Tickler?

[smew]

I find myself somewhat confused between iCal and Omnifocus when it comes to the 'tickler' part of the GTD methodology. I much prefer to enter "tickler" items in iCal, as that allows me to 'look over the day's fixed events etc.' at the beginning of the day, as well as for the reminder features. But then, there are projects where the next action is really just to 'wait for iCal to tickle'...

Is there a simple simple way we could have integration with iCal events as well? I'm not thinking automatic Sync, as there are plenty of appointments on my iCal that I don't want to show up in Omnifocus. However, whatever the review functionality will be (I know it is yet to be revealed), I imagine it would be great to also review the day's or week's or month's events and decide if any of them should also trigger any actions.

[fideli]

I've never implemented the GTD tickler the way it is described in the book (with 43 physical folders), but I have been employing the idea for tasks only when I was using kGTD. The way I did that was by using start dates. If I wanted to be tickled about a task in the future, I would assign a start date for it. For something that I wanted to be reminded of in a few months, I would set the start date for the first of the month. In kGTD, it was easy to turn a task into a subproject (ie "Transfer investment accounts to eTrade"), and in OmniFocus, it seems fairly straightforward as well.

As for events, I created a context called "Remind". I would prefer to use iCal for events that were for sure taking place, and my Remind context to list events that I might be interested in attending. Entries in this list (which are not "tasks" per se) would be given appropriate start dates (ie few days to a few weeks beforehand). In retrospect, I'm certain that calling it something more descriptive than Remind might be better, but I digress.

As an aside, I'm uncertain whether my start date workflow will work right now since I'm having difficulty with dates being recognized properly in OmniFocus. Not sure if it has to do with the fact that I'm in Canada (I remember there being a Canada-related date issue earlier). I Sent Feedback about this to Omni, and I'm certain that the ninjas are tackling this as you read this, but if anyone else is having any date issues, perhaps we should start another thread.

[LizPf]

The standard GTD way to handle this is:
- calendar for things that must be done on a specific day/time (call Mr. Li in Hong Kong Tuesday at 7:00 am PDT)
- task/project list for things that you would like to do by a certain day, but aren't glued to it (prepare question list for Mr. Li phone call Tues. morning; set alarm early Monday night)

And you'd be looking at both the calendar and the Project/task list (which I'll call OmniFocus) frequently.

I admit, I don't work quite that way, either -- but as housewife/mom, I don't have a standard job. [No office/home difference, for one.] I also don't look at iCal nearly as often as I should.

My solution is to have 5 projects, one for each day of the week. [I don't plan my weekends.] I'll list my cleaning tasks (which will be repeating) and any special things I want to get done during the week. I can also see myself putting appointment reminders on the days, too. But this isn't how OF is supposed to be used.

--Liz

[brianogilvie]

The standard GTD way to handle this is:
- calendar for things that must be done on a specific day/time (call Mr. Li in Hong Kong Tuesday at 7:00 am PDT)
- task/project list for things that you would like to do by a certain day, but aren't glued to it (prepare question list for Mr. Li phone call Tues. morning; set alarm early Monday night)

I would add:
- tickler file (the canonical 43 folders, or whatever works for you) for things that don't belong in your inbox now but will belong there at a specific date in the future.

But this isn't how OF is supposed to be used.

I don't think it matters how you use it, as long as you find it useful! The point is having a simple system that does what you need it to do, not following the Gospel According to The David.

[jbrains]

I use backpackit.com for reminders. This is my "tickler", I guess. It seems to work for me.

[awolfe_ii]

So Omni — how about making Inbox hierarchical with the 43 folders built in, but treating TODAY as the 44th?

[Ken Case]

So Omni — how about making Inbox hierarchical with the 43 folders built in, but treating TODAY as the 44th?

If you switch to Context Mode and group your actions by start date, you'll have something that's functionally fairly similar to the traditional arrangement of 43 folders. (But it won't have all those empty folders for days that don't have anything in them.)

[curt.clifton]

So Omni — how about making Inbox hierarchical with the 43 folders built in, but treating TODAY as the 44th?

I disagree, the Inbox is not ticklers. The inbox is inbox-zero: stuff that goes there should be cleaned out on a daily basis. In the traditional 43 folders, the day (or months) tickler file was dumped into the inbox for processing, but it isn't part of the inbox. I agree with Ken. In OF, Context mode is the place to view Tickler items.

I have a Ticklers perspective with these settings:

Remaining Contexts, Grouped by Start, Sorted by Due, Show Actions with status Remaining, Any Duration, Any Flag Status.

I have the groups collapsed for everything but Started yesterday, Start today, and Start tomorrow. If I want to "tickle myself", I add an action to OF with a start date corresponding to the tickle date. In my daily review I just check my Ticklers perspective instead of checking a paper file.

[awolfe_ii]

Great tip, Curt, I'll use it.

I won't argue my provocative point! (But I may put it as a tickler for February...)

[floatinglist]

Thanks for the start date tip!

