Setting recurring tasks in Omnifocus?

[kayejaye]

Hi there! I'm new to the GTD system. I bought the book, got OmniFocus and went through the David Allen set up guide so I feel I have a good start. My question for everyone is what is the best way to enter recurring tasks? I'll use the example that I'd like to meditate 5 times a week. On another thread it was suggested that what is being done is creating a habit, and once a habit is developed you won't need a tickler to remind yourself to do it. I'd still like to be accountable to myself (a big reason I started with the GTD system in the first place). Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[kelstarrising]

I would suggest putting it on your Calendar, as a recurring Next Action, until it becomes a habit.

[khrideon]

...love it. Welcome to GTD!

[vbampton]

Because I'm not particularly calendar-based, I use OmniFocus start and due dates to give me the prompts I need to get the ball rolling for the first couple of weeks, and then I'm loving the Way of Life app for ongoing accountability.

[kayejaye]

Because I'm not particularly calendar-based, I use OmniFocus start and due dates to give me the prompts I need to get the ball rolling for the first couple of weeks, and then I'm loving the Way of Life app for ongoing accountability.

Thanks for the tip, Victoria. I'll try the Way of Life app. Although I'd like to keep everything within OmniFocus, I know it's not always a one size fits all situation.

BTW, I'm a former Adobean. I worked for Macromedia in San Francisco then Adobe in San Jose.

[kayejaye]

I would suggest putting it on your Calendar, as a recurring Next Action, until it becomes a habit.

Thanks, Kelly! Is there a way to make a next action recur automatically or is this something I just need to process each day? I searched "help" but didn't find anything.

[vbampton]

Small world!

If you want to set up a recurring action in OmniFocus, you'll find it in the Inspector panel towards the bottom. Works a treat. If you're using the Mac Calendar, I'm not sure you can have repeating to do's - you could probably use a repeating all day event or use BusyCal which does have repeating to dos. Since you want to keep it all in one app though, I'd try OF first and see how you get on with it.

I only started using Way of Life once the habit is ingrained enough not to need a reminder at the time - I just check off about 20 habits at bedtime to keep that general awareness.

[kelstarrising]

Thanks, Kelly! Is there a way to make a next action recur automatically or is this something I just need to process each day? I searched "help" but didn't find anything.

In most Calendars, you would be creating an All-Day event and set the repeat/recurring field. In iCal, it would look like this:

[LynnC]

Another for the Way of Life app. Love that app. I have all my tasks in Omnifocus. But I use Way of Life for the daily habits.

You can mark green for done, red for not done and now blue for skipped (if it's not a daily thing). It has a way to add notes for each day for each habit.

I can't remember where I first heard about it. I think it was here somewhere.