Advice Request - Single Actions Lists and Folders
 

I'm in the process of moving back to Omnifocus after a brief and unsuccessful trial of Things. I'm also taking the opportunity to sort my actions into Areas Of Responsibility (AoR).

The issue I have is with single actions. I currently have these defaulting to a default single actions list. However I want these also sorted by area of responsibility, and I think the only way to do that would be to have a default action list for each AoR. Is that correct?

This is a sample from my current setup. Any thoughts on how to manage single actions with AoR? Any way I could make this better?

[IMG]http://img.skitch.com/20090316-b4us718gen512ben5bix8fcidg.jpg[/IMG]

I have a number of SALs sprinkled about my database, and while I wouldn't necessarily say I've split it up into areas of responsibility, having a "Miscellaneous" SAL in most of my big folders seems to work fine as a catch-all for those one-off tasks that don't really merit full project status.

Interesting, thanks :)

Do you name those SAL by the big folder title?

I do, and I use the naming convention of 'Action List:<masterfoldername>'. If my folders were named like yours, I'd have a SAL named 'Action List: Family', 'Action List: Finances', etc.

Thanks Greg, I'll give that a go.

[QUOTE=labete;56828]Any way I could make this better?
[/QUOTE]

No idea on making it better, but I'm really intrigued by your "to do" "by project" and "weekly review" icons.

I don't seem to have those as choices when I choose "view -> customize toolbar".

Can you advise?

- Don

[QUOTE=labete;56831]Interesting, thanks :)

Do you name those SAL by the big folder title?[/QUOTE]

If "<big folder title> : Miscellaneous" qualifies, then yes :-)

I have some other more descriptively named SALs as well mostly covering repetitive tasks (pet care, housekeeping, etc.) I find it more convenient to handle such tasks with a SAL when there are differing repeat intervals than with a repeating project, and philosophically, I like my projects to have discernable endpoints. "Daily pet care : Feed the cats" is much more appealing to me than a project called "Feed the cats until they die" :-)

You can put action groups in SALs, so they don't have to be limited to one step actions. For example, I've got a nested action group in my plant care SAL that has me water the orchids the first weekend, and the next weekend they get a multi-day watering and feeding process, then the cycle repeats.

@Don You can select icons via the Show Perspectives window. Click and hold on the large icon and then you can either select from a list, or use an external icon. Today I changed mine to these - [url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelgraphix/2273349479/[/url]

@whpalmer4 Thanks for that, makes a whole lot of sense. The nested actions look especially useful. I have a bi-monthly reporting cycle that would fit into that well I think.

I set up a singleton action list for each area of responsibility (which are folders in my setup). I think the idea was that it would allow me to focus by area of responsibility and have projects and singletons together. But truth be told, in practice I never do that, so it's probably just taking up window real estate.

I also have SALs for each area of responsibility. I do (occasionally) focus on a specific area of responsibility, so have found the separate lists useful for that.