OmniFocus gives you a great deal of flexibility to customize how you keep organized, including viewing your projects and actions in different ways called Perspectives. In OmniFocus 3, the Forecast perspective gains a number of new features that has transformed it into my daily dashboard.
This change took a while. I started using OmniFocus about a year ago and since that time, with some help from the OmniFocus community, my thoughts about task management have changed. That change in thinking, combined with new functionality in OmniFocus 3 makes the Forecast perspective an ideal view of everything I need to get done across all my devices — Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Inside Omnifocus An Introduction to Getting Things Done® Developed by David Allen and published in a bestselling book of the same name, Getting Things Done® became a compelling system for dealing with anything. Tasks around the house, career goals, things to buy—anything you can turn into a command to follow or action to do. Inside Omnifocus An Introduction to Getting Things Done® Developed by David Allen and published in a bestselling book of the same name, Getting Things Done® became a compelling system for dealing with anything. Tasks around the house, career goals, things to buy—anything you can turn into a command to follow or action to do. OmniFocus is the power user’s tool. But with great power comes a great ability to fiddle. I found myself constantly tweaking OmniFocus, and coming up with custom perspectives, to try to harness all my tasks. Things gives me just enough power, but not too much. OmniFocus for the Web is a companion to OmniFocus 3 for Macand OmniFocus 3 for iOS, available as part of an OmniFocus subscription. Using your web browser, you can view your projects, add actions, mark actions as complete, and more. It’s currently designed for use on a computer rather than use on a phone.
Journey To OmniFocus
Over the years, I’ve used many task and time management systems, from paper-based system like Filofax, Day Runner, and Franklin Planners to digital systems like DayMaker, Now Up-to-Date and IN CONTROL.
There have also been times when I’ve given up on using any sort of formal system, trying to keep everything straight in my head and making occasional to-do lists in Notes.
I had been using the “keep it all in your head” approach until about a year ago when I decided to give OmniFocus a try.
A Community To Help
Over the past year, I’ve enjoyed using OmniFocus a great deal. It has helped me stay organized and accomplish a good many things. During that time, I’ve also refined my thinking about task management. I have not done this alone, but with help from the OmniFocus community.
Beyond the OmniFocus app there is a helpful community of users — part of the online forums OmniGroup maintains for all of their apps at discourse.omnigroup.com. I’ve found the community to be very welcoming to newcomers and willing to answer questions both basic and advanced.
The help and insights I’ve received reading and asking questions in the forums have been very valuable, including helping me move from old habits to a new way of doing things.
Old habits
When I began using OmniFocus, I was following habits I had used in the past.
For example, if there was an action I wanted to get done today, I’d set the due date for the end of the day.
I’d do this even if the task didn’t absolutely need to get done today — it was just a task I was hoping to get done.
At the start of a day, it’s easy to be optimistic about what you’ll accomplish during the day. So this approach led to many items not getting done and showing up as overdue. I either had to spend time bumping the due dates forward, or else look at a sea of red ‘overdue’ items in OmniFocus.
This added a lot of overhead, constantly adding and changing due dates for actions that I only hoped to get done on a particular day.
Finding a better way
I was asking questions related to due dates in the OmniFocus forum, and a number of replies made me rethink my approach.
One reply also referred to the popular GTD methodology, which led me to read David Allen’s book Getting Things Done.
I gained many insights reading that book, including the notion that the only things that belong on your calendar are things that absolutely must happen on a certain date or date and time.
The forum replies I received applied that same philosophy to due dates in OmniFocus — actions should have due dates only if the action must be completed by a certain deadline.
I adopted this philosophy and now I assign a due date to an action only if it absolutely needs to happen by that date. I no longer use due dates for things I hope to get done on a certain day.
Just this one adjustment changed my use of OmniFocus considerably, making it work even better for me. It also made me think more about how I manage calendar events and actions. I now conceptually divide events and actions into three categories, described below. I’ve been excited to move to OmniFocus 3 because the new features of the Forecast perspective provide a great way to work with all three categories in one view.
Three temporal buckets
Before looking at the Forecast perspective itself, here are the three categories:
Calendar Events
A calendar event is something with a definite start time and end time. Examples are meetings, conference calls, flights — anything that requires a specific block of time.
I keep these items on my calendar using the built-in Calendar app.
Time Window Actions
I consider something a time window action if the action can be done at any point within a span of time, but that window of time has a definite start and end.
For example, you can pay your electric bill without penalty from the time you receive the bill until its due date. In OmniFocus, for an action like this I would set a defer date of the time when I can start and a due date of when the bill is due.
Unlike a calendar event, where your time is occupied for the duration of the event, a time window action might only take a few minutes of your time, but you need to perform that action sometime during the window.
Often a task has a deadline but you can begin working on it immediately. In this case, I just add a due date in OmniFocus.
