If anyones interested, after an intensive 6 hour session I have now managed to make Omnifocus work very much like Things. I now have Today, Next, Scheduled and Someday perspectives in my OF. This is great as i get the workflow of Things as well as all the benefits of Omnifocus (nested projects, forecast, advanced reviewing, great project view, cloudsync etc..)

Only "extra mile" I have to do is that when I schedule my tasks, I have to remember to flag them in order to get them automated into Today list on a start date (as well as to get my Scheduled perspective to be formatted correctly). However I can still flag items to appear onto Today list.

I have no idea how you are "supposed" to use Omnifocus, but this gives me a great startup in a familiar methodology I so much have grown to love, yet it gives me the flexibility to use the advanced features of OF.

I didn't think this was possible, but it was.

P.S Wish there was a way on the iPhone app to get chosen perspectives into the main screen like in the iPad version.

[QUOTE=devastat;95451]If anyones interested, after an intensive 6 hour session I have now managed to make Omnifocus work very much like Things. I now have Today, Next, Scheduled and Someday perspectives in my OF. This is great as i get the workflow of Things as well as all the benefits of Omnifocus (nested projects, forecast, advanced reviewing, great project view, cloudsync etc..)

Only "extra mile" I have to do is that when I schedule my tasks, I have to remember to flag them in order to get them automated into Today list on a start date (as well as to get my Scheduled perspective to be formatted correctly). However I can still flag items to appear onto Today list.

I have no idea how you are "supposed" to use Omnifocus, but this gives me a great startup in a familiar methodology I so much have grown to love, yet it gives me the flexibility to use the advanced features of OF.

I didn't think this was possible, but it was.

P.S Wish there was a way on the iPhone app to get chosen perspectives into the main screen like in the iPad version.[/QUOTE]

Great.

If you don't want to use due dates at all and use start dates exclusively, you can set up the perspective focusing on start dates. I have a view that shows all available tasks grouped by start dates and sorted by due dates within the group.

Again, the key is flexibility offered by OF. I can put several perspectives on the toolbar and flip back and forth . . .

I believe you will realize that once you have set up the system in OF, you will do doing more to getting things done rather than spending more time trying to work around the limitations imposed by Things.

My understanding as far as OF for Mac, iPhone, and iPad is that they will migrate best of features of each version onto other platforms, but certain things will be different given different platform design philosophy (e.g., screen size, etc.).

[QUOTE=devastat;95448]Thanks, I think I got it now.

I have to set availability filter to Available.
Status filter to Due or Flagged.

Then when I set a start date, AND flag the item, it will appear in the today list even there is no due date at all with the task.

Great I am very happy this is possible i OF as I heavily rely on start dates on my methodology :)[/QUOTE]


My version of Today is pretty much the same but I set it to:

Context Filter: Remaining
Grouping: Due
Sorting: Due
Availability: Available
Status Filter: Due or Flagged
Estimated Time Filter: Any Duration

I tend to think that I want my "due" items up on top and then flagged items on the bottom.

I really try to knock off tasks in my "Today" perspective before looking at the other perspectives.

Due items are time sensitive and should/must be done. I look setting it to show Due items in 1 week. This gives me at least a 7 day heads-up notice of any incoming deadlines.

Then the flagged items are my Big Rocks of the Week that I am currently interested in.

Once a week during my Weekly Review, I unflag everything and then go through my projects to flag or reflag my Big Rocks. This gives me a chance to refresh and change my Big Rock projects.


In addition, I have a "My Agenda" perspective that is set to:

Context Filter: Remaining
Grouping: Context
Sorting: Due
Availability Filter: Available
Status Filter: Any Status
Estimated Time Filter: Any Duration


This is more of a general list of all the Next Actions that are available to me. This perspective shows a list of all Next Actions that I can do if I don't have anything left in my "Today" perspective.

Am I missing something, or is there no way to get a task to repeat on something like "1st Tuesday of the month" as you can in Things?

