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Screenshot of My OmniFocus Setup

I will at some point (soon, though defined somewhat loosely) blog somewhat comprehensively and in detail about how I have my planning system setup.

In the meantime, I was talking about OmniFocus with a friend today and out of that conversation came a screen shot that captures the “big picture” of how I have it set up. I thought that some of you who use OmniFocus (or are considering it) might be interested.

In fact, this this is relevant beyond OmniFocus as well. I recommend setting up any planning system in this way, no matter what tool you use. This is how I did things in Outlook previously and, before that, did a variation of this with my paper planner.

Here is the screen shot:

of-screenshot

  • Checklists, eh? Do you make the individual checklists an action (an Omnifocus action) with sub actions/checkboxes below each action? And if so, does that work the same way as Omni Outliner (Cmd, Shift, {)?

    I really want to hear more about the way you have this set up.

  • Checklists, eh? Do you make the individual checklists an action (an Omnifocus action) with sub actions/checkboxes below each action? And if so, does that work the same way as Omni Outliner (Cmd, Shift, {)?

    I really want to hear more about the way you have this set up.

  • I’ll look forward to your posts on Omnifocus. I installed it a couple of months ago and am still trying to wrap my brain around it. I know I could be doing more with it than I am but I’m not altogether sure of the best way to use it. Your posts on your planning system will be most helpful, particularly if you go into any detail on how you make use of Omnifocus features for planning.

  • Matt

    Matt: Yes, the individual checklists are “actions” in OmniFocus, and then the content of the checklist goes in the note field.

    Since “actions” in OmniFocus have to go underneath a larger project heading, I use the OF “projects” here as topic groupings. This then groups the checklists by topic.

  • Matt

    Also: I haven’t used Omnioutliner, but the way actions work in OmniFocus sounds very similar to what you describe. You can indent actions within actions by using cmd shft ].

    I hope to get to the posts on how I have it set up soon (after I do my series on filing). I am tweaking OmniFocus in a way that uses it different from how it was intended to function in some ways, but I think that my approach with it is simpler.

  • Looking forward to it. I had been brain dumping everything on paper, deciding what the next action/project is, and then create an entry in OF. I’ve since started using Ctrl Option Space and just bang, bang, bang, putting everything into the inbox and then going back and changing the vague nebulous stuff into concrete NA’s and projects. I love learning some developed OF Fu from others so I eagerly await the forthcoming posts.

  • Looking forward to it. I had been brain dumping everything on paper, deciding what the next action/project is, and then create an entry in OF. I’ve since started using Ctrl Option Space and just bang, bang, bang, putting everything into the inbox and then going back and changing the vague nebulous stuff into concrete NA’s and projects. I love learning some developed OF Fu from others so I eagerly await the forthcoming posts.

  • Bryan

    I am not fortunate enough to have a mac, so OF is out for me (I greenly envy my co-worker’s set-up from afar.) However, I have been using Thinkingrock, and that has done the trick. It is a decent GTD system for us Windows folks. Thanks Matt for your work on this stuff. Reading your posts and applying these things has made my workload and workflow so much better. I am a bit of a GTD evangelist now and have a friend hooked on it now too.

  • Jimmy

    Have you written more about your “planning system setup”, Matt?

  • Matt
  • Joel

    Any chance you can repost the pic? It’s not displaying, and I’m curious to see the actual set up after just finishing your book, which I loved!

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