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Originally Posted by chrjohns
The context lists really seem to be the most important part of the GTD process because they are the lists that you review when you actually want to get some work done. The project list is just one way of getting next actions onto your context lists.
One possible solution would be to ever so slightly course correct OmniFocus so that the focus is on the context lists. The inbox would be just a default context that captures next actions if they are entered without a context or project. As soon as a context or project is assigned to the next action (or in other words "it is processed"), it disappears from the inbox and appears on the new context list. It does not show up in the project list ... unless you associate a project name with it. Then it magically appears as part of a project too. OmniFocus would also have the flexibility to add the item as a project first, before adding any next actions. But adding the next action to a project would not be required to move it out of the inbox. Leaving it in the inbox seems like it has not been processed.
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FYI: I don't have the OmniFocus app yet, so I can't really speak to what the app does or doesn't do.
Part of my problem with, well, doing just about anything, is I will process, manipulate, modify a task or project - and frequently never get around to actually doing anything. What I like about GTD is it's focus on doing the tasks at hand. Part and parcel of that was a low barrier to creating a task, and then an equally low barrier to actually doing it.
Right now, I create a task and usually put it in a context immediately. I don't always put it in a project. And I don't want to _have_to put a task in a project. That's one more bit of editing, manipulating, processing that'd stall me from getting it done. Tasks to me are by default single action tasks. I may want to tag it as part of a project (at creation time or later), but that isn't something that has to be accomplished for the task to be "real."
All of my tasks should have a context. And all of my tasks that are part of a project should be tagged with that project. And all my tasks that are actually multi-step should be changed to projects. Although my tasks _should_be all these things, they sometimes aren't. But I don't want to find myself forced to cajole my tasks into these boxes, forced to focus on managing the system and not the tasks.
Hopefully, tasks in OmniFocus would be equally available to me to accomplish whether or not they are still in the inbox, whether or not they have an assigned context, whether or not they have an assigned project. OmniFocus maybe should encourage some "best practices" for GTD, but it shouldn't require it. I want to be able to focus work on my tasks, not on my GTD system.