I am a huge fan of OmniFocus for Mac and iPhone, so I thought I would share some things that I feel give OmniFocus the edge for task management.

1. Estimated Time: Being able to add the amount of time to each action is an invaluable tool, allowing me to quickly glance at actions by time needed. I like to sort this way when I finish a task and have only limited time before a meeting / errand that needs to be done.
2. View Bar / Focusing: There is a pair of glasses that sits in the toolbar of OmniFocus that allows you to dail in on what you are looking for. You need to use this. Using this feature can call out the data that you want to see. Related to this is the ability to Focus on a project (control-command-F). This takes away all other projects so that you can switch between the various view methods without the clutter of other projects. I find this incredible useful when you have a large project going.
3. File Links: Did you know that you can drag most files into an action? Not only that, but you can drag in emails. When you do this OmniFocus will create a link to that file or email. Click it and it will take you there. I love doing this for outlines of blog posts that I make in OmniOutliner, or for emails that need further action, or that an action is in reference to. This is easily one of the best features of the program, though not exclusive to OmniFocus.
4. Quick Entry: Most all task managers now implement this in one form or another. You can customize a keyboard shortcut in OmniFocus and when you press it you get a quick entry screen to put in new tasks. What separates this from most other task managers is that you can enter in more than one task. You can also tell OmniFocus how much data you want to enter. If you fill out the action name/project/context/due date there is nothing more for you to do later. If you only fill out the name it sits in your Inbox in OmniFocus until you process it.
5. Single Action Lists: Most OmniFocus users are probably used to creating new projects with actions inside of them. However you can also create what OmniFocus calls Single Action Lists. Where you put actions that don't require a project, such as "get cash from ATM."
6. Start Times: Everybody assigns due dates to actions (hopefully), but did you know that you can also assign start times as well? There are a lot of actions that you can't do until a certain time passes, this is where start times come into play. They make the action unavailable until the start time. For example if I need to ask Jim something, but I know that he is at lunch until 1p, and I need to ask him it before 5p, here is what I would do and why. I would input the task to OmniFocus, assign a start date of today at 1p, and due date of today at 5p. Now that action will not show up as available in the Due Soon focus of OmniFocus until after 1p. Using start times can really help you to focus on what you can do right now, versus you running around trying to remember where Jim went.
7. Parallel and Sequential Project Flows: You can set a projects actions to either be parallel or sequential. Parallel means that you can essentially do any of the actions at any time, no order at all. Sequential means you do one actions after another, in the order they are listed. There are obvious benefits to each systems, and certain situations where you must have one or the other. To set this just click on the little arrows before the due date, and it will toggle between the to modes.
8. Detailed Contexts: Contexts are great, but as you may of noticed when you use OmniFocus, for the 'Mac' context you also have the sub contexts of 'Online' and 'Email' you can set these up and more for each context you add. This ability makes OmniFocus far more usable for me. I like to say that this is an 'Errand' / 'Drug Store' so that I can pull it up at the drug store when I am there without having to make a new project just for the drug store to have a list.
9. Location Awareness (iPhone only - for now): With the iPhone version of OmniFocus you can tap the target to bring up a list of actions you can do - given where you currently are located. The iPhone can also assign GPS coordinates to contexts using your current location, or and address. This, needless to say, is not only very cool, but also very useful when you are out and about if you are using detailed contexts in the manner I talked about above.
10. Calendar Reminders: With the latest version of OmniFocus for the iPhone you can now create a iCal calendar, that you subscribe to. Doing this causes OmniFocus to pop up a reminder on your screen when a task is due. I love to use this especially for early morning task, like bring XYZ to work today. Before I leave that alert pops up on my phone and I have yet to forget to do something if I put it in OmniFocus.

What are some of your tips? Leave them in the comments below.

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• Doing Your Best Not to Get Lost
• 6 Steps to Create a Better Task List
• OmniFocus Versus Things