Hello all! Forgive me if this is a subject that has been discussed before and I’m just missing it.
My issue is how best to handle routine and/or daily tasks. I’m talking about the little tasks we all have to do each day (Take out the trash, Feed the dog, etc). My current solution is to put that small stuff into Reminders, but I would love to have them in Omnifocus. The question is how to enter repeating tasks that have a notification at a certain time, but are not listed as due. In Omnifocus 3 it’s possible to add a custom notification, but as far as I can tell that does not carry over on the next repeated task.
The goal is to have all of these repeating tasks in Omnifocus, receive notifications when they need to get done, but not clutter the Forecast view with them (using fake due dates).
I would love to hear how everyone handles this kind of thing while not having it interfere with your “real” tasks each day. Thanks in advance!
I do the same as @DrJJWMac. I trust that I’ll see anything that needs doing but in a couple cases (the bins really do need to be out before I leave for work on Monday), I use a due date.
If you still want to use OmniFocus as a solution for this, it’s going to be a little difficult to get exactly what you’re looking for.
Not using due dates, the other option you have is using defer time notifications. The problem is that when enabled, you’ll be notified for all deferred items. The notification can be deleted on items for which you don’t want to be notified, though. (If you’d be interested in only enabling selective deferred notifications, email in a feature request).
Thanks @DrJJWMac and @nostodnayr! I appreciate the input. I have a bunch of tasks set up in the way JJW mentioned. The trick is going to be figuring out the notifications. @nostodnayr, I also tried turning on notifications for all deferred items, but that got a little crazy. It seems like the best option is to play around with custom notifications. If I come up with anything good I’ll be sure to add it here.
If you wanted to see into the future (show tasks that aren’t available yet) then I might change Filter by availability to Remaining
You can probably also Group by Deferred if you want to see it in a timeline view.
I played with a way to show Admin repeating tasks and Admin single actions in this post:
I noticed that most of my single one-off tasks were also administrative in nature. They maintain my life but don’t contribute directly towards a project or goal. Tasks like “change brake pads on my car”, “buy milk and eggs”, or “Take out the trash to the curbside” helps to maintain my life. So I put together a workflow that handles all admin work (one-off actions and repeating maintenance).
Long time Evernote user including using it for a task manager. Giving OF 3 iOS a try for project/task management.
Evernote allows you to add checkboxes within a note…Imagine the dashes below are each a small checkbox you can literally check.
Travel:
-hold mail
-Turn off lights
-adjust heat
-lock windows
-lock door
-close garage
I use these checklists for many different things, whether they are frequent or infrequent. For instance I have checklists of what to pack for different types of travel. I just copy and paste previous note for the next trip.
There are a couple of ways you might approach using templates in OmniFocus on iOS. The most common these days is probably using TaskPaper files. Alternatively, you can keep project templates saved in an on-hold status and copy and paste to duplicate them. This can be awkward at times, but works easily enough.
Also note that when using TaskPaper, @tags(tag1, tag2) can be used in place of @context(…) when pasting into OmniFocus 3.
