OmniFocus Workflows with William Gallagher

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An accomplished writer, William Gallagher, joined us from England to share how he uses OmniFocus and complementary apps to manage everything from last-minute requests to long-term writing projects and workshops.

William is an avid user of OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, and OmniPlan. He’ll be taking us on a tour of his OmniFocus setup and workflows and giving us a taste of how OmniOutliner and OmniPlan fit into the mix.

The nature of William’s work has him playing the role of a firefighter. He shared how he uses OmniFocus to handle the unpredictable elements of his work, such as writing news for AppleInsider, while also ensuring that he’s making progress on long-term projects. One of his strategies is to use his “First Ten” perspective, which surfaces the ten actions that need attention on even the busiest and most unpredictable of days.

William is a called-upon speaker and has spoken at about 900 events over the past ten years. Most of these were organized and planned in OmniFocus and OmniOutliner.

To keep up with all of the demands on his time, William makes extensive use of automation. He’ll showcase a Shortcut that he uses to create template-based projects to prepare for the many workshops that he leads.

While this session will focus on the Mac, William is also an avid iPhone and iPad user and is currently running the OmniFocus 4 TestFlight on his mobile devices.

ABOUT WILLIAM GALLAGHER

William Gallagher is a former Deputy Chair of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain. He produces the YouTube series 58keys for writers who use Macs, iPhones and iPads, writes Doctor Who radio dramas and is the author of 19 non-fiction books, including the British Film Institute’s BFI TV Classics: The Beiderbecke Affair. His first collection of short stories is due to be published in 2023.

00:00:00 - Welcome
00:00:25 - About Learn OmniFocus
00:04:17 - Coming Soon
00:10:17 - Introducing William Gallagher
00:11:57 - Meet William Gallagher
00:12:35 - Why William Uses OmniFocus
00:13:35 - Capturing Into OmniFocus
00:15:00 - Automating Project Creation
00:20:41 - Forecast Perspective + Due Dates
00:22:48 - First Ten Perspective
00:25:51 - Focusing for an Hour
00:33:28 - Reviewing OmniFocus
00:34:45 - Revisiting the First Ten Perspective
00:38:04 - Surfacing OmniFocus Actions
00:41:16 - OmniFocus is a Constant Friend
00:42:16 - The Show Comes First
00:43:18 - Time Estimates
00:46:07 - Planning in OmniOutliner
00:50:26 - OmniFocus is a "Can Do" App
00:54:27 - How William Uses Tags
00:55:37 - Time Blocking Tasks
00:57:30 - Custom Perspectives
00:58:34 - Project Numbering
01:01:33 - Alternatives to OmniOutliner
01:03:18 - Other Apps in William's Toolbox
01:09:09 - Many Thanks