Simplicity Is Bliss

Moom - Windows Management I use BetterSnapTool for Windows...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:44:07 +0100

Moom - Windows Management

I use BetterSnapTool for Windows management and am quite happy with it. But when I saw Macdrifter posting about Moom yesterday, I was intrigued by both it’s functionality and it’s clean design. What looks interesting in particular is the ability to save certain window layouts like I have iCal, Mail.app and OmniFocus always arranged in a certain way on my ‘Productivity’ desktop.

'Creating Flow with OmniFocus' audiobook by Kourosh Dini

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:24:23 +0100

'Creating Flow with OmniFocus' audiobook by Kourosh Dini:

Kourosh Dini has turned his popular ebook ‘Creating Flow with OmniFocus’ into an audiobook, which is now available for purchase on his website.

I can only recommend Kourosh’s book and you should buy and read it. He covers many aspects of OmniFocus and gets you setup right. The book I am working on will be different and not focussing too much on how to get started.

The problem with daily todo lists

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0100

Every morning I sit down to plan my day. I first look at my calendar to see how many meetings and conference calls fill my day and how much time is left to do other work.

Many consider conference calls, meetings and at times even email as disruptions of their actual work. I came to understand that these things are part of my work as well. I try to manage them and balance them with the creative and intellectual work I need and want to do, but they are ultimately part of my work.

When I went through my calendar, I estimate how much time is left and try to figure out how much work I can fit into it.

What happens next is that I go to my OmniFocus ‘Next Actions’ perspective and scan through the list, trying to pick actions that I feel are important and urgent and that would fit into the time available. Looking at actions being due (and often overdue) is the other check that is performed every morning.

Next time I look up is in the evening and I come to realise that I haven’t even done half of the actions I lined up for myself. This remains frustrating, yet happens in scaring, regular intervals. Sounds familiar? I bet it does.

What really screws up your daily todo list

I am still trying to find a way out of this dilemma, but I realise that there are at least three factors that screw my daily todo list:

A false sense of priority
A false sense of time and effort
Ignorance of the unavoidable

None of these is easily fixed and unfortunately your trusted productivity software doesn’t have a ‘build right and realistic daily todo list’-button for it either.

Urgent, urgent, super-urgent

How do we chose the actions we plan for the day?

First we look at what we need to absolutely do because there is a deadline (or it has even past) or someone is waiting for you and is “screaming” really loud.

Second we look at what we really, really should be doing. We feel guilty because we haven’t made any progress with a particular project. Commitments we have made with ourselves or to others return to our mind when we scan our lists.

Third and last we evaluate what we can quickly fit into the day somewhere. Sure you’ll find time for this short call, and there will be a few minutes between these two meetings to send that brief email.

As a result you actually don’t get to some tasks as they don’t fulfil any of the above criteria. Often these are tasks that are important but not urgent and that require a longer period of focus to complete.

Stephen Covey addresses this issue in his book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ using habit #3:

Put First Things First Plan, prioritise, and execute your week’s tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you toward goals, and enrich the roles and relationships. Source: Wikipedia

Getting efforts estimated correctly

OmniFocus offers a field where you can add an effort estimation for each project or task. While I don’t use it as I don’t want another field to be filled and maintained, others use it intensively to help them building realistic workload for the day.

Dan Byler, who has contributed to the OmniFocus community many fold, even wrote a script that adds up time of the currently selected tasks to help you understand if it’s a realistic package to work on.

However, the problem isn’t necessarily in entering the time you believe a task requires, it’s your own overconfidence in what is achievable and your misconception of how long it takes.

Westheimer’s rule, which you’ll find often referenced in the context of project planning, gives you a feeling of how far off you are:

Estimate the time you think it will take, multiply by 2, and add 3.

And this is pretty much true. If you think responding to that email takes five minutes, 13 minutes is more likely. You may need to look something up, someone calls you halfway through composing the email or your energy is low requiring you to re-read the original email three times before you know what you need to respond.

There is another version of Westheimer’s rule that suggests to ‘multiply by 2 and move to next time unit’. Basically you go from minutes to hours and from days to weeks. While this is maybe taking things a bit too far, it can actually take weeks instead of days until you get to a specific task.

Your day always turns out different

In particular different to what you thought it would look like. When we build our daily todo list we pretend to live in a vacuum where:

We don’t need to eat
We don’t take a (coffee) break
Never experience low energy
No one ever calls/texts/IMs us and interrupts our current work
No manager drops by and puts something new, important and urgent on our pile
There are never crisis situations with a customer

And we all know this vacuum doesn’t exist unless you check into a monastery in Tuscany, Italy.

Five non-surefire tips how to fix your daily todo list

I am not going to BS you with the five things you need to do to have a bullet-proof daily todo list as I am still improving myself. But here are some ideas to look at.

