The first principle of GTD is capture-i.e. The solution I settled on is described in this post. Until recently, I’ve struggled with identifying an ideal approach to using OmniFocus for task management. OmniFocus is highly configurable, allowing the user to tailor it to their own particular approach to GTD (Getting Things Done).
Using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus mac#
I am not sitting in front of my Mac for 98% of my job, so being able to quickly generate a useful client project from my phone is essential, and this is my "will's" "way" to solve that problem.With versions available for both iOS and OS X, OmniFocus is the most powerful task management system intended for individuals on the Apple platform. It's sort of a hack, and would need to be revised within 28 years to push the predicate date back, but it's been super useful for me.
![using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus](https://learnomnifocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Creating-Flow-with-OmniFocus-Second-Edition.png)
The template will be made into a project/action group and deposited in your OmniFocus inbox for assignment to a project or whatever you want to do with it. The workflow will calculate the time difference from your specified 'predicate date' to Janu12:00AM, and apply this difference to all dates in the template. Also, and this is the important part, it will ask me for a "predicate date." For my example, this would be the date of the first session with a client. If my template contains anything labelled as " >" it will offer to replace "something" with something else. In the process, it will ask me a few questions. From there, I hit "run workflow" and select my "OmniFocus Template" workflow. So, onto the Workflow itself! To run the workflow, I go to the template project (or action group) on iOS and select the share sheet. For my example, if something will be deferred to a week after the first session and due right at the third session, that action group in the template will have a defer date of Janu12:00AM and a due date of Janu12:00AM. So, any dates in the template are formatted relative to this one. This will snap to become the specified "predicate date" later. The templates are each deferred to Januat midnight.
![using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus](https://colterreed.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/replacing-variables-omnifocus-template-Workflow.jpeg)
Using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus how to#
(I used these symbols because I can easily edit them on iOS without having to look up how to key it in!)
![using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t9mYZayJB2w/maxresdefault.jpg)
However, you can store your templates wherever or however you like, as projects or action groups it does not matter.īefore getting to the workflow itself, here are two conventions my templates adhere to for this to work:Īny variables I'd like to manually specify at the time are bracketed like this (minus the spaces): >. This keeps templates consolidated to an easily accessible project. I keep all my templates as action groups inside of a "Templates" project at the top level. (This is true enough to work well enough for me, at any rate.) So, once the date of the first session is set, I can then populate the client's project with this template as well.
![using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus using workflow taskpaper with omnifocus](https://miro.medium.com/proxy/1*fxvbGS63yaxENqgLQtJBvg.jpeg)
Once the date is set for a first session, many further actions become available, with various defer and due dates that are relative to the date of the first session. When I get a new client, there are a few steps I need to complete that do not need to be deferred, which I have saved as a template, and can be added to the client's new project. My job as a therapist has me traveling to almost as many sites as I have clients. I've devised a way to go about spawning new projects using templates on iOS using the Workflow app, and wanted to share it with you in case adopting a pre-made solution would be helpful.