[All Things Creative]

I just posted my first post and the long version in Omni on a mac ... then found this forum. My rant over there is much about this.

For a system so complex it seems to me it should be a given to have a "TODAY" I understand the David Allen methodology but OF is marketed as not being stricly GTD so having a "TODAY" would make my decision instant and I suspect for a lot of others also.

I'm sure there's a way to get around this (answers in my previous post) but I shouldn't have to "get around this" in such a robust program.

I hear buzz about a version 2 ... will this be a long or short time in the future as I need to make a decision ASAP!!!

Thank you in advance.

[whpalmer4]

The flag feature is quite useful for this style of working. Go through your projects and tasks, flagging the items you want to work on today, or first, and then use the flagged view to concentrate your view on those items. In context mode, there's also a "due or flagged" action selector in the view bar which will give you the union of flagged items and due items.

If you decide you aren't going to do something today, you can just remove the flag, which is much more convenient than fiddling around with start or due dates to manage the list of stuff you want to do today. Also, if you flag a project, all the actions in that project automatically become flagged.

My personal opinion on this approach is that if you're spending a lot of time putting the list together (or maintaining it), you might be doing yourself a disservice. Allen has a few paragraphs on the subject on pp. 40-41 of Getting Things Done, labeled No More "Daily To-Do" Lists :-) His main points seem to be not spending a bunch of time rewriting the list over and over, and dilution of the effectiveness of having something on the list if you aren't making a commitment to getting it done the first time it is there. I don't think he would have a big problem with simply identifying tasks that must be completed today to make sure they were all completed before calling it a day.

[All Things Creative]

Thank you for the information ... But now you've got me asking another question in regards to flagging the main "PROJECT" ... If I pull only say 1 action or task from various projects and flag them (Actions) will they complete only those actions in relation to the project ... or the whole project? Would parralel versus seqential come into play here and factor in?

... Just ran to read pg 40 and I understand. The thing is with my business a lot of projects are very quick turn-around often 24-48 hours from concept and out-the-door and due to having to stagger with multiple clients I don't like using calendar dates unless its true GTD style as in a "hard" fixed time and / or day. So this is where I often need to pull various tasks / actions for the day.

(I need to grab a spell checker) ;)

[whpalmer4]

If you flag a single action, that's all that would show up in the flagged list. If you flag the project, it looks very similar to how it would look as if you had individually flagged each action in the project, but without all the clicking -- it's just a shortcut (though if you later add a new action in the middle of the project, it will also get flagged, unlike if you had simply selected all of the actions in the project and flagged them).

[sriggs]

I've been using flags to make a today list for a couple of weeks now and I'm to the point now that I'm done with it. Now I'm trying using dates to create urgency and flags to indicate importance. Flagged and close to due date gets done first and then I look at the rest to see what I should do next. I look at it now like I can only do one thing at a time so I'll look at my list and pick the next thing to do and finish it before I go back to look for the next thing. Before, I was trying to make an ordered list of what I would do for the day. I feel now that it was counterproductive. It's funny how much time I can spend adjusting my system.

[All Things Creative]

scriggs ... I had to chuckle about how much time you and everybody else can spend adjusting their system!

While I was researching, testing, and everything else I came to the conclusion if you rounded all of us that are into productivity and the various apps for it ... that we are all probably hinging on being OCD!!!

[sriggs]

OTC - I might agree that we are hinging on OCPD. It is funny, and at least we have a place to hang out. :-D

I have to manage a family with two little kids, a demanding day job, an on-the-side mac dev business and I'm a classical guitarist/composer. I also have some other misc hobbies. OmniFocus has really helped me keep track of all the little details of all this mess so I can keep my head out of the weeds. That makes me happy.

I'm always on the lookout for two things that will help me spend less time in OmniFocus. One; ways to make my job of capturing and organizing as simple as possible. Two; ways to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks when it comes to doing all that work. The funny part is that lately it seems most of this is conceptual, I don't usually change the way I'm using OmniFocus as much as changing the way that I think about particular things.

Well, for what it's worth, the today list ended up becoming too much work for me. I find now that having a properly formulated list of everything that I could possibly do right now separated by context and including urgency/importance works well.

The interesting part is all the stuff I'm discovering on my list that is neither urgent or important. Hmmm.

[All Things Creative]

scriggs, sounds like we both have full plates! I'm about to go purchase OF and start dumping things in and start the learning curve ... so I'm sure I'll be here a lot hopefully in a good way!

[Kourosh]

Scriggs and ATC - I agree - there is a lot of continual adjustment - but that is the beauty of it. Systems are meant to be cultivated and grown as you change. I think this is the main issue of a learning curve with OmniFocus. It's not only learning the program, it is also learning how the program can fit and evolve with your way of thinking.

[All Things Creative]

How true ...