Makes sense. Thanks.
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JJW
OmniFocus just isn’t groupware.
For this problem you probably need a law practice management package or the like, such as Daylite or RocketMatter.
Thank you very much! I sincerely appreciate the suggestion and will try it out.
The challenge is that we have disparate ages and computer skill levels. 35 yo and computer literate, up to 70 (extremely intelligent, and working at an energy level of a 40 yo, yet who is very impatient with all things computer. His participation is mission critical and he grasps the value of using an app like OF to keep track of things. So I’m trying to make our group task list as use friendly as possible. Because the tolerance for new app learning is 0. I have him liking the app. I don’t want to lose that by switching and loading an all new learning curve.
I’m trying to find the least invasive way to get everyone what they need. And until OF has tagging or multi context I’m trying to find workarounds inside the app.
Thanks. We have RM for calendar management and billing. It has limitations. It’s lousy task tracker or to-do list. It’s good for putting events on calendar, but it doesn’t provide the sort of 30, 60, 90 day snapshots that OF can provide. We have used Daylite in the past. Too much brain damage for the luddites. They won’t use it. Don’t even try. I spent a year trying to herd those cats and it’s time wsted that I’ll never get back.
And, frankly, contrary to what people here seem to say, for us, OF works fine as groupware in our context. Everyone has the same data on every case, it syncs in real time, it sends events to Google calendar which syncs to individual calendars, and it alows each person, by using contexts (e.g. “David’s To Do”) to have their own todo lists. What it doesn’t provide is a way to tag or have a second context. Thus, this topic and thread.
This is not just an OG thing, but software organisations spend so much time chasing the next shiny.
Classic example is the touch bar support.
We have thousands of Mac users in my organisation, very few of them use the laptop keyboard. They use an external monitor and an external keyboard. Yet OG is right in there with touch bar support. This is actually important to a tiny group of users.
This feature is in our roadmap for 2017 (which I posted earlier today). Here’s the relevant quote:
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Awesome, thanks! Any ETA for it?
Multiple contexts should open up quite a bit of customization including the use of a second set of contexts to assign levels of priority. I wonder if we will be able to sort by context within a context.
Although not listed in the yearly review, I am still hoping for manual sorting of tasks too.
As we start sharing hopes on how it will work, my dream is to easily OR-filter by several tags.
For example, currently I use daily todo text items because it allows to easily recall what I shortlisted for yesterday now when I’m done with most urgent for today. With new tags implemented, I could tag earlier "flagged"s as hash-date and easily review one or several earlier days to decide what I postponed and now can resume with.
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My opinion on multiple contexts (or tags) on items is that they should not be inherited. I find it quite frustrating that contexts and flags are inherited and thus show up in my custom perspectives. I’m sure there is a place for inheritance, but this has never suited my organizational goals.
This is awesome news! I have been waiting for this for ages, for me it would be extremely important and would streamline my project structure quite a bit. Can’t wait for it!
I am really glad to learn you will be adding multiple contexts. My biggest disappointment with OmniFocus is that I have to export it to a spread sheet to see projects competing for my time in relationship to each other. Any additional filter will help reduce the number of times I have to export to a spread sheet.
Yeah!!! Thank You. :-)
Just started using OmniFocus last week and almost immediately stumbled into the limitation of only one context. I used multiple contexts very often with MyLifeOrganized (which I loved but which is Windows only, and I’ve switched to Mac). Today’s case in point: my Action is “Make appointment with doctor”, where I need contexts for Phone-Business-Hours (to set up the appointment) and Meeting (because in the Notes for the Action I’ve listed multiple items I need to remember to discuss with her). I know I could either separate them into two Actions, or switch the context once I’ve made the appointment, but it’s really much easier to make it / keep it as one Action with multiple contexts.
Looking forward to it, thank you!
Buck that is really two tasks isn’t it as per GTD methodology. What you can do is create a Single Threaded Task and one for Phone Doctor to make an appointment, then a second one for Doctor Visit.
We are a good chunk through 2017 now, is there any ETA for multiple contexts? - I am currently using 2do with omnifocus and am very close to making a full switch to 2do because of the friction caused by the single context design :( - is this coming soon or am I going to have to wave goodbye to my trusty task manager?
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I’m not close to making the move, but I have stopped recommending OF. Multiple contexts would reverse that.
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It’s been a month since @hackeron asked the question, maybe @kcase can give us an update? Its been a long few years of waiting. I’m with @enrvuk, I can’t recommend OF any longer until this gets fixed, I’m having to do too many hacks and work arounds.
Certainly! I just posted this roadmap status update yesterday in another thread:
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I have made a full switch to 2Do and finding it a very pleasant experience. I’m just finding a lot less resistance accessing the information I need, the search is fantastic, I don’t have to have hacks and workarounds for things like repeat on first Monday of each month, multiple contexts, adding “actions” (you highlight a task and press p to immediately launch a website, or onenote, or email or whatever “action” you set, instead of adding links in task notes and then needing to expand/click those links in OmniFocus), there are fantastic keyboard shortcuts like . to move start date a day or shift + . to move it a week, etc, the information is presented nicely with colour coded project categories, repeating tasks show a round arrow so you know they will recur, it’s just very aesthetically pleasing.
With all this in mind, I do miss sequential vs parallel projects: in 2Do you can create a project but there’s no way to hide all tasks except the next one, but you can collapse the project task list in the “context” view which is more of a hybrid view. I also miss the “Review” feature which doesn’t exist in 2Do. I am hoping to switch back to OmniFocus once multiple contexts are available.
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