Global Filtering or Multiple Accounts for Work/Personal

OmniFocus
#1

I use OmniFocus for both work and personal tasks. The number of work tasks far exceeds the number of personal tasks, which means when I want to look at only non-work tasks it can be a bit of a chore. Of course I’m well aware of Perspectives and use them extensively. However, I’d also like to be able to use Forecast for both home and work.

At work, I can Focus on a top-level group containing all projects, but there’s no equivalent to Focus on everything except a certain item. Also, this only works on the Mac, not on iOS, where there would be more benefit. What would be perfect for me is a toggle to switch between “Work Mode” and “Personal Mode” that will either focus on or hide certain projects. There’s another option that would also solve this: multiple accounts.

This is definitely a complex feature no matter how it’s implemented, probably something that, if it is considered, could be a 3.x Pro feature. I’m curious what everyone else thinks and/or if this is already under consideration.

2 Likes
#2

Love the idea and also wish it was implemented. This was a big feature I miss in a competitors app. It actually went as far as geofencing a location and when you entered it, filtered for only work stuff, etc.

#3

I just have top-level groupings for Work and Personal, then created a perspective that’s focused on Work, with these settings:

  • Don’t use project hierarchy
  • Group actions by Due
  • Sort actions by Defer Date

It doesn’t have calendar items like Forecast but otherwise gives more or less the same results (on Mac and iOS).

#4

I prefer the inline calendars within the Forecast view, so it’s not a perfect solution for me. I do like the Sort by Defer Date option, though. I had it sorted by project but there are some advantages to both methods.

#5

I have been doing this for years. Just set up a folder hierarchy. I have multiple top folders.

  • work
  • Personal
  • multimedia (movies / music etc)
  • Business
  • Linux

with these folders and creating perspectives I am able to use the work or personal. I chose to split out Media because I also keep track of dates for my favorite shows and to remind me when the episodes are recorded.

#6

One thing folder hierarchy and Perspectives doesn’t allow is allow hiding work-related items from Forecast, Flagged, or Review.

#7

Totally agree with this request and wish for it as wel. NirvanaHQ does this very well. There is a global drop down from which you can select from your defined areas of focus. It is exactly what you describe…a global filter. On MacOS OF I can accomplish pretty much the same using AppleScript. I have 3 scripts which represent my top levels (work, personal etc). Running the script sets the respective focus. The benefit of this is that I don’t need redundant contexts for each area (example work waiting, personal waiting etc). Just 1 waiting perspective which shows me the appropriate items based on focus.

Sadly This all falls apart on IOS.