My wife and I share “Groceries”, “Home”, “Weekend” and “Home Depot” lists. Two reasons: I want to share lists with my wife and I want to have access to some lists from my Mac. You might be asking, “if Exchange lists are working so well, why keep anything in iCloud?” I certainly asked that question. I’m adding an unprecedented (for me) number of actions now. With Siri I hold the home button down and then say “Add ‘Schedule a meeting with Jim to my Legal list.’ ” Boom. OmniFocus on the iPhone is great, but to add an OF action, I need to unlock my phone, open OF and then type in the action. Siri makes the process so simple, there’s no excuse to get down every small idea and get it into my project. I can then see the entire email as a note in the Reminders app when I am away from my office.Īnother nice benefit, is the ease at which I can add quick ideas about a project to my work lists. It’s a nice way to hoist an email out of the thickets of Outlook priority flags, which are completely useless for me. One thing that I like about the task lists in Outlook is that I can add emails to the list for followup.
#Omnifocus outlook windows
It’s also nice to be able to add a quick task for home while I am in front of my Windows computer rather than getting out my iPhone or iPad to add the item to my iCloud list. This is a list of actions that don’t specifically apply to work but I might need to do when I’m at the office. It’s also a catch all for when I can’t remember the name of a project or it applies to more than one project.
In addition to lists for each project, I also have a general “Work” list for anything that is not project specific. If I can clear a task out in less than 2–3 minutes then I don’t bother transferring it to OmniFocus. I use them as a layover for tasks on their way to OmniFocus. I’ve created a list for each major project in Outlook. I can’t have a “Personal” list at work and on iCloud or it becomes to much work to make sure Siri adds it to the right list. The key is to define mutually exclusive buckets. As long as the names of the lists are unique, I can say “Add Check with Jim to my Work list” or “Add finish database refactoring to my Legal list” and Siri places the task in the correct list.
This turns out to be better for entering tasks with Siri. OutlookĪs a consequence, I am using the lists as single action buckets rather than contexts. A nested task structure in outlook like Work > Email becomes two task lists, Work and Email and in Reminders. That means any structure created in outlook is completely flattened on iOS. Unfortunately, the iOS Reminders app does not nest task lists. In Outlook on Windows, tasks can be organized into task folders. I’ve fiddled with tasks in Outlook for the past couple of weeks trying out different configurations to reduce their friction and get as much value as I can from Outlook. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still an OmniFocus devotee, but having access to my task list from Outlook and being able to add actions through Siri have a tremendous allure.
I’ve discovered that through judicious selection of task list names, I can create project and context buckets that work well in both applications. Now, Tasks also sync to Apple’s Reminders app. My employer provides access to Exchange from iOS and that’s been great for email and calendar access. But now that Siri is running my life, Outlook tasks are becoming more attractive. Looking back at my completed tasks in Outlook, I can see that I tried using it in 2006 but never added more than a few tasks. I use very few features of Outlook and one that has never fit my workflow was the Tasks system built into Outlook. I loath Outlook but I have come to accept it as my lot in life. Through my day-job I am forced to use Microsoft Exchange and Outlook on Windows. One unexpected side effect is that I am now using the Tasks functionality in Outlook on Windows much more. It has become the quintessential ubiquitous capture device for me. It is now obvious that Siri has elevated the iOS Reminders app to the winners circle of productivity applications.
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