The Omni Group
These forums are now read-only. Please visit our new forums to participate in discussion. A new account will be required to post in the new forums. For more info on the switch, see this post. Thank you!

Go Back   The Omni Group Forums > OmniFocus > Applying OmniFocus
FAQ Members List Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

 
Why OmniFocus v1 didn't support multiple contexts per action Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffAirey View Post

The reality is that GTD and it's description of contexts is outdated, and different situations are now present that weren't available 12 years ago.
Which situations are those?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vanderwal View Post
There are many things that can be completed without other's involvement, say expense report, but if I have a tag for Susan the company accountant and I am sitting with her, I could filter and pull up related tasks (the two items I am not sure will be approved in expenses makes a this a much quicker task and done in one pass).
This sounds to me like one "complete expense report" action in whatever context is best for your workflow, and two "ask about <topic>" questions that go in a context created for Susan.

Potentially in a sequential project, so the "complete report" action doesn't activate until you have those questions answered...
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vanderwal View Post
I also have contextual conundrums as I have a task for a face-to-face meeting with a friend, who lives in San Francisco. But, I also run into him at some conferences as well as when he floats through the town where I live. If I am planning a trip to SF the note to email my friend to set up a face-to-face and put it on the schedule is needed. For a while I had this in SF trips context, but not in conference related tasks where he was.
(Separating the examples out to try and keep the conversation/reply threads distinct, btw.)

This sounds like an "email <name of friend> to schedule trip" in some sort of Online or Internet context, and I'd put that action in a "Plan SF trip" project. Can you explain how you use the "SF Trips" context? That may help me understand your workflow and make better suggestions.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vanderwal View Post
While OmniFocus has location context having another "person" context would help as well. Tying this to their entry in address book would be quite nice (the simple mapping names to address cards like VooDoo Pad does is really nice).
Getting OmniFocus to make better use of Address Book data is something we're considering for the future - I'll add this post to that feature request. Thanks!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffAirey View Post
2) Energy levels (How able am I to complete this task)
3) Priority
At some point in the future, we do still plan to add the metadata feature we've discussed previously; if folks want to use metadata to roll their own systems for handling stuff like this, we think that's great. I'll vote the metadata request up.

One habit I'll try (and which I'd like to see the rest of the forum try) to build is telling folks that are asking for tags to file a feature request for metadata. We try to cross-file the two, but humans are fallible, so reminders are helpful.
 
I must say, the readings here and on the linked articles sometimes leave me smiling. One could be inclined to think of three approaches to those who (continue now to) ask for [certain ways of having ... see below] tags or multi-context views in OF.

* You are a heathen to the GTD mantra ... wise up!

... or ...

* Here's a work-around/kludge ... be happy!

... or ...

* What you really meant to do is this ... fix it!

Not that polite discourse is not common to this thread -- it is actually very much so. Just my observations, perhaps to ground the answers in a realization that ... certain types of tags or multi-context views being requested for OF are clearly not gonna happen (in your lifetime).

--
JJW
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian View Post
At some point in the future, we do still plan to add the metadata feature we've discussed previously
+1! Via OpenMeta I pray.

--
JJW
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian View Post
(Separating the examples out to try and keep the conversation/reply threads distinct, btw.)

This sounds like an "email <name of friend> to schedule trip" in some sort of Online or Internet context, and I'd put that action in a "Plan SF trip" project. Can you explain how you use the "SF Trips" context? That may help me understand your workflow and make better suggestions.
[thanks for breaking out distinct points in my post]

The F2F with my friend is a action that is initially tied with San Francisco (that is where he lives and where I was traveling regularly), but the main hook for it is my friend and our face to face. Years back in OmniFocus I used tools or rough location for context, which has broken a bit, but face-to-face meeting could be a Context. Meeting, particularly called out as face-to-face, has a secondary dependency that is a person or people. This issue arose this year when I missed meeting with my friend when were were both in NYC as well as he had a trip near DC where I am also near.

I have a script that roughly works to track Foursquare, Lanyrd, and Google checkins for upcoming location nearness (worked much better when it was Dopplr and Upcoming focussed) and having context of a person and F2F I can put a filter that is tied into that script (I've thought about tying a positive hit on that script to an OmniFocus flag).

But, the key is there are more than one potential context. Location is a flexible variable, but the person is a key variable. Nearness in location (which may not be fixed to a place, but proximity) is another key.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian View Post
This sounds to me like one "complete expense report" action in whatever context is best for your workflow, and two "ask about <topic>" questions that go in a context created for Susan.

Potentially in a sequential project, so the "complete report" action doesn't activate until you have those questions answered...
The action in the complete expense report has questions for Susan along with other actions. But, when I am sitting with Susan to review the finances and get a signature on an upcoming project I can also ask her about the expense report. But, I can also email her, or include the questions in the expense report, if I haven't heard back from her by the time I need to file the expense report. There may also be somebody else that could answer the same question, but Susan has the ultimate authority. I need to get the questions answered before submitting the report, or highlight in the submission so they could be approved or declined as line items and not have the whole report rejected and have to wait for the next submission window.

Similar this is in my client project projects with actions. I have a need to get a question answered or an approval by somebody in a role, with authority to approve, but one person whom I occasionally have meetings with can handle this as well as the other three actions that are tied to our meetings.

The "I really needed to also have conversation "X" with this person" problem is one I continually have. When I explain it to others I find it is a big pain point for others as well.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by vanderwal View Post
Location is a flexible variable, but the person is a key variable. Nearness in location (which may not be fixed to a place, but proximity) is another key.
This seems similar to the "I need to show Cindy a machine in a certain place" example on the first page - if the action can't happen without the person, we'd recommend that it go in the person's context. Check that context every time you see/meet them, and you'll be able to check it off when you're in the right location.

(Being reminded of the action when your friend isn't at the relevant location doesn't actually help you accomplish it. You're just going to end up looking at an action you can't do when you're in the wrong city.)
 
 


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
OmniFocus 2 – Multiple Contexts or Tags…? [A: Not in the foreseeable future.] effective OmniFocus 1 for Mac 17 2013-02-08 12:56 PM
One action, multiple contexts dp1 Applying OmniFocus 23 2010-07-03 05:09 AM
multiple contexts and multiple projects mind full of water OmniFocus 1 for Mac 7 2008-06-23 09:31 AM
Multiple Activites for Multiple Contexts Journey OmniFocus 1 for Mac 12 2007-12-27 01:03 AM
Multiple contexts per action? pasentcom OmniFocus 1 for Mac 15 2007-11-28 06:37 AM


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 09:59 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.