I’m using the last beta version and have problems finding new setups for the following perspectives:
Weekly Goals: Project Weekly Routines, Tag Weekly Goal, or any other idea?
Must Do Today: Tasks with Due Date + Flag
Today: Tasks with Due Date Today or/and Planned Date Today
I use Forecast for weekly views.
And, how do I get the completed tasks to disappear from my perspectives when done?
On the Mac, go to the Settings screens and choose Organization Settings. There is a checkbox to “clean up resolved items”. You can choose immediately or on cleanup.
Command-K will initiate a cleanup. This will cleanup completed tasks if you have the perspective view setting to show available tasks.
For the review workflow, I do this:
I choose 1 major goal or project. This is my Big Rock for the month. I have a project that has all the tasks to complete that Big Rock. I write down in a notebook “what do I want this project to look like at the end of the month?” This is outside of OmniFocus. Put it in a note or in a notebook. Put it on an index card and display it prominently on your desk. The project doesn’t have to be finished if it is a large project. I just want to get to a milestone inside this project.
At the end of the week, I do a weekly review to plan for next week. I make sure to look at my Big Rock. Schedule an appointment in the calendar to work on the big rock. Create an all-day event on the days I want to work on this Big Rock. Maybe it’s Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Put 3 separate all-day events in the calendar app. I don’t know what time of the day I will schedule to do work on that day. I just know I intend to do it that day. If I do have more control of my schedule. I can go ahead and schedule it. Consider these time blocks as if it was a doctor’s appointment. Move it earlier if I have to. If I see something that conflicts with my doctor’s appointment, I will call the doctor’s office to reschedule and try to keep that promise/appointment.
Putting an all-day event in the calendar is like theming my day. Monday might be admin day where I try to finish all the admin work (repetitive work needed to keep the lights on in the house and office) on Monday and Tuesday. I create an all-day event for Wednesday for any meetings.
At the end of the day, I look at tomorrow’s schedule. I go to the “Must Do Today” perspective and set a planned date/time on 1-3 tasks for tomorrow. That action will put those tasks into the Forecast perspective. Due tasks will automatically show up in the Forecast perspective.
I choose just 1-3 tasks because I need to make room for life’s daily surprises tomorrow (tasks that show up when a client walks in) or surprise calls from my wife to do something before I come home.
In the Daily Shutdown Review, I’ll do my other steps such as clearing the inbox (check emails and DMs for any tasks that may need to be scheduled for tomorrow.) and various other shutdown steps. But this post is about your question concerning OmniFocus perspectives.
I start work the next morning. I hit the Review perspective to review any projects that show up here. I go to the OmniFocus Forecast perspective to see today’s schedule.
All planned tasks with a planned date that already past will automatically be moved forward to today. Due tasks show up. Overdue tasks can be seen in the “Past” section of the OmniFocus calendar.
I work on any overdue tasks first (colored red). Then I’ll work on tasks that are due today.
Due tasks are the most urgent. It’s not necessarily important to me but it’s important to the boss.
Work on due tasks around any appointments that occur today. I have the Forecast view settings set to “Flexible”. This allows me to drag tasks up and down the list for me to work on.
If I don’t have time to complete a task that was planned, I’ll move the planned date to a future date.
Plan in OmniFocus perspectives daily and weekly.
Work in the calendar (OmniFocus Forecast) daily.
Thank you for your effort in providing a detailed answer. I already do much of what you propose: Weekly Reviews every Friday, Theme Days in the Calendar, Daily Start-up Planning, and so on.
I wanted to use the new Planned Date option in a structured way in my Perspectives, but then I got a bit confused and messed up my former Perspectives (Weekly Goals, Must Do Today, and Today). My Perspectives also became messed up and didn’t clean up the done tasks, even though I used the checkbox for that.
Anyway, I found that I could make it much more straightforward. I removed my three special perspectives and went for Flagged and Forecast. Flagged is now defined as my Must-Do Today because it’s Due. The Forecast perspective is now split into Due and Planned. The Forecast is also where I prioritize (flag) and move tasks around daily.
Your idea of having The Big Rock (nice naming) move out of OF and into another place was great. To make it more visible, I have moved it into my Start Page in Evernote, where it is always visible. And I have a weekly reminder in OF with a link that brings me right into the Big Rock project note!
I will test this new setup for a while to review the outcome.
BTW: I also asked Chat GPT to propose a setup for using both OF and EN (Evernote) in similar setups, and it gave quite an interesting answer. It even wrote code!
Let us know how your experiment goes. You’ll probably need 1-3 months before finally settling into your groove.
The Evernote start page becomes your dashboard. Don’t forget to put a summary of your “why?” in there. It helps to revisit the goals every week. Once the “why” no longer sings to you, revisit this project and ask yourself “why do I still want to do this?”
Life changes and your desires may change. Put it back into a Someday page in Evernote to return to it later. Or delegate it to someone else who has the skills, time, and energy to carry the Big Rock for awhile. Then you can get it back when the other person is done helping you. Or just drop the project with a reason why you no longer want to continue.
Use your Evernote page to spawn OmniFocus Big Rock projects that is dedicated to completing a milestone within the Big Rock. Dedicate time blocks throughout the week to making progress.even 15 minutes a day will add up.
