Recently, I was introduced to Block Kit for Slack, and I was super pumped to try to work with this. Since my team at work uses agile and scrum for our work processes, and since we sometimes need to scrum through Slack if calendars collide, I though this would be a compelling use case for a block-based solution, and use Shortcuts to help assemble it.
The tl;dr of Slack Block Kit is that it’s basically a big JSON payload that organizes content into a well-structured Slack post with sections, dividers, text, and interactions (like buttons or lists or forms).
OmniFocus Shortcuts Directory Bring convenience and consistency to OmniFocus for iOS/iPadOS through the magic of Shortcuts. Shortcuts is a technology that’s integrated into iOS/iPadOS that provides a simple yet powerful way to automate things you do on your iPhone and iPad. In a previous post, I wrote about my iOS Shortcut that connects Agenda to OmniFocus. With thanks to everyone for their questions, I wanted to follow up with some additional details around how I use the Shortcut and what my workflow is like. This is all surrounding the fact that I attend a lot of meetings, so the goals here are to.
The way my team scrums, we talk about what we did yesterday, what we’re doing today, and calling out flags, roadblocks, or needs for help. Since I operate by a manager schedule and I use OmniFocus to manage tasks, this basically means I want a post that combines:
18 Todoist IOS Shortcuts; 19 Omnifocus 2 IOS Shortcuts; 20 Trello IOS Shortcuts; 21 Evernote IOS Shortcuts. 21.1 Global; 21.2 Viewing and editing a note; 21.3 Editor; 21.4 Global search; 21.5 Searching within note; 22 iThoughts IOS Shortcuts; 23 Mindnode IOS Shortcuts. 23.1 Node Creation; 23.2 Node Selection; 23.3 Node Movement; 23.4 Branch. Use variables in Shortcuts. In Shortcuts, you can: Place a variable in a text field: For example, you can place a variable in the text field of an email shortcut, letting you choose a specific salutation (such as “Dear Sir” or “Dear Madam”) when you run the shortcut.
- yesterday’s calendar events
- today’s calendar events
- OmniFocus tasks that are flagged, available, and tagged with “Scrum”
I therefore set myself to build an iOS Shortcut. Getting that content is pretty straightforward, and combining it with text to have everything formatted in the right JSON construct is very doable.
Getting integrated with Slack isn’t hard, but it’s not nothing, either. Fortunately, Jake Bathman wrote a fantastic article on Medium that explains the process.
To make everything run smoothly, I also used Data Jar, a fantastic app for storing information to be used in Shortcuts, in this Shortcut for a few things:
- I keep the Slack API token in Data Jar, so that I don’t accidentally share it (in the shared Shortcut here, it’s at key
Auth.Slack). - I keep a dictionary of Slack channels in Data Jar to make it easy to interface with it (keys at
Slack.<<channel name>>). You can make this dictionary, too, with my Data Jar Slack Dictionary Shortcut. - I keep a dictionary about my team (at keys
Team.<<name>>) and each has a value forSlackAPILink. In this way, I can do a find and replace on the OmniFocus tasks, replacing each member of my team’s name with their<@SLACK_API_ID>. I love this, because by simply adding someone’s name in the task I have in OmniFocus, I will be @ mentioning them in the post that goes to Slack.
Here are a few other touches that the Shortcut handles for me:
- It is always assumed that “today” is a workday, so if I’m running this on Monday, the calendar from Friday will be shown (instead of the actual previous day, because please no Sunday meetings)
- The events from the previous calendar day and today are presented as lists to select what to include. They’re all selected by default, but if I have an event that is confidential or personal, I can easily deselect it to exclude it from the post.
- If no OmniFocus tasks match the criteria, there is alternate content inserted.
- A footer is added to make it clear that the post happened by automation.
I am pretty certain this Shortcut, considering the above, won’t work out of the box as shared, but I hope it provides adequate inspiration and framework for you to get value from. I’d love to hear what you think!
My work is driven, in large part, by caffeine. If this has been valuable to you and you’d like to support my work, buying me a coffee would be lovely. Thank you!
Appendix A
This appendix collects the useful gestures found throughout OmniFocus in one convenient place for reference, and helps you make the most of working with a connected keyboard by listing the keyboard shortcuts that are available based on your current place in the app.
Useful Gestures
Most of the interactions in OmniFocus are evident based on what you see on screen, but there are some time-saving shortcuts that aren’t always as easy to find. This section lists gesture-based interactions available throughout the app that make common actions even more convenient.
Pull to Clean Up
In compact views, pull down from the top of the outline to clean up the current view.
