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Someday/Maybe - Tickle - On Hold - Read - Music/Movies/Books Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
In the whole how OmniFocus handles GTD scope of things, I am finding myself looking for some advice on how to handle a couple of categories of items:

Question 1:
The whole Someday/Maybe issue. There currently is no "Someday/Maybe" bucket (should there be?). We have On Hold, and we have a review date and review period for projects, and the Mark Reviewed tool (but no pre-set perspective to find these items, or mechanism that tells us an item is past its review date).

I am assuming that people are using "On Hold" projects for Someday/Maybe.
And then I am assuming that they are creating a Perspective optimized for reviewing, and then I am assuming that you create some sort of Repeating Action to remind you to perform a review?
Is this the best OmniFocus practice for tickling a someday list? Or is there a better system out there?

Question 2:
I have lists of books, music, and movies that I am/might-be interested in buying, someday, maybe...
What is the best way to manage these in OmniFocus? They are not really Projects/Actions (but I might want to see them on an Errands list, if the shopping bug strikes)...They are really not "on hold"...they don't really need a review...They are actually more like reference, but I want them in a "shopping bug" context list. What's best practice/hints/tips for these tyypes of items? A Project for each category (books, music, movies) with each action an item? An Action for each category with a note field for items? Make the action "inactive" or "on-hold"? Is "Books" a project? Does that make sense? Or is that just a nomenclature hang-up I need to get over...Etc...

Question 3:
Same as question 2, but for gift ideas. I mention gifts separately because they are something that would be reviewed on each gift-giving period, but that would be different based on birthdate, christmas, etc...

Question 4:
And finally, reading. Some things I want to read for fun. Some things I need to read for work. Some are important. Some are to read someday...I suppose the reading for work is self-explanatory, it would be treated like any other action, with a Reading context...I suppose the items that are just to be read "whenever" for fun, could just be under a "Reading" project and a "Reading" context. Is that right? I know people always get hung up when projects and contexts are the same...

Thanks in advance for the advice...
 
All I can tell you is what I do. Here goes:

I break up Someday and Maybe into two different things. "Someday" is things I intend to do, and perhaps must do, but not soon. "Maybe" is stuff I may never do, but I'd like to tickle my brain now and then.

My "Maybes" are sometimes in OF, but more frequently in other lists (text files or OOP files, typically). Although in OF, I have a folder called "Lists" containing a number of projects including "Movies to watch", "books to read", "Things I might want to buy", etc.

All have a context of either "Maybe" (I MIGHT want to read/watch/buy it, but I'm not sure) or "Errands", as appropriate. (When it moves to Errands, I intend to GET IT, but there's no need to move it off the list) These are specifically for things that tend to pop up at weird times ("Let's go rent a movie!") and I want to have them with me (I export OF to my iPod -- see the Extras thread).

@Maybe doesn't permit next actions, so it's outside of my context view. Lists are all stored in a folder to make them easy to exclude from perspectives. They are NOT on hold, however, since I want errand-ized items to show up as next actions.

My "Somedays" are always, without exception, on-hold projects. They have review dates set fairly far in the future (1-3 months, usually). If I want to hide them, I throw them in a "Someday" folder, but they're also scattered about in the rest of my project folders. They come up when I review, and they're right in my view. Again, these are things I have agreed to do, but they don't have a definite timeframe (yet). More often than not, these projects start up due to external factors rather than because I say "Okay, let's go!"

Okay, gifts now... I have a project called "X-mas shopping". It's a project and it has a hierarchical task list for each person, and in many cases, for each gift. (e.g. Mom: DVD Player: with a waiting action of "Ordered from Amazon" and a second action of "Box up with DVDs and wrap") That's great for gift-giving seasons.

I also have a list of gift ideas that is stored in OF (so if I see a sale on a potential gift item, I can snap it up, or if it requires some lead time -- a homemade gift -- I'll have reviewed it at some point, so I'll be thinking of it).

For birthdays, anniversaries, etc., I figure I'll just make a "Get XXX a birthday present" project and maybe move an item from gifts to there. I haven't had a chance to try that yet. iCal will remind me of upcoming birthdays and other events, so I don't make OF keep track of that for me.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by iNik View Post
@Maybe doesn't permit next actions
What does this mean? After reading this I checked, and I se that there is a check box in the inspector for this setting. What does it do and how is it used?

Quote:
Originally Posted by iNik View Post
My "Somedays" are always, without exception, on-hold projects. ... If I want to hide them, I throw them in a "Someday" folder, but they're also scattered about in the rest of my project folders.
How does throwing them into a folder hide them? Just because you collapse the folder?



Quote:
Originally Posted by iNik View Post
They have review dates set fairly far in the future (1-3 months, usually). They come up when I review, and they're right in my view
I have only recently begun using the review process (based on a post earlier this morning on how to use a perspective for reviewing), and don't have many items set out that far in the future for reviewing. Curious to know if when you are viewing items up for review, does OmniFocus filter these future review items from your view, so as to not overwhelm you?


Thanks for your ideas.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelande View Post
How does throwing them into a folder hide them? Just because you collapse the folder?
You can also set the *folder* as On Hold, which makes its contents hidden unless you view All Tasks.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig View Post
You can also set the *folder* as On Hold, which makes its contents hidden unless you view All Tasks.
Is this done by unchecking "active" form its contextual menu item?

the interface is a bit different from marking Projects "On Hold"

I guess I was confused by the two different interfaces.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelande View Post
Is this done by unchecking "active" form its contextual menu item?
Yes. (Sorry I was writing from a computer without OF installed, so I couldn't double-check the terminology.)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelande View Post
What does this mean? After reading this I checked, and I se that there is a check box in the inspector for this setting. What does it do and how is it used?
If a context doesn't permit next actions, then nothing going into that context ever becomes a next action. Projects waiting on a task in that context are stalled until it is removed.

Quote:
How does throwing them into a folder hide them? Just because you collapse the folder?
Yup. Exactly. I wasn't aware that you could deactivate a folder, but I think I'll have to try that out, too.

Quote:
Curious to know if when you are viewing items up for review, does OmniFocus filter these future review items from your view, so as to not overwhelm you?
I have a planning-mode perspective that displays ALL projects and groups by "Next Review". I look at this a few times throughout the week (at least once during my weekly review). What's nice about this perspective is that it also shows projects that will need review soon, so it's a great way to quickly scan and say "Oh yeah, that project that I 'Someday'd' would actually be a good thing to start now, even though I set its next review to February."

Reviews are KEY to the GTD methodology, and frankly, they make technology irrelevant if you use them. (Not that good tech isn't fun) The review process in OF is really just a means to remind yourself to check a couple things out. No more, no less.
 
Coming late to this thread--I go to Norway for a week and all hell breaks loose in the forums! :-)

I keep my someday/maybe thoughts in a separate file--an OmniOutliner file, as it happens, though sometimes I'll put longer thoughts in Journler. OmniFocus I use for handling things to which I've committed myself. I don't feel the need to use it for other things too.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by iNik View Post
I break up Someday and Maybe into two different things. "Someday" is things I intend to do, and perhaps must do, but not soon. "Maybe" is stuff I may never do, but I'd like to tickle my brain now and then.
this is really great - you've implemented a practice I've adopted from Mission Control which I am actively integrating back into my GTD implementation!

MC makes a distinction between your "Not Now" list (ie. Someday, to be scheduled - technically within 2-3 weeks - think of it as a pipeline for any other "life as a CPU" geeks out there ;) and "Never Doing Now" list (ie. Maybe, you have peace if it never gets done- ever!)
 
 


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