[sriggs]

I thought it might be enlightening (for me) to start a thread for each of the GTD stages to see how people deal with each using OmniFocus. This first one is about the collection stage. I'd like to see how you do it and the ups and downs and any advice. I hope you find this interesting too.

Here's what I do...

When I have a new thought, I immediately place it in my OmniFocus inbox either by the desktop client or iPod touch client. The iPod touch client for me is the killer addition since I always have it with me. Otherwise, I would have to rely on paper to collect.

If I encounter an email that I can't deal with right now, I place it in my OmniFocus inbox by using Clip-O-Tron 3000. I have found that email attachments can really make your OmniFocus document get large and your sync time will suffer. I see that Omni has addressed this problem with an attachment view. Nice! I haven't tried it yet though. Sometimes when I'm on my iPod touch, I may copy text from a message and paste it into the notes of a new inbox action and that works too (although I don't get the link back to the message).

If I run across something on the internet or some other document that I'll need later, I'll select the text that I need on the page and send it to my OmniFocus inbox.

I like to not worry about naming the action correctly or effectively when I make a new inbox action. If I use the clipping service, I'll usually just accept whatever gets placed in the title. I just type whatever flies out of my head at that moment and add it. When I go to process later, I'll remember what it was about.

I'm lucky for now since I don't have to deal with very much physical paper. I'm curious to see if there are others that do and how they deal with it.