[masemase]

Hello -

My question is about the best way of entering a "single task" into OF. An example of the sort of task that I always run into problems entering into the app would be: "Call _____ regarding _____."

From a GTD standpoint, I understand that any call that will take less than 2 (or 5) minutes should be made immediately, but let's say that it is a situation where you have forgotten to get back to a good friend who called you last week and have just now remembered. Thus, the call will take about 30 minutes (or more) to be made, and the task is now very important and should be completed ASAP.

I also understand that the context would be "Phone" (or something similar) and that the due date would be tomorrow or the following day (let's say it's too late to call tonight). However, and this is where I begin to get confused, since it is not part of a larger project (unless, for example, I had a bunch of other friends to get back to), then is the best way to do this to create a "Single-Action List" and just place it in there? But then, what would I call that "Single-action List" and what exactly would be the point of creating it if that would necessarily be the only task?

Basically, I am just confused as to the proper way to group/place this task in the best way and, consequently, in a way that will let me know of its importance and help get the task completed the next day. (Obviously, I am talking about how I would arrange/place this task in OF's "Planning-Mode.")

I consider myself a GTD-neophyte, though I have been messing with my own personal system for about 4 months now and have loved the results. That being said, this has always been one aspect of the system which nags me (though, admittedly, it may just be a problem with my still trying to get assimilated to OF). I have a feeling that this is probably something that has a very simple answer or is merely a very large oversight on my part, but I have finally decided to post it on this forum, as I think that I am at that point where OF is nearing perfection in terms of organizing my daily life, but this is one thing that I just cannot figure out.

I thank you all in advance for reading my post and would truly appreciate any sort of help with my problem. This seems like a community truly out to help one another out, and this is part of the reason why I have finally decided to ask this question in the forum.

Thanks so much again.

Sincerely,
Brandon

[brianogilvie]

Brandon: the whole idea of a single-action container emerged out of this kind of dilemma. Basically, the decision taken by Omni was a compromise between those who think that single actions should be seen only in Context mode and not in Planning mode, and those who think that in Planning mode, single actions and projects should exist on the same conceptual and hierarchical level. After six months, I think it's a good compromise.

On a practical level, your choice of how to act depends on whether you use the Focus feature on folders that represent areas of responsibility. Those of us who do often set up one single-action container for each folder, so we don't miss those actions when we focus. Those who don't will simply define one single-action container for all their single actions.

OmniFocus lets you define a default single-action container. If you haven't started to use the Focus command, you might start by setting up one default. If and when Focus becomes important to you, you might set up more. It depends on how many actions and projects you have to track. There's no point in making your system more complicated than it needs to be! Otherwise you can get sucked into planning (or tweaking your system) instead of actually getting things done.