Looking for specific functionality

OmniFocus OmniFocus for Mac
#1

Hi All.

A light omnifocus user here. Previously I had a lot more on the go than currently (thankfully!), so now I am only using omnificus in its simplest aspects.

I was wondering if there were any OSX or iOS apps that allowed you to schedule tasks in the calendar, and easily amend those calendar entries.

A typical morning sees me choosing the tasks I wish to do, estimating their duration, and adding them to my calendar to see what my day looks like.

I understand this is not GTD at all (or really any methodology…), but it works for me to plan my day.

Is there any app that has a strong integration between tasks and calendar that allows this?

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#2

Have you looked at Opus One?

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#3

I think OmniFocus is meant to be a trusted place to store your tasks and projects. It is not that great at scheduling.

When I am lost with what to do, I will pull up OmniFocus to look at a project to work on or a group of tasks that I can do within a specific context. A context is a place, tool, location, priority, or situation that I am currently in. Examples of a context are:

Location - Office, House, Supermarket

Tool: Mac, iPhone, iPad, GPS device, etc.

Situation: Morning, Afternoon, After Work

Priority: Urgent, Important, Brain Dead

For my scheduling purposes, I tend to look at my meetings/appointments and block those off. In between the meetings/appointments, I will block off small portions of time on my calendar and say “work on Project X” or “office work”.

If i have a meeting at 1 pm to 2 pm. I know that I have a time block between 2:15pm to 3:15 pm to work on a specific project or series of tasks within a context. On my calendar, my appointment from 2:15 pm to 3:15 pm will say “work on Holiday marketing campaign.” Then I know I can go to the Holiday Marketing project in OmniFocus and start knocking off tasks in that project.

But of course, time is fluid. We never really have control over it. I might suddenly have an emergency meeting with a client who shows up on my door unannounced. Then my best laid plans are thrown off track. I wouldn’t worry too much about scheduling tasks. Just use OmniFocus as a repository to store tasks and projects that you’ll work on.

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#4

Have you looked at the built-in Reminders app? It’s very basic, but you can set times and priorities, maintain multiple task lists. It doesn’t allow you to set duratioons for tasks, so that may not suit.

Also, have a look at ToodleDo, which has a free version an some nice features

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#5

Hi Nall,

i haven’t seen that. Looks very interesting. Is there a way to do any viewing / amending / adding in iOS?

#6

Thanks Nick.

I use reminders for groceries so I can share lists with my wife. But I am specifically looking for an app that allows me to schedule todays tasks in a calendar for a visual representation of my day, and to make sure I don’t plan to do too much (which I regularly do…). I really like seeing my day planned out, even scheduling lunch / breaks.

#7

I am happy with using a task manager as a repository, but really wish there was an app that allowed me to early schedule my todos in the calendar. Its just something that works well for me, seeing my day planned out. Obviously ‘stuff happens’ and things don’t always go to plan, so an easy way to reschedule (or unschedule) tasks would be important.

I may be asking in the wrong place as this is a specific request, and very unGTD!

#8

Probably not really what you asked for, but anyways:

You can drag-and-drop tasks from omnifocus onto (apple) calendar. This can help to fill a day worth of tasks. It just is not a two-way-sync, just a one-time copy-paste action.

#9

I don’t think they have an iOS app. I really don’t know much about Opus One other than I played with it for a week a few months ago and it seemed to have the integration you mentioned with tasks and calendar side by side.

#10

The opus web site mentioned an iPad app targeted for December. But you never know if it will arrive in December or sometime later.

#11

Bump for this request. Is there any task manager that allows scheduling in a calendar of tasks?

If only I could code! as I believe it is a functionality that others will find useful - see the ‘spare’ hours in calendar that are not scheduled appointments, choose the tasks you wish to do that day and schedule them in the calendar. Ideally the view would clearly differentiate appointments and scheduled tasks, and the task list view would show those tasks scheduled / unscheduled, and there would be a sync between the appointment and task (i.e., unschedule the task, or mark as complete in either view, or move the scheduled time slot)

I appreciate this is not GTD, so this may be the wrong place to ask, but I think it would be a reasonable alternative take on a task manger that is a USP.

#12

Haven’t tried it, but does this do the job?

#13

Hi torch, it doesnt look like it. It appears you can give a start date or die date, but not schedule the task in a calendar, i.e. task x from 9 till 11, task y from 2 to 230 etc.

#14

Why not just use the Apple Calendar app? Make a calendar specific to your task list, schedule accordingly, and then if you need a list, you can use the list view in the Calendar app looking only at that particular calendar.

I might be missing the nuances of your requirements, but this seems like something that would be really easy to overarchitect.

Maybe worth trying?

ScottyJ

#15

I too am looking for this exact functionality.

Using the calendar would be great - if there would be better integration between OF and the calendar. For instance, on iOS, you can’t share a task with the calendar. As mentioned above, on the Mac, it’s basically a drag and drop.

It would be nice of the forecast view allowed you to schedule a time for a specific task. That seems like an opportunity for OF.

#16

Thats what I do, but it seems a little clunky to manually add slots in my calendar.

#17

@rapscallion I don’t disagree. I don’t have much experience at this, though. What about via Siri? That might be easier?

ScottyJ

#18

I took a quick look.

I don’t care for the old-school Franklin Planner look. And I really need it to work on iOS also - which they are working on.

Scheduling a task on the calendar puts it there - but it doesn’t seem to keep them integrated. Basically you create a calendar event with the same text as your task. Not really any better than drag and drop out of OF.

Timeful was very promising. But then Google bought them and I’m not sure what happened there.

#19

I’m curious to learn more about the workflow and requirements here. I guess my thinking is that if a thing is in my calendar, it doesn’t need to be in my task list, since it is going to happen/get done at a prescribed time and my calendar will remind me of that.

Interested to understand the value of having the same thing in the two separate systems.

ScottyJ

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#20

Hi deturbulence - It helps me to plan and to visualise the day.