1. Remember your goals

Always go back to your goals and what is really important. You can create a Single-Action List in OmniFocus that has only your top 3-5 goals as actions. Flag them or make them due, so they always display on top of your daily todo perspective. Get them on top by making sure the goals Single-Action List is right at the top of your hierarchy in the OmniFocus library and no other sorting filters are active in the perspective’s view bar.

2. Get your daily todos outside of OmniFocus

Writing your daily todos down or moving them into another application triggers additional reflection which helps you determining importance and effort involved. Use a Moleskine or Field Notes notebook, the printable CEO series Emergent Task Planner or just a simple sheet of paper. Simple todo applications as the new and hyped Clear iPhone app by Real Mac Software can also come in handy.

3. Use Westheimer’s rule for time estimation

If you rely on time estimates for tasks and projects, start using Westheimer’s rule (“Estimate the time you think it will take, multiply by 2, and add 3”) when you enter the time you estimate for the activity. Make sure, when planning your day in the morning, to also consider tip #4.

4. Plan in time for interruptions, lunch, social interactions and low energy

You can’t really plan your day. But consider the time you will need to catch up with email, get something to eat and socialise a bit with your colleagues or friends. Recognise that there a periods during the day when your energy is low. You can still do things — I keep those in my ‘brain-dead’-context in OmniFocus — but if you only line up activities that require you to operate in the 80-100% range, you’re bound to be disappointed with the actual accomplishments at the end of the day.

5. Don’t do a daily todo list. Period.

Daniel Markovitz wrote about an interesting approach in his recent post titled “To-Do Lists Don’t Work” on the HBR blog . While the general dislike of lists demonstrated is something I don’t agree with, the idea of living in your calendar as described by Daniel intrigues me. Instead of creating a daily to-do list, you can just blog time in your calendar for specific tasks. This also nicely addresses tip three and four.

The other alternative — following the good, old and still valid GTD methodology for ‘Doing’ — is to only work with your ‘Next Actions’ list and nothing else. Evaluate it by context, time and energy and you should know what you should be doing.

Linking to Mail.app mailboxes from OmniFocus

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:11:10 +0100

Linking to Mail.app mailboxes from OmniFocus:

The notes field in OmniFocus is got for more than just text. My daily routine article had some suggestions about how to link in applications, folders or documents to OmniFocus tasks or projects.

Christopher Mackay’s post covers a very specific use of the note field.

With some Finder magic, as explained by Christopher, you can access individual mailboxes of Mail.app and link to them direct in OmniFocus. Checking you spam inbox once a day as illustrated in the post is only one possibility.

Chrome URL to OmniFocus task

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:02:36 +0100

Chrome URL to OmniFocus task:

Nice little hack from Aaron Hockley

Next time you’re on a web page in Chrome and want to create a related OmniFocus task, just invoke the OmniURL item from Alfred (you could also set a hotkey). A new item will be created in your OmniFocus inbox with the page’s title as the item text and the URL in the notes field.

While leveraging Alfred, the solution is based on this AppleScript hosted on github and should also work with other launchers.

Better repeat options in new OmniFocus for Mac Sneaky Peek

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:41:00 +0100

Better repeat options in new OmniFocus for Mac Sneaky Peek:

Something many OmniFocus users have been waiting for.

Repeat every weekday.

Or repeat every weekend day.

Or every Tuesday and Thursday

Or …?

If you set up a “repeat every” action and choose a week-based interval, you can now pick which days of the week it should happen on.

More options to come in a future release and subsequently feature parity in OmniFocus for iPad and iPhone. However, you should be safe to view projects & actions on your iPad and iPhone already.

Please be aware of the nature of sneaky peek release - they are beta and there is risk to your data.

Clipping about everything into OmniFocus Michael Schechter...

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:07:29 +0100

Clipping about everything into OmniFocus

Michael Schechter recorded a screencasts that demonstrates the OmniFocus quick entry and particular the flexible OmniFocus clipping capabilities in full affect. Michael demos clipping of files from Finder, text from Byword, web links from Safari, email message from Gmail (using Mailplane) and the less straight forward linkage of Evernote notes. I can assure you that the OmniFocus Clipper works way beyond the demoed applications.

A Brief History of the To-Do List and the Psychology of Its Success

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:03:18 +0100

A Brief History of the To-Do List and the Psychology of Its Success:

But the list, it turns out, might also be the origin of both our highest happiness and our dreariest dissatisfaction.

Yep. Great write-up and apparently an interesting book, which goes a bit deeper than “6 reasons why your todo list doesn’t work” posts.

