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Whether using the ctrl opt spacebar or simply data entering into the Inbox, if I add a new action and assign an existing or create a new PROJECT, OmniFocus let's it sit in the InBox. That's all good, but why when I click on the project to which that action was assigned in the Library, I don't see that action. Seems a lot of extra work and redundancy that to get it to show up in the PROJECT view that I have to manual drag the action onto the PROJECT.

Or am I doing something wrong, or is this just some wacky limitation of the TRIAL VERSION -- I'm trying to evaluate the beta of THINGS and OF over the next two weeks. But this is a strange limitation. I should just be able to dump my actions in quick entry or InBox and have them automatically be "dumped" into a project if I've so assigned one... no?
 
I'm only about a week ahead of you, but there are several ways to do what you want, I think. I had a couple of days where I felt like a square peg in a round hole trying to get my arms around OF, but once I broke through I'm loving it. I looked at Things too by the way.

If you go to Preferences and look at the Data tab, there is a section called Cleanup that controls what happens with new items. By default, you need EITHER a Context or a Project to get it to disappear from Inbox. You can change that if you wish. By default, the items will stay there until you hit the "Clean Up" button. So if you rapid input a dozen things and give each of them a Project, then they will all sit there in the Inbox until you hit the Clean Up button, and then they will disappear. I actually like this because that way if you make a typo, it doesn't disappear on you and you don't know where it went. So you could do a quick visual double check before hitting Clean Up after you have entered them all.
 
I think that you want to set the preference "Immediately clean up items added from Quick Entry", in the General Preferences screen, to true.

Gardener
 
Quote:
[...] I had a couple of days where I felt like a square peg in a round hole trying to get my arms around OF, but once I broke through I'm loving it. [...]
So far I'm encouraged by what I see. I've never read GTD or any other "productivity" self-help kinda book, but I've managed simulteneous projects with multiple resources and dependencies, so I'm looking for an app that will let me work with more personal or smaller group oriented projects. Glad to see you're diggin' it!

Quote:
If you go to Preferences and look at the Data tab, there is a section called Cleanup that controls what happens with new items. [...] So if you rapid input a dozen things and give each of them a Project, then they will all sit there in the Inbox until you hit the Clean Up button, and then they will disappear. I actually like this because that way if you make a typo, it doesn't disappear on you and you don't know where it went. So you could do a quick visual double check before hitting Clean Up after you have entered them all.
aha... And after a quick view of the video I just thought clean up was to get ride of completed tasks...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gardener
I think that you want to set the preference "Immediately clean up items added from Quick Entry", in the General Preferences screen, to true.
Thanks Convergent and Gardener, I never bottled to review the prefs and just assumed that this would, in a database like fashion, automatically allow for sorting etc. once entered.

I do like the idea of clean up and just didn't understand its application.

Givin' it a try!
 
I am a certified project manager with 26 years experience, and I would highly suggest reading "the" GTD book by Dave Allen. OmniFocus is really designed to implement what's in the book, more or less. There are some things in that thinking that don't exactly model what you might have learned as a project manager about projects. Even having read the book a year ago, OF was quite a bit of a hurdle for me to get comfortable with. But once you start to get the feel for it, its very powerful and does allow a seasoned PM to start to introduce some PM type things into your ToDo list.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by convergent View Post
I am a certified project manager with 26 years experience, and I would highly suggest reading "the" GTD book by Dave Allen. OmniFocus is really designed to implement what's in the book, more or less. There are some things in that thinking that don't exactly model what you might have learned as a project manager about projects. Even having read the book a year ago, OF was quite a bit of a hurdle for me to get comfortable with. But once you start to get the feel for it, its very powerful and does allow a seasoned PM to start to introduce some PM type things into your ToDo list.
Thanks for the tip. I put my order in yesterday for the book and look forward to the read and getting a better handle out of OF... have you tried THINGS? It looks impressive, albeit v-1 (beta) and will take time to mature... but I'm not big into infinite tagging... seems like it could get out of control...?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacMyDay View Post
have you tried THINGS? It looks impressive, albeit v-1 (beta) and will take time to mature... but I'm not big into infinite tagging... seems like it could get out of control...?
That was my experience with Things. The tagging worked nicely for very small or simple collections of projects. But once I started adding in more stuff, Things and its tagging-only system of organization quickly got bogged down, leaving me feeling less organized than when I started.

I feel much more in control with OmniFocus. Plus, I personally prefer OmniFocus' aesthetics. It feels clean and light, where as the Things interface always felt heavy and clunky by comparison.

-Dennis

Last edited by Toadling; 2008-11-04 at 01:10 PM..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacMyDay View Post
Thanks for the tip. I put my order in yesterday for the book and look forward to the read and getting a better handle out of OF... have you tried THINGS? It looks impressive, albeit v-1 (beta) and will take time to mature... but I'm not big into infinite tagging... seems like it could get out of control...?
I tried Things briefly. A couple of things I didn't like about it led me to abandon it pretty quickly. One thing is that I need a good sync program to the iPhone that doesn't involve anything going to the web (I actually now don't remember if that was the case with Things, but thought it was). Also, I liked the method of integration with Mail and other things better with OF. And now that I've gotten my arms around OF a bit more, I really like the way it works. I've never been a big "tagger" with anything else I do.
 
it's interesting what software every one goes for , you'll find lots of people on the things forums saying the exact opposite. They think things is clean and light and OF is bogged down and hard to navigate .

Some people prefer text manipulation like OF and others prefer drag-n-drop more object oriented design like things ..

Competition is a good thing ; )
 
Thanks! I just posted a similar question about saving new tasks to Projects and then saw the answer here.

I am another Things beta user. The Things interface also felt heavy to me. I wrote a quick review of Things and my first impression of OF the other night -

http://fourwhitefeet.com/?p=318

Like ext555 wrote it is great to have two great Mac GTD apps (and more) to choose from.

Thanks again to convergent and Gardener for the clean up instructions.
 
 


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