One of the things that has disappointed me through the years on this forum is the lack of significant discussion of using OmniFocus in a non-GTD manner.
I've tried to adapt my workflow to approximate GTD principles, but in some major ways it just doesn't work.
My general work has no need for GTD or OmniFocus. I sit down in front of a workstation and my days work flows in on a worklist that I do. I don't have choice or flexibility in it. It is the rest of the day that is mine. I do have some significant work and responsibility outside of that core work that, for the most part, is unrelated to my core work. I sit on a variety of committees and boards of other organizations that have work associated with them, some of which I chair and direct. There are a few administrative activities I have at work, but they are pretty minimal, at least as they relate to what would fit in OF.
For me, the major questions I have related to task accomplishment is not the traditional GTD "what can I do next at this moment?", but rather "is there something I need to be doing now rather than watching TV, going for a walk, reading a book, etc.?" Or even more importantly, "is there something that I need to alter my plans or schedule to find time to work on soon?"
I've been using OF since it was first released on the Mac, and added the iPhone and iPad versions as they came out. I've read all the standard books and papers on it and GTD. I've religiously followed these forums. In doing so I've learned a lot and have modified my set up considerably.
I realize that if I was starting from scratch right now I would not spend the money on OF. It is overkill for my needs. But since I have it I use it, as it is far better than the other stuff that is out there. There are just some nice features that the others lack that make using OF nice.
For me the traditional concept of contexts is useless. As I said I don't ever find myself in the situation of asking myself "what do I do next?" in a certain place or with certain tools. I've gone through a whole variety of different alternative context structures trying to find something that I actually use, without success. Project view is more important to me. Review is very helpful and important, and is probably the key advantage to using OF for me, as my biggest need is trying to keep track of the big picture of what is coming in the next few weeks or months that I need to be working on or thinking about. And my primary perspective has become "Due or Flagged". The Forecast mode on the iPad that everyone loves is of little use as only a small percentage of my tasks have due dates and there is no way to add flagged tasks into the Forecast display. Hence the "Due or Flagged" perspective.
Maybe those of us who use OF but don't adhere to the strict GTD workflow are very few in number and don't visit these forums much. But if there are such people it would be nice if there was a exchange of ideas and suggestions among them.
I've tried to adapt my workflow to approximate GTD principles, but in some major ways it just doesn't work.
My general work has no need for GTD or OmniFocus. I sit down in front of a workstation and my days work flows in on a worklist that I do. I don't have choice or flexibility in it. It is the rest of the day that is mine. I do have some significant work and responsibility outside of that core work that, for the most part, is unrelated to my core work. I sit on a variety of committees and boards of other organizations that have work associated with them, some of which I chair and direct. There are a few administrative activities I have at work, but they are pretty minimal, at least as they relate to what would fit in OF.
For me, the major questions I have related to task accomplishment is not the traditional GTD "what can I do next at this moment?", but rather "is there something I need to be doing now rather than watching TV, going for a walk, reading a book, etc.?" Or even more importantly, "is there something that I need to alter my plans or schedule to find time to work on soon?"
I've been using OF since it was first released on the Mac, and added the iPhone and iPad versions as they came out. I've read all the standard books and papers on it and GTD. I've religiously followed these forums. In doing so I've learned a lot and have modified my set up considerably.
I realize that if I was starting from scratch right now I would not spend the money on OF. It is overkill for my needs. But since I have it I use it, as it is far better than the other stuff that is out there. There are just some nice features that the others lack that make using OF nice.
For me the traditional concept of contexts is useless. As I said I don't ever find myself in the situation of asking myself "what do I do next?" in a certain place or with certain tools. I've gone through a whole variety of different alternative context structures trying to find something that I actually use, without success. Project view is more important to me. Review is very helpful and important, and is probably the key advantage to using OF for me, as my biggest need is trying to keep track of the big picture of what is coming in the next few weeks or months that I need to be working on or thinking about. And my primary perspective has become "Due or Flagged". The Forecast mode on the iPad that everyone loves is of little use as only a small percentage of my tasks have due dates and there is no way to add flagged tasks into the Forecast display. Hence the "Due or Flagged" perspective.
Maybe those of us who use OF but don't adhere to the strict GTD workflow are very few in number and don't visit these forums much. But if there are such people it would be nice if there was a exchange of ideas and suggestions among them.
Hybrid Mode