[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by Chris

The only thing I put in my calendar are events that have a specific time and duration (possibly estimated). That's because I use my calendar to manage time conflicts. Anything that needs to be done on a specific date but doesn't need to be done at a certain time goes into OmniFocus, with both the beginning and due dates being the same. If I try to put these latter events in my calendar, it makes it difficult for me to use the calendar to identify true time conflicts.

I'm doing exactly what Chris describes. A few keys to making this work for me:

• Every evening I review my Tickler's Perspective: Context View, Active Contexts, Grouped by Start, Showing Remaining items. I'm focusing on the items scheduled to start tomorrow. If there is something hard-landscape there, like take out the garbage, then I write it on a slip of paper and put it where I won't miss it in the morning. Typically that's on top of my laptop or car keys so I have to pick it up to go to work.
• I begin my "doing" for the day in my Urgent Perspective: Context View, Active Contexts, Grouped by Due, Showing Available items. The tasks due today, or overdue, get first attention. But note, if a task is overdue and still on my list, it must not have really been due. So I need to renegotiate that deadline, either with myself or with someone else.
• Here's the kicker. I have to fight hard to resist the urge to assign artificial due dates to things just to push them up my list. To me this is the key insight of GTD's focus on separating hard landscape items from other actions. Once I start assigning artificial due dates, it's back on-board the guilt mobile for me. That's a ride I'm glad I jumped off!