Get Started With OmniFocus 3

Few task management apps are as powerful as OmniFocus; or as intimidating for beginners. But fear not, these six tips will help you turbocharge your way through the app.

Just getting started with OmniFocus? Don’t worry about those other tabs for now, the Inbox is where it’s at. It has nearly everything you need; you can add items, tag them, assign a due date, and eventually (the best part), mark them as complete.

You can easily rearrange tasks with the same tag by dragging and dropping. Now put that power to good use. If you’re getting ready to leave the office for instance, you might search all the things you’ve tagged “errands” and reorder them according to the stops you’ll be making.

You can add tags for categories like Priority, Energy Level, Location, and any other context that makes sense to your workflow. Using them lets you focus on what’s relevant to where you are and the resources you have to hand. Looking for high-priority jobs you can accomplish on the phone when your energy levels dip? Proper tagging will help you zero in.

If you’re using OmniFocus on more than one device, be sure to set up Omni’s Sync Server. It’s free to use and will keep your Mac in sync with your iPhone and iPad.

Another reason to create that Sync Server account: It allows you to send items to your OmniFocus inbox by emailing a unique address associated with your account.

You probably figured out that the arrow keys are an efficient way to navigate OmniFocus. But did you know you can edit a selected item by simply pressing Tab? When you’re done, press Return to confirm, or Escape to cancel. And to finalize your edit and create a new item in one fell swoop, press Return twice.