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GTD Processing on iPhone? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I do most of my work at home, but I'd love to be able to take advantage of my ten-minutes-on-the-subway time to process my inbox.

I can't figure out a good way to do that on the iPhone, though. Many inbox items need to have a new project created for them. For example, "Call Jim at 555-1212" needs to be an action inside a newly-created "Sell the elephant to Jim" project.

I can convert "Call Jim" into a project, but then I have a project named "Call Jim", not "Sell the elephant to Jim". I can edit the name of the project, but then I lose his phone number. And I can't seem to create a new project from within the Inbox - or, rather, I can't create a new project inside a folder. (If I create a project called "Personal:New Project", I get a project with that literal name, including the colon.)

Is there an iPhone workflow that will let me effectively take an inbox item, create a new, properly-nested project, and move the inbox item to that new project?
 
I second this request.

In my attempts to process from the iPhone, I've run into roadblocks like the one described.
 
I guess I'm not understanding why not , go to projects , hit the plus sign to create new, enter what you want , go back to inbox and move the items into the newly created project .
That's what I do .
 
Ext -

I think it's probably because I have a huge inbox (>100 items), which in turn is because I never process it, which is what I'm finally trying to do :)

If I go back to the home screen and then the Project screen to create a new project, and I then go back to the Inbox, I've lost my place - I have to find the inbox item I was working on.

So it's (1) too easy to get distracted, and (2) a bunch of extra clicks: Home, Project, +, Home, Inbox, inbox item, assign the project I just created. Compared to a hypothetical "Add to a new project" button, it feels way out of the way.

When every item in the Inbox needs a new project created, it's a PITA. I tried moving things to a "Create a new project when I'm on the desktop" action, but that just moved the inbox around.
 
oh my .. yeah, the most i let it get to is 25..
That's a very different situation.
I guess it all comes down to omni can't really duplicate all the features on the phone from the desktop .
Maybe they can but I'm guessing it would seriously slow down the app.
 
I think there is a strong germ of an issue here. Which I hope the developers listen to. Whether you have 25 or 300 you should be able to process them on the iPhone. The workflow on the iPhone is an area these guys have to work on but I think it is an evolutionary issue rather than a flaw. I think the desktop app is just starting to work on all cylinders. I think there are a few more issues to resolve there (for me it is "consistency" of terms/functions throughout the program and some sort of prioritization either by "custom column" or some other solution.
I would imagine after they get desktop feature set really working they can move to a more complete iphone product.
These guys have been great in making a very solid program in which each upgrade, for me at least, has had no data loss or corruption - to meet the very first need of "the collection process" - a trusted system.
Also there are issues with the iPhone itself that have not but will evolve- namely the push notification discussed way back when. With the announcement of iPhone 3.0 one can only image the energy need to mesh the new software with all the aspects of both products.
The very fact that these guys have maintained a very active communication with there user base is impressive - I have dropped using competitive products simply because there have been a loss of communication with developer.
And lastly is the community of those that depend on this software - I have learned so much by reading how others approach the issue of collection, focus, context, and processing.
All in all between the product, Omni developers and community I have become enriched and somewhat more efficient ( I am a serial procrastinator it was my major in college!)
 
Current workflow I'd suggest on the phone would be to add the project-action to the inbox, and then use the 'move inside existing item' on the action you want to move; that implicitly makes it a project.

Using Jim's example: Make "sell elephant", then move "Call Jim" into "sell elephant"; no need to visit the project interface.

I think this is one of those things that's going to be a lot easier in the context of a full-size keyboard and mousing/dragging interface that the Mac offers. (If folks have suggestions for how it could be improved, of course, we're interested.)

Yes, with a hundred items in the inbox, the above suggestion may not work as well. I think this is a case where doing a review to get those actions out of the inbox, then keeping it under control going forward is probably the best approach. :-)

Last edited by Brian; 2009-03-24 at 03:05 PM.. Reason: tailor example to original post.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Levitt View Post
And I can't seem to create a new project from within the Inbox - or, rather, I can't create a new project inside a folder. (If I create a project called "Personal:New Project", I get a project with that literal name, including the colon.)
Sorry, that's a bug: it should create a properly nested project when you do that, not create a project with a colon in the name. We'll fix it!

Quote:
Is there an iPhone workflow that will let me effectively take an inbox item, create a new, properly-nested project, and move the inbox item to that new project?
Will fixing that bug solve your workflow issue?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Case View Post
Sorry, that's a bug: it should create a properly nested project when you do that, not create a project with a colon in the name. We'll fix it!
Has this been implemented? I still get "Project:SubProject" rather than two nested projects "Project" > "SubProject" on iPhone. (OmniFocus for iPhone 1.5.3)

Thanks!
 
The corresponding case for contexts hasn't been fixed, so it's unlikely they've fixed the project case either. Fortunately, the projects/contexts that get created this way stick out like a sore thumb, and are easily corrected on the desktop, somewhat less so on the iPhone/iPod.

If you haven't filed a bug report with the Send Feedback command, please do so, as it will boost the priority to fix the bug.
 
 


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