NirvanaHQ Templates?

[ivanjay205]

Hello,

I currently use Omnifocus but have been debating on making a switch. I love Omnifocus and its ability to connect with all things, including watch and siri, apple easily. However, It is cumbersome and I have a windows PC at home and the web version is SO inferior.

I have explored NirvanaHQ and although the very slow development concerns me I guess it really doesnt need to change much. But, does it support templates? For example, we are hiring a new employee. I have an onboarding template setup in Omnifocus right now. I just duplicate it, activate it, and move it into the right folder and boom all of my next actions are done and I dont need to think about them or exert a lot of thought into my next steps. It is all done for me and I help my future self A LOT by doing this.

Is there such a feature in Nirvana?

 

[FocusGuy]

I have worked with Nirvana for months. It is a good software. You may do it with reference https://help.nirvanahq.com/category/getting-more-from-nirvana/add-your-items/ but I never tried it. I like it very much for GTD but it is far under what Omnifocus is able to do

About Omnifocus I know "by heart" I won't say it is cumbersome. It is what you make of it. We all have a tendency to overcomplicate it. It is hard to make things simple. I would suggest as there is no native importing tool in Nirvana to take a few day to see if you can make Omnifocus simplier and as you like.

Also, Omnifocus is now online. So you can use a PC or whatever to Acces to it and get a minimal set up witch works quiet well. They are finishing it with Omnifocus 4 as it will be the same software for OS X, IOS and online.

Last month I have switch to Things and after I saw it was un able to make the job as OF does. So I decided la Thursday to go back to Omnifocus, to read again GTD and apply seriously it in OF making it as simple as possible to projects, contexts and perspective. I am happy I succeeded. But it tooks me 5 full days of a hard work. I hope I won't do that again ! anyway the result is worth to !!!

 

[ivanjay205]

I have worked with Nirvana for months. It is a good software. You may do it with reference https://help.nirvanahq.com/category/getting-more-from-nirvana/add-your-items/ but I never tried it. I like it very much for GTD but it is far under what Omnifocus is able to do

About Omnifocus I know "by heart" I won't say it is cumbersome. It is what you make of it. We all have a tendency to overcomplicate it. It is hard to make things simple. I would suggest as there is no native importing tool in Nirvana to take a few day to see if you can make Omnifocus simplier and as you like.

Also, Omnifocus is now online. So you can use a PC or whatever to Acces to it and get a minimal set up witch works quiet well. They are finishing it with Omnifocus 4 as it will be the same software for OS X, IOS and online.

Last month I have switch to Things and after I saw it was un able to make the job as OF does. So I decided la Thursday to go back to Omnifocus, to read again GTD and apply seriously it in OF making it as simple as possible to projects, contexts and perspective. I am happy I succeeded. But it tooks me 5 full days of a hard work. I hope I won't do that again ! anyway the result is worth to !!!

I will check out that link, thanks for posting. I do know that OmniFocus is capable of a lot. However, I also find it a bit too complicated at times. For example to use the four fold strategy to engaging with work (according to GTD) you have to look at time, energy, context, and than prioritize. But with perspectives in OmniFocus you cannot dynamically combine those three criteria. You can only build a perspective for one of those filters or try to make any perspectives for all of those possible combinations. So I find that I work in long lists and I have to go to the "section" I am looking for using combined tags vs filtering down and only seeing a few next actions at a time.

Yes OmniFocus is online but the web version is VERY limited. It is really only good for checking things off. There is A LOT of functionality missing. I am on the OmniFocus 4 testflight and that is significantly better than 3 (desktop and ios) but the web version right now has little changed.

I am debating at looking at Things also. While I like Nirvana on PC I do realize my iphone is always with me as is my iPad so I could potentially just set that up to work with my workflow when I have to use a PC which is not all that often.

 

[FocusGuy]

to use the four fold strategy to engaging with work (according to GTD) you have to look at time, energy, context, and than prioritize. But with perspectives in OmniFocus you cannot dynamically combine those three criteria.

