Multiple Contexts/Keywords?

Any word on the multiple contexts/keywords for OmniFocus? I had de-installed OmniFocus until recently, because not having that is very limiting.

Holding breath and crossing fingers, now… :-)

I often prefix actions with things like “Phone:” and “Email:”. This prefix is essentially a context…and it means that I can use the context field for something else. For example, if I have an action to “Email: overview of corporate retreat” I would add a “Deep Focus” context if this is something that I want to accomplish when I’m in a focused state.

I can filter lists of actions by typing the action prefix. Having the “:” in the name helps ensure that I’m only seeing the relevant actions. For example, if I’m looking for a list of phone calls I need to make, I wouldn’t want to see all of the actions that contain the word “phone” (e.g. “Buy a new phone”), only the ones that involve making phone calls.

I’ll occasionally add a text “tag” after name of an action (these can also be added to the notes field). For example, if there are actions that I want to complete before going on vacation, even though they’re not technically due, I’ll add “#vacation” to the action’s name. I can then easily pull up a list of pre-vacation actions.

I create custom perspectives for actions that I perform frequently. For example, I have one called “Calls” that shows available actions that contain the text “Phone:”.

To make this more convenient I have created TextExpander Snippets that allow me to type action prefixes quickly and accurately. For example, “xema” expands to "Email: " and “xpho” expands to "Phone: ". Since OmniFocus has integrated TextExpander support on iOS, I’m able to use these on both Mac and iOS.

I hope this helps!

2 Likes

Extremely helpful!

1 Like

@bassman123 — Good to hear this was helpful!