We've got a feature request open on that kind of repeat pattern, but I'm afraid it's not supported in current versions of OmniFocus. If you send mail to the [EMAIL="omnifocus@omnigroup.com"]support ninjas[/EMAIL], they can attach you to that request. (Ones with more customers attached tend to get assigned higher priority.)

[QUOTE=devastat;95451]If anyones interested, after an intensive 6 hour session I have now managed to make Omnifocus work very much like Things. I now have Today, Next, Scheduled and Someday perspectives in my OF[/QUOTE]
I wonder if you'd care to share your recipe for your Next, Scheduled and Someday perspectives? I've found your Today approach useful in replicating some of what I enjoy in Things but I'm not very clear on the rest of it. Any more guidance you can render would be appreciated.

[QUOTE=wilsonng;95526]My version of Today is pretty much the same but I set it to:

Context Filter: Remaining
Grouping: Due
Sorting: Due
Availability: Available
Status Filter: Due or Flagged
Estimated Time Filter: Any Duration
[/QUOTE]

My today perspective is the same except under Context Filter I have 'active'. Can I ask what the advantages of changing it to 'remaining' are?

@Andrew Scott Sure, here are my perspectives:

[B]TODAY[/B]

[B]Context[/B] viewmode ([B]Context Sidebar:[/B] Remaining)
[B]Grouping:[/B] Ungrouped
[B]Sorting:[/B] Duration (I use estimate column for re-ordering tasks in Today list)
[B]Availability Filter:[/B] Available
[B]Status Filter:[/B] Due or Flagged
[B]Estimated Time:[/B] Any Duration

[B]Restore:[/B]
Layout
Selection

[B]Always[/B] open in a new window

[B]NEXT[/B]

[B]Context[/B] viewmode ([B]Context Sidebar:[/B] Remaining)
[B]Grouping: [/B]Project
[B]Sorting:[/B] Project
[B]Availability Filter:[/B] Available
[B]Status Filter:[/B] Any Status
[B]Estimated Time Filter:[/B] Any Duration

[B]Restore:[/B]
Layout
Selection

[B]Always[/B] open in a new window

[B]SCHEDULED[/B]

[B]Context[/B] viewmode ([B]Context Sidebar:[/B] Remaining)
[B]Grouping:[/B] Start
[B]Sorting:[/B] Start
[B]Availability Filter:[/B] Remaining
[B]Status Filter:[/B] Flagged
[B]Estimated Time Filter:[/B] Any Duration

[B]Restore:[/B]
Layout
Expansion
Selection

[B]Always[/B] open in a new window

NOTE! You have to flag items when you schedule them. Otherwise they won't appear into today list nor be seen in Schedule Perspective.

[B]SOMEDAY[/B]

[B]Context[/B] viewmode ([B]Context Sidebar:[/B] Remaining)
[B]Grouping:[/B] Project
[B]Sorting:[/B] Project
[B]Availability:[/B] Remaining
[B]Status Filter:[/B] Any Status
[B]Estimated Time Filter:[/B] Any Duration

[B]Restore:[/B]
Layout
Selection

[B]Always[/B] open in a new window

[B]FORGOT TO FLAG?[/B] (This prevents me from forgetting to flag Scheduled tasks)

[B]Context[/B] viewmode ([B]Context Sidebar:[/B] Remaining)
[B]Group Actions By:[/B] Start
[B]Sort Actions By:[/B] Start
[B]Availability:[/B] Remaining
[B]Status:[/B] Unflagged
[B]Duration:[/B] Any Duration

[B]Restore:[/B]
Layout
Expansion
Selection

[B]Always[/B] open in a new window

Thanks for your swift response. Very useful. Your settings are a little different to the ones I was experimenting with. I'll try them for a while and see how they feel.

[QUOTE=gary;95687]My today perspective is the same except under Context Filter I have 'active'. Can I ask what the advantages of changing it to 'remaining' are?[/QUOTE]

doh... you're right. I didn't really need remaining. I guess I had overlooked it because I usually have this Today context set to open in a new window with the toolbar and the left sidebar hidden. This gives me proper focus.

I'll be changing it now but it doesn't seem to affect anything really because I don't have the sidebar shown.

Thanks. :-D