Archives for November 2013

Things in Omnifocus

November 30, 2013 Filed Under: Productivity

Things had amazing focus lists. I just wish they did more. So, the first thing I did was after moving to Omnifocus was set tasks in sequential/parallel projects and assign start dates and due dates where necessary. After this, I wanted to recreate the focus lists from Things – Today, Next, Scheduled & Someday as perspectives.

Today:

Context filter: Active
Grouping: Context
Sorting: Project
Availability filter: Available
Status filter: Due or Flagged
Estimated time filter: Any duration

When I set this up initially, the status filter was set to ‘due’. But, this displayed only those tasks which did not have a start date but had a due date of that particular date. But, I didn’t want to use due dates for every item unless they were really due and would cause significant loss in some aspect if not done that day. So, I let due items pull up in this perspective and used the ‘forecast’ view from the iPhone app (which can be configured to show both due tasks and scheduled tasks) to decide if I wanted to do any of the tasks I scheduled for that day and flag them. Now, I changed the Status filter to show ‘due or flagged’ so that these flagged items would also get pulled into this perspective. I then assigned flags (by default) and start dates to repeating tasks so that they would automatically pull up here.

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GTD, Omnifocus, Things & I

November 26, 2013 Filed Under: Productivity

Flow. What is Flow? Wikipedia paraphrases Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and defines ‘flow’ as the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. But, how do we find optimal flow? A feeling of ‘being’ in the moment? Isn’t it by doing what we can do at this given moment and not letting your brain drift to things we cannot handle? Complex definitions aside, in practical terms how can we achieve this? How to know what we can do now? Task lists? Yes, if they are tagged with ‘Contexts’. A part of GTD jargon, a ‘context’ is a list of tasks that share some unique prerequisite or constraint. Example: calling someone requires to have a phone, working on that report needs you to be in the office, fixing the window requires you to be at home. These locations/tools limit the tasks we can perform in any moment. What if we had such a list at hand every moment, reminding us what we could do then? What if we had a system which housed all our tasks/unfinished work and let us easily filter them via contexts?

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Rules of the road

November 8, 2013 Filed Under: Philosophy

After a day filled with road rage, I came back home fuming at the lack of ‘road sense’ of my fellow commuters. Or, don’t I have the necessary skills? What transpires on the roads is very different from what the rule books of traffic dictate. What if, I could rewrite the traffic manual based on what happens? How to interpret what you see? Here are a few observations:

Honk at red lights, people unnecessarily stop at them, you can get your way..
You see those two amber lights to the sides of the headlight.. They are for decorative purposes only.. Not something you use..

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In the grand scheme of things

November 3, 2013 Filed Under: Philosophy

When you die, people will not remember what you were passionate about. Your favourite pen will go neglected. The book library you built might will gather dust, the playlists you built, the app collection you are gushing about today, the gadget you adore, all will be made obsolete by tomorrows technology. The report you work on today so diligently loses it’s value one year down the lane. Your favourite piece of cloth will be handed over to the maids in a few years. The relationship you thought will last a life time will wither in a few years. In the grand scheme of thing, nothing matters. No matter how much effort we put in to create our own lives, they will be nought one day. Then why do we spend so much time building a life?

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