Quote:
Originally Posted by LizPf
Frankly, I hate the overhead time of maintaining the system.
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Yes. I go back and forth with thoughts wondering whether I am putting too much time into maintaining the system. For me, it isn't wondering about the overhead time of OmniFocus, it's wondering about overhead time of GTD.
I think OmniFocus has some great time savers with the maintenance... especially in the review section. Being able to set my review times for different projects is terrific. If a project doesn't need to be looked at every week, I can set it to review every month, or every three months or every year.
One of the time savers OmniFocus does not yet have, is the ability to create the project as you go. OmniFocus favors planning everything out before starting a project. The problem with this method is projects can often change as I am working on them. Some new information comes to light that I wasn't aware of, or someone else changes a facet of the project. When this happens, I loose all the time I spent carefully crafting every detail of my perfect project. (In defense of detailed project planning, planning something out helps me to think it through and that process can be important in discovering how the project will really be done.)
Instead of planning everything out in the project, I will outline a project, and at least create the next actionable item to move the project forward. When I have completed that action, I think about the parent item and ask myself: can I complete this item? If not, what's the next thing that needs to happen to move this item toward completion.
OmniFocus doesn't favor the second method of planning as you go because it hides the parent in the context view. OmniFocus also now allows a parent to auto complete.
Another timesaver of OmniFocus is the keyboard shortcuts. Especially the auto search for assigning projects and contexts. This is a huge timesaver compared to other applications I have used. It's one of those small things that make a great deal of difference.
The quick entry box on the desktop is another big timesaver.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LizPf
Capture: if I'm on my Mac, and not engrossed in something else, I'll do a Quick Entry. But other times, forget it. I don't have an iPhone, and don't have a system (or physical place for one) to capture paper notes. I suppose I could use Jott and my cell phone, but the idea of having people in India transcribe my tasks bothers me.
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I experimented with Jott also and felt the same way about the transcribing. Plus, it was often not accurate. However, if I didn't have an iPhone, using Jott would be very attractive for me.
One inexpensive system is using 3x5 cards. Just carrying around a card and pen may help with capturing thoughts. When you get home, paper goes into the inbox for processing into OmniFocus later. Having a physical inbox is crucial.
OmniFocus allows printing out a task list. The trick is filtering it down to a manageable size. This can be accomplished by selecting multiple contexts, searching, creating tags or creating start dates for actions and using the available filter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LizPf
Review: This is my biggest obstacle, even bigger than capture. I need a way to integrate a daily review into my life, I've tried but it isn't working. Weekly reviews are even harder to schedule.
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Here are some suggestions that may help you.
I have a project called, process collection buckets. It has a default context of process collection buckets. I have actions in that project that repeat daily with a start date and a due date. The actions are things like:
process physical inbox to 0
process email inbox to 0
When I am looking at the context view, I am almost always looking at the actions with the available view filter on. This view will not show me any actions that have a start date in the future.
I have a due date on my process collection buckets actions because this is something that must happen in order for the system to work.
Everyday, I go through my process collection buckets context and make sure I complete everything in that context. When I complete the action, it disappears from my view and won't show up until it is time to do it again (the next day).
The theory is, I need a maintenance project to help me stay in the system. This is where you can put your daily review action, set it to repeat every day, give it a due date and even if there is nothing else you do that day, do that one action.
For me, I have a weekly review project with a weekly review default context. This project is set to repeat every week for me. It also has a due date.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LizPf
OmniFocus Itself: If I don't see a task, I forget about it. [Saint David says this is OK :-)] But I can't figure out how to set up OmniFocus to show me items that are coming due soon, AND all the other next actions that have no due dates. So my "little to-do list" just shows me due date items, and everything else falls into a big black hole.
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If you set your view filter to Remaining tasks and sort by due date. All your actions will be shown and the ones that are due soon will be at the top.
Or set the view filter to remaining tasks and group by due date, then actions are grouped by due date so you can focus on a selection of actions that are due soon.
Long post, hope some of these things help.