Using OmniFocus with Drafts

Is your OmniFocus Inbox overflowing with tasks, random thoughts, ideas, and more? Consider capturing into Drafts instead.

While it may feel good to dump your thoughts into the OmniFocus inbox, you may soon discover that you quickly end up with an unmanageable OmniFocus inbox where critical actions get lost in the noise. An alternate strategy is to capture into the Drafts app (Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch) and use Drafts actions to quickly and easily transform and redirect what you’ve captured.

Drafts can also be a great complement to OmniFocus when it’s time to get down to work. You can store project templates in Drafts and easily transform them into projects. Drafts can also be an excellent place to store your project support material. And it’s quick and easy to link what you’ve stored in Drafts to the relevant projects and actions in OmniFocus.

Drafts: “Where Text Starts”

At a basic level, you can think of Drafts as the digital equivalent of a notepad.

When you launch Drafts, you’re presented with a blank note and can type (or, if you have an iPad with an Apple Pencil, Scribble) whatever’s on your mind — whether it’s an interesting idea you had while out walking the dog or a promise that you just made to a client. You simply capture what has your attention into Drafts’ inbox, without worrying about where this information belongs and what (if any) action needs to be taken.

Your Drafts inbox may contain information or tasks that are time-sensitive, so it’s a good idea to regularly “clarify” (in Getting Things Done terms) what you’ve captured in Drafts. This process includes determining whether what you’ve captured is actionable, or if it’s something that you’ll choose to keep for future reference. Actionable captures can be transformed into actionable tasks and sent off to OmniFocus. Things that aren’t immediately actionable, but still potentially have future value (e.g. the great idea that you had in the shower) can be sent off to the appropriate repository for future review, or even tagged and archived in Drafts itself.

The real magic of Drafts is its support for actions. In a nutshell, actions allow you to quickly and conveniently process your Drafts. For example, one action might transform a Draft into an OmniFocus action and another might send it off to your idea repository in DEVONthink. Drafts comes pre-installed with a variety of actions. And you’ll find many more in the Drafts Directory. If you have the Drafts Pro upgrade you can modify actions written by others and create your own from scratch.

Drafts: Free & Pro Subscription

There’s a free tier of Drafts that allows you to create, edit, and sync drafts and make use of all of the actions in the Drafts Directory. Drafts Pro is an optional subscription-based upgrade that, among other things, lets you create and edit actions, organize your drafts into workspaces, and make use of widgets.

Much of what you’ll learn in this session can be accomplished using the free version of Drafts. Though, we’ll also show some of the features that are exclusive to Drafts Pro to give you a taste of what’s available if you choose to upgrade.

Everyone is welcome. No previous Drafts experience is required.

You’re very welcome to attend, even if you’re new to Drafts. This session includes an overview of the Drafts app for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, highlighting how it’s a natural complement to OmniFocus. 

Session Overview

Join this interactive session and learn:

• When and why it makes more sense to capture into Drafts instead of OmniFocus.
• A variety of ways to use existing Drafts actions to transform drafts into OmniFocus actions.
• How to use Drafts to store project support materials, and when it makes sense to use tags and workspaces (Drafts Pro).
• How to create OmniFocus projects in Drafts using the TaskPaper syntax.
• How to create and make use of OmniFocus project templates that are stored in Drafts.
• A quick and convenient way to capture on the Apple Watch using Drafts.
• How to create Shortcuts (iPhone/iPad) that automate the creations of drafts that are linked to new OmniFocus actions.
• How to link Drafts and OmniFocus using Hook (Mac).
• And more…

An Interactive Experience

During the live session, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and share insights using the chatbox and audio/video conferencing.

You’re welcome to join the live session 15 minutes before the start time to familiarize yourself with the online meeting technology we’re using and for an informal chat with other participants. The live session will remain active for 15 minutes after the completion time for additional questions and sharing.