[philrob]

Glen, Been there, done that, all too frequently find myself there again...

Some Ideas...

Use Evernote or similar system for info, OmniFocus only for things that can be actioned. Make the title of tasks short and outcome orientated.

OmniFocus should be part of your Workflow, use other tools as well.

Weekly review:
- Am I going to make progress on this project this week? If No, put on hold (or shift the start date to next week/fortnight/month so it disappears). If yes, is the next action explicitly clear and in the right context? If not - fix it!

I have projects in folders - 'Do Now', 'Do Soon' and 'Do Later' under each of my areas of focus. Do Later is on hold, do soon is active but with a kicked out start date and Do Now is properly active. I try to limit myself to only 3 'Do Nows' for each area of focus. [The 'do soon' is a hack, it is where I put the things that I lack the courage to kick into the 'do later' pile, it really shouldn't exist]

Get rid of all your due dates (except for the ones that will get you fired, cost you money or put you in prison - bring those forward a week - if it goes red, you have a week before it bites you)

A the end of the day do a quick sweep for 'tomorrow's IMPORTANT tasks' and flag them. Use the duration box to estimate how long it will take (plan only 30 to 50% of your available time) and WRITE THE IMPORTANT TASKS IN YOUR CALENDAR as an 'appointment'. Flagged items are your 'MUSTS' it is OK to only flag one item, you shouldn't flag more than 3 to 5 (depending on expected duration)

For mundane things like calls, put a block in your diary to make them AM and PM.

Treat (most) Emails like letters. Receive them day 1, draft reply, send them back day 2.

Tomorrow, once you have done your Flagged Items (only 30% to 50% of your available time, so they WILL get done) Give yourself a Treat and then do a quick review and flag a couple more.

If you are not in 'Call time' TURN OFF YOUR PHONE.

QUIT YOUR EMAIL CLIENT unless you are in 'email time'

Write down during your Weekly Review (on an old fashioned piece of paper that you stick to your monitor, car dashboard, shaving mirror etc. so that you see them EVERY DAY) the 3 significant things that you will achieve this week. CROSS THEM OFF when you nail them.

Clear the inbox every day. (Do, defer, delegate or dump) If unsure, dump it - you have too much stuff to do anyway, so if you are not sure of the action, you are probably never going to get round to it.

Remember - There are more things to do than there are hours in the day to do them. The trick is in deciding what you are NOT going to do today.