Learn how to get into the habit of using OmniFocus with some help from the habit-tracking app, Streaks.
Making productive use of OmniFocus and complementary productivity apps requires two key elements.
- System Design –You need a thoughtfully configured system aligned with your life and work. This system evolves and changes as your responsibilities and circumstances change.
- Habits –You need to develop habits around using your system. Even the most carefully crafted OmniFocus setup won’t have any significant impact if you’re not in the habit of leaning on it throughout the day. It’s equally important to develop habits around maintenance so that your OmniFocus setup reflects your current and future priorities.
In this article, we’ll explore developing productive habits. While we’ll focus on OmniFocus, the same process could be applied to the other apps that make up your overall productivity system. You can also leverage what you learn in this article to promote constructive habits in all areas of your life.
Habits 101
Before we delve into the details, let’s explore habits and their role. For this article, we’ll treat a habit as something you do automatically, often in response to a trigger of some sort.
Some habits might lead to unproductive outcomes. For example, you might automatically open the Twitter app when you get stuck on a project. Others can be highly constructive, such as referring to OmniFocus when you wonder what to do next.
The key to developing habits is to repeat the same actions repeatedly until they become ingrained. It typically works best to repeat these actions daily (or even multiple times a day), though there may be things that you do periodically (e.g., once a week). For this article, we’ll focus on activities performed at least once daily.
Introducing Streaks
One way to develop and track habits is to use a habit-tracking app. While it isn’t essential to use a habit-tracking app to form new habits, a well-designed app can help guide the development of your new habits. Most habit-tracking apps also provide helpful metrics so that you can monitor your progress and adjust your behaviour accordingly.
We’ll focus on an excellent app called Streaks, which is available for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Streaks conveniently allows you to use iCloud to sync your habits and tracking information across all supported platforms.
Why not use OmniFocus to develop habits?
You may be wondering, why do I need a habit-tracking app like Streaks. Can’t I just use repeating actions in OmniFocus? While you certainly could use repeating actions in OmniFocus to develop habits, there are advantages to using a habit-tracking app like Streaks.
OmniFocus is useful for keeping track of things you’re committed to doing that you don’t want to or need to remember. For example, you probably don’t need to develop a habit of paying your Visa bill on the first Friday of the month. Instead, if you’re using OmniFocus effectively, it’s sufficient to have a repeating “Pay Visa bill” action in OmniFocus with the appropriate defer and due dates.
Streaks: Training Wheels for Your Habits
Streaks was designed to help you create habits that will become engrained behaviours. As the name implies, Streaks helps you cultivate these habits by encouraging you to do things consistently and repeatedly without breaking the chain of completion.
As mentioned, habits are typically actions taken daily or multiple times daily. Streaks can also help you develop habits with other cadences. Maybe there are things that you want to get into the habit of doing on weekdays that don’t apply to weekends (e.g., clearing out your paper inbox at work).
Think of Streaks as the training wheels for your up-and-coming habits. Once you’re satisfied that your habits are well established, you can archive them, saving them for posterity and letting the momentum you’ve created carry you forward.
The goal with Streaks is not to do everything perfectly from the beginning. Instead, you can use it to view metrics on your progress and notice what gets in the way of doing the things you aim to make habitual. Metrics within the app will allow you to tap into information such as your longest streak and the time of day that you typically mark habits complete.
The Role of Notifications
Streaks can notify you if you haven’t completed a task by a specific time. It’s important not to rely on these notifications. Remember that your goal is to develop engrained behaviours that don’t rely on technology. While it’s okay to use notifications at first, strive to complete tasks in Streaks before you’re notified about them so that the notifications become a safety net instead of a call to action.
Tying these tasks to a habit you’ve already developed can be very helpful. For example, maybe it’s something that you do right after lunch or just before watching your favourite TV show.
Using Streaks with OmniFocus
As mentioned previously, OmniFocus is only useful if you use it regularly. This includes developing a habit of turning to OmniFocus when it’s time to get things done. It’s equally important to get into the habit of maintaining your OmniFocus database so that OmniFocus becomes a useful and trusted companion.