Best practice to manages general "lists"?
 

Hi all -

What the best practice to handle general lists? For example, I saw this blog post:

[url]http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/9-lists-to-keep-updated-and-keep-handy.html[/url]

I like the idea of this. Especially for stuff like "gifts" or "CD's to buy". These are lists that are not necessarily an actionable list (or at least not yet). What's the best way to manage this so that organized appropriately, but at the same time aren't wasting your time when you are trying to find your next action (while cranking widgets)?

Thanks,
thomas

After trying a variety of other methods (plain text, OmniOutliner, Yojimbo, etc.), my various general lists went back into OmniFocus for a couple reasons:
[LIST=1][*]It's nice having just one place to check for projects, actions, and general lists, especially since the items on my general lists might actually evolve into projects or actions.

[*]OmniFocus syncs beautifully with my iPhone. I'll never be at the local video shop again without a list of the films I want to see. ;-)

[*]OmniFocus is simply a great list manager. Why not harness those capabilities for all manner of lists?[/LIST]
As for implementing general lists in OmniFocus, I set them up as single-action lists and put them on hold. That way they're easy to scan when I want to see them, but also easy to hide from view when I'm more concerned about getting things done.

-Dennis

Just casting a voice of support for Toadling's setup - that's near-identical to mine (single-action-list on-hold projects) and done for the same reason (why store in two apps what I can keep altogether in one?). I have 'To Read', 'To Watch', 'To Visit', etc. to add to as inspired.

What do you guys do for contexts for these lists?

I do the same thing as the people above. Only, I don't even add a context to general lists, I just put them in their own [I]on hold[/I] project. This setup hasn't given me any problems yet. I think it might actually be [I]good[/I] for them not to have a context. That way, they never show up when I'm in context mode trying to GTD.

For completeness (and to satisfy my OCD ;-), I try to assign an appropriate context to my general list items (e.g. @reading for items on my Books list), but it's not always accurate or easy to pick one. So I just do the best I can. Because the SALs are on hold, actions with contexts still won't show up in context mode, so no concern there.

Ultimately, I don't think it really matters what context is assigned to items on general lists because if the item graduates to a full-fledged action or project, I move it out of the on hold SAL and into an active state, fleshing out all the detail in the process (i.e. assigning context, adding notes, detailing additional actions, setting start or due dates, etc.).

-Dennis

I pretty much do what toadling does; for the lists where it makes sense, I have contexts like "book store" or "music store" with Business Search locations attached.

For others, I just stick them in a "List" context.

I have a watch/read/listen list too that is on hold; works great! I don't assign contexts for this, because this stuff is somewhat context independent.
However this is actionable stuff in a way, but for instance a list of restaurant tips acts more as a reminder list that i want to keep permanent.
What would be VERY cool (i think) if omnifocus could somehow differentiate between actionable and non actionable stuff.
This could be as simple as not having a checkbox in front of the item. For someday/maybe lists this would also work great; mostly these "single tasks" turn into projects anyway.
Have there been any plans concerning this from the omni people?

My general rule is "OmniFocus for stuff I want to disappear when I check off; OmniOutliner for stuff I'd like to keep around." So my iTunes shopping list is in OmniFocus; my Local Restaurants list is in OmniOutliner. Depending on the list, I either:

1) Leave it parallel and don't assign contexts to the items when I add them. Then, during my review, if I decide it's time to act on one or more items, I give them contexts and let them show up in my other lists. Great for a someday-maybe type shopping list, like "books to read." My list doesn't clutter up my day-to-day contexts, but at review time, if I know I'm about to finish whatever else I'm reading, I can queue up a new book, so to speak.

2) Leave the list sequential and always give items contexts. I use this for my "read later" list where I dump web pages I don't feel like reading at work. That puts exactly one item in my "computer leisure" context, and it forces me to read the stuff I save FIFO-style.

It all goes back to why you're keeping the list in the first place, and it's all about making a hard-edged DA-style "Is this actionable, and is it actionable right now?"-type decision.

Yup, I'm more inline with cebailey. I use OF for actionables and iNeedStuff on my iPhone (and online) for shopping lists. For example, I have a recurring task in OF on Tuesdays "Nab groceries" under the Errands context and my actual shopping list in iNeedStuff.