You may have heard that OmniFocus
is the best app
for Getting Things Done on Mac and iOS —
but just what is GTD?
GTD is a method for processing
all of the stuff that you need to do,
and organizing your actions
in a way that makes long-term sense.
GTD isn’t the only way
to use OmniFocus,
but it is a really effective one.
You have a lot of things vying for your attention.
In GTD, this is called “Stuff.”
You need to get your Stuff into a trusted system
so you can stop worrying about it,
and actually get things done.
First thing is to get all of that stuff
out of your head and into an Inbox.
Emails, voicemail,
existing to-do lists
you’ve written on little scraps of paper,
stuff other people have asked you to do…
anything that’s on your mind.
You need to collect everything in one place.
In fact, when you’re first getting started,
set aside about half an hour
and do a thorough brain dump
of everything you’ve been worrying about.
After a few minutes,
you’ll get on a roll,
and all of the stuff
that’s been niggling at the back of your mind
will come pouring out.
Stuff that you can do right now.
Stuff that’s part of little projects,
big projects,
and long terms goals
that maybe you don’t even know
how to get started on yet.
In OmniFocus, you can
add everything right to the Inbox.
Just keep hitting that plus button!
Once you’ve got that all out of your head,
the next step is to process the items.
Is it a small action you can
do in 2 minutes or less?
Do it right now! Check it off,
and stop worrying about it.
Maybe it’s not actually your responsibility —
Delegate it to someone else,
and make sure they know it’s their responsibility now.
Sometimes you might need to follow up,
or have an action that you need to do
after you wait for a response.
If so, you’ll need to add this
to your deferred items.
Everything left over
is an item that should probably be deferred,
which means that you’re going to
make it part of a list of actions
that you’ll get to later —
Even if “later” means “this afternoon”.
But first, to get a better sense
of where everything stands,
we’re going to need to organize things.
Let’s figure out where this Stuff goes.
Most items that you’re going to defer
will be going onto a list of actions
that you’ll get to as soon as you can.
If an item is part of a larger Project —
that’s a goal that requires
several steps to complete —
create a Project list to put it in.
Perhaps the item from your inbox
is actually the name of a project.
In that case, turn it into a Project,
and spend 30 seconds or so
and think about what the first Action is,
and add that Action to the Project.
You don’t have to list out every single step right now,
but every Project should at least have one Action
that is small enough to do
to move the Project forward.
Some of the items might be stand-alone Actions
that aren’t really part of a project
that you could actually complete,
but you could group them
on a list of similar one-off Actions.
OmniFocus has Project types,
for Actions that are part of a larger goal,
and Single Action Lists,
for those “household chore” type
of related Actions.
You can put an entire
Project or list on hold,
for those someday/maybe lists.
You might want to further organize your projects
by larger categories,
like Work or Art projects.
In OmniFocus, you can use folders
to group related Projects.
Maybe an item
is something that requires further thought,
or that you’re not ready to tackle right now.
In that case, you can Defer it
until a certain date,
so that you don’t have to think about it until then.
In OmniFocus, you can set a defer date
for a whole Project
or just for a certain Action.
You may also want to assign
a Context to each Action.
Now… what is a Context?
A Context is something you need
to be able to accomplish the action.
It could be a physical item you need, like your phone.
It could be someplace you need to be,
like the grocery store,
or it could be a person
that you need to collaborate or confer with,
like your boss.
That way,
if you’re meeting with your boss,
you can look at your Contexts
and be reminded that there are Actions
you can take care of while you have her handy.
even if they belong to several different Projects.
In OmniFocus,
Contexts are an integral part of the app,
and they get their own Perspective,
so you can view all of your Actions by Context.
On iOS, OmniFocus can also
use your location to alert you
that you’re near a specific Context,
like the grocery store.
You can get a lot out of OmniFocus
without ever using Contexts,
but they can be a very helpful tool
in deciding what to do next.
Now that we have everything organized —
Do!
Take a look at your projects,
and see what next Action
you can do right now.
In OmniFocus, it’s easy!
Just check off the Status Circle
for each Action as you do them.
Feel that sense of accomplishment
flow through you.
Doing your Actions,
and checking them off is awesome.
You’re Getting Things Done!
But if you don’t keep your system up-to-date,
you won’t trust it,
and you’ll probably resort to
writing little notes to yourself
on scraps of paper,
like a caveman.
So, reviewing your Projects and Actions
is important to keep you on track.
Once a week or so,
sit down with your system
and take a look at how things are going.
I’m sure you’ve been putting
ideas and tasks in your Inbox
as soon as you think of them,
but you’ve probably gotten a few more
emails and voicemails
that you didn’t move into your inbox just yet —
Right?
Do a brain dump just like when we started,
and shake out all of those niggling to-dos —
though hopefully, this time,
there won’t be as much loose stuff
floating around in there.
Process everything you just
dumped into your Inbox.
Do, Delegate or Defer this new Stuff.
But don’t stop with the new stuff.
Check each of your current Projects,
and see whether they need updating.
Does each one have a next Action
that you can actually accomplish?
Does the Project represent your current goals?
Is it something that you need to put on hold —
or drop altogether —
because it’s no longer relevant?
Don’t forget to occasionally review
items you’ve deferred to a later date,
Someday/Maybe items,
and Actions that you’re Waiting For
other people to get back to you on,
to see if they need to be updated
or moved back into your current Projects.
In OmniFocus for Mac and iPad,
there’s a built-in Review perspective
that makes it easy to make sure
you’re reviewing things on a regular basis.
You can even set
custom review intervals for Projects,
so you can stay on top of both
Projects you need to keep a close eye on,
and those you can check into
on a less frequent basis.
That’s it!
These five steps will keep you
on the track to productivity,
and build a system that you can trust,
so you don’t have to keep worrying about
whether you’ve forgotten to do something,
freeing your brain
to think about the stuff
you really want to think about!
Learn more about OmniFocus and GTD,
and find more helpful hints,
and tools to get Stuff into your OmniFocus Inbox
at the URL above.