In wide views, this is replaced by the Clean Up button.
Pull to Sync
- Pull down from the top of the screen (in the sidebar on wide views, anywhere on compact views) to prompt OmniFocus to sync.
Swipe in the Outline
- Swipe an action or Inbox item row from right to left to delete it. Tap More to add a due or defer date, or reschedule.
- Swipe an action or Inbox item row from left to right to flag or unflag it, or to tag or untag it with the Forecast tag .
Swipe in the Sidebar
- Swipe a project from right to left to delete it. Tap More to review it, add a due or defer date, or reschedule.
Swipe a project from left to right to flag or unflag it, or to tag or untag it with the Forecast tag .
Swipe a tag from right to left to delete it.
Omnifocus Ios Shortcuts Cheat
Drag and Drop From the Outline
Drag and drop items within the outline to reposition them, or create groups by dropping items on top of other items.
Drag items from the outline to a project or tag in the sidebar to add them to that project or tag.
Drag items from the outline to a date in the Forecast date row (either in the Home tile or the Forecast perspective outline) to assign that due date to them.
- Drag items from the outline to other iOS apps to add them in plain text TaskPaper format.
Drag and Drop To the Outline
From outside OmniFocus, drag text rows to add each row as an item.
Drag rows from OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, and OmniGraffle’s outline view to add them as OmniFocus items.
Drag images from Photos or Safari to add them as items with the image file attached.
Drag messages from Mail to add them as items with links to the original messages in the notes field. Mac tools air ratchet repair kit for ar777a.
Drag files of any type from the Files app (or elsewhere) to create new items and add the files as corresponding attachments.
Drag and drop between apps is currently supported on iPad only.
Drag and Drop in Home
- With OmniFocus Pro, tap and hold a tile in the Home view to enter Tile Editing mode. Drag perspective tiles to rearrange them.
Drag and Drop in the Sidebar
Omnifocus Ios Shortcuts Download
- In the sidebar for Projects and Tags, drag and drop rows to rearrange them within the current level of hierarchy.
Drag New Inbox Item
- Drag the New Inbox Item button anywhere in the outline to add an item there, pre-filled with attributes corresponding to the current perspective and item location.
Tap and Hold..
Items in the outline to open their contextual menus. Deezer deb.
Back to instantly go Home.
Shake to Undo
Omnifocus Ios Shortcuts Windows 10
- On iPhone, shake the device to mimic the effect of tapping Undo .
Keyboard Shortcuts
If you’re using OmniFocus for iOS with an external keyboard, you can take advantage of the app’s built in keyboard shortcuts for many common tasks.
Anywhere in the app, press and hold the Command key on your connected keyboard to view a list of available shortcuts. There are some common shortcuts that work no matter where you are; others are specific to your current view.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Universal Shortcuts (available anywhere in the app) | |
| Cut | Command-X |
| Copy | Command-C |
| Paste | Command-V |
| Undo | Command-Z |
| Redo | Shift-Command-Z |
| Outline Shortcuts (with an item selected in the outline) | |
| Complete/Uncomplete | Space |
| Drop/Undrop | Option-Space |
| Inspector Shortcuts (when editing item details) | |
| Edit Note | Command-’ |
| Set/Remove Flag | Shift-Command-L |
| Info | Control-1 |
| Note | Control-2 |
| Attachments | Control-3 |
| Save (when adding a new item only) | Command-S |
| Save Plus (when adding a new item only) | Option-Command-S |
| Cancel | Command-. |
| Delete | Command-Delete |
| Previous Item | Command-↑ |
| Next Item | Command-↓ |
| Projects Perspective Shortcuts | |
| New Project | Shift-Command-N |
| New Folder | Option-Shift-Command-N |
| Tags Perspective Shortcuts | |
| New Tag | Control-Command-N |
| Review Perspective Shortcuts | |
| Mark Reviewed | Shift-Command-R |
| Navigation Shortcuts (outside the new item editor) | |
| OmniFocus Settings | Command-, |
| New Inbox Item | Control-Option-Space |
| New Action | Command-N |
| Sync | Shift-Command-S |
| Search | Command-F |
| Favorite Perspectives | Command-0 through Command-9 |
| Collapse All | Control-Command-0 |
| Expand All | Control-Command-9 |
| Home | Shift-Command-H |
| OmniFocus Help | Command-? |
Other Keyboard Tips
In perspectives other than Forecast, if you have a hardware keyboard attached you can press the down arrow key to select the first item in the outline (even if nothing is selected), then use the arrow keys to keep moving through your items.