Strategy 3: combine flags with deferred start dates Omnifocus 2.0.2 showing remaining tasks in project view. Omnifocus lets you hide non–urgent tasks from view. The screenshots below show ‘available’ and ‘remaining’ tasks for my subscriptions ‘project’. With just one click on any Omnifocus platform (desktop, iPad, iPhone) I can defer that task for a day, a week, a month or a year or more, thereby relegating it from ‘available’ to ‘remaining’ tasks. However, I know I do not want to do this task right now or in the foreseeable future as there are more pressing priorities. Technically, that task is available today. You can defer a task’s start date in order to remove it from view until some bring–up point in the future.įor example, I need to fire up a mothballed 2006 Windows PC in order to retrieve a couple of files that may still be relevant. Fortunately, Omnifocus lets you specify a start date for a task and allows you to differentiate between ‘available’ and ‘remaining’ tasks. In many other leading productivity apps, those 420 low priority tasks would always be in view. I can increase the frequency of the OF automatic review cycle to two or three months, or just place the project on hold. While it can be fun to dabble in some early planning, I do not need to see that project on a weekly basis. For example, I am contemplating a trip to Europe in 2015 or 2016. So how can we deal with all this lead in the saddle bags?įirstly, use your regular GTD™ review to place ‘on hold’ any project that you will not be working on for some time. If an estimated 60 per cent of my tasks are not very important and not really urgent, that means that I would have to plough through some 420 tasks in my regular GTD™ review for very little purpose. Strategy 2: place projects on hold and defer start dates Worse, you may overlook a genuine deadline as you get used to all that red in the forecast view… You will see several tasks turn red every day for no other reason than that you thought you would have completed them by today, and without any real consequence other than perhaps a slight dip in your self–esteem. If you use due dates for ‘aspirational deadlines’ you will clog up and devalue the Omnifocus ‘forecast’ view and give yourself a lot of extra work in the process. A due date will typically be required for non–negotiable and date–specific tasks, such as bill or contract payments, travel arrangements or critical path items in project management. Only use a due date for a task that has a deadline in the outside world rather than in your head. I want to show you now how I draw on those tools in managing the high volume of tasks in my Omnifocus file. not important and not urgent: defer dates, place project on hold, weekly review.important but not urgent: flags, defer dates, focus view, weekly review.urgent but not important: due dates, forecast view.urgent and important: due dates, forecast view, focus view.Omnifocus provides a number of tools that effectively let you manage each of those categories: not important and not urgent: routine or low priority tasks and non-action items (such as lists)-around 60% of Omnifocus entries. important but not urgent: my priority tasks-around 20% of tasks.urgent but not important: other people’s priorities-around 15% of tasks.urgent and important: my top priorities-an estimated 5% of tasks.If I were to run my 700 tasks through a priority matrix they could probably be triaged as follows: So read on if you are interested in the strategies that I have developed to manage a high volume of tasks in Omnifocus 2. Including these makes the file bigger, but also ramps up the fun factor: I do not just fire up Omnifocus when there’s another bill to be paid… Not all of these are to–do items in the narrow sense: some ‘projects’ contain lists of books to read, movies to watch, places I’d like to travel to. My Omnifocus file typically holds around 700 entries in some 60 projects. The downside of following the great GTD™ guru’s advice to the letter is that you end up with a lot of ‘stuff’ in your trusted system. The two most compelling features of Omnifocus 2 for desktops are the review function and the Forecast view-both adapted from the groundbreaking iPad app. The first principle of David Allen’s Getting Things Done™ (GTD™) approach to task and project management is that you should capture every task or project that comes into your head in what he calls a trusted system.įor me, Omnifocus has provided that trusted system since 2009 and the rollout of Omnifocus 2 for iMac in June 2014 has further strengthened what was already a powerful, versatile and reliable app.
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