Estimated durations are one of the most underused features in OmniFocus. When used intentionally, they make OmniFocus significantly more useful and relevant to your daily work. Here’s how to put them to good use.
Taking a Productive Pause
When you assign an estimated duration to an action, you’re taking a moment to ask yourself two useful questions: How long will this actually take? And: How much time am I willing to spend on this?
Both matter. Even a momentary pause to reflect changes your relationship with an action. You might realize it is too vague to estimate, which is a signal that it needs to be broken down further. Or you might realize that an action you thought would take a few minutes will take considerably longer.
I call this productive friction: a small pause that leads to more realistic planning.
Entering Estimated Durations
Before diving in, make sure the Estimated Duration field is visible in the outline by adding it via Settings → Layout. I recommend keeping this field visible at all times, rather than showing it only when editing. Having the estimated duration always visible keeps this key information front and centre: there’s an action to be done, and you know approximately how long it will take.
On Mac
OmniFocus for Mac supports two layout options, both of which are configured via Settings → Layout. In the Fluid layout, I recommend adding Estimated Duration to Display Fields to keep it visible at all times. The Columns layout displays Estimated Duration as a persistent column, always visible in the outline.
On iPhone and iPad
iPhone and iPad support only the Fluid layout. Go to Settings → Layout and add Estimated Duration to your Display Fields so it’s always visible in the outline.
Now What? Five Ways to Put Estimated Durations to Good Use.
Now that you have estimated durations in place, here are five ways to put them to work. Some, like time blocking and duration-based perspectives, become useful immediately. Others, like calculating total time, are most useful once you’ve specified estimates across a good portion of your actions.