I use OmniFocus every day, throughout each day.I use the Today perspective to see what calendar events and task need my attention each morning. I liberally chuck bits into my inbox for later processing. I review weekly.

But OmniOutliner is a bit different. It’s not built for near-instant input. It’s a powerful application whose features can be overlooked. In my use, it competes most directly with spreadsheet applications, but there are some valid reasons to prefer it over, say, Google Sheets. This year, I found one of my favorite use cases for OmniOutliner.

“Managing phases” is a fairly fancy description for what this OmniOutliner document accomplishes for me, but it provides an elegant solution. The specifics of its purpose is to help me track where I am in observing staff members (mostly teachers). New Jersey adopted a law requiring that school districts complete observations using specific, purpose-built tools.

What’s more, I like using OmniOutliner so much I find it a treat to update my progress.

Short or Long	Preconference	Observation	Post-Conference
Short	not required	20 minutes minimum	required
Long	required	40 minutes minimum	required

Table 1: Anatomy of an Observation

So an observation is not truly binary (done or not done), but rather moves through a series of smaller actions towards completion. For example, with a short observation, the classroom observation itself is one of three things: unscheduled, scheduled, or completed. Similarly, the post-conference–meet with the staff member–is either unscheduled, scheduled, or completed.

OmniFocus can be an effective tool for managing observations, especially because due dates and timelines are associated with some of the tasks. I found the vertically oriented nature of projects, however, not useful for seeing a larger view of where I am in the process. OmniOutliner’s filters, however, and I think a visual will help here, are the perfect tool.

In OmniOutliner, I created a document with seven (7) columns:

Done(checkbox)	Teacher Name	School	Long or Short	PreConference	Observation	Post-Conference
✓	Jane Doe	High School	Long	completed	completed	completed
	John Doe	Middle School	Long	scheduled	scheduled	unscheduled

Table 2: Observation Phases

Figure 1: All Observations

A long list of observations in varied states of completion is not terribly useful. But by harnessing the power of OmniOutliner’s filters, I am able to see precisely what I need to see to move the whole endeavor ahead, increment by increment–and no more. This is the true power of OmniOutliner in this application.

One useful filter is to show me what observations I have at each school. This cuts my view down from around 50 projects¹ to a dozen or fewer. For reasons of efficiency, I will try to plan as much as I can while I am in one building, observing teachers period by period, for example, and then likewise conducting post conferences during their preparatory (or “prep”) period.

Figure 2: Observations at VMS

Another filter will show me how many actual classroom observations I have to complete that would be considered “short,” meaning I can just show up and not necessarily stay for the full period (although often I will). These I can schedule back-to-back, or I can schedule a bunch in one day because they are shorter. Finally, because timelines are involved, I will often filter my observations by post-conferences remaining; once I’ve completed an observation, a timeline begins and I have a certain number of days to complete the follow-up meeting. Filtering by observations that have been completed–but where the post-conference has not been even scheduled–helps me focus and keep me in compliance with the timelines. There are more filters that I use regularly, but you get the idea.

Figure 3: Short Observations

Of course, obscuring observations that I’ve already completed when planning is unquestionably useful. To this end, I created one that only shows lines with an unchecked status box.

Figure 4: Observations Remaining

OmniOutliner lives on all of my devices: my Mac, which I usually keep in the office, my iPad, which is what a carry with me when I leave the office, my phone, my Mac at home… the application is everywhere I need it to be. And with Omni’s move to support iCloud in addition to OmniPresence, it’s in the file system where I want it to be.

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¹ A project in David Allen’s Getting Things Done is anything that requires more than one action to complete. A teacher observation is, by that definition, a project; to wit: schedule observation, observe teacher, schedule post-conference, complete post conference, wait for signature, email secretary re completion.

Note: I used a fake name generator for the sake of confidentiality.