@koterski, Thank you for the guidance. I used wilson Ng’s advice at Show Inbox in Assending Order (or by perspective). I created an project called Older Inbox, dumped all the old stuff in there, and now I don’t think about any of those tasks/ideas/projects at all anymore. I know they are all there as a complete list whenever I feel like browsing though them.
I like your idea of areas of personal responsibility. I have been strongly influenced throughout like by Stephen Covey, and he likes to call these Roles and Goals. For me, frequent looks from the 50,000 foot level help keep me on track and motivated. So far, I seem able to do this in OmniFocus by creating a hierarchical folder structure that lets me see where any project fits in the big picture of my life. I do most of my work on a big screen and mainly use my iPhone for adding tasks to the inbox and viewing a Today list.
Far from giving up, I am becoming increasingly happy by the day with how much I am getting done and how organized I feel. I am now up to page 147 in GTD 2nd ed and p. 324 in Kourosh Dini Creating Flow 3with OmniFocus, so have absorbed a substantial part of each. At this point, about 23 days in, I think I am already over the hump of initial orientation and have enough of a system to have it be of real value (To other newbies, remember that I have recently retired and have few other responsibilities. In my former working life it might have taken 2-3 months or more). This is where the Persevere is definitely applicable. I do think there is a big, worthwhile payoff.
I haven’t really started yet with grouping related tasks into a project, but that is likely soon.
I do expect this will be a lifelong process, hopefully steadily improving!
Thank you for your comprehensive post!