Getting down to work on my OmniFocus eBook

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:42:00 +0100

I have posted late last year that I want to publish an ebook about OmniFocus for Mac in 2012. Throughout the last months I pondered what approach I will take to make the book as useful as possible to as many as possible readers.

Real-life examples and use cases

After querying my dear Twitter followers it became clear that people are mostly curious how others use OmniFocus to get work done. Of course many are also looking for little tips & tricks, AppleScript goodness and integration with other applications, which I will cover as well.

But first and foremost I want to share real-life examples and use cases of OmniFocus. While many authors focus on the ‘best’ use, which is surprisingly close to how they use an application themselves, I quickly realised that if I want to provide a variety of possible usage, I would need to go beyond my own horizon.

That why have decided to invite anyone who wants to contribute to share their use cases and workflows with me, so I can reflect them in the book. If you are a manager in a big cooperation like myself, an application developer, a freelance photographer or the coach of a youth soccer team, the way you put OmniFocus to work will differ.

The place you use OmniFocus, other applications that determine your workflow and whether you work more on your own, with a team or cross-functional equally influence your setup.

Help me by contributing

Those of you that want to contribute can subscribe to my contributor mailing list as of today. The mailing list will be exclusively used to query you about different aspects of OmniFocus in a structured way. Starting from folder structures to how you use single action lists, name projects or use dates, I’d love to get as much as input as possible.

I already like to thank everyone that is willing to share since you will be the ones that will make this project ultimately possible. Unless explicitly agreed otherwise everything you share will remain anonymous.

Subscribers will also have the chance to get some sneak peeks of the book and provide early feedback to me.

Timed with OmniFocus for Mac 2.0 release

My intention is, if at all possible, to time the publication of the book with the release of OmniFocus for Mac 2.0. While the kind folks of OmniGroup support me with my project, there is some uncertainty around it since I respect OmniGroup’s philosophy to not ship a new version on a specific date but once it is ready.

Don’t query me on the release date or what features and functionalities will be in OmniFocus for Mac 2.0 because I simply don’t know (yet) and once I know I won’t share it.

The new version will certainly change some of the use cases and examples, but I will try to factor this into the writing process as good as I can.

Let me invite you to subscribe to the OmniFocus ebook contributor mailing list now. Thank you so much!

The forgotten tool: OS X Automator in MacPowerUsers podcast I...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0100

The forgotten tool: OS X Automator in MacPowerUsers podcast

I need to admit I haven’t looked at the little robot in my Utilities folder for a very long time. Yet you can still do a truck load of useful things with it. In particular if you aren’t willing to learn AppleScript or even more nerdier things.

Katie Floyd and David Sparks are joined by Automator expert Ben Waldie who has many tips and tricks for you. You should check his website on Mac automation as well.

Automator is definitely something I will go back to and leverage more after listing to this episode of Mac Power Users. Unfortunately OmniFocus does not (yet) expose any Automator functions, but OmniOutliner as an example does.

And yes, I know this was already three episode ago, but I am as behind on things as you are.

The happy secret of better work

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:25:00 +0100

Yet again an amazing TED talk. While I went numb on the endless stream of life hacking tips and ‘how to be happier’-guides long time ago, this isn’t resembling any of the typical, slightly esoteric waffling.

Not only does Shawn Anchor deliver a very entertaining and energised talk, he actually knows what he is talking about. I truly believe you can rewire your brain to demonstrate a more positive attitude like you can change any habit. But you need to see it through and establish automatisms to make it stick.

Shawn suggest something very simple, which he has proven in his engagements with companies and schools. For 21 days in a row:

Write down three things you are grateful for (different ones each day)
Journal about one positive experience each day
The first email you write every morning should be thanking someone for whatever he or she did yesterday
Exercise each day (doesn’t only help with attitude also with belly)
Meditate each day

I highly recommend watching his talk! Even if you aren’t interested in habit changes or being happy, you’ll be at least entertained quite a bit for 12 minutes.

Use Case: How I use OmniFocus to organise my life

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:57:30 +0100

Use Case: How I use OmniFocus to organise my life:

In his post from October 2010 Tyler Hall provides some insights into how he uses OmniFocus on a daily basis to “get shit done”. While the post obviously is a few days old, it remains inspiring how people put OmniFocus to work in the context of their individual lives, jobs and hats they wear.

I have recently decided that my planned OmniFocus ebook will centre around real-life use cases describing how people put the application to work for themselves. Over the coming weeks I will try to collect as much input and inspiration from all the well-known and less-known OmniFocus users out there and would appreciate any support I can get.

Watch out for more insights how different people use OmniFocus on real-life.

