Quick Task Creation using Alfred & OmniFocus

This provides a way to quickly create OmniFocus tasks using either the command line or Alfred.

• Alfred
• OmniFocus

Command Line Usage

create-omnifocus-task "[task information]"

Pass one string to the script for parsing. (Task info syntax below.)

Alfred Usage

Alfred will listen for a hotkey (I use Option-SPACE, by YMMV), and present a text input box. Enter your task info (task info syntax below) in the box and hit RETURN to create the new OmniFocus task.

Task Information Syntax

General Syntax

[task description] // .[project] :[tag] [due date] [time] [done]

• Everything before the // is the task description.
• The project, tag, and due date can be in any order.
• Project: a dot (.) followed by the project name.
  • If not specified, defaults to Work
  • Can be just the first few letters of the project name
  • Not case-sensitive
• Tag: a colon (:) followed by the project name.
  • Can be just the first few letters of the tag name
  • Not case-sensitive
• Due Date can be one of the following:
  • tomorrow
  • a day of the week (can be abbreviated): Monday, or mon
  • a date with optional year: 7/22 or 7/22/2021
  • a number of days, specified as Nday or Ndays (ex: 5days)
  • if not specified, defaults to today
• Time can be one of the following (note that am or pm is required):
  • Hpm (ex: 4pm)
  • H:MMam (ex: 7:22am)
  • if not specified, defaults to 7:00 PM
• Done:
  • Is either absent, or the string "done"
  • If present, the new task is marked as completed, with a completion date of now.

Examples

By default, all tasks are created in the Work project, with a Due Date of Today at 7:00 PM This works for me, and you're more than welcome to update your copy of this code to remove/alter those defaults.

Book dermatology appointment

Crates a new task "Book dermatology appointment" in the project Work, due today at 7:00 PM

Book dermatology appointment // .health

Crates a new task "Book dermatology appointment" in the project Health, due today at 7:00 PM

Book dermatology appointment // .health :phone

Crates a new task "Book dermatology appointment" in the project Health, with the tag Phone, due today at 7:00 PM

Book dermatology appointment // .health :phone 2pm

Crates a new task "Book dermatology appointment" in the project Health, with the tag Phone, due today at 2:00 PM

Book dermatology appointment // .health 10:30am

Crates a new task "Book dermatology appointment" in the project Health, due today at 10:30 AM

Ping Horatio re. New Spec // .work 10am done

Creates a new task "Ping Horation re. New Spec"" in the project Work, due at 10:00 AM today, marked as completed.