I am just starting out my GTD journey with OmniFocus 2 (standard edition) and I’m struggling to come up with a view of tasks I want to do today. With the Pro version, there is the “Today” perspective - but I’m unable to upgrade at this moment.
Any ideas/suggestions on how to get something similar to the “Today” perspective ? What do you use for this specific need? I’d appreciate any help.
You can do a Google search for OmniFocus Today perspective. That should get you want you need.
But here is one way to make a “Today” workflow:
The idea is that you put due dates on items that need to be done on or before a certain date. Put due dates only on tasks that must be completed by a certain date. Otherwise, dire consequences will occur. Paying my taxes before Tax Day (April 15th in the U.S.) or buying a birthday present for my wife are two things that have due dates.
Then you can flag a handful of tasks that are not due but you would like to have done this week.
In my setup, I go to preferences and set “Due soon” to “one week.” I usually like to look ahead and see what items are due in the next 7 days. Tasks that are due soon (within one week) will show up with a yellow status circle. Tasks that are overdue will have a red status circle. As the due date approaches, the task’s status circle will change from gray to yellow to red.
In the morning, I visit the Forecast perspective. I can see all the due tasks in the next 5 days and try to work on those items. I usually like to work on things ahead of time instead of waiting for the actual due date. Work from this perspective. Don’t flag everything. Just pick 3-7 tasks that you would like to focus on.
For tasks that don’t have a due date but you would like to work on in the next 7 days, flag the desired task(s).
Then you can visit the flagged perspective to find the flagged tasks.
The idea is to work on due tasks first. These are high priority tasks that must be completed by a due date. After you’ve finished your due tasks, go ahead and work on the flagged tasks.
Summary:
put due dates only on tasks that have a real hard deadline (not an artificial date).
flag tasks that have no due date but you would like to work on them in the next few days.
Visit Forecast perspective and work on overdue and due soon tasks.
Visit Flagged perspective to work on tasks that you would like to complete within the next few days.
If you have the OmniFocus Pro upgrade, you can create a custom “Today” perspective that lists all overdue/due soon and flagged tasks. This is my Today perspective. Change it to suit your needs.
Project Hierarchy: Don’t use project hierarchy
Group actions by: Context
Sort actions by: Due
Layout: Use Preferences
Filter by status: Due or Flagged
Filter by availability: Available
Filter by duration: Any Duration
Filter Contexts: Active