[synth01]

My gears are turning… I've found that it's hard to implement OF. Not because OF is not good, but because no matter how good it is, if I haven't trained myself to use it the way it was designed, then it won't work for me. I guess OF is not just a program that will do everything for you; it's a program that will help train you to live your life the GTD way.

Thanks for the distinction between importance and urgency. I have been trying to wrap my mind around how to prioritize tasks for some time now. That's how I got to this thread. I have a muddled distinction between what a project is and what a single action item is. I think the line can be grey at times. I've also in the past had a muddled distinction between planning time and context time (in the beginning I actually worked for several months solely from the project view, not remembering to work from the context view!)

I've evolved to having 26 contexts (including sub-contexts). Is that normal? I find I need them so I don't spend precious time sifting through tasks when I should be getting them done.

But then again, no matter what context I'm in, if something's urgent, I better get in that context quick if I want to get it done on time! So that brings me back to training my own mind to use this tool. I need to always check my urgent tasks, review them daily, and then quickly focus on the context I'm in and crank it out.

Yes, Omnifocus isn't perfect. There are some random things I wish it did, but at this point I've realized a lot of my headaches were a result of applying GTD incorrectly, and not building enough complexity into OmniFocus. OF can handle complexity (while in some ways, my mind can't!) but I still have to change my habits to make it work. It's not going to conform to the way I do things. I'm going to have to conform to it.

That brings me to the topic of routine. One thing I have found OF will not do for me well is help me implement a routine. I see routine as a separate aspect of life that needs organizing in some other way. I use a mindmap, with routine daily and weekly items organized spatially. I know you can repeat tasks in OF, but to me that just adds clutter to the program and requires more organization on my part. But maybe I could re-think that...

Routine helps me because it minimizes multi-tasking, which is the bane of my creativity and productivity. Speaking of which, planning and doing should be two separate activities. I'm trying to implement that habit religiously, because I find a lot of time is wasted if I try to do while planning. The two just don't mix—it's like drinking and driving.

If you've read this far, thanks. It's been good to verbalize this to concretize it within my own head. This might be good for newbies to read; I'm repeating stuff that is probably common knowledge in the GTD world, but which may not be so obvious to the newly initiated.

But, yeah, priorities have been a headache for me. I am still trying to figure the priority thing out... the gears are turning.