I went back and forth on the Note-versus-Reminder debate last year when I was documenting my Bucket List. I ended up going with a Note (checklist) as in that instance seeing what was done would be almost as important seeing what was still left to do. By contrast, I like my Reminders to disappear when completed as in that case the only items I’m concerned about are those that still need to be done.
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Just came across this thread, reviewing my Fantastical / Omnifocus setup. I have a Daily Review at 8am and a Weekly Review on Sundays at 8pm. Are they events in your calendar linked back to OF ? (if events in Fantastical, are they recurring?)
Also, fascinated by this ‘No Meetings’ - is that your default setting?
Thank you for perfectly summarizing MY problems with my task mgr (Things 3)-- I’ve filled it with someday/maybe’s – stuff that would be NICE TO DO, but isn’t an urgent MUST DO – and seeing the huge list of POTENTIAL activities I don’t have time for right now always puts me in overwhelm and depression.
I now wonder if 2 task mgrs would be better: one task mgr dedicated to MUST DO’s that are TIME-SENSITIVE. and one task mgr for all the “somedays/check this out if you are in the mood”/etc.
Then if I get a notification from my MUST-DO task mgr, I’ll pay attn to it. And the list won’t be cluttered. It’ll only have actual MUST DOs… Hmm… you’ve got me thinking, thanks!
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@FrMichaelFanous My daily and weekly reviews are on my calendar M-F with no end date. I consider the daily and weekly reviews to be “sacred” unless there is something that absolutely, unequivocally requires my attention. I use Apple Calendar and Reminders for events and my todos. The “No Meeting” events are also on my calendar M-F with no end date. My EA knows not to schedule any meetings during those times—they are devoted to deep work, writing, and strategic planning/work. I don’t have the reviews or no meeting times linked back to Reminders as that would serve no useful purpose for me. I just conduct the reviews and do the deep work as scheduled. 
I hope this helps!
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This is what I’ve ended up with at the moment in Reminders. I only regularly review inbox (which is the default list that I send articles/videos/tasks to through during the day - I drag and drop into the relevant list or delete), and my personal, work and project task lists.
Tasks for today/overdue are automatically flagged by an automation; I unflag anything I won’t be able to do today. “Flagged” becomes my todo list for the day.
The collections I only look into when I am seeking something to read or listen to (or because something is suddenly relevant). They don’t mess up my “primary” lists, and they’re not dated so don’t create any notifications. I don’t find they’re clutter as I never use the “all tasks” view.
I’ve set up contexts, e.g., phone call, email, office but not found much use for them.
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You’re not alone in this:
Often I create a task in OmniFocus with a link to a draft in Drafts - in the Notes field. (Note to self: Two stub blog posts need this treatment right now.)
Often the draft starts out untagged and I have a menu for untagged notes I can invoke. One option is to make tasks in OmniFocus for selected untagged drafts. (Unfortunately it’s too fragile and specific to share.)
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I use Things 3’s ‘Someday’ function for the ‘somedays/check this out if you are in the mood”/etc.‘ tasks. Keeps those non-must do tasks nicely separated from the higher priority stuff.
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I use Due for priority tasks and a second task mgr for everything else. I have widgets for both on my iPad & iPhone home screens and get notifications from both on my watch. It works for me.
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I think I have the urge to switch (back) to OmniFocus for the same reason as you (super cool perspectives that will surface anything at the right time and solve all my problems). But I also think that in the end, that will not solve my problem, which is similar to yours.
My current solution, which is working well for me (which is similar to what others have proposed in this thread, but more explicit how to implement in Things):
TLDR: in things you can use saved searches in the form of links. Put them into recurring tasks and you’re good to go.
I have “dark areas” in Things, which I don’t look at during my reviews.
I have tagged the important areas with “private” or “work” and all the other ones don’t show up during my reviews. (Area tags are inherited by contained projects and tasks.)
