Open Notebookseankorzdorfer.com

OmniFocus Workflow and Notes

Contents

• Overview
• Project Structures
• Contexts
• Perspectives
• External Support and Automation
  • Checklists
  • Launch Center Pro
  • Cascading OmniFocus Tasks
• Automation
  • Scripts
  • Keyboard Maestro

Overview

My Task Management System is distributed over two applications:

1. OmniFocus is my Grimlock
   • Powerful
   • Slow
   • Sometimes hard to understand
   • Task Examples:
     • Long-term
     • Goal-based
     • Project-orientated
2. Due.app is my Jazz
   • Fast
   • Dependable
   • Classy and thoughtful implementation
   • Task Examples:
     • Repeating reminders
     • Reminders of OmniFocus tasks
     • Same-Day, or Next-Day single action tasks

Honest Notes

• I don't love, or enjoy using OmniFocus.
  • I started using it because I respect Merlin Mann. It was amazing five years ago.
  • The application has not aged well (Damn you, iPad or Bust).
• One-size-fits-all applications are never a good fit for folks with ADHD.
• 'Optimizing Database' always pisses me off.
• I stopped recommending it friends two years ago.

Project Structures

• Rituals – Repeating Tasks / Projects.
  • Checklists – A group of single action lists for repeating tasks.
    • Weekly Repeating Tasks
    • Bi-Weekly Repeating Tasks
    • Monthly Repeating Tasks
    • Quarterly Repeating Tasks
    • Annually Repeating Tasks
    • Miscellaneous Repeating Projects – Projects for refilling ADHD and Ankylosing Spondylitis medications.

  • Family – Projects involving my family.

  • House – Projects involving the house.

  • Thesis – Projects involving my Master's Thesis [1].

  • Knowledge Foundation – Projects involving learning.
    • Projects for creating and reviewing outlines of reference material that might be asked on job interviews.
    • Projects for learning a new API.
    • Projects for learning a new programming language.
  • Personal – Personal Projects.
    • Programming projects.
    • Tetris pattern analysis.
  • Stack – A bucket for single action lists that contain non-repeating tasks.
    • Scratch – My default single action list. I allow a maximum of 15 tasks to live here.
      • A script alerts me when when the list becomes too long.
    • Shopping List
      • I have scripts to duplicate shopping tasks to shared family lists in the Reminders App.
      • An additional script syncs completed tasks from Reminders to OmniFocus.
    • System Adjustments – Thoughts on how to improve my system. 95% of what I capture is horseshit.
    • Discussions – Reminders for items I want to discuss with an individual that are not related to a project.
    • Projects to Plan – Complex projects which are still in the planning phase. Planning is usually done in OmniOutliner or iThoughts.
    • Templates – A folder of often used project patterns.
  • Someday / Maybe – A bucket for fuzzy and possible projects. I find that a 24 hour cool down period allows me make better decisions. Most of what ends up here is deleted within a week. (I have bad ideas out the ying-yang)
    • Possible Family Projects – A single action list for possible family project.
      • Items are not allowed to live longer than two weeks.
      • Default Status: On Hold.
    • Possible Personal Projects - A single action list for my side projects projects.
      • Items are not allowed to live longer than two weeks.
      • Default Status: On Hold.

Context Structures

The Contexts

• People – A top-level context. Nested Tags include groupings, individual people and 'Waiting For …'.
• Communicate – Calls, emails, SMS, IM.
• House – A top-level context. One nested context: Lawn/Outside.
• Staring at the Wall – A bucket for any task involving thinking, planning, outlining, mind-mapping, organizing, or staring at the wall. Sometimes staring at the wall for an hour will prevent madness.
• Morning – A bucket for tasks best done first thing in the morning. Usually coding or technical writing.
  • Start Time: 06:00.
• Afternoon – A bucket for tasks best done when I'm starting to get tired, burnt out or stupid. Usually research and administrative tasks.
  • Start Time: 13:00.
• Evening – A bucket for family or personal project tasks that I can complete while half asleep.
  • Start Time: 17:00.
• Errand – A top level Context. Nested contexts include a variety of stores.
• Ask Again Later – A bucket for any task or project that has become fuzzy.
  • If I'm not 100% confident about any aspect of the task / project, I invoke this context and let it simmer until the next review. This is a core part of my system.
  • Default Status: On Hold.

Why

• I work at home. Half of my week is spent caring for my son, the other half is spent working on my Master's Thesis.
  • I am always near a computer.
  • If I don't have internet access, I have larger things to worry about.
• Call them what you will, but contexts are nothing more than an axis used to further constrain the view of available tasks.
• Ask the question: What is important to me?
  • My family
  • My work
  • Not fucking around with OmniFocus' tasks fields
• I have three scripts which assign start times to my tasks if:
  • They have a start date.
  • They are assigned the Morning, Afternoon or Evening context.
• I rarely know when I'll be able to work on a task when I process my inbox.
  • If I assign metadata now, I'm wasting current and future time.
  • Assign the task to a project and move along.
• Benefit: This forces me to actually review my lists. Daily.