Essentially, I consider any action with a deadline to be a time window action, with the beginning of the window sometimes being implied, since it begins right away.
In the book Getting Things Done, the author recommends putting things that need to happen on a particular day on the calendar. An example would be calling someone on their birthday.
A drawback I have found to putting this sort of task on the calendar is most software calendars don’t handle it well. An event without a start and end time on a calendar will typically be an all-day event, appear as a banner for the day, and overemphasize that single task above all the other things you are doing that day. There is also no way to mark the task as completed, besides workarounds like deleting the event or editing the title to include a checkmark or other indicator.
So, instead of keeping these on my calendar, I consider tasks that need to happen on a particular day as just a type of time window action. To handle them, I set a defer date to the beginning of the day, and a due date as the end of the day. This also allows for more specific adjustment of the window. In the birthday call example, a more specific window can keep you from waking someone up in the middle of the night with your call if they happen to live in another time zone.
Open Actions
Finally, there are many actions that have no deadline. I think of these as open actions and don’t assign them due dates.
Many actions and projects are like this — things you want to accomplish, but open-ended. You may want to clean out your hall closet, but it doesn’t need to happen by a certain date.
Since these actions don’t have due dates, they need to be managed without taking a deadline into consideration. I use two techniques to manage open actions. The first technique is using the Review perspective in OmniFocus to do regular reviews. A review allows me to take a look at all of my projects and actions and decide which I want to be working on in the near term.
The second technique is using the new tags feature of OmniFocus 3. Tags let me easily group tasks in a variety of ways. For open actions that I want to work on next, I tag them with a ‘Next’ tag, so they are easy to find.
Moving between categories
Of course, circumstances change. Something that was an open action becomes more important with a firm deadline. Or something with a firm deadline suddenly doesn’t need to be done for the foreseeable future. As the nature of actions change, it’s easy to make those changes in OmniFocus.
The Forecast - bringing it all together
I have found these three categories to be very helpful in thinking about what I need to get done, but they also seem like disparate kinds of information. Time window actions always have a due date. Open actions never have a due date. And calendar events aren’t even native to OmniFocus — they live in your calendar app.
Fortunately, OmniFocus 3 provides a powerful way that you can view all of these in one place: The Forecast perspective.
The Forecast shows actions with due dates along with your calendar events (after you give OmniFocus permission to use your calendar, of course).
The new Forecast perspective in OmniFocus 3 interleaves calendar events with actions that are due. Looking at a single day in the Forecast, you see a chronological list of your meetings and deadlines. There’s no need to switch between OmniFocus and your calendar to get a forecast of the day ahead — it’s all in one spot.
On iOS, you can view a single day forecast for today and the each day of the coming week as well as summary forecasts for past due items and future items beyond the week.
On the Mac, you can additionally see the forecast of all days at once, or select single or multiple days.
My favorite use of this view is looking at all days at once on the Mac. In one view, I can look at the current day and also scan ahead to see what my schedule looks like in the next few days, and see items that are coming due soon that I might want to work on.
The Forecast perspective shows two of the three categories I described earlier, calendar events and time window actions.
For the third category, a new pro feature in OmniFocus 3 allows actions without a due date to appear in the Forecast as well: the Forecast Tag.
The Forecast Tag
In the View Options for the Forecast perspective, you can choose a tag as the Forecast Tag. Any actions with this tag will appear in the forecast.
You can use the forecast tag however you wish, but I use it to handle open actions that I hope to get done in a timely manner, even though they do not have hard deadlines.
Since the introduction of OmniFocus 3, I’ve seen a number of people, me included, create a tag named ’Today’ to use as their forecast tag.
Now that I’ve been using a forecast tag for a few months, I’ve found the name ‘Today’ is overly optimistic. I’ve changed the name of my forecast tag to ‘Next’ to better reflect that these are actions I hope to do next, but I may not get to them today (which is okay because they don’t have a firm deadline).
The Forecast Tag feature is deeply integrated in OmniFocus Pro 3. To make it easy to add and remove the forecast tag, additional functionality is unlocked once you set a forecast tag. On iOS, if you swipe right on an item, you can toggle the forecast tag on and off. On the Mac, the keyboard shortcut Control-Command-L will toggle the forecast tag on the selection.
These features make it very easy to add and remove the forecast tag as your day unfolds and priorities change.
The Forecast Habit
With OmniFocus 3, I now start my day looking at the Forecast to review everything on the agenda for the day. I see my schedule and any actions that are due that day — all the things that must happen today. I can scan ahead a few days to see items coming due soon, which I may want to work on. And finally I see all the actions without deadlines that I’ve marked with my ’Next’ forecast tag.
My workflow for getting things done has changed for the better with OmniFocus 3. The enhanced Forecast perspective is now the first place I go to see what to work on next. This is, of course, just one of the many ways you can use OmniFocus 3. I hope my approach has provided you with some insights as you create your own system to help you get things done.
