I am going to address two additional points from you comment, but first lets address your questions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vulgo
1) How can I convert projects into actions to minimize the mass in my project area?
2) Can I convert folders or their content into actions?
3) How can I empty my projects area without loosing anything and keep everything in the context area?
|
Lizard and ext555 are correct in expressing the necessity of actions to be within a project (sequential, parallel, or single actions). This translates as follows.
Inbox: this functions like a project and any action or project placed in the inbox will remain, or in the case of a project — become, an action.
Library: this functions like a folder and any action or project placed in the library will become, or in the case of a project — remain, a project.
Folder: these are used to group similar projects together and any action or project placed in the library will become, or in the case of a project — remain, a project.
So, to answer question (1), move any projects you wish to become actions into the Inbox or create a project in the Library to move these project into.
To answer question (2), folders cannot be converted to projects or actions. If you wish to convert the contents of a folder to actions, I suggest creating a project with the same name and moving the contents of the folder to this newly created project.
To answer question (3), there are distinct views within OmniFocus; project view and context view. The structure of projects and actions does not change their context. For instance, an action in the Inbox with a context of "Phone" would keep its context if moved into a project in the Library. The point of these two views is to have one to manage and plan your projects and the other to view tasks which need to be completed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vulgo
I want to do the following: My plan is to keep of course all the actions I've got and convert projects to actions so that everything I ever put into OF only shows up in the in the context area. In my opinion I then would have an empty project area where I can then add only projects I really need to do. I could take actions from the context area and assign them to new projects I want to get done.
|
All items in OmniFocus are a project, a task, or a task group. Essentially any tasks added to the library area become projects unless they are moved into a project. The tasks you see in the context view are all of the tasks in the project view. If I am understanding correctly you want a list of tasks without a context assigned to them and from this list you will drag the ones you want to complete to an appropriate context. This can work, but I would suggest you to consider reading more one the features of OmniFocus and the book by David Allen to help in working with the software and understanding how contexts are traditionally used within the GTD methodology.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vulgo
...Now I have tons of projects and actions and I am lost. So when I want to use OF now as what it is meant for - GTD - I am drowned in so many folders projects and actions that I cannot really use it. Instead of using OF I have to use Things from Cultured Code.
But because of I have marked every action with the same context like the parenting folders and projects before (ToDo, Ideas, Notes, Info, Private, Business, Books,...) every entry shows up in my context area.
|
This relates to your use of contexts. I suggest two points for you to consider; 1) read the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen to better understand the principles of GTD, and 2) determine the structure you would like to implement.
Here is an example from what I can glen out of your posts as a possible structure. I am assuming many of your actions are a collection of thoughts and not necessary actions you are wanting to address currently, but still hold to be important.
Inbox
↳Initial place for capturing individual thoughts/actions
Library
↳Work [Folder to group work related projects]
| ↳Project 1 (Containing tasks to acted on)
| | ↳Single action
| | ↳Single action
| ↳Project 2 (Containing tasks to acted on)
| | ↳Single action
| | ↳Single action
| ↳Project 3 (Containing tasks to acted on)
| | ↳Single action
| | ↳Single action
↳Home [Folder to group personal related projects]
| ↳Project 1 (Containing tasks to acted on)
| | ↳Single action
| | ↳Single action
| ↳Project 2 (Containing tasks to acted on)
| | ↳Single action
| | ↳Single action
| ↳Project 3 (Containing tasks to acted on)
| | ↳Single action
| | ↳Single action
↳Someday/Maybe [Folder to group work related projects]
| ↳Ideas (Project of type single actions marked as on hold to prevent it from showing up in context view)
| | ↳Single idea action
| | ↳Single idea action
| | ↳Single idea action
| ↳Books (Project of type single actions marked as on hold to prevent it from showing up in context view)
| | ↳Single book action
| | ↳Single book action
Now, this is just a quick sketch up of a possible structure. Using the different project types and placing projects on hold will hide tasks depending on how your view settings are setup. I am sure if you consider what type context you wish to assign to each task you then can see all related tasks within context view for any specific context.
I know this was a long post. OmniFocus is a fantastic tool for showing a portion of tasks at a time; reducing a long list to a smaller and more manageable one.