[pjb]

My top level folders are roles: ie: homeowner, friend, partner, dreamer, worker. Some of these have sub-roles or just folders to organize the projects: homeowner/car homeowner/chores...; worker/teacher, worker/student, ....
This has helped me avoid the overlap worries and also helps me narrow my focus depending on where my head is.

[DrJJWMac]

Originally Posted by pjb

My top level folders are roles: ...

Nice idea!

--
JJW

[pjb]

found it here in the forums

[GeoffAirey]

Originally Posted by pjb

My top level folders are roles: ie: homeowner, friend, partner, dreamer, worker. Some of these have sub-roles or just folders to organize the projects: homeowner/car homeowner/chores...; worker/teacher, worker/student, ....
This has helped me avoid the overlap worries and also helps me narrow my focus depending on where my head is.

I do a very similar thing around my areas of focus. Especially at work, I 'wear several hats' and each one gets it's own Folder into which projects are nested.

[Deinhart]

Thanks for the hints folks!
This is by far one of the most professional forums I have seen so far, not much drama and usual childish behavior like in other forums. :)

[Deinhart]

I would like to jump up on the wagon, since I have some similar issues as the thread starter.

Originally Posted by DrJJWMac

Many excellent (longer term) plans are destroyed in the pursuit of perfection (in the immediate time frame).

Totally agree with this post. It perfectly reflects my usage with GTD. I wanted to start with the GTD system almost one year ago (purchases the book, OF etc.) and I am still in the phase of making gtd / OF perfect in theory... So maybe THIS is the key. Start using OF and see what happens in future, since a system you work with will constantly evolve and change.

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

OF/GTD will help you decide what to do with the time that isn't spoken for in advance on your calendar.

THIS. Apart from the problem to make the system perfect in theory I tend to over-structure. I remember a hint of McSparky when he said in one of his screencasts: Dont get crazy with Folders and over-structuring.
To nail it down: OF and GTD is more an index system of (possible and current urgent) projects that are in your life? For example when I want to plan a project X, I assume, it is stupid to make a project planning with OF? Step by step and project efforts shall be organized with something like OmniPlan? With this in mind I guess it is more intelligent to use OF as an overview what you need to do when i.e. a milestone of a project X is accomplished? Like, as I said, use OF as a (more or less) rough signpost where to go?

Any tipps are highly appreciated :)

[DrJJWMac]

Originally Posted by Deinhart

...Totally agree with this post. It perfectly reflects my usage with GTD. I wanted to start with the GTD system almost one year ago (purchases the book, OF etc.) and I am still in the phase of making gtd / OF perfect in theory... So maybe THIS is the key. Start using OF and see what happens in future, since a system you work with will constantly evolve and change.

The start of the year offered me a chance to purge my OF database nearly completely and start clean. What remained for Project organization are my Areas of Responsibility and some of the top-level internal Folders within them. What remained for Task management were my location- and personnel-based Contexts. What changed significantly was the dropping of "mood-based" Context in favor of those based on a problem-solving approach ... define, research, review, do, complete, and grade/evaluate. Additionally, what will change is to streamline my Task-level definitions of Projects to have the fewest (necessary and sufficient) steps rather than a potential over-abundance of detail.

We'll see how this evolution goes. Already though, the new Contexts map nicely with my oversight of progress on projects in a "Kanban" style that I manage (elsewhere) for a more global perspective.

So, rather than seeing it as an end in itself, consider OmniFocus as a flexible tool to create and manage the resources you need when you decide that you need them.

--
JJW

[Jables]

So over the past month I've been working and implementing OmniFocus. I've experienced a lot of successes and pitfalls along the way. I've taken some of the feedback I've found here and tried to apply it where it makes most sense to me. I understand that not everything is directly applicable given the differences in how we all work and organize information but the feedback has been appreciated.

For starters, I ended up purchasing the book suggested by wilsonng, and I would have to say that anyone it is very informative and helpful for anyone just starting out with OmniFocus. I'm almost done with it and I've learned various tips and tricks for how to maximize efficiency with the program itself. Thanks again wilsonng.

Omnifocus has been pretty awesome for helping me plan things relating to work or personal responsibilities. It's easy for me to pop in some tasks/projects relating to things I know I need to get done and then move forward. However, the one area I seem to have a lot of problems with right now is how to use OF to manage things like personal goals. Initially I put a lot of these goals into OF in one form or another but now I'm looking at a large set of projects and viewing them as such is starting to increase my anxiety around opening OF at all and using it to manage my tasks.

I'm curious how you all implement high level goals that you have for yourselves in a productive way that keeps OF working for you.

As a note, I started a new thread relating to the specific concerns of implementing High Level goals into OF as this thread has sort of gone every which way and I've been a little all over the place with the questions I've asked. http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthre...936#post119936