The new features in OmniFocus 3 have changed my workflow so that I’m more productive and organized. I used to fall off the wagon every few weeks, but with my new workflow I’ve used OmniFocus every day for several months — through the beta process and beyond. Here are a few thoughts on how I’m using OmniFocus to get more out of my day.
The Discipline of In When I think of something I need to do, I head to Inbox. I add items here because often I’ll think of something else that needs adding as well. As a writer I know it’s important to separate the act of creating content from editing it.
The same is true for me in OmniFocus. Capturing something is not the same as classifying or shaping it. The most important thing is for me to capture the essence of what I need to do. These aren’t single actions — they’re things that need doing.
I might add items to Inbox like:. Father’s Day card for Dad. Article for Omni.
OmniFocus is a task management app for iOS devices with powerful organization options. Its newest update, OmniFocus 3, aims to make managing your responsibilities more efficient than ever. OmniFocus developer The Omni Group announced today in a blog post that a new update is currently rolling out.
Laundry. Reschedule Dentist Getting Things Out of In Items cannot sit in your Inbox very long. I like to assign a tag and a due date as soon as possible. If I have an estimated time I will add it as well so I have a sense of how big a task this is. At this point I may retitle the item so it is a clear action, and I might even break it up into smaller steps.
For example, “Article for Omni” may become:. Outline article for Omni. Write article for Omni. Edit article for Omni. Submit article for Omni I may create a new project for this called “Omni Article” or I may just add it to my “Writing” project. On the other hand, I may just create an action for the first step in what might be a multi-step activity. For example, “Father’s Day card for Dad” might become “Make Father’s Day Card for Dad.” When I’m done making it and I mark that task as complete, I will likely add “Mail Father’s Day Card to Dad” as a new action.
I probably wouldn’t break the task up initially. Also, I’m probably not going to create a “Father’s Day Card” project.
Omnifocus For Pc
I’ll probably add this to my “Pending” project, which is a catch-all for projects without a name. I need a project so that these items are out of my Inbox — my Inbox needs to stay empty. The last couple of tasks in this hypothetical Inbox are “Laundry” and “Reschedule Dentist.” I’d probably move “Laundry” to the “Pending” project — and then I’d just call my Dentist to reschedule, and then mark it completed. Due Okay, say it’s a week before Father’s Day, and I want to write the card today, but it really isn’t due until Thursday. I absolutely need to have it done by Thursday. Before OmniFocus 3 I had two different techniques. One was to set the due date to today.
The problem was that if I don’t get it done today, I could just advance the due date to tomorrow. In other words, the due date wasn’t really a due date. The other technique was to flag the items that are due today. That’s fine — but how do I indicate which activities are really important, if I’m flagging the things I want to do today? With OmniFocus 3 I create a new tag named “Today.” I assign the “Today” tag to the “Make Father’s Day Card for Dad” task and set the due date to Thursday.
In the view options for Forecast, I’ve included the tag “Today” — and now all items tagged “Today” will appear in my Forecast view. Important vs. Urgent The thing I like the most about this technique is I can separate the items that are important from the items that need to be done in the next day or so.
Here are the guidelines I’m using:. Use the “Today” tag to indicate things that you’d like to do today. Use the Due Date for the actual due date and OmniFocus will indicate when you are running out of time.
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Use a flag to mark items that are most important to you. Multiple Tags In OmniFocus 3 you can assign multiple tags to a single item. You could add the tag “Home Desk” to “Make Father’s Day Card for Dad.” This labels one task on two orthogonal axes. One tag indicates I’d like to do it today, and the other indicates that I need to be at my home desk to do it. Multiple tags also allows me to take an activity that can be performed on either my iPad or Mac and tag it with both. So I can have three tags assigned to “Outline article for Omni”: “Writing,” “iPad,” and “Mac.” So if I’m on my iPad or Mac and am ready to do some writing, this is a task I’ll reach for. Review At the end of the day I like to take a last look at Forecast for the current day.
I look at the “Today” items that I didn’t get done. They will automatically be highlighted tomorrow in Forecast.
I look at each one and ask some questions: Is there a reason it didn’t get done today? Does this lack of completion indicate that I should remove the task, or should I reprioritize it? Is the due date coming up? Should I defer it for a few days (and remove the “Today” tag)? Then I take a quick look through the “Pending” tasks.
