OmniFocus Keyboard Shortcuts
OmniFocus's shortcut set is shaped almost entirely by its GTD roots — the methodology's core discipline of capturing anything on your mind immediately, before you forget it or lose focus on what you were doing, is why Quick Entry (a global system-wide shortcut, not just an in-app one) is the single most important binding in the whole app. Because Quick Entry works from any application system-wide, it functions less like a normal in-app shortcut and more like a capture tool layered on top of the entire OS, letting you jot a task down mid-meeting or mid-browsing without switching context to OmniFocus itself. Beyond capture, OmniFocus's other shortcuts split between review-mode navigation (since periodic review is a core GTD ritual the app builds tooling specifically around) and the perspective-switching shortcuts that jump between different filtered views of your task database — Inbox, Projects, Forecast — reflecting how central having multiple lenses onto the same task list is to the whole GTD approach. This is a tool aimed squarely at people who have already bought into GTD as a system rather than casual to-do list users — the learning curve around contexts, perspectives, and the weekly review ritual only pays off if you're actually committed to running the full methodology, which is a meaningfully heavier lift than opening a simple checklist app, but for people who do commit to it, the depth of filtering and review tooling is difficult to replicate in a lighter-weight task manager.
Quick Entry Capture
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Quick Entry (system-wide) | — | Ctrl+Option+Space (default, configurable) | Pulls up a compact capture window from anywhere on the Mac no matter what app currently has focus, letting a task get recorded instantly without switching over to OmniFocus itself — the shortcut most directly tied to GTD's core principle of capturing a thought the instant it occurs. |
| Save Quick Entry item and close | — | Cmd+S | Saves the task just typed into the Quick Entry panel to your Inbox and closes the small capture window, returning focus to whatever app you were using before. |
| Quick Entry, autofill from clipboard | — | Ctrl+Option+Space with text already copied | When text is already on the clipboard — a copied email subject line or a snippet from a webpage — invoking Quick Entry can pull that text directly into the task title field, reducing retyping when the source of the task is already visible on screen. |
Perspectives Views
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch to Inbox perspective | — | Cmd+1 | Switches the main window to the Inbox perspective, showing uncategorized tasks awaiting processing — the GTD 'in-tray' for anything captured but not yet filed into a project or context. |
| Switch to Projects perspective | — | Cmd+2 | Switches to the Projects perspective, showing tasks organized by the project hierarchy rather than due date or context. |
| Switch to Forecast perspective | — | Cmd+3 | Switches to the Forecast perspective, a calendar-style view showing tasks and deferred/due dates across upcoming days, blending task management with a lightweight daily agenda view. |
| Switch to Tags perspective | — | Cmd+4 | Switches to the Tags perspective (formerly called Contexts), filtering tasks by the situational label attached to them — such as a location, a person, or an energy level — rather than by which project they belong to, letting you see everything doable right now regardless of project. |
Task Actions
| Action | Windows | Mac | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mark selected task complete | — | Cmd+Return | Marks the currently selected task as complete, moving it out of active views while preserving it in the completed-items log for later review. |
| Create new task in current context | — | Cmd+N | Creates a new task directly within whatever project or perspective is currently open, distinct from Quick Entry since it adds the task in place rather than to the general Inbox. |
| Set defer date on selected task | — | Cmd+Shift+D | Sets a defer date that hides the task from most active views until that date arrives, a distinctly GTD-flavored feature for tasks you deliberately don't want cluttering your list before it's actually time to act on them. |
| Start reviewing a project | — | Cmd+Shift+R | Enters review mode for the selected project, part of the periodic weekly-review ritual GTD prescribes for keeping every project's task list current and honest rather than letting stale items silently accumulate. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Quick Entry considered more important than OmniFocus's in-app shortcuts?
GTD methodology places heavy emphasis on capturing a thought the instant it occurs, since the mental effort of remembering to write something down later is itself considered a source of stress and lost focus. Because Quick Entry works globally regardless of which app has focus, it removes the friction of switching to OmniFocus first, which is exactly the kind of interruption GTD tries to design around.
Does OmniFocus sync capture and shortcuts across Mac, iPhone, and iPad, or are they set up separately per device?
Task data syncs across devices via Omni Sync Server or a custom WebDAV/CloudKit setup, but keyboard shortcuts themselves are inherently platform-specific configuration — Quick Entry as a global shortcut is a Mac-specific feature, while iOS/iPadOS versions rely on different capture mechanisms suited to touch and, on iPad, external keyboard shortcuts that don't map one-to-one with the Mac app's bindings.
Can I fully customize OmniFocus's keyboard shortcuts?
Yes, through OmniFocus > Settings > Shortcuts (or similar, depending on version), which lets you view and reassign most in-app commands; Quick Entry's global shortcut specifically is configured through OmniFocus's own preferences since it needs to register at the system level rather than only within the app's own window.
What's the practical difference between a defer date and a due date in OmniFocus?
A defer date hides a task from most views until that date arrives, keeping your active list focused on what's actionable right now, while a due date marks when a task actually needs to be finished and drives urgency indicators as that date approaches — the two dates solve opposite problems, one about decluttering the present and the other about deadline pressure.
What actually happens during an OmniFocus 'review'?
Review mode walks you project by project through your entire task database on a schedule you set per project (weekly is common), prompting you to confirm the task list is still accurate, add anything missing, and mark stale items complete or deferred — it's the mechanism GTD relies on to keep the whole system trustworthy over time rather than slowly drifting out of sync with reality.
Are Tags in OmniFocus the same thing as folders or projects?
No — Tags (formerly Contexts) are an orthogonal, situational layer on top of the project hierarchy, letting a single task belong to one project while also being tagged with something like 'Errands' or 'Phone Calls,' so a Tags perspective can show everything doable in a given situation across many different projects at once, which a purely project-based view can't do.