Quote Originally Posted by macgrl View Post
Within the GTD system would it be acceptable for me to put a calendar entry to say to kick start a project or a reminder that there is something coming up?....Rather than having an action in omnifocus with a start date I have calendar entry...

Are these acceptable tactics?
What that says to me is that you don't trust your Omnifocus system and you are not doing regular weekly reviews.

The key factor for calendar actions is "Will this become irrelevant if I do not get it done on exactly this day and/or time?"

If nothing bad will happen if you slide that action around a day or 2 or a couple of hours or 3 then it's not really a calendar action and shouldn't go there.

A reminder that something is coming up would IMO be a tickler item if paper not a calendar item. IOW you want to review it at a certain time. I reserve my tickler for paper things. Otherwise it's clearly an Omnifocus item with a start date to me.

Examples:
I have to get a batch of sheep off to slaughter in October. I have a project set to start on the 1st of October to select and sort out the slaughter sheep. It doesn't really matter if I start that day or a day or 2 later so it doesn't belong on my calendar and starting then gives me a weekly review before it's due so I can see if I need to push it to the forefront. Part of the reason is that I may have other more urgent or critical items that I need to do on that day and may not have the time to do it. There are several actions, I need to select the short list of possibles, sort them and do a final evaluation with hands on sheep. Plus actually sorting the animals means I need the weather to cooperate and no weather service is remotely accurate that far in advance. I do have a deadline of when I need the decision, the night before when we load the trailer with the selected sheep.Until then it's clearly a project with a start date not a calendar item. I have already blocked out on my calendar the time I will need the nght before to load the selected sheep and the time the next day to drive them to the slaughterhouse. Because those items must be done exactly on those days and times.