[nhylan]

Hi All,

I know that we are limited to contextually based perspectives for those of us who have to rely on the kindness of the OmniGroup Ninjas to make our perspectives but are there any other limitations?

What are some common and in your opinion useful perspectives that you find yourself using on a daily basis? I'm new the whole perspective thing so any advice is appreciated.

[whpalmer4]

Right consequence, but wrong reason: the iOS apps only support context mode perspectives, whether you own the Mac app or not. If you don't own the Mac app, you need the assistance of someone who has it unless you are very good at tinkering. I did it once, just to prove to myself that I could, but it isn't practical for most. Certainly, the value of your time involved in figuring out how to do it and then doing it would far exceed the cost of the Mac app, and probably a used Mac mini!

I have a few perspectives I use frequently on the iPad:

remaining actions, grouped and sorted by date added
completed actions, grouped and sorted by date completed
remaining actions, grouped and sorted by date changed

these allow me to either see what I've been working on lately, or find what I accidentally changed.

I have a few perspectives that essentially collate a number of contexts together, because I use a hierarchical context structure. For example, I've got a section of the tree for grocery shopping:
Errands: Grocery store
Errands: Grocery store: Sigona's
Errands: Grocery store: Trader Joe's
etc.

Stuff I prefer or can only buy at Trader Joe's will go in the last one, stuff I can buy anywhere goes in the first one. If I'm at a grocery store, I pull up this perspective, which groups by context, and I'll do all the stuff specific to that store, and anything from the top-level context that seems appropriate. I can collapse or expand the groups for other stores on the fly with the little triangles at the upper right hand corner of each group.

If your work divides neatly into some big categories (like work vs. personal), it may be advantageous to create top-level folders for each category, filing projects accordingly. Then you can make a set of perspectives that focus on each category folder, displaying the results in context mode, probably grouped by project. Armed with this, you can view only your work-related tasks, or your personal tasks, etc.

[Mr Rob]

When I first started into perspectives I found that the temptation was to create lots. Partly to experiment and partly because of "ooh it can do that too!" syndrome. So I ended up having to wade through a list of perspectives to find the relevant one...not good.

Having experimented with pretty much every possible approach, these are the ones, I ended up genuinely using, and have kept (they are in line with what whpalmer4 suggests):

1) Today
All available tasks organised by project (works on iPad)
Based on the MacSparky recommendation.
Review it every day and then use the Start Date function to "tickle" items I know I am not going to get done today either due to time or knowing I will not be in the right context.

2) Due.
All due tasks.
Organised by due date.
Pretty self explanatory!
The Forcast view covers this as well, but I have never really got on with the Forecast view...I like a simple focused list so Forecast actually has a bit too much going on for me.

3) Waiting For
All tasks with a waiting for context.
Organised by context as I use hierarchical contexts to sub divide waiting for into various people I work with, my various clients, companies I regularly shop from online, etc
All of these are inherently not available / oh hold so perspective was created to show "remaining items".

4) At Office
My work catch-all list.
Only available tasks that I could/have to do at the office arranged by context.
Calls, at computer, meetings, things to discuss with/delegate to colleagues, emails, things I need server access for, things I need office based software for, etc, etc.
I arrive at work and flick to this and work through them.

5) At Home
Only available tasks that I could / have to do at home.
Arranged by context.

6) Errands
Combines all my errands contexts (bank, post office, supermarket, shopping, etc) into a single view for when I am out and about.

I do also have a personal perspective which is a list of music I want to buy - vinyl junkie! Basically shows a simple alphabetised list of all the records in my "Someday Maybe" music list. And it only exists as a quick access short cut...so I don't have to burrow down through the folders and projects to get to it.

Every other perspective has been deleted over time. Just don't need them.
Though I do live in the ones I have when I am working - one tap on the side bar and I have the relevant list of what I can do where I am.

I am lucky enough to own OmniFocus on Mac, iPad and iPhone and the way I have quite naturally ended up using them is:
- Mac for organising, project planning and reviews only (it is never open when I am working as it is too cumbersome and means I have to switch windows).
- iPad for getting stuff done - it sits in front of me on my desk or walks around the house with me. It tells me what to do next and it is where most things get checked off. It is also where most work things get added to the inbox throughout the work day.
- iPhone to nag/remind me (it is the only version that has alerts set to "on"), act as my quick access list when am doing errands (or my all important music shopping!). And it is great for quickly adding things to the inbox when on the move.

Good resources for perspective set ups are Mac Sparky, Kourosh Dini's e book "Creating Flow with OmniFocus" and simplicitybliss.com.
(Sorry, I can't post links)

Hope that helps.

[nhylan]

Originally Posted by Mr Rob

Good resources for perspective set ups are Mac Sparky, Kourosh Dini's e book "Creating Flow with OmniFocus" and simplicitybliss.com.
(Sorry, I can't post links)

Hope that helps.

Thanks MrRob. enormously helpful!