I mainly use OmniFocus on watchOS for adding new items without having to fish my phone out of my pocket.
Is there a way to set the complication to open directly into Add Item?
Currently it’s kind of fiddly to get there.
Tap complication
Long press to get to New Item button
Press New item button
Three gestures to get there is a fair amount of friction to capture an item.
(And since I’m usually out walking when this happens, the long press is sometimes an accidental short tap that drills down to a list, adding another accidental step.)
There isn’t currently a way to configure the OmniFocus complication to directly trigger a capture. I could see this being useful and encourage you to share this request with Omni.
In the meantime, consider using Siri in combination with OmniFocus’ Reminders integration to add tasks using your watch. For example, if your OmniFocus is associated with a Reminders list called “OmniFocus”, you could invoke Siri and say something like “Add Phone John about TPS report to my OmniFocus list”.
I also experimented with using Shortcuts to add dictated text to OmniFocus (watchOS 7/iOS 14).
Specifically, I created a Shortcut called “Dictate to OmniFocus” and added it as a complication. When I tapped on it I get a “Run” button. And when the Shortcut is complete I ended up in the Shortcuts app. I could still see this being a useful in some circumstances (e.g. adding an action to a specific project with tags applied), but the Reminders integration is likely more useful for simple captures.
On a side note, I typically use my Apple Watch to capture into Drafts instead of OmniFocus. This is more convenient as the Drafts complication can be configured for “Auto-capture” (i.e. one tap capture). This also allows me to triage things that I’ve captured and decide what belongs in OmniFocus and what’s best kept elsewhere. For example, something like “Phone John about TPS report” would be added to OmniFocus, but a detail associated with some content I’m developing may be added to the MindNode document associated with this content.
You’re very welcome, @dempsey. Good to hear this was helpful!
I have tried Siri dictation a few times, but I always seem to get tongue tied adding the “to my OmniFocus list” phrase with varying results.
Consider prefixing what you’re adding with “Add to OmniFocus list”.
For example, you could invoke Siri and say “Add to OmniFocus list Phone John about TPS report”. The first part (“Add to OmniFocus list”) lets Siri know that you want to add something to the OmniFocus list in Reminders and the second part (“Phone John about TPS report”) specifies what to add.
I just set up siri to send anything in my Reminders inbox to the OF inbox, so I just have to say “Hey Siri, remind me to do stuff” and it’ll add “do stuff” to the inbox.
There’s a support page about setting this up in OF2 that should still work.
I just set up siri to send anything in my Reminders inbox to the OF inbox, so I just have to say “Hey Siri, remind me to do stuff” and it’ll add “do stuff” to the inbox.
If the Reminders list you specify in OmniFocus is the same as your default Reminders list, there isn’t any need to specify the list after invoking Siri.
I decided to use a non-default Reminders list for OmniFocus as I still use the Reminders app for simple reminders (e.g. “Hey Siri - Remind me to take clothes out of the dryer at 3 pm”).
I would love this to be easier, I sent feedback about this to OmniGroup today.
I prefer using the OF watch app add new item feature, as it allows me to talk at length, as well as pause to gather my thoughts. Siri cuts me off if I pause or go on too long.
Yes, I’ve tried that as well with mixed results. Part of it is that I don’t use the feature every day, so it’s likely I’ve forgotten the exact phrase I should use. Part of it is sometimes Siri doesn’t seem to understand what “Add to OmniFocus list” means, or asks me which list, or some other thing which makes me stop thinking about what I’m trying not to forget and think about trying to make Siri do what I want.
I’ve had the best and most consistent results with Add Item in the OmniFocus complication. I just wish I could get to it with a tap from the watch face.
