[zoisite]

Hi,

Im a Things user but I did finally buy also a license for OmniFocus because I consider the later is much more powerful, has much more features and has more potential if used the right way.

But: I don’t know how to use it without the feature of assigning multiple contexts/tags to an action. Maybe I am doing it wrong by trying to imitate the way Things works. I understand that contexts are a different concept than tags. A context is a requirement and a tag can be anything. I think that tags are more powerful than contexts. With tags you can achieve more things, they provide more functionality.

No suggested solution to a similar question in this forum solved this problem for me.

An example: Let’s say I have the action „Call Bob about the work report of Tracy“. Which context would be the right one for this action? @Bob, @Phone, @work, or @Tracy. It has to do with Bob. I need my phone to complete the action. It is work related. And it has to do with Tracy.

You could argue to choose @Phone because this is the most basic physical requirement for this action.

But here’s my problem:

Assigning @Phone to the action „Call Bob about the work report of Tracy“ would show this action (in the context view grouped by context) only in one single context „@Phone“. There is no way to see this action from a different point of view. It would appear neither in the context @Bob nor @work nor @Tracy.

How do I set OmniFocus up to show me a list of actions related only to Bob, only actions where I need my phone, only actions that are work related and only actions related to Tracy?

In Things this would be a no brainer: I would assign all four tags (@Bob, @Phone, @work, @Tracy) to the task „Call Bob about the work report of Tracy“. This would allow me to filter my actions as I please. Wanna see all actions related to Tracy? Just filter by @Tracy -> boom its there instantly! Wanna see all the phone call actions that are work related? Just filter by @phone and @work -> boom right there!. You want to see only the spare time actions related to Tracy? No problem, just filter by @sparetime and Tracy -> boom its there!.

Things has its flaws, but you can’t deny that this Tag filtering system is super uber useful. You can filter for any Tag combination you wish and get instant results. Trying to achieve something similar in OmniFocus leads to redundancy:

@work:@Tracy
@sparetime:@Tracy

@Tracy:@work
@Tracy:@sparetime

Perspectives are great, but they do not provide a way to look at actions from different viewpoints (like work related things, spare time things in combination with a particular person etc.).

Some of the solutions to this problem I read in this forum do not solve this for me:

„Tags clutter your organization system.“

No they don’t if you keep their amount low and know how to organize them.

„Use flags.“

Flags can have several different meanings: „this action is super important“ or „this action is not so important, but I flag it to not forget this today“. I see a danger of semantic confusion.

„Use @Tags in the comments field of each action and use the search field.“

This is not a practical solution. I did not buy OmniFocus to have to do that manually. This supports no auto completion, no sorting, no focus view, it is slow, it is unreliable and cumbersome.

„Use folders to separate work from spare time actions.“

Then I would have to check every folder separately. This provides not a single view where you can see everything at once filtered the way you want to look at all you actions. In Things the only „folder“ I ever have to check is the „Next“ view: there I can see every task I have - if I like to focus on different aspects I just filter by tags and see instantly only the task that I want to see right now. The next view in Things is dynamic. This is very important. „Next“ is one list that can contain anything you want. For those of you who don’t know: the tasks in „next“ are of course sorted by area/project or they can be sorted by due date. It is not confusing. On the contrary, I find it very intuitive and well organized.

„Thou shall not mention tags or multiple contexts, this is evil blasphemy against the will of thy only Lord GTD!“

Well, call me an agnostic atheist :)

The solution could be so simple dear OmniGroup developers:
Provide the option to use tags for those OmniFocus users who aren’t true GTD believers. The GTD rigorous disciples don’t have to use them. Everyone is happy. Group hug time.

Multiple contexts or tag support in OmniFocus would be the coffin nail for Things.

This lack of tags doesn’t allow me to use OmniFocus. It irks me every time I try to work with OmniFocus. Why is such a Imho intuitive and super useful feature not in OmniFocus? Man, GTD is not a religion, or is it? :)

I would appreciate any suggestions from former Things users who, like me, could not live without tags but finally managed to get around this problem in OmniFocus! I really want to move from Things to OmniFocus :)

Thanks in advance.

ps: Just found out that the forum software allows you to add tags to your post. What irony! :)