The key is that, with a Tickler, you can optionally postpone fleshing out the Next Actions. The idea is that you can place physical objects into the files as well as projects/Next Actions that only need to start on that day. I'll start using the Start Date in OF, but will still keep my physical folders for the physical reminders.

[jkrytus]

Curt, I really like it! I was trying to use due dates - but then of course my "must-do's" get mixed in with my "would-like-to-do's", which make me not know where to start.

Question: in the perspective you described, do you only look at the current items (because its a tickler file) and more or less ignore the stuff that was started 3 months ago?

...and then (another question), lets say an item comes up on your tickler and you decide that you have too much on your plate today, but maybe in a couple days you'll have time. Do you simply change the start date? Or do you check it off (so you know you put it off once) and recreate it with a new date?

-john

[yucca]

Sounds like you are coming from a Franklin background (spent over 20 years there myself). You have a lot to unlearn, or at least I did when I implemented GTD. Try to purge the urge to prioritize tasks for now, and focus on getting a set of contexts that give you manageable "in the moment" task groupings. A key here is to leverage the duration field (time to do estimate), and create some custom Perspectives that exploit these values when in Context Mode.

I have views for Perspectives for tasks requiring less than 30 minutes, less than an hour, less than two hours and more than two hours. Create whatever makes sense for you. These Perspectives really help me focus on the doable given available time and context. From a GTD perspective, the only missing elements are energy (or creativity) level (next "tie breaker), and finally priority (when nothing else can determine what to do next).

...and then (another question), lets say an item comes up on your tickler and you decide that you have too much on your plate today, but maybe in a couple days you'll have time. Do you simply change the start date? Or do you check it off (so you know you put it off once) and recreate it with a new date?


I use the Note feature to capture things like date created, times deferred, etc. if I'm worried that a task or project might need further consideration because I keep putting it off.

[mmurray]

I have a Ticklers perspective with these settings:

Remaining Contexts, Grouped by Start, Sorted by Due, Show Actions with status Remaining, Any Duration, Any Flag Status.

I have the groups collapsed for everything but Started yesterday, Start today, and Start tomorrow. If I want to "tickle myself", I add an action to OF with a start date corresponding to the tickle date. In my daily review I just check my Ticklers perspective instead of checking a paper file.


Ah this is excellent. Anyone want to recommend a good icon for a tickler perspective ? I chose alarm clock -- not convinced about that.

Michael

[curt.clifton]

I used a feather. :-)

Unfortunately, my icon is based on a copyrighted one, so I'm not able to share it.

[mmurray]

I used a feather. :-)

Unfortunately, my icon is based on a copyrighted one, so I'm not able to share it.

Ah nice. I am sure I can hunt down one of those.

Thanks - Michael

[mmurray]

Just in case anyone comes back to look at this topic. I found a reasonable icon here which is seems to have no copyright issues.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Feather_150_transparent.png

Michael

[ddejonghe]

If you switch to Context Mode and group your actions by start date, you'll have something that's functionally fairly similar to the traditional arrangement of 43 folders. (But it won't have all those empty folders for days that don't have anything in them.)
I created a view for that, however it only shows 'due today', due tomorrow, due next week....

Is it possible to create a view with all the days there are actions defined for that day. That would be great. And If I would be able to see the number of actions for that day, that would be marvalous...

[whpalmer4]

I created a view for that, however it only shows 'due today', due tomorrow, due next week....

Is it possible to create a view with all the days there are actions defined for that day. That would be great. And If I would be able to see the number of actions for that day, that would be marvalous...

So you want to see groups for today, tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc. instead of today, tomorrow, within the next week, within the next month, etc.? I'm not aware of any way to do that with the current version, but it would be possible to create an Applescript that could produce such a listing in a file. I find that simply sorting by date is sufficient, though I rarely look ahead more than a day or two in my tickler perspective.

Also, looking ahead can give you a misleading picture if you have lots of repeating actions/projects in that time frame, as the view of the future won't show those actions/projects which are yet to be duplicated by completing the current action/project. If you've got a big task set to repeat every Monday, and you are looking at next Monday's schedule, you won't see that task there if you haven't completed this Monday's instance of that task. Something that repeated every day would show up only once in a week in that future view! OmniFocus doesn't work like iCal does, populating the repeating events in the calendar out as far as the eye can see.

If you want to make a suggestion/request for a change to OmniFocus, your best bet is to use Help->Send Feedback or email omnifocus@omnigroup.com to get your request into the development database. There's no guarantee that Ken (or any other Omni staffer) even saw your response to his suggestion, much less entered a vote in the database for your request!

[hardcoreUFO]

I think folks are making this more complicated than it has to be. There should simply be a facility within OF to post reminders, via some sort of alert (e.g. Growl, email message). Some things may not have a due date per se, but you just want it to go away for a week until its really needed.

One post mentioned Backpack's reminders facility. Its one of the only things I like about Backpack -- its very simple and effective. Currently, I find that a few things are falling through the cracks with OF because of the lack of reminders, which is how I think of ticklers.

