Separating Work and Personal Tasks

Hi,

What is the easiest way to separate my work items from my personal ones? Is there a way to keep these 2 worlds separate? Thanks!

Create a folder that is focused on a distinct part of your life.

Folder: Work
Folder: Home
Folder: Homeowner’s Association
Folder: Church
Folder: 4-H Club activities
Folder: College Alumni Association

When you create custom perspectives in OmniFocus 2 Pro, you can have it focused on work projects or home projects.

Select Perspectives > Show Perspectives

At the bottom, you can choose which projects you want to focus on:

Use the popup menu to select one or more projects to focus on.

You can also provide even more focus by selecting certain contexts
:

Make sure your sidebar is visible and select one more contexts. Then click on the “Add Current Sidebar Selection” button.

In my example, my project focus is set to
• Office Actions
• Declutter & restock sales floor
• Advertise via Facebook

Then it is focused even further by showing only Mac contexts.

Another method is to have separate contexts for yourself. I can have a “Mac” context. I can also create separate contexts under that:

Mac
Mac: Work Mac
Mac: Home Mac

Then I can assign my tasks to different contexts. All “Home” actions should be assigned to the “Home Mac” context. All of my “Work” actions should be assigned to the “Work Mac” context. I don’t think my boss wants me to do my home gardening project during company time. So my home gardening project will be assigned to “Home Mac”. I can create a perspective that shows all work that can be done on my Mac.

If I am a self-employed person, I want to focus on work stuff to do on my Mac. I’ll look at the “Work Mac” context. This prevents me from looking at home stuff that can be done on the Mac.

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@wilsonng Great advice!

Even if you don’t have Pro, folders and contexts can help you separate your different “worlds”.

Sometimes, however, it can be convenient to let the worlds blend a little:

  1. I need to pick up a couple more of my favorite notebooks for use at work. So that goes in a work project, and the @CapHill context (the neighborhood where the bookstore is).
  2. I need a haircut. That goes in a personal project, and the @CapHill context (where my stylist is).

Now, when I go get a haircut, I can look at the @CapHill context, and see that I can pick up a couple notebooks while I’m in the neighborhood.

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Thank you very much for the clarification and tips. That works great.