Best way to record a timestamp + notes from a client call w OF2?

OmniFocus OmniFocus for Mac
#1

Coming from Daylite I’m used to just hit a short key to automatically record date and time (timestamp) for when a client call starts and ends. And also easily enter some notes about the client call for future reference for the client project and to maybe be broken down into todo’s and appointments etc

I know OF2 is not a CRM, but is there any way to do something similar to the above in OF2?

Tried:

  1. Create a new task that creates a timestamp of the start.
  2. Enter some notes, when done (task closed) also gives a timestamp w end time.

So far so good, but when I go back to the note to add / edit my notes, OF2 updates the end time again (which is totally correct under normal circumstances).

Any suggestions or tips?
How have you solved this in OF2 or do you use another CRM in conjunction w OF2 (if so, which)?

#2

You’ve probably already considered it, but an easy recommendation is to throw another app into the mix (Evernote, DEVONthink Pro Office, etc.) which can provide a repository for support material (which is the GTD category I think about when hearing “client calls” rather than the tasks that precede and follow a client call. You could also just save some text files to Dropbox, etc.

If you want to stay inside of OmniFocus and retain some reference information alongside your tasks, you might consider a project for each of your recurring clients. Then, in the notes panel for the project heading (different from a task within the project), you can keep running notes using the timestamp function built into OmniFocus.

#3

Thank’s for the suggestions.
I’ve used Daylite CRM for everything before (and old versions of OF and 2Do before that) to handle this. But I finally came back to OF2 since Daylite constantly crashed and generally misbehaved badly plus the UI/UX is from the last decade…

So no, I think I’ll try and find some smart way of using OF2 instead. Will check out your suggestion, but in the end I might end up writing my own AppleScript for this. Maybe someone already done this - have to check the forum.

Since I’m new to OF2 (but not OF) I’m in a learning curve now to reacquaint myself to OF2 again and will probably pick up good user tips along the way of manuals and youtube videos. Maybe you got some suggestions in this educational direction to (sorry for the off topic)?

#4

I use a text expander called Typinator. You can easily set up a macro for a timestamp so you can quickly insert it anywhere by entering a short code. I’ve set up 'ts ’ (t-s-space) for this job. Well worth the money. Other tools may offer this type of functionality as well, but I’m not familiar with them.

#5

Good tip @bartv. But I’m trying to do it just inside OF2 without external apps…

#6

Here’s a link that might be of interest.

1 Like
#7

@TheWart, I like Eddies thoughts on this in the link. Especially his ““don’t think about where to put it, just get it down” place.” and that it always get reviewed almost every day and things that don’t belong get deleted. Also, had not even thought about using the inbox to quick capture dresses etc (for later process).

Regarding this I have, this time around w OF2, decided on a basic rutin below. And I expect that over time this will take less and less time to do;

  1. Every morning do a “brain dump” into OF2 Inbox (aprx 30m).
  2. Every Friday morning do a review of all projects (aprx 2h).

But I’m still searching for best way to take fast notes w auto timestamp…

#8

Why not have a “call notes” task in either your “Clients” project or a running note in the note field in your “ClientX project” and use the timestamp function built into OF (linked in my first response)?

Personally, I use TextExpander that allows multiple date formats and works in almost every text input in OS X.