With OF you can combine criteria. For this go to perspective / add / Clic on with alt key, then you will see 3 points (...) clic on it you can then make it as you like. I have made very simple perspective combining these criteria but sincerely I don't use them anymore. When things are complicated and hard I just put it in the sentence and use one the search : here (there are 3 kinds of search" Honestly Nothing I tried worth Omnifocus like find "High energy" and it works !!!

As David Allen said "OF is a Stellar tool for GTD" I am a 100% right with him and I tried almost 50 softwares... ;-). Anyway for going very far away with Omnifocus, read DINI. it is long and complete but just incredible....

Yes OmniFocus is online but the web version is VERY limited. It is really only good for checking things off. There is A LOT of functionality missing. I am on the OmniFocus 4 testflight and that is significantly better than 3 (desktop and ios) but the web version right now has little changed.

Yes This is true. But it will change. The web version is where Omnigroup goes. They still have individual software but for how much time ?
Anyway, you can use your iPhone anywhere. when I am outside I fully use the IOS, OF version. It is less well done than the things version, but it is OK.

I am debating at looking at Things also. While I like Nirvana on PC I do realize my iphone is always with me as is my iPad so I could potentially just set that up to work with my workflow when I have to use a PC which is not all that often.

Things is my software of heart. I love it. It is one of the best software I used. The problem is about perspective and sorting. When You try and understand OF it is difficult to go back. Almost if you spent a lot of time in the learning curve as I did...Things and Nirvana are close. Things has import tool Nirvana don't have any. Things is beautiful Nirvana is OK Thing is easier and axed to time, Nirvana is like OF 100% GTD. Both were made for it.Home that helps
NB I am testing OF4 There is a real change. But you have to know it is more complicated and easier. OF will be ready at the end of the year. With all the same version web, IOS, OSX... That is what I red in Omnigroup roadmap...

 

[ivanjay205]

With OF you can combine criteria. For this go to perspective / add / Clic on with alt key, then you will see 3 points (...) clic on it you can then make it as you like. I have made very simple perspective combining these criteria but sincerely I don't use them anymore. When things are complicated and hard I just put it in the sentence and use one the search : here (there are 3 kinds of search" Honestly Nothing I tried worth Omnifocus like find "High energy" and it works !!!

Yes I do understand this but that gives you on criteria at a time. So lets say I have Energy with High, med, low under that, duration for Long, med, short and context for computer, phone, etc.

I cannot make perspectives to combine all of those potential combinations. But I can only click one tag at a time on the left to filter.

 

[FocusGuy]

Yes I do understand this but that gives you on criteria at a time. So lets say I have Energy with High, med, low under that, duration for Long, med, short and context for computer, phone, etc.

I cannot make perspectives to combine all of those potential combinations. But I can only click one tag at a time on the left to filter.

Ah OK. You can make a perspective which has all the following tags @Office + @High energy + Less than 30 mn for example.
Remember the marvelous advice of Meg Edwards (who use OF) : Did you over complicated it ?

OF has a real sense if you make it for yourself. I did That kind of perspective. It has no value added for me. The reason is simple. I clean, clean and clean again my system so I can see by tags only a few items (less ten) and as you see they are minimum

My context are corresponding to how I work so I can get everything which is relative to them and choose...

 

[ivanjay205]

Ah OK. You can make a perspective which has all the following tags @Office + @High energy + Less than 30 mn for example.
Remember the marvelous advice of Meg Edwards (who use OF) : Did you over complicated it ?

OF has a real sense if you make it for yourself. I did That kind of perspective. It has no value added for me. The reason is simple. I clean, clean and clean again my system so I can see by tags only a few items (less ten) and as you see they are minimum

My context are corresponding to how I work so I can get everything which is relative to them and choose...

On contexts I am with you as I have not too many. My setup is as follows:

• Contexts
  • Computer
  • iPad
  • Home
    • Home - Inside
    • Home - Outside
  • Kindle
  • Office
  • Phone
  • Shopping / Errands
• Time
  • 1- Long
    • 2 - Medium
      • 3 - Short
• Energy
  • 1 - High
    • 2 - Medium
      • 3 - Low

I nest like that so when I select, for example, high energy I can take from high, medium, or low. If I pick long time I can grab the shorter ones as well. That all works well.