Do any of them need to be removed? Do any of them need to be tagged “Today” so I do them tomorrow? Once a week I review all of the other projects — but each day I review “Pending” and “Today.” Now You I will likely continue to evolve this workflow as I get more comfortable with all that OmniFocus 3 can do. Let me know what workflow is working for you! Daniel Steinberg is a specializing in iOS and Swift programming.
He blogs at and is on Twitter. He also plays Slide Advance Keyboard for live shows.
New with iOS 12, the Siri Shortcuts feature helps you be more productive by analyzing the way you use certain apps on your device. OmniFocus 3.1 for iOS brings support for Siri Shortcuts to your iOS device and Apple Watch.
OmniFocus with Siri Shortcuts requires iOS 12 or later and OmniFocus 3.1 for iOS or later. Siri Shortcuts on the Siri watch face for Apple Watch requires watchOS 5 or later. With Siri Shortcuts, as you use OmniFocus in various ways (create new items, complete repeating tasks, or browse to different perspectives, for example), Siri keeps track of your actions and starts suggesting activities based on your common use patterns. You don’t have to manually configure anything to use Siri Shortcuts. By using OmniFocus as you normally would, suggestions for these activities can appear in Spotlight, on the lock screen, and in Siri & Search settings all by themselves. Voice Activated Shortcuts To make your most frequently used shortcuts even easier to use, you can set up Siri voice commands for them using Siri & Search settings in the iOS Settings app. First, open Siri & Search settings.
If you’ve been using iOS 12 for a little while, you may see some suggested shortcuts at the top. If you don’t see any shortcuts yet, don’t worry—after using OmniFocus for a little while, suggested shortcuts will start to appear. You can also tap All Shortcuts for a list of those you use less frequently, or scroll down to OmniFocus in the app list of Siri & Search settings to view a full list of recent shortcuts to choose from. When you see a shortcut you’d like to set up with Siri, tap it to open the Add to Siri voice recorder. Record a phrase, and it appears in the My Shortcuts section at the top of Siri & Search settings. Now, whenever you talk to Siri you can use the phrase you recorded to perform the shortcut in OmniFocus.
If you don’t see any OmniFocus shortcuts in Siri & Search after using the app on iOS 12 for awhile, check to make sure you have OmniFocus 3.1 or later installed. If you do, scroll down to the app list in Siri & Search settings and make sure OmniFocus has the right permissions: Search, Suggestions & Shortcuts, Use with Siri. If it doesn’t, tap the row to turn them on.
Shortcuts in OmniFocus Settings As an alternative to setting up voice shortcuts in iOS Siri & Search settings, you can use the Shortcuts section of OmniFocus Settings to add voice commands that open your OmniFocus perspectives. Tap the Shortcuts row for a list of your OmniFocus perspectives (with OmniFocus Pro, this includes any custom perspectives that you have created). Tap a perspective to open the Add to Siri voice recorder and create a shortcut that works the same as those described above. OmniFocus and the Siri Watch Face With watchOS 5, OmniFocus can use Siri Shortcuts to suggest relevant activities that appear on the Siri face of your Apple Watch.
As with shortcuts on iOS, these suggestions occur automatically based on how you use the app and your watch. No special configuration is required. If watchOS decides that other activities are taking precedence over OmniFocus, those will be presented on the Siri face instead. OmniFocus has no direct control over what appears on the Siri watch face. If OmniFocus activities aren’t appearing at all, you can check to make sure the app is being used as a data source for shortcuts.
Add Siri to My Faces from the Face Gallery in the bottom bar of the iOS Watch app. In the Watch app, tap to open the Siri watch face in My Watch. Scroll down to 3rd Party Apps.
Omnifocus Mac
Check to see that OmniFocus is listed and turned on. If OmniFocus doesn’t appear in the list of 3rd Party Apps, check to make sure you have OmniFocus 3.1 or later and your device is running iOS 12. If the list of 3rd Party Apps doesn’t appear at all, check to make sure your Apple Watch is running watchOS 5 or later. As long as OmniFocus is turned on as a data source for your Siri watch face, Siri will suggest relevant shortcuts based on how you use OmniFocus and your Apple Watch. WatchOS controls what it considers relevant behind the scenes, so it may take a little while to display your first OmniFocus-related suggestion. Last Modified: Sep 18, 2018.