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Omnifocus contexts how to#
Omnifocus contexts professional#

I’m lighter for knowing where I am with everything, even if right now I’m under the cosh with too much to do. No more wondering if there’s another list in another notebook. What I’ve said to him is that if he gets into the habit of saving everything to OmniFocus, he will come to know that everything is in there. Now he’s taken to OmniFocus like an evangelist in the making, but I think he has one issue left. It was for a fella whose workload made me go pale and who has been handling it all on paper. This came up in a mentoring session I did earlier this week that, unusually, was dedicated solely to the use of OmniFocus. When it’s all slotted away and your inbox is clear, everything is off your mind and it’s all in your one OmniFocus system. Slot this task into that project, add a date or don’t – preferably don’t – and do what’s called processing everything. You’ll find that you delete a lot, you mark many others as done, and the rest you have a proper ponder about. When you get time, go through that inbox and have a think. Get it into OmniFocus’s inbox and get it out of your head. If it’s something you have to do, if it’s something you want to do, if it’s something that might turn into something that has to be done by somebody, save it in OmniFocus and worry about it later. Then, each time I sit down at that computer, I have all the tasks I should take care of in that sitting.What do I mean by everything? EVERYTHING.

Whenever I have tasks that can only be accomplished when accessing the audio equipment, I apply that context.

Omnifocus contexts professional#

We have a studio set up at home with professional audio equipment.

Here are the application-related contexts that I have set up on OmniFocus:īy far, the biggest time saver on the list is the context.Īnother one that works well for me is the context.

Set up a context for programs/services I use frequently (I have one set up for our LMS, so whenever I go login, I can take care of all the small actions that need to be addressed during that one visit).

Keep track of things I need to talk to someone about (like a spouse, or direct report) by setting up their name as a context.

Track action items that I am waiting for a response on before completing the task.

Setup and track agenda items for meetings using contexts.

Contexts that Work Well for Meīy far, these are the contexts that work best for me: If you have set up a system like OmniFocus, but don't think it is working well for you, check out these potential pitfalls and associated solutions. Others set up sophisticated location-based contexts that are better served for people who run lots of errands at once. Some people use energy-level contexts and work on the tasks when they are at a time of the day that allows them to target their attention at a given task. There are still ways that other people make use of contexts that don't resonate with me too heavily.

I expanded my thinking of how contexts might be set up beyond location-based ones, thanks to experts like Tim Stringer.

David Allen revised his Getting Things Done book and somehow it stuck better with me on this edition.

OmniFocus is one of the task management applications that has features set up for leveraging contexts. Three factors caused me to make a dramatic shift in my appreciation of context in personal productivity: Even if your specific tool doesn't have a field for context, you can still type in an symbol at the end of each task name and include the context you want to use, such or or Why I Changed to Better Appreciate Context

Omnifocus contexts how to#

While this post links to how to articles on OmniFocus, the set up of contexts is available in many different kind of task managers. If I'm going to grocery shop, it is likely going to be via the Amazon Fresh delivery service. The problem with his examples was that I can't stand going on errands and it is mostly Dave (my husband) who does the grocery shopping and dry cleaning drop offs in our household. Also helpful would be to drop by and pick up our dry cleaning. If I were going on an errand to our local CVS, it would also be good to know to stop at the grocery store, which is next door. The examples I remember him giving in the first edition were primarily location based. I completely didn't get how considering context was going to be useful to me at allįor those of you who may not be familiar with the idea of using context in your planning, he advises that with each action item on our to do list, we not only consider when this action needs to be taken, but also what (or who) would need to be present in order to do it. When David Allen's first edition of Getting Things Done came out, I liked his methods, with one big exception: I have always been a big fan of personal productivity books and tools.