The challenge is I cannot create perspectives that combine all of these. The combinations would be probably in the 75 range....

I would need computer, high energy, short duration... computer, high energy, long duration... computer, low energy, short duration.... etc. and the list goes on forever. The challenge with OF is I can only select one tag.

My current workaround is that I have (3) perspectives built on the time criteria as that is most often my most limiting factor. Once I have that set I can decide to further filter by context or energy. If I am only in my home, i pick that one. Only on my computer, I pick that one, etc.

If I am dead tired I pick low energy and see what is available.

I just cannot combine them all I guess.

 

[FocusGuy]

On contexts I am with you as I have not too many. My setup is as follows:
I just cannot combine them all I guess.

Ok I understand. Don't know how I can help. May be Nirvana could do this. Have a try. Things to but more complicated as you will have to clic on each context. When I am dead tired I just read my context list and see what I can do. It can take 2 mn but I prefer to be sure to do something useful than realizing I did something for nothing. I try to keep OF simple. Life make things changing. For example energy can be relative. You can realize that finally it doesn't need so much. Time too. Also event can change your plans as for me today.

 

[ivanjay205]

All very true and sometimes I catch myself spending more time playing with the system vs getting things done so I always have to be careful about that! I do thoroughly enjoy the apple watch and siri connectivity in OF along with the keyboard shortcut to add a new items from outside of OF. So not sure moving would fix everything. Prob fix some items and make others worse.

 

[grahamen]

There is a type of work around for your templates issue, you can create a reference list of your items and then, as you need it, convert it to a project. I do it by creating a copy of the list (right click on the list) and then convert the copy to a Project again from the context menu

 

[ivanjay205]

There is a type of work around for your templates issue, you can create a reference list of your items and then, as you need it, convert it to a project. I do it by creating a copy of the list (right click on the list) and then convert the copy to a Project again from the context menu

But you cannot preset tags right?

 

[bcmyers2112]

But you cannot preset tags right?

Actually, you can. I just tested it.

I've been using Nirvana for months now and I didn't know about this feature. I'm glad I saw this thread.

@ivanjay205, obviously everyone's got their own opinions about apps. FWIW I like Nirvana a lot. I feel that it's pretty streamlined. For the most part it does what I want, no more and no less. I don't have to think about using it, I like its aesthetics, and I have fun with it.

There are some workarounds I've had to come up with for a couple of things it doesn't do. But I haven't found those things to be a big deal.

I can't compare it to OF or Things. I haven't used either. All I can tell you is that Nirvana can work as a trusted system. Whether it will suit you is up to you, though.

 

[FocusGuy]

There is a type of work around for your templates issue, you can create a reference list of your items and then, as you need it, convert it to a project. I do it by creating a copy of the list (right click on the list) and then convert the copy to a Project again from the context menu

I suggest an idea I had, thanks to what I read in this forum. I love this forum it's a gold mine sometime ! Thank you so much

I use 2 lists I call "ideas professional" and "ideas personnal". It is a kind of temporary list like a someday may be list where I put ideas about anything I have on the flow or clarified from my inbox.

It is classified in my Omnifocus folder name as REFERENCE.

Some ideas become new projects, new challenge or goes into a someday may be list.

Of course I make regular clarification on theses lists. I report core infos in the field note of each tasks or projects.

I don't make any sorting any limitation about my thinking. I just put them as they come as inspiration.

it lets me a little Time to think about it to clarify it later or trash it.

 

[ivanjay205]

Thanks all!

 

[FocusGuy]

@ivanjay205 i made a little testing with nirvana (I have a life time licence). I did n’y use it since years, and I found it pretty good. I agree for filtering it is easier than omnifocus or things. It is fully GTD. I think it is like a horse tray of gtd. It does the job very well but you can t make it run. Also there is a lack about security. it seems complicated to make safe. But I am not a technician. But it won't make me switch from Omnifocus. Well optimized, what I can say is not as easy as we may imagine, OF is just an amazing tool. And most of all I can trust my system. Anyway, I use to think differently when I began laying with it. what I mad since is 100 % different.