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-   -   Omnifocus and a Tracking sheet (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=22866)

Seeker 2011-12-12 06:14 AM

Omnifocus and a Tracking sheet
 
As I already use omnifocus extensively on my Mac, iPhone and iPad I would like to integrate it into a personal analytics project... Basically, if for example I am trying to develop a habit like regular exercise I would put a recurring "exercise" task into omnifocus. What I would like to do though is be able to analyze how working out one day actually affects other areas in my life. To do that I thought the best way to compare data would be through a spreadsheet...

That's a long-winded introduction to my question. Is there a way for omnifocus to update a spreadsheet (be it excel or google docs or whatever) whenever I've completed a given task regardless of the platform that I checked the task off as completed on?

Again by way of example, say I exercise on Wednesday and check off exercise can omnifocus then send that I completed exercising over to a spreadsheet somehow and then I can go into that spreadsheet and analyze at my leisure?

I would imagine that this is something that can be done with an applescript(?) but since I'm not a programmer I am somewhat clueless about whether that is true or if it is even where I would begin.


Thanks in advance

Brian 2011-12-12 02:00 PM

Seeker, OmniFocus doesn't currently have a feature like this. It's something that's probably susceptible to AppleScript in some form, but any script that tried to do this would be pretty complex.

We do have an "export to excel" feature request open in the development database - I've attached your post to that item so the rest of the team will know you'd like to see this added in the future. Thanks!

Seeker 2011-12-12 02:36 PM

Thanks Brian,

I am wondering if in the interim there might be an alternate solution of some kind. Would it be possible to create some sort of process where whenever I complete the exercise task it updates some other task which is either a counter or some other record of how many times I completed the exercise task?

So:

Task #1 - Exercise

Tracking Task - Just a counter that gets and retains some sort of data whenever Task #1 is checked off.

That way I can go back every week or so and manually pull whatever information I need from the tracking task and put it in my spreadsheet.

Thanks,

whpalmer4 2011-12-12 07:14 PM

Seeker, there isn't any provision for automatic actions when something is completed. Either you need to run a script by hand (and possibly the script handles the completion for you, so it is still just one step), or have a script run periodically that can figure out what has changed and act accordingly.

GeoffAirey 2011-12-14 07:13 AM

I just user Runkeeper to track exercise. not sure how you want to apply it to the rest of your life.

Francis Siefken 2011-12-15 01:45 AM

Minco tracker
 
To do reporting on tasks I sync to iCal where the tasks show up in the calendar. There is a nice tool called Minco where you can track the time of tasks in iCal and log them to csv, can put the work blocks into a seperate calendar and/or can call out an url for a custom web app.

VincentA 2011-12-15 04:23 AM

Another approach which might help you is to try Timelog - [url]http://www.mediaatelier.com/TimeLog4/[/url]
I have my 'clients', 'categories' and 'projects' set up in a way that complements my omnifocus 'folders', 'contexts' and projects / tasks.
The combo makes for an effective tracking sheet which doesn't cut across the tenets of GTD ;-)
As well as providing a good gui for analysing where your time has gone, the Timelog output goes to an ical calendar, so you can review what has been going on in ical if you like. I have my 'timelog' calendar set with a very faint colour so it doesn't mask the others I use for planning my life.......
Using exercise as the analogy - I have no 'exercise' or 'walk the dogs' GTD tasks, but both are important both as time users, and for my performance in other areas. Whilst I use specific tools for tracking workouts themselves , Timelog tells me who much of the day is being eaten up from 'start to get changed' through to 'back at my desk'.
Hope this helps.


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