OmniFocus: how to handle delegated projects?

[Fritz58]

I'm managing 8 direct reports. I'd like their projects to be seen as delegated or somehow separated from my projects. I was thinking about OnHold status but that would mix with my Waiting For and Someday projects. Is there any tips for tracking delegated projects in OmniFocus?

 

[kelstarrising]

One option is to create a folder in Projects called "Projects - Delegated" and store them in there.

You could also track them under your People lists (aka "Agendas" in GTD terms, but OmniFocus calls them People.)

Attached files

 

[Oogiem]

I'm managing 8 direct reports. I'd like their projects to be seen as delegated or somehow separated from my projects. I was thinking about OnHold status but that would mix with my Waiting For and Someday projects. Is there any tips for tracking delegated projects in OmniFocus?

I don't have many delegated projects but I made a context for them as well as a separate folder.

 

[Fritz58]

I think I need to clarify to get the right advice

At the moment the structure in my OF is as follows:

- Work
-- Company A
--- Management
----Administration
-----Introduce business processes
-----Install new reception
-----Order tables for the sales
-----Clean the server room
-----...
----Finance
-----Find a bank with creteria ABC
-----...
----Marketing
----Sales
-----Hire a sales director (*)
...
...

I'm executive director of the company so I set direction and projects to the company directors and track them. Most of the projects (there're 350) are delegated. Though they are on my list with On Hold status (aka Waiting For) as you see above. Among these projects there're some projects that I own myself (marked with *). Usually they are some business development projects in the intitial phase.

When I'm in the doing mode I want to see only my projects and my Waiting Fors, not delegated ones. It would be easy if there were Delegated status in OF. But there isn't. So i need a way to separate my work from the work I just control.

Any ideas?

 

[speeding]

When I delegate an action to a person, I change the context to 'waiting for'. I have set several contexts and I don't want to change usually. So I change the delegated action's title to 'waiting: John, write the ... report'.

 

[Fritz58]

Speeding, I delegate a project, not an action. So I don't really interested what action a person makes to complete the delegated project. Omnifocus has no 'Delegated' status for the project just Active and OnHold. I use OnHold for my projects that I do myself, it is used as Waiting for status.

 

[AE Thanh]

You want to make custom perspectives. Are you familiar with that? If not, my friend and I wrote some posts about it here:

http://www.asianefficiency.com/task-management/omnifocus-series-part-05-perspectives/

I guess there are two ways to go about it:

1. Make a perspective that only shows YOUR projects.
2. Make a perspective that only shows DELEGATED projects.

When you are creating your perspectives, you can select which projects to view. Just a quick example, go to projects. Select 3 projects (hold COMMAND when you click). Now you should see on the right only tasks related to these 3 projects.

In the menubar, go to Perspectives > Save Window As > New Perspective, and give it a name. Now each time you go to that perspective, you only see those 3 projects.

The same idea works for contexts.

In your case, you can use this only only select projects you own or selecting the projects that are delegated.

 

[mcogilvie]

Speeding, I delegate a project, not an action. So I don't really interested what action a person makes to complete the delegated project. Omnifocus has no 'Delegated' status for the project just Active and OnHold. I use OnHold for my projects that I do myself, it is used as Waiting for status.

If you have NO next actions for a project, it isn't YOUR project, is it? So I would probably have one or more lists of delegated projects, each with a context of either the responsible person or just "delegated" or even "waiting for". You could also have a repeating reminder to "Check status of xyz project with Pat". It's up to you.

 

[Fritz58]

Mcogilvie, yes, they are delegated projects. The problem is I don't want to create a special folder for delegated projects. I want them to go in line with my areas of focus. For example, my area of focus is Hiring and there's a project Sign a contract with agency XYZ. I want that project to stay in my AOF but with a status of Delegated so I could differentiate what projects are my Active or OnHold projects and what are Delegated.

 

[Fritz58]

AE Thanh, thanks for sharing! I will look into that to find out how to apply to my situation. I think the easiest way would be if Omni team created "delegated" status along with Active, Onhold, dropped etc. But they do not respond

 

[mcogilvie]

Mcogilvie, yes, they are delegated projects. The problem is I don't want to create a special folder for delegated projects. I want them to go in line with my areas of focus. For example, my area of focus is Hiring and there's a project Sign a contract with agency XYZ. I want that project to stay in my AOF but with a status of Delegated so I could differentiate what projects are my Active or OnHold projects and what are Delegated.

Yes, so make a single-action list under hiring called something like "Hiring-Delegated". Then give each item in Hiring-Delegated the context "Delegated Project". Now you might like to see them on the same level as YOUR projects, but there's no good way to do it in OF. Oh, you could define a context called "Projects" and have a sub context "My Projects" and another "Delegated Projects". Then you have to assign that context appropriately to projects and set up a perspective to view both projects, sorted however you like. However, the truth is you don't need to treat delegated projects the same way as your own projects, and you probably shouldn't. My best advice is to stop obsessing over what you think you have to have, and make what you have work. Your system will adapt to your needs much better with use and a small amount of experimentation.

 

[billjw]

I may be wrong here but ...

... I have just started committing to OF as a way to manage my workload (meaning I've had it for ages but haven't got stuck in). I now have an assistant that I want to ensure I include in my set of tasks so I can delegate and help her.

I've done two simplistic things:

1. Any project I have delegated to her I have named her in the Project Title: "On Boarding - Mary". My rationale being that it remains as an AOF for me but it stands out that it is with someone else. I also mentally know the project not just as "On Boarding" but as "On Boarding - Mary". That will help when I get asked something about what's going on, I know it is with her and I don't have to pick up any tasks related to it. At least initially.

2. I also created a context for Mary. So when I view my tasks by context, she shows up and with her name against the tasks so I know they are with her. If I want to know what's going on I just need to ask. This is great of our weekly catch ups and managing her progress and my ability to delegate and manage other resources.

As I said, maybe over simplistic and I am new to this so I may change as soon as I realise is not working but the logic seems fine (for now)

Feel free to critique ...