Someday/Maybe lists

[chipjoyce]

What is the best practice for keeping someday/maybe lists in Omnifocus? I don't want them to show up as next actions.

Right now I have a "Someday-Maybe Lists" folder and single-action lists for each of my sub-categories of them, e.g. "vacation," "purchases," "fiction reading," etc.

I just mark each of these lists as "on hold" so they don't show up.

That's an OK solution, but it definitely has the feel of a work-around.

I would much rather be able to create a some-day maybe folder and the contents behave differently because of their status.

Thoughts?

[whpalmer4]

Isn't something on the someday/maybe list at its essence something you might choose to work on at a later date? How does that differ from a project or list of items you have put on hold?

If that feels like a workaround to you, what wouldn't?

Many people choose to maintain their someday/maybe lists outside of OmniFocus, only moving the projects into OmniFocus at such time as they decide to commit to doing them.

[chipjoyce]

GTD practice is to collect everything in one in-box, i.e., the Omnifocus in-box in this case. The second phase is to process, and some of those items go to a someday-maybe context. To keep those items outside of Omnifocus does not make sense.

What would not feel like a workaround is to have a designated someday-maybe "area" that is separate, but that does not reveal next actions in context views, because they do not have next actions yet.

[curt.clifton]

What would not feel like a workaround is to have a designated someday-maybe "area" that is separate, but that does not reveal next actions in context views, because they do not have next actions yet.

You might try creating a Someday/Maybe folder in OF and setting the status of the folder to "Dropped". Folders don't have an "On Hold" status, but a "Dropped" folder behaves like an "On Hold" one would in every sense. The contained items don't show up as available, but aren't archived by the auto-archive command. I use a Dropped folder to store template projects and it works well.

To keep those items outside of Omnifocus does not make sense.

Keeping them outside OF makes perfect sense to me. It keeps the OF database lighter and lowers my resistance to putting more "out there" items on my list, since they are psychically further away from the actionable items that I've committed to. But to each his/her own.

[gary]

GTD practice is to collect everything in one in-box, i.e., the Omnifocus in-box in this case. The second phase is to process, and some of those items go to a someday-maybe context. To keep those items outside of Omnifocus does not make sense.

What would not feel like a workaround is to have a designated someday-maybe "area" that is separate, but that does not reveal next actions in context views, because they do not have next actions yet.

As already said, each to his own. But there's nothing in GTD that says you have to keep everything in one application.

I'm using omnifocus as an Inbox for all projects. If I process something and know it's not on my current radar and I'm not ready to tackle it (someday/maybe) I have a second application I put it in. The point is to have a trusted system. As long as I know where my someday/maybe projects are, and where to go to review them, it's not going against GTD.

For me, as someone also already said, it's actually better. It feels better organized for me. I can find someday projects faster and easier than if they were mixed in with my active projects.

If you don't like any of the workarounds you can try Things which has a dedicated Someday section.

[policarpo]

Why don't you just assign a Someday/Maybe Context to these items and not worry about it. I review my projects via Project Folders and Specific Context Views and have set up custom perspectives to focus upon.
Here's a shot of the custom view synced to my iPhone.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/4795730948_5f44ca7443.jpg

Or you could always just create a single task called Someday/Maybe and place all of these items in the notes field of the task.

I only suggest this route since it looks like you are looking for a general collection bin for these items. However, having these as assigned Contexts makes a lot more sense since I have the ability of promoting them to true tasks in my review process.

[Brian]

We do have a feature request open on the ability to set folders (in addition to projects) to On Hold; that would save folks the labor of setting the various projects to On Hold one-by-one.

Folks that would like to see that feature added should email the support ninjas (omnifocus@omnigroup.com) and vote for that change. Thanks!

[gary]

We do have a feature request open on the ability to set folders (in addition to projects) to On Hold; that would save folks the labor of setting the various projects to On Hold one-by-one.

Folks that would like to see that feature added should email the support ninjas (omnifocus@omnigroup.com) and vote for that change. Thanks!

That's EXACTLY what I need. I use a single action list set on "On Hold" for Someday projects. What I'd like to do is have a folder for Someday Projects and place the folder "On Hold". That way I could flesh out the projects instead of just having a list.

I'll make a request. Thanks.

[whpalmer4]

That's EXACTLY what I need. I use a single action list set on "On Hold" for Someday projects. What I'd like to do is have a folder for Someday Projects and place the folder "On Hold". That way I could flesh out the projects instead of just having a list.

I'll make a request. Thanks.

You should make the request, of course, but as far as I can see, it doesn't provide any functionality that Curt's suggestion of a dropped folder doesn't, just some cosmetic differences. You can have that Someday folder today.

[gary]

You should make the request, of course, but as far as I can see, it doesn't provide any functionality that Curt's suggestion of a dropped folder doesn't, just some cosmetic differences. You can have that Someday folder today.

Thank you! Somehow I missed that suggestion. You're right, a dropped folder works perfectly. Thanks again.

[GrumpyDave]

You might try creating a Someday/Maybe folder in OF and setting the status of the folder to "Dropped". Folders don't have an "On Hold" status, but a "Dropped" folder behaves like an "On Hold" one would in every sense. The contained items don't show up as available, but aren't archived by the auto-archive command. I use a Dropped folder to store template projects and it works well.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I'm just getting started with OF and am searching the forums for previous discussions on select topics.

I created a Someday/Maybe folder and set its status to dropped as you suggested. The problem is it immediately disappeared from view. Naturally I had to adjust the project filter to see it again, but it didn't show up in ANY of the available filters except "All Projects". I assume as time goes on that view will become quite a large and cluttered list of completed, held, and active projects making it difficult to find the Someday/Maybe folder. This also makes it very cumbersome to add projects to the Someday/Maybe list which I'm expecting to be a frequent occurrence.

Or am I missing something here?

[GrumpyDave]

Oops, I should have kept going through my search results before I sent the previous reply. I think I've found my answer in this thread:

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=16299

[jchiar]

Why don't you just assign a Someday/Maybe Context to these items and not worry about it. I review my projects via Project Folders and Specific Context Views and have set up custom perspectives to focus upon.
Here's a shot of the custom view synced to my iPhone.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4120/4795730948_5f44ca7443.jpg

Or you could always just create a single task called Someday/Maybe and place all of these items in the notes field of the task.

I only suggest this route since it looks like you are looking for a general collection bin for these items. However, having these as assigned Contexts makes a lot more sense since I have the ability of promoting them to true tasks in my review process.

What version of the app is this? I dont see this SOMEDAY icon, nor the ACTION items! How do you get this?

[Brian]

jchiar, OmniFocus for Mac supports creating custom views of your database called "Perspectives". Once those views are created on the Mac, they can be synced over to the phone. (Well, they're always synced over, but you can make them visible in the iPhone app's settings screen.)

Policarpo has done this, and given the items in question custom icons. In case it helps, here's a post (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=79608) where I walk someone through setting up a perspective on their Mac...