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There’s a new release of OmniFocus in the world, and does it ever bring some powerhouse features over for dinner. With support for native dark mode, iPad multiple windows, and new context menus for quick actions, there’s a lot to enjoy.

The part that brings the most versatility, though, is the new expanded support of Shortcuts with Shortcut Actions. These enable everyone to be able to automate and expand what is possible with OmniFocus without having to know complex code.

To celebrate this, I wanted to share five Shortcuts I have made for use with OmniFocus 3.4, one each day over this week’s weekdays. Some will be useful right away, others might need to be customized a bit to really be useful to you, but I hope all can spark ideas about how all this new capability can be used.

Let’s get right in to day one, then!

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On lucky episode 7 of the Nested Folders Podcast, Rose Orchard and I discussed how we “do productivity” with others who might or might not, and a lot of this really has to do with communication.

One thing Rose brought up was the importance of meeting notes and sharing them, so I thought I’d post about how I do this with Shortcuts and Ulysses.

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On this week’s episode of the Nested Folders podcast, Rosemary Orchard and I discussed automation as a solution, and when it should be employed.

We didn’t really answer the question, but I think we shared a lot that one could think about when considering the prospect of automation. Also, I wanted to share the couple of Shortcuts I have that take care of my favourite annoyances.

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On this week’s Nested Folders podcast episode, Rose and I talked about when not to be productive. In thinking about this even more, there’s a second quote from the Merlin Mann interview with David Allen that I really like, which is to have a great list of things to have in order to procrastinate with. That is, stuff you can do to “safely” avoid doing other things.

This is where some of my favourite lists come in. I thought I’d share them here, along with how I use them:

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After several months of discussion, planning, preparation, and writing, I am so proud to announce that I have partnered with the wonderful and talented Rosemary Orchard to co-produce the Nested Folders Podcast!

We’ll discuss all manners of productivity topics, mostly centres around philosophies, techniques, and approaches, so that listeners can benefit from our experiences, regardless of apps or systems they might use.

We’re just starting out, and no doubt we’ll iterate and improve, but I am very excited to share and learn through this new podcast, and would love to hear any and all feedback from everyone!

Also, a huge thanks and shout out to Josh Hughes for the amazing cover art. Love this!

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My system has been broken. Not broken in the way that the mechanics of it don’t work, but broken in its content. Here’s what happened:

I had an OmniFocus inbox of about 40 items. For a week. And I didn’t touch them. Why? Because 40 is a lot. 40 is many. And like everyone, I have a lot to do, and getting to clarifying and organizing that stuff just couldn’t make it to the top of my attention. But I hate baggage like that.

Finally, on our about day 8 of this inbox (now more like 50), I rolled up my sleeves and I got to sorting it out. And a funny thing happened.

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A weekly status review on projects with one’s boss tends to be part of having a job, and I was recently asked about how I use OmniFocus and Agenda for this process. It was a great question, because it made me think about my workflow so that I am optimizing for both:

  1. Simplicity – having the right amount of detail and ease of execution
  2. The audience – making sure my workflow makes it easy for my boss to consume the content I’m offering up

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