In my recurring task to do the review I have a link like this one, so no fiddling with the tags menu
things:///show?id=anytime&filter=private
When going through projects (things “main” view), I just start at the top (where private and work areas reside), make sure to go through the important ones, and if I feel especially adventurous, I go through some more. I usually sort the “dark areas” by current priority/interest every once in a while.
That allows me to keep my videos to watch in Things, and when I am particularly bored when doing the dishes, everything is easily accessible.
For larger someday/maybe projects, I currently keep a (Kanban) note in Obsidian. I use different columns to group them as I see fit (so not a Kanban flow). The difference between a project and a video being, that a video can be watched without planning/research, a real project needs some more setup, so “instant access” is not necessary. For me, it is a good thing, that I don’t look at the backlog very often.
When I do tackle a project that is not “important” (ie usually a hobby) it will go into one of the “dark areas” of Things. Usually it was not on my backlog, but I felt the urge to to do it. Having the hobby project in Things, I can integrate it with the “important” stuff and see it on my daily list. This has the advantage that, if I overplan a day or week, I just remove the start date and it goes back to its dark area, waiting for calmer times. (I also remove start dates from “important” tasks, but I review anytime+private multile times a week). And if am really serious about a task or project, I can tag it with the private tag so it becomes “important”.
Specifically with your books to read, I would put them in a list in one of the top “dark areas” and review them from time to time. I really like the headings in Things (sort of like vertical Kanban columns) to sort by read soon/someday/maybe or whatever you like, to make your list of books a bit more organized.
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My problem has been that the more apps I use the more places I have to look. I now keep all tasks in things 3. I also don’t segregate a great deal. I use two areas. A project area where all projects go and a task area where all single tasks go. That’s it. This simplicity really helps me. I know exactly where something goes and it’s fairly easy.
Projects are ordered by deadline (if they have one).
Having switched task managers more times than having hot breakfasts the one piece that makes the whole system work is a robust review process. I cannot emphasis this enough. Whenever there’s a failure in the system I invariably find that I missed my review.
Things 3 now uses markdown so you can actually store notes that might be tasks.
The fact that Things is a native app means dragging in files and emails creates clickable links to other data. It really can become a hub for all projects and tasks and starter notes.
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I decided to look for a way that is flexible and organic and able to adapt to my needs. I revisited my task management, switched back from Things to OmniFocus (not because I think it can’t be done there, but it’s inspiring to make a fresh start).
Now I have tags in Drafts for a) stuff that I might want to look at again, like books to read etc. and b) ideas that are nothing more than ideas yet or pieces of text I started but that aren’t real projects yet.
I set up recurring tasks in OF to look at these tagged notes, but not too often, just so they don’t get forgotten completely.
Then I set up my OF review regime to be flexible, so when I add a project it won’t show up for review every week automatically. Instead, I will assign a custom review cycle when creating it. Stuff that is just nice-to-have will get reviewed less often. Just so they don’t get forgotten completely. Here I can put the things that are a little too much task-like to be a note, but still aren’t the urgent or important „real tasks“ that need to be dealt with primarily.
I also created a specific tag in OF for stuff that is actually a long-term dedication. Like practicing an instrument. I can add specific goals there (like a specific exercise I want to do), but mainly it’s an area that’s outside my daily tasks with their due dates etc. This is mainly the perspective where I can go and find stuff that I just do for fun. This stuff doesn’t have due dates and doesn’t get reviewed often.
This way these note-like tasks and task-like notes get out of the way of my daily and/or important task management, but they are still in the system. And I can fluidly vary between a note that’s supposed to be revisited and a task that’s not urgent.
Thanks for all your input!
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Regarding the latest outrage du jour: I became a bit of a political junkie in 2015, and I am trying to read the political news more intentionally now.
Anything that’s analytical or predictive rather than factual is suspect. For example, if a writer is doing an article about who won or lost the big debate, that’s probably an article I don’t need to read.
Now that I think of it, the same is true for Apple news. What’s going to be announced this month? I can skip the guesswork articles and just wait two weeks to find out. Likewise, anything about Apple‘s AR/VR plans is simply guesswork; we’re just going to have to wait and see, even if that means waiting two years or more.
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