It doesn't get easier than this:

NB: A well defined task naming scheme coupled with search is great for grouping similar tasks on the fly.

Perspectives

• Big Fucking Deals – Family and house tasks.
• Core-Flagged – From Creating Flow With OmniFocus.
• Checklists – Focuses my Checklist folder and groups by context.
• People – Focuses my People context and Communicate context and groups by context.
• Scratch List – Focuses my my multiple Scratch lists.
• Shopping List
• Staring at the Wall – Focuses Staring at the Wall context in project view. Shows any status.
• Stalled Projects
• Purge Completed Ritual Tasks – I don't need to archive the same task multiple times.
• Neutral – From Creating Flow with OmniFocus.

External Support

Checklists

• Do it the same way, at the same time.
• The following are stored as OPML, so they can be opened by OmniOutliner, CarbonFin, or iThoughts:
  • Goals
  • Out of Scope
  • Morning Review Checklist
  • Evening Review Checklist
  • Morning House Checklist
  • Evening House Checklist
  • Leave the House

Launch Center Pro

• OmniFocus Group
  • New
    omnifocus:///add?name=
  • New item + clipboard
    omnifocus:///add?name=&note=[clipboard]
  • Discuss with my wife
    omnifocus:///add?name=Discuss%20[prompt]%20with%20REDACTED
  • Plan new project
    omnifocus:///add?name=Plan%20new%20project%20to%20
  • Call back
    omnifocus:///add?name=Call%20back%20
  • Research And Questions omnifocus:///add?name=R%26Q%20%E2%80%94%20
  • Research + clipboard
    omnifocus:///add?name=R%26Q%20%E2%80%94%20&note=[clipboard]
• Way of the Future Group
  • Big Fucking Deals
    omnifocus:///perspective/Big%20Fucking%20Deals
  • Next Actions
    omnifocus:///perspective/Next%20Actions
  • People
    omnifocus:///perspective/People
  • Core-Flagged
    omnifocus:///perspective/Core-Flagged
  • Checklists
    omnifocus:///perspective/Checklists

Cascading OmniFocus Tasks

Update: I now use Due.app for this purpose.

• OmniFocus tasks can create additional task by adding an OmniFocus url in the note field.

• This is helpful for tasks that have an irregular repetition frequency.

• In the first example, I complete the task if I don't need to sweep the porch. If I do need to sweep the porch, I click the URL then complete the task.

• The second example extends the concept and will eventually create two additional task by URL

  • Check if the porch needs to be swept
    omnifocus:///add?name=Sweep%20porch
  • Do step one of project x
    omnifocus:///add?name=Do%20step%20two&note=omnifocus%3A%2F%2F%2Fadd%3fname%3ddo%2520step%2520three

Automation

Scripts

• My Scripts

  • Assign start times scripts

  • Assign task Large Chunk (4 hour estimate)

  • Assign task short dash (10 minute estimate)

  • Send OmniFocus Task(s)Task to Due.app

  • Send OmniFocus to Reminders
    • Shared shopping list with my wife

  • Send OmniFocus Task(s) to OmniOutliner

    Task Name
        YYYMMMDDD_HHMMSS
        URL (if any)
        Task note
    

  • Send OmniFocus Task(s) MindManger

  • Send OmniFocus Task(s) to Task Paper

    Task Name
        YYYMMMDDD_HHMMSS
        URL (if any)
        Task note
    

  • Send OmniFocus Task(s) to nvALT

    Date:       YYYMMMDDD_HHMMSS
    Project:    OmniFocus Poject URI
    
    # Task Name
    
    Task note
    
    IF URL:
    
    Source: URL
    

  • Send OmniFocus Task(s) to Clipboard formatted as Markdown URL

• Other Folks Scripts
  • Today, Tomorrow, Snooze
    http://bylr.net/files/omnifocus/
  • Cycle Task States
    http://www.sandro.org/omnifocus/index.php
  • Display Projects as Flat Lists (RobTrew)

Keyboard Maestro

• Archive Old Data Weekly by time
• My Keyboard Maestro OmniFocus Functions
  https://github.com/ChewingPencils/keyboard-maestro-omnifocus-functions
• Pallets:

BusyCal

• Launch Morning Review Checklist
• Launch Evening Review Checklist
• Launch Weekly Review Checklist

NB: This is not a complete list of my automation toolkit … Things get a bit creepy.

Categories: Category_Workflow, Category_App