Update on workflows with projects and action items:
I have been using this for a couple of months and found that Agenda really isn’t a good place to keep action items. I tried adding tags for open, due, waiting, etc. But it’s just so hard. What i did is make full use of the integrations with Reminders and Calendar. I manage the individual actions in OmniFocus.
Here are some setup stuff before explaining the new workflow I use:
- Sync reminders to OmniFocus— this way, new items added in reminders goes to OF
- Create a search overview in Agenda for past 10 days notes that is On The Agenda
- New notes in Agenda gets added to OTA
Here’s how the workflow looks like:
- new meeting/brainstorm, put them in agenda.
- I created a meeting template with the basic info like attendees, etc.
- I follow simple rules for note taking. Outline format for all notes so it’s easy to refer to them later on. If it’s a clear task, I use a checklist and add it to reminders via \remind tag. I have already setup my OmniFocus to pull items from Reminders so that’s automated.
- this includes my own task and tasks of people I manage and/or rely on. The basic formula I follow is “who does what by when” — for example
- if it’s my task,
Email: John re. Q3 reports \remind(today) - if it’s a task im waiting on or someone else I need before i can do my work,
Did Beth send the creatives for campaign ABC? \remind(tomorrow)
- if it’s my task,
- I then put a strikethrough on it to indicate i moved it to my OF.
- After the meeting, I go to OF and make the necessary changes — for example, i typically remove due dates and add defer dates instead. I add appropriate tags and put them inside the appropriate projects. Sometimes, i edit the action items so it makes sense by itself because the context in the notes will be gone. I can refer back to it though since the Agenda note link is added automatically using this method.
- in the example above, the first task i add an email and john tag. For the second one, I add a beth and waiting tag.
- Throughout the day/week, I constantly refer to OF for what I should do. I let it dictate what i should be working on. I have setup multiple perspectives to help me see the important actions and projects.
- if i have a meeting with Beth, i go to the tag and see all the stuff i need to talk to her about and what i’m waiting for
- if i’m in an email mode, i can pull up that tag and start sending emails one by one which includes the one from john
- In one of my routine workflow, i have a task to check/look at the Agenda search overview i shared above which includes OTA notes in the past 10 days. I then scan through this to see if i missed any tasks or create new ones based on reading through the notes. After I reviewed it, I removed it from the agenda.
The process of reviewing and updating allows me to capture tasks during the meeting. It allows me to ensure nothing is missed and, at the same time, ensure the project is moving forward.
Note that this will only take a few minutes and will get easy as you do it regularly. The first few times will be difficult since you’d probably have a lot of things to process. But once you get into the habit, it’s going to go so much faster.
When i first started this, my search overview was over 30+ notes. So that took me a a few days to read and clear. But now, my routine tasks shows up every MWF — so i only have 2-3 notes at a time to check. This probably takes up only 5 minutes or less. But for that little extra review time, i am always updated on what’s happening with my projects and tasks.