Single actions in Folders?

I’m still using OmniFocus 1. When I drag single actions from the Inbox to a folder, they turn into projects. I was confused before I realized this, wondering why I couldn’t assign contexts etc. to my actions anymore.

It appears there is no way to have single actions right on the top level of a folder. Instead, the have to go inside a Single Action List inside the folder. I like to keep my hierarchies flat and simple. IMO lots of organizational items and levels are just added clutter. As a rule of thumb, if there are less than 3 items, I don’t want to create a separate folder for them.

  1. Is there really no way to add single actions directly to a folder?
  2. If 1. is true, what’s the reasoning for forcing an additional hierarchy level?
  3. Has this been changed in OF2? Can I add single actions directly to folders there?
  1. No
  2. Well, I suggest you get in touch with OmniFocus Support via omnifocus@omnigroup.com
  3. No, No

I have a Single Action List for each of my folders. In my work folder, I have a “Work Single Actions” single-action-list. In my Home folder, i have a “Home Single Actions”. I just put a bunch of miscellaneous single actions into these Single-Action-Lists.

You can also have a Single-Action-List called “Miscellaneous” and just dump them into that. When you drag something into a folder, it becomes a project.

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I used to have the same setup, but simplified and now have only one of such lists, conveniently named Single Action List and placed on the root, above my Personal and Work folders.

It makes life simpler (only one bucket) and speeds up my Inbox processing — whenever I have single actions, all I have to do is give them a context and OmniFocus will move the tasks to my Single Action List.

Same here. For me keeping multiple single action lists didn’t offer enough in return for maintaining them. I ended up feeling like I was organizing the list just to organize. I’ve switched to one and I’ve never regretted it.

…and that is the true beauty of OmniFocus - being able to scale up and down as needed.

But I also don’t like to mix my personal single actions with my work single actions. Sometimes, I’ll just go to a project perspective and just show the single actions for work-related stuff.

And I know I can just create a context perspective and just show single actions with a work context only.

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