How to Make OF Work (Better) For Me?

Hey everyone!

I’m so happy to see that there’s forums for Omnifocus - I’ve been using for about two months and every time I think I have it down, something else pops up. Omnifocus has been a life saver for me, I’m a student and blogger. Currently I’m using OF mostly as a student on my iPhone, I’m also looking into buying for iPad and my Mac as well.

But I’m looking to clear things up / have a few questions. Right now, I have a project set up for every class I have and then I have the project flagged and assignments in the project. I’m wondering if folders would be better for this, and then have each assignment as a project in the folder?

Any other tips would help too!

Thanks!

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You should watch Davis Sparks’ Omni Focus Ninja Videos They’ll clear things up.

I’d suggest you handle your classes like David handles his clients (he’s a lawyer). Make a folder for each class, and then make a new project for every assignment in class that takes more than one simple step. For example, the term paper is a project, the lab project is a project, organizing the study group is a project – you get the idea.

Good luck!

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Thank you so much, I’m checking those out!

I would also put a Single Actions List project in each folder to handle the single stuff.

Folder: Biology 101
Single Actions List: Science Assignments

Folder: History 210
Single Actions Lists: History Assignments

Folder: Psychology 210
Single Actions List: Psychology Assignments

For major project assignments such as the “Mid-term research paper - Marco Polo”, I would imagine that this is a project that requires more than one action. This would get its own project inside the folder.

For single stuff such as homework (Read Chapter 7, pages 120-150), I would enter this as a task inside the History Assignments folder. It is only one action and can go in the Single Actions List that resides at the top of each folder.

[History]
• History Assignments
• Mid-term research paper: Marco Polo
• Group presentation: Marco Polo’s journey

This should take care of your projects (requires more than one action) and single actions.

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Thank you so much, I started doing that for some stuff. I’ll do that!

An alternative here is to make Chapter 7 a project. The intent is to remind you to do more than just “read the chapter”. The intent is to set up actions that you need to do to show comprehension on the contents of the chapter.

Comprehend Chapter 7 (sequential project)

  • review/summarize chapter 7 table of contents
  • Sections 1-3 (parallel action group)
    – read sections 1-3
    – summarize core content sections 1-3
    – copy over core equations sections 1-3
    – generate questions for lecture time on sections 1-3
  • Sections 4-6 (parallel action group)
    – read sections 4-6
    – summarize core content sections 4-6
    – copy over core equations sections 4-6
    – generate questions for lecture time on sections 4-6
  • Chapter Conclusion (parallel action group)
    – review my chapter 7 summaries
    – review my chapter 7 equation sheet
    – confirm my questions for chapter 7 have all been addressed

You can set due dates on any given task and/or action group to correspond to the reading assignments for the chapter as given by the instructor.


JJW

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I would strongly recommend OF for your Mac even before you get the iPad version. You will be amazed at how much more efficient you can be when you work “on the big screen” rather than on a “touchy-feely” device screen.


JJW

You can try the Mac app free for two weeks, and if you buy from our store make sure to get the educational discount.

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How do I buy from your store? When I bought for my iPhone, I obviously bought from the app store and just assumed that’s how I’d do it for my Mac as well.

http://www.omnigroup.com/omnifocus/ has a ‘Download’ link to use the app for free for a 2 week trial.

https://store.omnigroup.com/edu will allow you to purchase a license at educational pricing.

If you don’t qualify for educational pricing, you can purchase from our main store: https://store.omnigroup.com

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I moved 2 posts to a new topic: I bought the apps, how do I download them?