OmniFocus 1.0 Perspectives

OmniFocus perspectives help resolve the repetitious clicking involved when switching between modes/views that require specific filters/focus. By configuring a perspective or multiple perspectives, as shown above, you can achieve what you want with the click of a mouse button or keyboard shortcut. Additionally, adding custom icons to each perspective gives a nice visual cue to each perspective rather than the default and non-distinct icon.

In my case, all of my perspectives keep me in context mode with different filters used for each. For example, here is a detailed breakdown:

• Next Action - Selection: My “Home” context, Mode: context, Focus: none, Filter: remaining, Grouping: project, Sorting: project, Action Filter: next action, Time Filter: any, Flag Filter: any.
• Due Soon - Selection: Contexts (the root of all contexts), Mode: context, Focus: none, Filter: remaining, Grouping: project, Sorting: project, Action Filter: due soon, Time Filter: any, Flag Filter: any.
• Shopping - Selection: My “Errands” context, Mode: context, Focus: none, Filter: remaining, Grouping: context, Sorting: project, Action Filter: available, Time Filter: any, Flag Filter: any.
• Work - Selection: My “Work” context, Mode: context, Focus: none, Filter: remaining, Grouping: project, Sorting: project, Action Filter: next action, Time Filter: any, Flag Filter: any.

You can also add custom perspectives to the main menu as shown here:

As for me, I tend to keep the Perspectives dialog open as I do with the Inspector dialog as shown here:

(click to view)

Perspectives ultimately make getting around in OmniFocus must faster but is power-user feature that only becomes obvious only after you find yourself configuring the same settings often.

Tags: OmniFocus

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