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I have been using OF iPAD for about a month. I have set up a folder structure separating both work and personal, then have broken work down into two businesses, and then areas\divisions of the business ALL in folders. Then within each division creating my projects. I also have a project for miscellaneous single actions as well as routines for each business. I am dumping everything into my inbox and processing on a daily basis. So far so good. Now I am trying to 86 my paper daytimer and ToDo(another task manager) and use the product 100% for some simple sorting\reviewing\processing and struggling big-time. I'm trying to make the iPod a standalone tool as I live in the PC world. I am looking for any and all suggestions to help accomplish the following.
1) weekly processing \planning—conduct weekly planning\reviews and build\identify a standalone "list\view\perspective" of actions I select to be completed for the upcoming week. This list would need to include any and all weekly rituals\reviews\routines
2) identify\highlight most important tasks -- within the weekly list highlighting just the most important high-level functions that should be either completed or worked on for the upcoming week
3) daily processing\planning -- conduct daily planning\processing\reviewing and build\create a daily list of tasks that need to be accomplished for that day during a daily planning session. This list would need to include any and all daily rituals\routines\reviews using repeat function.
If I can lick of these three functions this program becomes a home run for me. If I had to give one of those up it would be number two as I could probably do a workaround using all caps or something with text.
I have been advised to use start dates\flags\due dates and all seemed to have issues. I have thought about scrapping contexts and using contexts to build lists\views. To help out and make up for that by starting each task with a verb context (e-mail Joe, call Sally, etc. etc.) I I would really appreciate if anybody would share with me how they process weekly and daily within a busy business world of multiple tasks \roles \changing conditions etc. etc. Any and all help\suggestions\tips will be sincerely appreciated
 
While you're learning the ropes, I'd set #1 up as a "Weekly review" project which contained the things you want to do. Make the project (but not the actions) repeat once a week. Once you complete a given review, the next one will be automatically completed.

A similar approach could be set up for the daily processing/planning you mention in #3, but I suspect once you get up and running, you'll be able to retire that one. No need for the overhead of checking those items off once you're in the habit of doing it every day.

As for identifying your most important tasks, have you tried flagging items? Once you have the items you want to knock out identified, you can just use the "Flagged" item in the sidebar to show and complete them. (To flag an item, tap it to bring up the editor - the button in the lower left of the Info tab is what you're looking for.)
 
Brian
Thank you for the promt response. To clarify, are you saying to create a new project for a particular business, (maybe name it "weekly tasks") set it to review once a week, and simply select tasks\next actions during my weekly review of all projects and simply move\rename the project that they attach to, to the newly created project"weekly tasks"? Then move same tasks to a daily "daily tasks project" Check them off as I get done or move them back to their respective daily or weekly project if not completed and the time is not available in the corresponding week\day to complete same? Please advise
 
Dave, sorry for the confusion! No, I'd make one "weekly review" project, whose function is to remind you to review all the other projects, flag actions you wanted to accomplish that week, and any other steps you carry out. Reinforce the habit you're trying to build, in other words.

The same approach could help with the daily reviews you mentioned - separate project, different repeat pattern, of course. That said, it sounds like you may already have the review habit well-established, so those two ideas may be unnecessary.

You mentioned in your first that you've tried using start dates, flags, and due dates, but "all have issues" - can you expand on that? We may be able to offer suggestions to help. I don't think any one of those approaches is a silver bullet by itself, but they all help work towards keeping everything on track when used together.
 
Again Brian thx for the quick response.

I have a well established habit of reviewing all of my projects, past due and upcoming tasks every Monday, and selecting /writing down the 25 - 35 tasks I want to accomplish for the week. That constitutes my goals for the week. Then each day I select the most appropriate 6- 10 tasks which is my todo for the day.

I am looking for a view/perspective to mirror same. Specifically:
1) review all projects, Misc single action lists, weekly routine lists in of each Monday then select/identify the 25- 35 tasks I want to complete or work on for the week and have a perspective/view of these 25 - 35. we will call it weekly todo list. as new things come in my Inbox during the week that need to be started that week I select/identify/ move them to the weekly list

2)each day be able to review this list and select/identify(possibly move) 5- 10 items
from the weekly view to a " daily perspective /view" and cross out as complete . The next day unselect /"move back" any non complete items from the previos list, and select/identify 5-10 new items for next day. This gets repeated until Friday
3) upon the next weekly review, incomplete items from the last weeks perspective either get moved back where they came from or stay/get selected /identified fir this weeks list/perspective.

