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Managing ticklers, someday/maybe, and single actions? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I've been focused on other things, and now I'm hustling again to finish building my trusted system using OF. I'm having some trouble figuring out the best way to implement someday/maybe, ticklers, and single action lists.

Here is a screenshot of my current system:

Inbox:


Review:


Next Actions:


Waiting:


Please let me know what you think of the system so far.

How do you handle someday/maybe or ticklers in your system? I'm still trying to figure out the best way to include that.

Also, how do you handle generic single actions that don't fit into any project? Do you just throw them in a single actions list called Miscellaneous, or what do you do?

I appreciate your help. Screenshots would be awesome. Please let me know what you think of my current implementation, as well. Thanks.
 
Your system looks good so far; however, it's hard to tell exactly what your perspectives are showing with the view bar hidden.

In my system I handle someday/maybe projects in a couple of ways. I keep really far out ideas in a separate OmniOutliner document. This includes things like retirement ideas, which are 25+ years away.

I keep "someday soon" projects in OmniFocus, set to on-hold, with an appropriate review interval set. During my weekly review I look at my On-Hold Review Perspective and review any on-hold projects due for review in the next week. Here's what the perspective settings look like:
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I use start dates to manage ticklers. I create an action and set a future start date corresponding to when I want to be reminded. In my evening review, one of my perspectives is a Tickler perspective that shows Remaining items starting tomorrow. Here's what that looks like:
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I use top-level folders to group my projects and singleton actions into areas of responsibility (work, household, family, etc.). I keep a separate single action list inside each folder. This lets me use the Focus functionality to focus on an area of responsibility that I've been neglecting.

I've found that over time I've developed several perspectives that I visit during reviews.
  • My morning review includes four perspectives: inbox, active projects due for review, urgent radar (context mode, remaining actions, sorted and grouped by due date), and important (context mode, available and flagged actions, grouped by context).
  • My evening review includes three perspectives: ticklers, inbox, errands (context mode, just errand contexts selected, grouped by context)
  • My weekly review includes three perspectives: on-hold review, inbox (to process any items I identified during my mindsweep), full action list (context mode, available actions, grouped by context)

I'd urge you not to try to set up the perfect system, but to let it evolve over time. One of my monthly review items is to ponder where my system is working well and where improvement might be needed. I try not to change too much at a time so that I can make a realistic judgment about whether the change was an improvement. I'll often create a project for making the change to my system. The last task in the project would have a future start date and would be like "Evaluate whether change X improved your ability to do Y."

Good luck!
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
Hey dconjar, I really like your style theme.
Do you reckon you could save it and offer it as a download somewhere?
 
Quote:
Do you reckon you could save it and offer it as a download somewhere?
You can download it here.
 
Oh, and thanks for your help, Curt.
 
dconjar, I wonder what the "Do" icon (third from the left) means/does?
 
Do: Context mode, "contexts" selected, grouped by context, ordered by flag, showing only next actions.

Collect: Remaining projects, "inbox" selected, sorted by flag.

Ticklers: Remaining projects, "library" selected, grouped by start, sorted by due, showing only remaining tasks.

Waiting: Remaining contexts, "waiting" selected, grouped by due, sorted by project, only showing remaining tasks.

Someday: On Hold projects, "library" selected, grouped by next review, sorted by due, showing only remaining.

Here's what my new configuration looks like:



These are my new perspectives, thanks to Curt's advice. Any more advice is definitely appreciated:


Last edited by dconjar; 2008-08-30 at 10:36 AM..
 
Another thing that I've found helpful is to make my Inbox perspective open in a new window. I set my main OF window to a Default Planning Mode perspective (Active, Projects, Library Selected, Grouped by Folder, Unsorted, Remaining Actions). Then I open my Inbox perspective in another window (same settings but with Inbox selected and the sidebar, toolbar, and view bar all hidden) as shown below:
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I think of this as my Processing configuration. I can readily move items from my Inbox into the appropriate projects.

I actually avoid OF while collecting. I just use QuickEntry to dump items into OF. I've found that I tend to fall out of the collecting habit and start organizing if I don't clear separate collecting from processing. YMMV
__________________
Cheers,

Curt
 
Great Theme and setup.
How do you change the icons, for collect, etc? Do you use CandyBar or something similar, or is it straight forward?

Edit----
Ok, just watched the 'Perspectives' video and learned how to change the icons. I thought it had to do more with OS X than OF.

Last edited by garoda; 2008-11-23 at 07:52 PM..
 
 


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