Adding actions to OmniFocus from Terminal

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:47:35 +0100

Adding actions to OmniFocus from Terminal:

A while ago the great Brett Terpstra, well known for his Markdown tools, has released a Command Line Interface (CLI) tool for adding tasks to OmniFocus. It’s not straight forward to setup as you need to install a few Ruby gems first. If the last sentence sounds like from a different planet, this tool isn’t exactly for you. If you know Ruby, gems and Scripting Bridges, you may actually also have a use case for CLI tool that adds you stuff to OmniFocus.

Hi, great post on the "Daily Review" a while ago. I'd really like to try the "Verify that next actions exist for all projects"-Script You mentioned, but the page where You found it is no linger online. Do You have it (the script) in handy, perhaps?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:21:02 +0100

Sorry to hear the link is broken. Please find the ‘Verify if Next Action Exists’ script for download here. I need to mention that I no longer use the script myself as OmniFocus view bar options now include a ‘Stalled’ filter for projects that does about the same thing.

How do I script the OF database? is there a published object model, or do i have to reverse engineer this myself?

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:16:40 +0100

To my knowledge there is no documented object model for OmniFocus’ database. I understand it is accessible with SQL queries and if you take a look at some of Rob Trew’s scripts on the OmniFocus forums, you will find some hints how to interact with it. Rob is the only one I have seen so far directly accessing OmniFocus’ database in his scripts.

However, as a word of caution, it is clearly not designed for 3rd party interaction (otherwise there would be an API), and you may get yourself and your data into trouble. Make a backup before hacking away.

More on TextExpander and OmniFocus David Sparks, a man of many...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:09:00 +0100

More on TextExpander and OmniFocus

David Sparks, a man of many trades and fellow blogger, picked up on my recent screencast about combining TextExpander and OmniFocus, and posted one himself. He definitely has some time-saving snippets for OmniFocus on the Mac, which he also made available for download in his original post.

In his post he also covers the use of iOS text shortcuts for similar applicaton in OmniFocus for iPhone and iPad. Something I haven’t got to use yet, but if David uses it, I better should as well.

Export a list of active OmniFocus projects to a text file

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:46:00 +0100

Export a list of active OmniFocus projects to a text file:

Not really sure why I didn’t post about it here, but Justin Lancy of Veritrope scripting fame has picked up on a tweet of mine asking for help exporting a list of all active projects in OmniFocus. His script takes it as far as an alphabetically sorted text file you can save to any location you chose. While I originally wanted an export to OmniOutliner, I believe this solution is more universal and I can find my own way from here.

My use case for this list is my Weekly Review. I like having a simple overview of all my current commitments to see if I am focussing in the right direction. Getting a similar one page overview in OmniFocus is difficult and highly depends on the theme you are using.

Update: Chris Brogan with help from OmniFocus scripting legend Rob Trew extended the script to generate a weekly report. It groups projects by folders and sub-folders, skips single action lists and also shows all items completed in the last 7 days. Chris actually uses it to send a report to his boss. If you need more sophistication then this script is for you.

Quick Entry for OmniFocus on iPad & iPhone

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:01:05 +0100

Quick Entry for OmniFocus on iPad & iPhone:

Great post in the OmniFocus forums about creating a better and faster capturing workflow for OmniFocus on iOS (works for iPad and iPhone). It makes use of the OmniFocus URL scheme, which triggers the Quick Entry when you add enter ‘omnifocus:///add’ into Mobile Safari.

Adding in some magic by iShortCuts and you’ll have a one-click-to-capture experience straight from your iPad’s/iPhone’s home screen.

Better OmniFocus integration with GMail by Mailplane

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:19:46 +0100

Better OmniFocus integration with GMail by Mailplane:

The popular Mac OS X desktop client for GoogleMail, Mailplane, has been updated to v2.5.5 and sports a significantly improved integration with OmniFocus now. Get the latest version of Mailplane and download the OmniFocus plug-in.

The plug-in allows you select text within an email and invoke the OmniFocus quick entry, populated with the selected text in the notes field as well as a link back to the email in Mailplane. Read the installation documentation

Using TextExpander and OmniFocus for tracking actions &...

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:00:05 +0100

Using TextExpander and OmniFocus for tracking actions & projects

In this short screencast I am demonstrating how I use TextExpander inside of OmniFocus to track projects, which I have delegated and where I don’t want to track individual actions.

Basically all these projects are tracked as individual entries in a Single Action List called ‘Delegated Projects’ and I use the note field and TextExpander to capture easy to read status updates. I get these updates either through weekly status calls or meetings I have with the project owners or via email.

Whenever I am asked to provide an update myself or meet anyone associated with the project, I can quickly and easily engage on the subject.

I also use TextExpander to capture single Waiting For actions I record during meetings or calls. TextExpander helps me to reduce the time and the typing required to capture these while I still want to follow and remain engaged in the conversation. Querying my Twitter followers that seems to be the most common use case amongst them as well.