I tried using a start date of Monday on selected tasks and I just could not get a clean view/perspective, and I keep reading to be very judicious w start dates. If I could get a clean weekly perspective, I know I could easily flag my daily list, but that view( flagged) is all over the place w repect to which roles, business's, areas they came from. I have considered using contexts for weekly and daily and just changing contexts to move things around and get the perspective I seek, and then try to use descriptive verbs in the beginning of my tasks as my contexts.
Could you please comment and let me know your thoughts. Thx for your help

Or move back or unselect so it stays in the weekly list.
 
Sorry,one mistake. I meant that I keep reading to be very judicious with " due" dates a the can wreak hovoc. ( also had this prob w oth software)
 
Hello Dave,

It was nice chatting with you yesterday! Here are my thoughts on your questions:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave C View Post
1) weekly processing \planning—conduct weekly planning\reviews and build\identify a standalone "list\view\perspective" of actions I select to be completed for the upcoming week. This list would need to include any and all weekly rituals\reviews\routines
In the iPad version of OmniFocus there is a "Review" mode that you can utilize for this purpose. During the review process you can change its next review cycle from the bottom of that screen for each individual project. That allows you to push out things that you know are not going to need a review for a couple weeks, then revise that decision when the time comes around again.

The default review setting can be changed by using this link: <http://people.omnigroup.com/dave/review.html> You can also send a project to review if you feel it needs to be looked over sooner by touching and holding the project's title bar. That will bring up some options, one of which is "Review."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave C View Post
2) identify\highlight most important tasks -- within the weekly list highlighting just the most important high-level functions that should be either completed or worked on for the upcoming week
While reviewing you can go through and flag things you'd like to highlight for that week so they are easily accessed through the "Flagged" perspective.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave C View Post
3) daily processing\planning -- conduct daily planning\processing\reviewing and build\create a daily list of tasks that need to be accomplished for that day during a daily planning session. This list would need to include any and all daily rituals\routines\reviews using repeat function.
I think that like Brian mentioned, once you get in the habit of using OmniFocus the daily processing will be innate. To get you started I would recommend using the "Forecast" and "Flagged" modes. Forecast can show you the things that are on a time line, or "Due" while the Flagged mode can show you what you'd like to accomplish for the week.

The warnings you're reading about the use of due dates is not so much about limitations of the software but more about stressing yourself out. If you set a due date for something that doesn't really need to be done on that date, and then you don't get around to it- you have to go in and make changes that were unnecessary. Now imagine if you did that 100 times a week. That's time and energy that could be used getting things done. That being said, if you'd like to use those due dates to put some things in the Forecast, and that works for you- go ahead!

OmniFocus is meant to allow you to customize it in a way that works for you. What's "right" for you can be completely different from what's "right" for someone else.

I know we talked about the coaching offered by the David Allen Company, and you didn't think it was what you were looking for, but it couldn't hurt to just call and see what they have to offer. Their number is: 805-646-8432 and you can check out their coaching services page here: <http://www.davidco.com/organizations/coaching-services>

Let me know if that helps or if there's anything else I can do!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave C View Post
1) review all projects, Misc single action lists, weekly routine lists in of each Monday then select/identify the 25- 35 tasks I want to complete or work on for the week and have a perspective/view of these 25 - 35.
You're using the iPad application, correct? Rather than a special perspective for this, I'd suggest using the built-in Forecast view.

While over-using Due Dates can get out of hand, if you're disciplined, there's nothing inherently wrong with assigning those actions you mentioned a due date that causes them to appear in Forecast view. That would effectively be your weekly list.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave C View Post
The next day unselect /"move back" any non complete items from the previos list, and select/identify 5-10 new items for next day. This gets repeated until Friday.
If this works for your workflow, then you could certainly do this from Forecast view, as well. Honestly, it sounds like a bit of busywork you can probably do without, though.

There's less overhead involved if you pick one due date you really can achieve and work towards that, even if it's farther out. It can be satisfying to spend time doing a lot of of day-to-day shuffling of task due dates, but in my experience that time can be spent more productively working towards some other goal.
 
 


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