James Dempsey is a software developer, trainer, and speaker specializing in iOS, macOS, and Swift programming. He is the co-host of the productivity podcast The Weekly Review. He is also the front-man for the iTunes comedy chart-topping band James Dempsey and the Breakpoints.
An Introduction to Getting Things Done®
Developed by David Allen and published in a bestselling book of the same name, Getting Things Done® became a compelling system for dealing with anything. Tasks around the house, career goals, things to buy—anything you can turn into a command to follow or action to do.
It was originally designed without a software component in mind—manila folders, actually! GTD® is a great system, but with OmniFocus, it can be even better.
You can also read the original GTD Whitepaper.
Capture
Getting Things Done® starts with the concept of an Inbox—a temporary holding area to get any idea or task out of your mind so you don’t forget it. Oh, I need to schedule a checkup with a doctor. Put it in the inbox. I need to remind my kid to take the garbage out on Fridays. Put it in the inbox. I’d like to build a sailboat next year. Put it in the inbox—even though it’s a huge project that you probably don’t even know how to start.
David Allen advises GTDers to do a brain dump: spend 20 to 30 minutes going through all aspects of your life, putting down anything that you need to work out in the future. Do it. It works. You’ll hit a groove after 5 minutes and end up with a pretty large collection.
Process
Processing your Inbox is important—take time to do it right. With each item you wrote down, take a second to think about a few things:
- What is it?
- Is it a project in and of itself?
- Is it a simple action that could go in a “Miscellaneous” project?
- Does it require a due date?
- What do I need available to do it?
Take “Build a sailboat next year” as an example. Even if it’s just a model, there are at least a few steps required to make your goal. For kicks, we could probably start with “google ‘how to build a sailboat.’” Turning it into a project means “Build a sailboat next year” is the end goal, and you’ll have invidivual, doable steps along the way.
One other thing to consider: can you do it, or does it require someone elses action? If someone else: delegate it. Send them an email right then, or create an action to “Email Brian about this one thing.”
Read more about delegation—there are many different approaches.
And then we have dates: defer dates and due dates. Dates aren’t a requirement; but dates help ensure that actions don’t fall through the cracks or beg for your attention when they don’t need it. Hooking up a defer date to an action says “I’ll hide from sight until this date.”
Which brings us to the concept of a context. A context is the tool, resource, or location—whatever is required—to get the task done. These are super-useful when combined with other features in OmniFocus, so it’s worth spending some time on them at the start.
Where do we research how to build a sailboat? Let’s try The Internet. You might be connected to the internet all day at work, but this isn’t related to work; you can make it really specific, like “Home iMac.” Some keep it simple, like iMac. And once you know which way works best, you can optimize from there.
It’s pretty common to use a spouse or a colleague as a context that you often interact with. It may seem odd to check off “Ask about moving the garden to make space for a beehive,” but you won’t forget to ask.
Processing becomes a natural habit after a while. There aren’t hard and fast rules for it, but it makes sense to clean your Inbox out regularly. Some people do it multiple times a day, others in their weekly review (we’ll get to reviews later). You’ll quickly figure out how frequently you need to clear it out, though.
- Consider separating different areas of your life. Work and Personal, nay, list Personal first, should be separated. Some features, like Focus, are even better with this first distinction.
- If you don’t know the next step or timeline for an item, defer it. Still not sure how to get started on a project? Create a project, set a start date in the future, and forget about it for awhile. Think it over during a review.
- Will it take less than 2 minutes? Is it possible right now? Just do it! Don’t put a due date on it, don’t put it in a single-action list. Just do it.
Organize
Organizing is all about making sure each bit is in the right spot. Too much fiddling is a problem, but not having pieces in the right spot is even more hazardous. Organizing is sort of like processing—if something isn’t working for you, change it.
Do
Doing is easy! You just start checking things off because the capture, process, and organize phases went smoothly. Let’s assume it did, anyway.
Here’s where we combine all the good stuff from those earlier phases to do things without having to worry about anything other than the task at hand.
Review
Reviewing is a key facet of GTD® that keeps everything going smoothly. In short, we’re periodically looking over projects and making some considerations.
The GTD Weekly Review® is just that: weekly. And it should do three big things:
- Get Clear
Did your desk get physically full over the past week? Clear it out. Scan in new items or type in notes so that you can file all of that clutter away. - Get your Inbox to zero
Now that you’ve just added to your Inbox, process it. - Empty your head
Anything else that needs to come out? Take the time to do a brain dump, like we did at the beginning, to make room for the next week.
Then, we’ll get current. To get current, review each project and action list. Consider these questions.
- Do I need to add a new first step?
Is the first action action-able enough? - Does this project represent your goals?
