There’s a task funnel I’ve been using more and more – something I call The Productivity Path – and it has proven to remove quite a bit of friction from my work life and life outside of work. My particular path is one that those who have invested in iOS and OS X devices can use, and it’s actually quite simple to adopt.

On my iOS devices, Drafts is the “launching pad” for all of my tasks that don’t come from email messages. If it’s a task – something that is actionable – then it gets entered in Drafts and immediately sent to OmniFocus. I don’t add contexts or anything during this process; it’s all about getting it to the right inbox as quickly as possible. If it’s something that is more of a reference item or isn’t solely a task itself gets sent to Evernote.

Fortunately, the Alfred workflow “Search OmniFocus” provides a solution. Once you download and install it by double-clicking or dragging the file into Alfred, you can search within OmniFocus. OmniFocus is powerful task management software for busy professionals. With tools to help tame the chaos, you can focus on the right tasks at the right time. If you are using OmniFocus as your task manager, this workflow will allow you to search for tasks, projects, context, flagged tasks, active tasks, and more. You can even list all your projects and context right in the Alfred window. I use this workflow multiple times a day to quickly launch my active task list. OmniFocus' action inspector on macOS really shows its age. It stacks labels above controls, groups dissimilar datatypes, and behaves in a very different manner than its counterpart on iOS/iPadOS. The result is a very narrow field filled many different types of controls.

So while I capture things in Drafts (both for the iPhone and iPad), they certainly don’t stay there for long.

If a task comes in via email, I’ll forward it to my OmniFocus Mail Drop address. I’ll rename the subject to clearly define the task, but I still don’t add contexts and the like during this phase. I do that when I’m in my OmniFocus inbox. When reference items come in via email, i’ll send it to my Evernote email address.

For OS X, I use Postbox as my email app and that allows me to clip items slated for Evernote to be added through the app’s Evernote integration. Tasks are sent to OmniFocus via my Mail Drop address, just like I do on my iOS devices.

As for direct entry, I’m using Alfred more and more for that. I used to use Shawn Blanc’s Oopsie Focus script to quick enter into OmniFocus when the app wasn’t open, but Alfred has workflows that take care of that now. Even the OmniFocus “quick entry” option isn’t something I use nearly as much now that Alfred 2 is around. In fact, the only reasons I’ll use either of the old methods is because they are so ingrained in my mind. The more I play with Alfred, the more it will become ingrained.

From the browser, I use the “Send to…” option provided for OmniFocus and the Evernote Web Clipper does the trick for my reference and research materials.¹

As you can see, I generally use three points of entry for anything I need to keep in Evernote or OmniFocus (the apps I use for reference material and task management). Those are the apps I use, but The Productivity Path can be put in place for a wide variety of other apps and other platforms (Drafts can send captured items to other apps that are alternatives to what I use). I encourage you to find something that will allow you to create The Productivity Path that is ideal for you. You might find that not just knowing where your stuff is supposed to go — but knowing how you are consistently going to put it there — can really take your productivity to the next level.

¹ While I have them installed on my mobile versions of Safari, I rarely use them on those devices. Instead I’ll just share links via email and send them to whatever address makes sense.

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Since the v2 release, we’ve updated our blog to a simpler, cleaner look. We are also planning on making much better use of it with interviews, feature guides and much more over the coming months – so keep an eye on it for fun Alfred features. 🙂

Over the past few months, the Alfred community (that’s you!) have created some truly brilliant workflows. We’ve highlighted a few of our favourites before, but here are some more gems we’ve dug up for you.

Workflows are a Powerpack feature, so if you’re not yet a Powerpack user, you can either upgrade your v1 license or buy a new license.

Weather

David Ferguson (jdfwarrior) has been working tirelessly to help users with their own workflows on the forum, but has also created a great Weather workflow which shows you conditions and forecast.

If you’re wondering if it’s BBQ and ice cream weather, check out the Weather workflow.

Spotify Workflows

Alfred 4 Omnifocus

If you listen to Spotify all day, as we do, you’ll love these Spotify workflows.

The original Spotify workflow was created by Jeff Johns (phpfunk) and allows you to control Spotify with a thorough range of keywords. Have a look at the basic commands and download the workflow to get some summer tunes going!

For a different twist on the same theme, Spotifious by Ben Stolovitz also allows you to control Spotify, launching from a hotkey. Find out more and download Spotifious on the forum.

OmniFocus Workflow

Need to be more efficient with your work tasks? If you’re an OmniFocus fiend, you’ll be able to manage your tasks from Alfred. Surely that means you can leave early and go grab a beer?

Firefox & Chrome Bookmarks Search

This isn’t a workflow, but a very useful integration worth sharing.

Alfred Omnifocus

Out of the box, Alfred searches Safari bookmarks, as Chrome and Firefox don’t support Spotlight search by default. However, we really like Brow by Tim Schroeder as an alternative way to get native integration for bookmarks search in these two browsers.

Once you’ve installed Brow, Tim provides a guide to adding your Brow bookmarks to Alfred, so that in a few seconds, you can search your Chrome and Firefox bookmarks within Alfred!

TinyPNG File Resizer

Alfred Search Omnifocus

Benzi Ahamed’s TinyPNG resizer filters files on your Mac for .png files, then uses tinypng.org to shrink the file size of the file you selected. Handy way to save time!

This is just a little taster; you’ll find many more workflows on the Alfred forum. Once you start creating your own workflows, you’ll also be able to get help from fellow Alfred users if you have any questions.