It doesn't really have a next action or project, but it's useful for me to think about regularly during the month. One way to think about a concentration goal is as a special prompt during my reviews. Maybe I'll notice that I haven't asked Lisa about her grad school application status lately, so I'll add an action to do that. On the other hand, a "determination" is something that describes the outcome of a project. An example might be "Started Productivity Blog and announced it to the OF forum community". Determination goals for the month have an active project in OF and are typically part of my daily review.

Does that help?

[macula]

Very lucid, Curt. Thank you very much!

[luminosity]

Just a quick note to say a big THANK YOU for sharing all this information about your process with GTD and OF / OO.

Much appreciated. I find it very helpful to see how other people go about implementing these systems... makes my own process evolve much faster.

Cheers.

[mikegibb]

jenniferp asked for more detail about how I set up iCal to open the review checklists. Here's what I did to automatically open my Evening Review checklist:

1. I created a new calendar in iCal called Reminders. Having a separate calendar lets me hide the items that trigger the reviews so my usual iCal view isn't any more cluttered.
2. I created a new event in iCal set for 9:45pm with time zone floating. (This makes the event happen at a consistent local time, even when I'm traveling.)
3. I set the event to repeat every day with no end date.
4. I added an Alarm to the event to open my Evening Review file.
5. Finally, I selected a different calendar in the sidebar and unchecked the Reminders calendar. This hides the reminders, but they still fire.


There's only one catch. We have an old PB in our family room that we use as a media server. I sync calendars on it and my MBP using MobileMe. When the Evening Review alarm fires on the PB, it can't find the checklist file, so I get an error dialog on that machine. Not really a big deal, but something to be aware of.

With regards to Step 4, where is your evening review file stored? What kind of file is it?

[whpalmer4]

It's an OmniOutliner outline, but that's irrelevant — as long as the Mac can tell what application to use to open the file (in other words, if you double-click the file, does it open properly) the right thing will happen. If you want to keep your review checklist as a Kid Pix drawing, that should work fine :-)

And you can store it anywhere you want, because when you set up the alarm, you use the usual Mac file opening dialog box to show iCal where it is.

[mikegibb]

Thanks. I started playing around with it and I was using an Evernote entry with the review as a checklist and iCal opened it perfectly. It took a little digging to find that particular entry, but it worked.