[MJK]

Wow that's a lot of questions for one post!

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

It seems like the process and organize steps tend to blend in OF, as you're adding reminders (in the form of projects and next actions) to your system (OF). Does that sound right? Does it make sense in the literal GTD context that some items in your OF inbox become projects, others are next actions in current projects, and that there will be some discarded and moved-out-of-OmniFocus items?

Yes, it does. In fact, you would do this if you just used paper and folders. Some things in your Inbox are just parts of previous or ongoing projects, some are brand new ones and some, like reference material, would be moved out of OmniFocus for archival purposes for example.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

Where I tend to get hung up is in the "review" step. How often should I be reviewing my actions and projects?

There really is no global answer to this. I think I might even be quoting David Allen by saying you need to review it as often as YOU need to review it. So how ever often works for you so that nothing falls through the cracks.

Basically you need to just use your system and get used to it, then you'll see how often you need to review everything. Some even do it daily, but if you have a lot of projects, you don't want to do it as often as that.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

I know it's possible to set up a Perspective which sorts your projects by "Next Review" in Planning Mode--this would constitute a Weekly Review in the GTD sense, right?

Technically it's just a view you customize to your way to make it as easy as possible to review everything, but yes, it's for reviewing.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

I should be reviewing my projects one at a time, assigning any new actions, and making sure that they are where they are. When I'm satisfied, I mark them as reviewed. David also implicates that this is a good time to do another "mental dump" and get current. So is the Weekly Review the time to dump stuff into the inbox, and process it into projects and so on? But surely the Weekly Review isn't the only time to do that kind of thing. After all, using Clippings and Quick Entry, stuff gets funneled into the inbox all the time. So how often should it be cleaned out and its contents processed?

Same thing as the weekly review, however often YOU need to do it, is how often you need to do it.

First of all, the mental dump is done in order to get as much as possible into your trusted system. The idea is to get everything in, not 95 percent of stuff, but all of it. Once you have most of it in your trusted system, you don't need to do a dump anymore, but instead what you need is the ability to quickly add new things to your system immediately when it pops into your head. For example in the case of OmniFocus, you could get OmniFocus for the iPhone when it comes out.

So my point there is that you don't need to do a mental dump when you have all your stuff in your system and you add new things immediately.

Cleaning out the Inbox though, again, you should do it as often as YOU need to, but I would recommend doing it regularly. I do it a time or two a day, but I don't have a high volume of important stuff coming in.

But look at it this way, anything in your Inbox isn't actually getting done and you don't even know what's in it until you clean it out. When the Inbox is empty however and everything has a context, you know you are tracking it and it won't fall through the cracks. So do it often enough for YOU.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

And during the week, is most of my time spent in Context Mode, scanning for things to be done? When is Planning Mode typically used?

Planning is literally that, planning. So while you can work there, sometimes it's more practical to do so on large projects for example, but usually you only flesh out things there from the next action to the last action and work on the Context side.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

But what about projects that are stalled? Should they too be reviewed?

Yes, how else would you know when to activate them again? Or specifically, by reviewing them you won't forget about them if, for example, you are waiting for someone else to do something before you can continue working on them.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

If a project is stalled because its next action is a "Waiting On," should the Weekly Review flesh that out, perhaps prompting me to check on what it is I'm "Waiting On"? Suppose I decide that I do need to check in on what- or whomever I'm waiting on--should I add an action to that project? Something like "Check on status of repair"? Should that precede the "Waiting On" action? Should it become the next action of the project?

I don't really have a good answer for this since I personally am waiting for a bit more functionality with stalled actions in OmniFocus.

So instead, I'll just tell you what I do. When I need to pause something, instead of actually putting it on hold, I add a start time to it. A start time hides the item from the Context view until the date you set. And since OmniFocus is smart enough that you can type in different ways in the date fields, I type 1w for example in the start time field, it's easy to do this. In this example it will become active in one week.

So basically I think "how long should I wait on this action before checking in on it" and decide for example "ok, I can wait for 3 days" and so I type 3d in the field and OmniFocus hides it from me for 3 days and after that it pops back in on my list. You can do this to full projects or even single actions.

If I still don't need to check in on it, I just add more time to the start time. Takes mere seconds. And by the way, I review all my actions that are visible on the Context side every morning with my morning coffee.

I only pause projects that are on hold indefinitely like Someday/Maybe lists, if I know approximately when to check up on it, I just add a start time to it. Of course you do review stalled projects in the Weekly Review, so you don't need to do it quite like me, but I still recommend trying the Start Time fields.

But yes, another way to do it is indeed to add a new action called for example "waiting for status of car repair", so when you check "take car for repair" the waiting for status task pops up. Also an easy way to do it and I do this in some cases.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

And what about doing? Suppose that I finish an action on a project, and I'd like to continue it, but I haven't assigned any more actions after the one I've completed. Should I head back to Planning Mode and decide on the next action(s)?

When you flesh out your project and decide on a next action, you shouldn't decide JUST the next action but flesh out the entire thing from the first step to "what will that project look like when finished" and every single step along the way.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

Does this constitute the "vertical focus" mentioned in the book?

Vertical Focus means the different levels of actions or projects as follows:
- 50,000+ feet: Life goals
- 40,000 feet: 3-5-year vision
- 30,000 feet: 1-2-year goals
- 20,000 feet: Areas of responsibility
- 10,000 feet: Current projects
- Runway: Current actions

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

Finally, David recommends having "clean edges" to seven components of your system:

- A Projects list
- Project support material
- Calendared actions and info
- Next Actions list
- "Waiting For" list
- Reference Material
- Someday/Maybe list

Of those. OmniFocus seems designed to handle the projectss list, next actions list, and maybe the "Waiting For" list. Other applications or text documents seem better suited to the rest. Is that a common feeling?

Projects and support material and reference material I would say is usually best to have in a different system. Basically that would be your file cabinet or the digital version of it. After all, you can have support material of all kinds, some digital, some not, PDFs, text files, images, videos etc which OmniFocus can't handle.

Besides, the GTD method even says you should have your reminders in a trusted system, in this case OmniFocus. And reference and support material easily accessible when you decide to act on it.

So you need to decide the best way to do it for you. In digital form you could use folders named accordingly and just dump stuff in them, properly named of course. You could use the various apps made specifically for that purpose like Yojimbo or DevonTHINK. Any way you like.

Originally Posted by AquaMethod

I have a lot of specific questions, but I'm trying to understand GTD and GTD in the context of OmniFocus at the same time. I know it seems like I'm trying to adhere strictly by the book, but I just want to really understand all of it before I decide if and how much I want to deviate. Some of these questions are more about preferences than concrete answers, but I'd just like to get a picture of how OF is used in a GTD workflow, and I haven't quite figured it out yet. Thanks so much for any feedback!

Once you get the hang of OmniFocus I really do suggest reading the book again, you will look at everything from a different viewpoint now. Even David Allen himself has said that people should read the book again after 6 months of reading it.

And you need to test how to best use OmniFocus to your liking, I personally still change some things from time to time and only just recently started using all the features in OmniFocus. I started out without using start times, perspectives and such, just simply. And I've been using OmniFocus for close to 6 months now.

I hope that answers most if not all of your questions. Most of the things you mentioned really do depend on how you like working, so there are no concrete answers. I merely stated my ways and what David Allen has said.