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In OmniFocus I have a context called "Mini-Goals". The tasks in there are not really tasks, they are more daily reminders/daily habits for me like "drink more water", "go to bed before midnight" and so on.

I use a perspective for the day where all the contexts are displayed, so that I can see all the actions for the day in their context. The "Mini-Goals" are in that perspective too so that I can see them as a visual reminder. The goals live in several single action list of my life areas - the only common is the context.

The problem is: when nothing is changing at these reminders I get used to the view and simply scroll them away to just look at my tasks as usual. So I thought I just mark some/all of them as done and set them to repeat. The idea is to create a repeat option (without Apple script) that is RANDOM. EVERY MINI GOAL SHOULD APPEAR RANDOMLY ONCE IN WHILE!

Any ideas?
 
If it's goals that you want to look at, why not use a random quote generator that allows you to see a random mini goal?


This is just one of many iOS apps here:


https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quot...478653149?mt=8




There is an Applescript that can pull a random quote from a text file:

http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/geeklets...ascii-capable/
 
If your goals are of variable importance, set them up to have prime number repeats. For example:

Goal A: 7 days
Goal B: 11 days
Goal C: 13 days
Goal D: 17 days

(Or weeks, months. Whatever time frame is appropriate...)
This will give you an order like A,B,C,A,D,A,B,C,A,B,D,A,C,A,B...
This isn't truly random, but a month and a half from now, it'll probably feel pretty random to your brain. You'll want to give your most important goal the shortest cycle, because it'll show up the most.
I saw someone else originally offer this as a way of scheduling longer-term projects for review. I can't find the link now.
 
Curt Clifton first pointed it out many years ago, and I've mentioned it in my various discussions of the review feature.

You're simply trying to maximize the least common multiple of the two periods, and if you have two numbers which are relatively prime (they share no factors except 1), you will maximize the least common multiple. If you start both a 7 day cycle and a 17 day cycle today, they will not coincide again for 7*17 = 119 days. Put a start date and a due date on each item so you don't see it until it has been out of sight for some time, and "smear" the start dates across the period. For example, if you've decided that you will use 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 as your various periods, take half of the actions that will have a period of 2 days and set them to start today. The other half you set to start tomorrow. With the tasks that have a 3 day period, you split them into 3 groups, 1 starting today, 1 tomorrow, 1 the day following. What you see as available on any given day will change rather unpredictably, so long as you actually do the items that appear :-)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizard View Post
This isn't truly random, but a month and a half from now, it'll probably feel pretty random to your brain.
That's exactly what I'm looking for. It doesn't have to be really random - my brain must just be surprised. whpalmer4, I had to read your post four times to get it. Now it's pretty clear to me what ninjas are. Thank you for your assistance.

To be a little more specific - the Mini-Goals are really NO TASKS! For example, one goal looks like this: "bed/get up 24h/7.30h". I could make this a habit, create a project and set a simple repeating task "Go to bed before 24h". But truly, it doesn't matter if I get six or seven hours of sleep. It should just remind me once in a while to leave the Omni-Forum before dawn :-) Since the goals are no tasks I just let them sit in OF to see them and want to check them off once per week (the active ones). A repeating task will remind me.

Another thing is that the goals are not static. With Lizard's idea I can just add another goal with any timeframe and I'm done, right? With whpalmer4's idea it's not that simple or did I overlooked something? What do I have to consider if I only check them off once per week?
 
I think Lizard and I are suggesting the same thing, I just provided more of the necessary detail. Without start dates, for example, the tasks immediately reappear.

You don't have to actually perform the tasks, but checking them off is what will make the display change.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by transformcar View Post
In OmniFocus I have a context called "Mini-Goals". ... that is RANDOM. EVERY MINI GOAL SHOULD APPEAR RANDOMLY ONCE IN WHILE!

Any ideas?
I use an IOS app call habits to re-inforce these types of behaviours.
 
 


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