Do ever have a lot to do? Ever think to yourself, “I need to remember to do such and such”? Ever make a list of EVERYTHING you need to do and get so overwhelmed you don’t know where to begin (and toss the list out)?

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tool that allows you to quickly add those “I need to do this….” items to a list but only see the things you can and need to work on at any give time or place? Thats exactly what OmniFocus is for.

About OmniGroup

OmniFocus is a Mac only application from OmniGroup. They are the top productivity software developer for the Mac platform (OSX and iOS). They have been around for years and have a very solid track record of software updates, customer support, and moving with Apple (ie transitioning to Intel, iPhone and iPad apps). OmniGroup is a solid company to invest your money and workflow into. They are not some flashy indie developer who generates a buzz with a nice look app, only to never finish it or take your money and then provide no support or updates.

Organizing Your Organizer

The fist step to getting organized is to organize OmniFocus. There are four main aspects of OmniFocus.

• Tasks: Something you need to do. These can be ‘single actions’ like taking out the trash, or a series of tasks to get something done. Which leads me to….
• Projects: Stuff you need to get done that takes more than one task such as getting ready for vacation: check car, pack clothes, charge camera batteries, ask neighbor to get mail, etc.
• Contexts: where/how you can get things done
• Dates: when can I start it? When does it need to be done?

Tasks

This is the easy part. Just try not to micro-manage yourself. You don’t want to create a task for EVERY item you need to pack. A single task “pack for vacation” is good. You can put in your notes the exact items you want to pack. I personally use an iPhone app that lets me create checklists to manage my packing.

Projects

Projects are a series of tasks that are needed to do to get something done. I organize them into folders. Home and Work. Within my Work folder are sub folders for my main areas of responsibility (usually by website). For example, for the Guild website I needed to change the main nav color. That would be a single task. I also had to create an application system. That involved several steps (create database, install software, customize CSS, train users) and thus is a project of the Guild.

But what about those singe tasks? How do I organize them? Simple. I create a project called “Single Actions”. Anything I can do in one task goes in here. I tend to organize these by website.

Contexts

I used OmniFocus for about a year before I got it right. I was setting up projects and tasks OK, but totally using contexts wrong. I would create a task “mock up website” and assign it a context of “Web Design”. BZZZZ wrong! That is not a context. I now ask myself, what do I need to get this done? I could put office, but I can do this anywhere. All I need is my MacBook Pro. So the correct context would be…MacBook Pro. There are other tasks that I can do on any computer like device. For example, I can edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations on my iPad. In that case the context would be MacBook Pro or iPad. So I then create two contexts: MacBook Pro and iPad. To assign the task to BOTH contexts I create a parent context: Computer. Any tasks assigned to ‘computer’ would show up under iPad or MacBook Pro. At this point you are probably saying, “Huh?”. So here is a screenshot of my contexts.
It can be confusing when you overthink it. Sure I can use my MacBook Pro at the office or home. But I can’ only check my home mail at home and only check my office mail at the office. It is also possible to be too specific. I could have Office and a child context Mailroom. But that just gets too complicated. The trick is to keep it simple, yet precise. This allows you to go to your context view and click on any context and only see the tasks that you can do within that context. A great way to focus on what resources you have at your disposal and get things done. All those tasks that you can’t do, disappear.

A video would really help, so here you go. Give that a look.

Start and Due Date

Dates are very helpful. If you don’t need to do something until a certain time, this helps you have a way to clear it from your view until it is time to work on it. Shortcuts are also available. If I need to start it in 2 days, I type ‘48h’ and it sets the date to 2 days from now. Same for weeks and days.

Bringing it all together

Right now I’m just feeding data into the system. Each task has a project it s assigned to, I’ve defined the context in which I can do it, and a time when I should start and be done. How do I then see just what I want to see. How do I see just the work tasks that I can do on my MacBook Pro.

The View bar lets me define these parameters. I can have hundreds of tasks, but these view options let me pare them all down to just what I want to see. Then the real power begins….

Perspecitves

Perspectives are essential to making it all come together. When you adjust the view settings you can save that view as a perspective. That allows you to go to that view at any time. Think of them as saved searches. You can add them to your toolbar, or access them to the menu drop down. This REALLY helps you focus on what you need to do vs be overwhelmed by the next several months of tasks on your list. The Perspective I find most useful is all my “work” projects and tasks that are due in the next 2 days. I then have another perspective for items that are overdue. One is my list of things to focus on. The other is my list of things to get done…NOW!

Taking It With You

If you have a Mac chances are you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch (or all of them). What about when you are away from your computer? How do you access your lists? They make an iPhone/iPod Touch app as well as an iPad app. The iPad app is actually far better in some ways than the desktop version. So much so the UI of OmniFocus 2.0 will be based largely on the iPad version. It even uses location services so you can setup location based contexts. It knows when you are home and will show you tasks that are set to home. Same for any other location based context (office, grocerty store, school).

Ah, yes, but how do you sync your data? No worries. If you use MobileMe you can easily keep your data synced via that. You can also use any other WebDav server or the beta sync server OmniGroup has (free). No matter what your situation, there is a sync solution you can use. iOS 5 will be bringing iCloud to your devices, that could change all of this for the better. Sync is notoriously difficult for developers. OmniGroup is one of the few who nailed it. iCloud will only make it easier for us since Apple build a great sync tool and gave developers all the tools to add it to their apps.

Conclussion

There you have it. A very brief rundown of how to organize OmniFocus to stay organized. Once you get the system down it makes organizing your projects and tasks sooooo much easier. Seemless sync to all your devices means you can never be in the dark about what you need to do. I’ll add more videos and links as I track them down. I may even do a screen cast of my own system to help illustrate things better. Stay tuned!