Should I still be worrying about it, or should I drop it? - Does the metadata represent what you want?
Could you defer it? Should you set a flag for higher priority? - Are my Waiting-For lists actionable yet?
Has anyone emailed you? Should you check back on an unanswered email?
Finally, take some time to be creative. Are there any big projects on hold that you could bring up from the minors? Is there anything you’re afraid to pull out of you brain and put down on “paper?” Get it out and consider a first action.
Remember: a review is not simply clearing the dots next to each project. If something is staring back with 30 seconds of thinking versus a 1/2 second of deferring until later, spend the 30 seconds thinking of a next action or “defer until” date.
Getting Things Done & OmniFocus 2
Here’s the specific stuff. OmniFocus is the best way to implement GTD on Mac and iOS.
Capturing in OmniFocus
The Inbox
The Inbox is where capture happens. Anything can go here: the more you enter, the less you’ll forget. You can type directly in the OmniFocus Inbox; hitting return twice after each new title will create another.
But you can also bring in text from other Mac apps. You’ll want to set up a keyboard shortcut for Clippings, which you can learn more about here.
Since many requests happen via email, a lot of mail clients include integration with many task management systems. This makes sending an action to OmniFocus—along with a link back to the original message—just a keystroke away. You can set this up for Mail.app with our Clip-o-Tron installer. For 3rd-party clients, check out MailMate or Postbox; we have a lot more listed on our email page here at Inside OmniFocus. If you’re not on a Mac most of the time—or use a web-based email client—check out Mail Drop! You can forward or send an email straight to your OmniFocus Inbox.
Finally, we have Quick Entry. This is a small window that can be called from anywhere in OS X—even in full screen apps. Just hit the keyboard shortcut you’ve assigned in OmniFocus Preferences, enter your tasks, and hit return.
Just get all of your tasks, ideas, and “stuff” into the Inbox. It doesn’t yet need to be a full thought yet—just get it in there.
Reviews
Reviews are an important part of GTD®, and they’re easy in OmniFocus 2. First, just know that each project has each of these:
- a review interval (how often you want a project to “pop up” in Review mode)
- last-reviewed date (the last time you hit the “Mark Reviewed” button)
- and Next Review date. (the next time it’ll be ready for Review)
All projects that are waiting for review are listed in the left sidebar.
Until you’ve reviewed a project, a maroon dot will be right next to it. When you leave Review mode and come back, the sidebar will be “cleaned up” to only show the non-reviewed projects.
Take this Review Bar:
The Up and Down arrows move you between listed projects in the sidebar.The basic metadata for each review session is listed here.The last bit, “Mark Reviewed,” does just that. Press this button (or hit Command-Shift-R) after you’ve carefully considered the project. And consider these things about GTD® Review that were mentioned earlier.
Forecast
Get a grip on the upcoming week and month with two facets—the mini calendar to the left that shows a quick idea of Big Days, and to the right, which shows the currently selected blocks of time in the minicalendar.
The Forecast view isn’t explicity GTD-oriented, though—we just collect another aspect of your life in one spot so things don’t slip through the cracks. You’ll always have hard-landscape tasks to do, and that’s why we have the calendar; knowing if you have time to do Task X before—oh, you’ve got a meeting at 4—is useful! You get a quick look at your day without heading into another app.
You can toggle specific calendars by using the View Popover in the toolbar.
Notion And Omnifocus
And let’s say it’s the end of the day on Thursday, but you still have a few more things to do for the week. In the Forecast view, you can drag from 1 day to another—using the minicalendar—to reschedule, or modify the Due Date. Holding down the Command key will instead modify the Defer Date. Holding down both the Command and Option key will change both.
Custom Perspectives (Pro)
Perspectives in OmniFocus can mean a few things. They can be default views slightly modified; they can be completely customized based on folders, projects, and contexts; they can exist solely around dates. Add perspectives to the sidebar, open them in new windows, etc.
First, let’s try to define it a bit more. A perspective is any view that has specificity in any way. You can save it to reference it again later, and a lot of users perspective-fiends build their entire workflow around them. Take a look at Kourosh’s workflow. As a very basic example, we could use one of the biggest OmniFocus features, “Focus,” to create a simple perspective that excludes everything outside of work.
“Work” can mean one of two things:- Any context that is related to work- Any project that is explicitly related to work
Delegation
- A better delegation script by Jered Benoit
- Set up a Waiting For Perspective by purplezengoat.
- Managing Work Tasks by Tim Metz @ Omni Blog.
Listening
Omnifocus In Notion
- Intro to GTDandthefollowingepisodes on the Back to Work podcast. Merlin Mann & Dan Benjamin.
- Preneurcast 025: Getting Things Done With OmniFocus.
Omnifocus Notion Meaning
Watching
Omnifocus Notion Software
- Creating Projects & Groups by Learn OmniFocus.