[mmurray]

I think folks are making this more complicated than it has to be. There should simply be a facility within OF to post reminders, via some sort of alert (e.g. Growl, email message). Some things may not have a due date per se, but you just want it to go away for a week until its really needed.

One post mentioned Backpack's reminders facility. Its one of the only things I like about Backpack -- its very simple and effective. Currently, I find that a few things are falling through the cracks with OF because of the lack of reminders, which is how I think of ticklers.


Sure but the reason people are finding more complicated solutions is that there isn't currently the facility you are suggesting.

Michael

[whpalmer4]

There is a mechanism. You put a start date on an action, and use the built-in Growl notification support. Configure Growl to leave the "now available" notifications on the screen instead of removing them after a few seconds. When the event becomes available, you get the notification.

[Harry]

The way I'm working a Tickler into my workflow is as follows:

I have a Tickler Single Actions List and a Tickler Context. Any item I want to Tickle I simply assign it to the Tickler SAL, the Tickler Context and set the start date for the day I want to be reminded.

The Tickler Context and SAL are both at the top of their respective lists; that way on the given day I can't help but notice the Tickled item, whether I'm in Project Mode or Context Mode. I also use the Growl notifications, just in case.

What this also gives me is a way to see the "landscape" of my Ticklers, by zeroing in on either the context or the SAL. Not essential but nice to have.

That's what works for me. It may not suit everyone, but I thought I'd share.

[hardcoreUFO]

Thanks for the tip, whpalmer4. I will give that a try.

[magobaol]

Remaining Contexts, Grouped by Start, Sorted by Due, Show Actions with status Remaining, Any Duration, Any Flag Status.


This is a great perspective, but I have one problem.
Sometimes I use a start date for an entire project, not just a single action, because I've already analyzed that project and estabilished every next actions, so I just want this project "pop up" at a specific day, just like in a tickler.

But this perspective doesn't show me actions for projects that have any start date set, and the only way I've found is to set the start date on the first action instead of the project itself. Not a so bad solution, but I would like to know if any other has the same problem and what solution has adopted.

Bye,
Francesco

[Brian]

Franchesco, one of the changes we're making in the next release of the Mac app is to enable Projects to appear in context mode. Previously, they wouldn't show up there.

You may want to try your perspective in our most recent Sneaky Peek build; I believe it does what you want. You can grab it from this page (http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/download/sneakypeek/).

If your context still isn't showing you the items you need to see, let us know and we'll be happy to help.

[magobaol]

Franchesco, one of the changes we're making in the next release of the Mac app is to enable Projects to appear in context mode.


Thank you for the good news :-)

You may want to try your perspective in our most recent Sneaky Peek build; I believe it does what you want. You can grab it from this page (http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/download/sneakypeek/).

If your context still isn't showing you the items you need to see, let us know and we'll be happy to help.

I tried the sneaky peeky but I still cannot see the pending project in the perspective. Should I report it as a bug?

Bye,
Francesco

[Brian]

I tried the sneaky peeky but I still cannot see the pending project in the perspective. Should I report it as a bug?


D'oh! That's what I get for posting on the basis of intended behavior instead of observed behavior. :-)

I've reproduced exactly the behavior you mention and filed it as a bug.

[magobaol]

D'oh! That's what I get for posting on the basis of intended behavior instead of observed behavior. :-)

LOL!

Don't worry, I will wait :-)

Bye,
Francesco

[ext555]

Franchesco, one of the changes we're making in the next release of the Mac app is to enable Projects to appear in context mode. Previously, they wouldn't show up there.

.

did this get broken in the latest sneaky peek ? I choose " view in context mode" from the menu and nothing happens ?

[Brian]

did this get broken in the latest sneaky peek ? I choose " view in context mode" from the menu and nothing happens ?

It looks like "View in context mode" works when you select a project in the outline pane, but selecting it in the sidebar just gets you a beep. We probably need to support selecting the project in either pane - written up as a bug.

If that doesn't match up with what you're seeing, email the support ninjas (omnifocus@omnigroup.com) and we'll be happy to investigate.

[ext555]

Thanks Brian , already emailed, and that doesn't match what I'm seeing, selecting a project in outline pane and tried both the menu item and keyboard shortcut. The menu item " view " get's highlighted for a few seconds but the window with the project in context mode never opens ?

It worked before .

[magobaol]

Hi Brian,
I've tried the last Sneaky Peek (135455) and I still can't see projects in the context mode. Am I doing something wrong?

[Brian]

Are all the actions in the projects complete? Projects will only appear in context mode once that's the case; until then, they aren't actionable.

[magobaol]

Are all the actions in the projects complete? Projects will only appear in context mode once that's the case; until then, they aren't actionable.

I tried with a sample project: it has just one uncompleted action, and the project itself has a start date in the future (september, 15th).
I switch to the context view, group by start, sort by due, filter remaining, and I can't see the project in the group "Start within next 3 months".