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Omnifocus as a Tool for Lists, not Tasks
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Posted by Beck
Mar 22, 2019 at 01:56 AM
IIRC you’re using a MTN, yes? Does that factor in your paper system?
Paul Korm wrote:
>I’m not sure. No software I’ve used seems like “it”.
Sigh.
Posted by avernet
Mar 22, 2019 at 04:36 AM
Beck wrote:
>So I presume you are still using it this way even though you experience
>its shortcomings? Or have you migrated your notes away from your tasks
>in some other system?
I’m still using OmniFocus, but have, since the beginning of last year, switched to using notes more extensively:
- In the “projects” part of the system, all the project-reference-material now takes the form of nested bullets in a note for the project. As a result, the only actions in the project really are for next actions.
- In the “reference” part of the system, I try to put as much as possible (and makes sense) in notes as well. So where before I might have had an action with say 5 nested actions, each with 5 nested actions, I would now have those 5+5*5 items as lines of text in the note of an action.
In notes, I use nested “bullet points” using a Markdown syntax. The upside is that this reduces the number of actions in the system by a factor somewhere between 10x and 100x, making some operations, like browsing and searching, possible again on the iPhone. The downside is that using Markdown as an outlining tool is at times just painful: I don’t get any folding, and have to copy the text to a text editor to perform some operations, like indenting or moving blocks. And there is some irony in having to do all this gymnastic with notes in OmniFocus, which is otherwise a quite competent outliner.
So again, I’m not sure that using notes this way is something that I would recommend.
If you or anyone has any suggestion on how to improve this, I’m listening!
‑Alex
Posted by MadaboutDana
Mar 22, 2019 at 09:43 AM
My wife and business partner - an exceedingly busy, well organised and multitasking person - writes her tasks down on paper. And gets through an awful lot.
As a software-oriented person, I now use DynaList (my Great Numbers Experiment having failed!). Which, as its name suggests, does lists supremely well.
I use tags for my GTD-based task organisation, but also store notes, references etc. in subsections of my main task list. For major projects, I use separate lists, but include references from my main list.
I don’t attach files, however - at the moment, you can’t attach files. A better list manager (on macOS, iOS) from that point of view would be Things 3.
I’ve become very attached to DynaList, and can’t see myself moving any time soon!
Posted by Paul Korm
Mar 22, 2019 at 10:46 AM
Beck wrote
>using an MTN
For my daily check list I use cheapo 3 x 2.5 Oxford Ruled index cards that I buy at the grocery store. $4 for 200 cards. Couldn’t be more retro and old school than that. I like small cards because I have to be terse and cannot pile on actions.
Though, I recently found a nifty Grids & Guides pocket notebook from Princeton Architectural Press that is calling my name.
Bill wrote
>DynaList
I’ve experimented with DynaList recently and like much about it. Many shortcomings though: I cannot see how to split a document. When a list of checkboxes has numerous finished items cannot easily hide them. Tags autocomplete is good, but the app only remembers tags in the current document—doesn’t offer autocomplete suggestions from a universal app-wide list of tags, defeating the purpose of autocomplete. DynaList support isn’t. They never respond to questions (including ignoring most of what users write in their forum).
Posted by Stephen Zeoli
Mar 22, 2019 at 11:07 AM
You can have universal auto complete of tags. It is an option in the settings dialog.
Paul Korm wrote:
>
>Tags autocomplete is good, but the app only remembers tags in the
>current document—doesn’t offer autocomplete suggestions from a
>universal app-wide list of tags, defeating the purpose of autocomplete.
> DynaList support isn’t. They never respond to questions (including
>ignoring most of what users write in their forum).
>
>