I have been meaning to post this for a while, but it’s the reason I keep coming back to Omnifocus.
I am perpetually torn with Omnifocus being over complex, yet feeling like home to me for tracking my tasks. When things go into Omnifocus, I have always felt like they get done. I have also never felt like I am flooded with the entire list of tasks.
They key to Omnifocus and this balanced feeling is two-fold: Perspectives and Defer Until.
Perspectives
The key thing here is you are on a “need to know” basis. You can set up perspectives to let you see what you want, when you want based on needs. The great thing is, if you have tasks that need to be done serially, you can let Omnifocus only show you the NEXT ACTION you can take to make progress on your project. This saves you from having to look at all of the remaining items when you can’t actually do anything with them. This is such a time saver.
You can customize your perspectives and name them what you want with the pro version Trust me, your time is worth getting the pro version. Here is a sample of the details of my TODAY perspective. You can see how you can edit and tweak this to your hearts content.
Defer Until
This is the real magic here for me. When I am adding tasks into my task list, often they are things I need to do soon. Sometimes they are tasks that I don’t need to worry about for a long time. For instance, if I know I need to follow up on a task to talk to someone in 4 months about a potential project, why do I want that task staring at me every day? I don’t! That is just wasted thinking every time I see it.
By creating a task with a Defer Date, you can essentially hide that task away from view until you are ready to see it. (when combined with the above perspectives). This is amazing. I have a lot of tasks I want recurring as well that I defer. Changing the oil in my car, clean the gutters, etc. I defer all of these tasks so they go away until I am ready to do them.
I really think this is what draws me back in to Omnifocus when I contemplate trying other software. Start Date, Defer Until, or whatever you want to call it.. just get it out of my face until I need it.