May 2015

There were 3 posts published in May 2015.

Log ad hoc items into OmniFocus

OmniFocus provides my daily roadmap for where I’m going. But maps can be unreliable: sometimes an emergency requires a detour … and sometimes you just pause for an unscheduled cup of coffee or phone call with a friend.

To quickly log those unanticipated events in OmniFocus – without imposing additional overhead on the system – I invoke these simple scripts from LaunchBar:

  • Log completed item to OmniFocus (CC) – saves a completed task to my work-misc project
  • Log completed item to OmniFocus (Misc) – saves a completed task to my personal-misc project
  • Log distraction to OmniFocus – saves a completed task to my distractions project

When something comes up that I’d like to log:

log-distraction

  • ⌘ space to invoke LaunchBar
  • logcc, logmisc, or dist to choose the type of entry
  • space to start typing
  • [type what it was]
  • Enter to save

Now a completed task appears in the appropriate location, and my Completed Tasks perspective gives a more accurate representation of the day.

To use it, download the script and customize the project name and context to fit your needs. Should work with Alfred as well.

Log completed item to OmniFocus

A solution to Premature Quick Entry

You’ve done it a million times: You added a task in Quick Entry. Then, seconds later, you came across a link that would have been useful to include. Or an idea that should be part of that task.

At this point, you have two options:

  1. Quickentry a new task with more details. You’ll have to merge the two later, but hey.
  2. Edit the task:
    • Switch to OmniFocus
    • Locate the task (which might require opening a new window and some digging)
    • Select the task
    • ⌘-' into the Notes field
    • Add details while they’re fresh
       
      (By now, you’ve totally broken your flow – and eliminated any benefit of using Quick Entry in the first place – but that’s it’s a small price for being organized.)
       
      or…
       
  3. Fire up LaunchBar, hit a-n-space to access the Append Note to Newest Task script, and type your note. Tap Enter and rejoice: your note is added to that task you just created, and you haven’t lost your flow.

If you want to add links or other notes instead – or you (gasp!) don’t use LaunchBar or Alfred – just execute the script without custom input and it will append your clipboard contents instead.

Enjoy:

Append Note to Newest Task

p.s. Related but far less useful: Append Note to Selected Task(s)

p.p.s. Updated 2015-05-17 to work around a bug that overwrites a file attachment when editing a task note.

OmniFocus: Jump to a task’s project view without losing your place

2017–04–17 update: Now includes an option to focus in new tab. Thanks Marek and Kraig for the request.

TL;DR: This script opens the project of the selected task(s) in a new window (or tab).
Get it here.

It’s been a while since I last posted… so what better way to break the silence than with some new OmniFocus scripts?

I don’t think it’s controversial to say that context-based perspectives are the secret sauce of OmniFocus. Without context views, OmniFocus would be a simple outliner with quick entry and a few filters. But context perspectives let you view the exact cross-section of tasks you need to be effective.

That is, until you view a task in a context-based perspective and realize you need to see the whole project.

It should be simple to view a project’s details without losing your place in the current context view. And it was simple in OmniFocus 1: while in a context view, double-clicking a task would open its project in a new window.

OmniFocus 2 lost this feature, unfortunately. The two best options it provides are:

  • Quick Open (⌘O): allows you to type the name of a project and open it in a new window (if that option is selected). But this requires typing and the cognitive overhead of thinking about the name of the task’s project.
  • Show in Projects (⌘⌥R): brings you to the project view of the selected task. But since OmniFocus has no navigation history, there isn’t an easy way to go “back” to the original context view. It all begins to feel like a road trip:

Actual path

It’s worth mentioning that Kourosh Dini presents some very useful and related workflows in his excellent Creating Flow with OmniFocus, but in my view none of these methods has the simplicity of a quick – and mindless – round-trip to the task’s project view.

So, without further ado, I present the scripts Focus in New Window and Focus in New Tab, which do the following:

  1. Given a selected task (or tasks),
  2. Opens a new Project-based window or tab, focusing on the desired project(s)

That’s it. It’s an extremely simple concept that makes this round-trip quick and painless:

Desired path

For ease of daily use, I’ve named the script “Focus” and given it a descriptive “opens-in-new-window” icon. It now lives in my toolbar next to the real Focus action:

Focus in Toolbar

I’ve been using this countless times per day and thought it high time to share it with the world.

Get it here:

Focus in New Window/Tab

p.s. This script includes a custom icon to look better on your OmniFocus toolbar, so I’m linking to a zip file that includes this and other scripts; let me know if this is an inconvenient way to download it.

p.p.s. I’ve also updated some of the older scripts, notably Snooze and Shift (formerly called Defer). If you use them – especially if you also use LaunchBar or Alfred – you may want to take a look.

p.p.p.s. Because OmniFocus doesn’t currently (as of 2017–04–17) have native AppleScript support for managing tabs, Focus in New Tab has a few dependencies. Please check the inline notes if you run into any hiccups.