Setting up a recurring project with multiple options for completion
 

Greetings,

Does anyone have recommendations re: the following:

I have several projects that I want to spend time on daily or weekly, but they are more habits or other ongoing maintenance work than projects that I will eventually complete. In addition, for each of them, I collect various ideas, Web sites, books to read, etc. from which I want to choose how to complete that day's task.

For example, I call one such project "Inspiration," and I want to spend fifteen minutes every day on that project. The work might entail reading a book or listening to a podcast or reviewing a Web site, and whenever I come across material that might serve, I like to clip it and add it to OmniFocus. That way, when the time comes to work on "Inspiration," I can peruse my list and choose what strikes my fancy.

How can I set up this type of repeating daily project that contains, in effect, a database of options for how to complete it each day, without 20-30 "tasks," i.e. the options I've clipped and collected, showing up in my Today perspective and overwhelming it?

Cheers,

Wayne

Welcome to the forums, Wayne!

Your mileage may vary, but the way I would handle something like this is with a single action list to hold the to-do items. I'd then one repeating action reminding me to do something on the list. Hope this helps!

My suggestion would be to plan the time that you're doing that out in iCal so that it becomes a habit instead of a thing that you try to get to when you have time. If you have a project that you're using to collect the things that you might take a look at, you could use the perspective URL trick that you can find on the forums to have iCal automatically open that perspective up when it is time for inspiration. What think?

Thanks to you both, Brian and Lucas. I'll try both suggestions and see how things flow!

[QUOTE=Brian;99865]Welcome to the forums, Wayne!

Your mileage may vary, but the way I would handle something like this is with a single action list to hold the to-do items. I'd then one repeating action reminding me to do something on the list. Hope this helps![/QUOTE]

I'm doing something like this. Within the project/SAL I have an action group of things to choose from which is set to a specific context that's on hold. I can bring up a perspective that shows them when I choose, but this way they don't show up as things to do in general.

Critiques welcome.

[QUOTE=Lucas;99866]...you could use the perspective URL trick that you can find on the forums to have iCal automatically open that perspective up when it is time for inspiration. What think?[/QUOTE]

I know I can open files from iCal whenever I want. But I'm intrigued by what you just wrote.

Do you mean I can open an OF [I]perspective[/I] from iCal?
Could you elaborate a little, or provide a link to the info, please?
Thanks!

Re: the OP's question, I am digging that method of using a single reminder with a link (or links) to lists, checklists, etc. Very efficient in the database, and it doesn't feel overwhelming at all.

My Routine Maintenance tasks perspective really looks more like a [I]control panel[/I] than a task window, LOL!

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/picture2dk.jpg/][IMG]http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/4963/picture2dk.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

As a note ... such time-blocked type of tasks would fit well in the Pomodoro method. Use Pomodoro from the App store. It will pull up the OF tasks in its selection menu for you to choose which one to work on in a given time frame.

I'd go with Lucas and in the Calendar appointment, put a list of potential uses for the time.

The only reason I suggest this is that otherwise, every time you complete the Single action List, you're going to be creating another 20 - 30 actions in your database, this will soon add up to (100 iterations) 2,000 - 3,000 actions which could slow down your app.

I recently archived anything completed which is over 6 weeks old (in the desktop application) and saw a massive performance boost. I have a project which requires me to complete 12 actions every morning.

[QUOTE=FMiguélez;99976]I know I can open files from iCal whenever I want. But I'm intrigued by what you just wrote.

Do you mean I can open an OF [I]perspective[/I] from iCal?
Could you elaborate a little, or provide a link to the info, please?
Thanks!
[/QUOTE]

You know how to set up the URLs to open perspectives (from your screenshot). I don't personally do this, but couldn't you throw that URL into an applescript or an automator workflow that you trigger with an alarm from ical?

[QUOTE=Lucas;100157]You know how to set up the URLs to open perspectives (from your screenshot). I don't personally do this, but couldn't you throw that URL into an applescript or an automator workflow that you trigger with an alarm from ical?[/QUOTE]

Oh, I see. You are right. I know how to do that already... I thought it was something else : >)

I will investigate how to trigger a script that will automatically open a perspective on a given iCal date (and without relying on email).

BTW, I must say that OmniFocus is a game changing app! I am SO HAPPY with this program. And now that I'm learning scripting, I can already see how much extra power this app can have with a few smartly written scripts.

The only problem I've found so far is that learning scripting is becoming addictive! Now I don't want to do anything else [I]<sigh>[/I]