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-   -   Separate and Independent view or file? (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=29630)

JamieBurr 2013-05-17 02:01 PM

Separate and Independent view or file?
 
Learned all,

OF rules my life, but my life has changed and I can't figure out how to change OF, and fear a backward slide into inefficiency and low productivity!

My primary perspective is all active tasks that are listed in due date order, so each day I see what needs to be done, or deferred, that day regardless of context and project. The change is that I now have to take on the sales role in our company, and have 20-30 calls to make/follow up etc every day listed in OF and this detracts from my other, more important tasks.

I have struggled to find a different way to use OF as I want to separate this sales view or list or project (called cold prospects). In setting up perspectives I can't see how to exclude a project, and/or have an independent view that is only one project (cold prospects). Focus gives me that, but then the main view still has all cold prospects. Maybe I can have two OF files independent from each other?

I'm flexible and keen to get OF back in charge, and will appreciate any advise.
Jamie

Dale 2013-05-17 03:35 PM

I would use folders to separate different areas of focus and create a set of custom perspectives to view these tasks separately. Many users use folders to separate "Business" and "Personal" projects; take this to the next step and divide Business by using sub-folders "Sales" and "Important Tasks".

Now that you have a folder structure to separate your main business responsibilities by dragging all of your sales projects to the "Sales" folder and the rest of your work projects to the "Important Tasks" folder. This will be your starting point to make custom perspectives to view each area without seeing information from the other.

For each of these folders do the following:

1. In Project view select the folder and choose View > Focus on "name of the folder" from the menubar.
2. Use the keyboard shortcut Command-2 to switch to Context view and setup how you want your items to be grouped, filtered, etc…
3. Once you have the view how you want choose Perspectives > Save Window As > New Perspective from the menubar. This opens the perspective window where you can give the perspective a name and adjust other preferences.
4. Select the "Projects" perspective icon in the toolbar and choose View > Show All Projects to go back to a default view. (Focus can be toggled with the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-F)

Follow these same steps to create your other work perspective.

These custom perspectives can be viewed by three methods:

- Choosing Perspective > "name of perspective" from the menubar.
- By adding an icon to the toolbar for the perspective (choose View > Customize toolbar…).
- In the perspective window select the perspective and give it a custom keyboard shortcut.

Once the two perspectives are created, you can switch between them and maintain an independence of these roles you perform at work. No sales tasks, cold calls, or follow ups listed in your important tasks and vice versa.

One last note:
While one can create a perspective in Project view, creating them in Context view allows for an additional benefit — transfer of the perspective view to iOS devices.

JamieBurr 2013-05-17 04:13 PM

Outstanding
 
You are the man, (?!) I am now back to full employment of GTD and OF and my inbox is back to zip. A full and well written explanation and I am very grateful, thank you.

Dale 2013-05-17 04:39 PM

I am glad the solution was correct for what you wanted.


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