From Things to OF: Advice/Tips/Thoughts?
 

Hi,

I recently moved from Things to OmniFocus, and have to say that I'm loving every minute of OF (in fact, my co-workers have all comments on my annoying organization). I think that there will be an influx of switchers who have had it with waiting for features that OF has had for a while...

Any advice, tips, or thoughts from people that have done the same?

hey, @mutantsquid, i saw that your were an active poster in the Things forum. finally made the change for good, eh? i just downloaded a trial version and it's looking very promising. ironically, it's when Things put up their "flight plan" that i really looked at jumping ship. i just see all these great things that omni focus does and how it all just works, RIGHT NOW. the only thing that is making me reluctant is the price. how bad do i REALLY want it :-)

Hi mgorman85,
don´t forget:
setting up a status page does not mean any progress in development.
So in my opinion the other "thing" has lost.

My experience, the longer you´ll use Omnifocus the harder it will be to go back....

Especially one point is outstanding: you may work with Omnifocus as YOU like and not like the developers think you have to...

Omnifocus on both Mac and iPhone is a absolutely great team and is constantely developed....

Make sure to visit the OmniFocus web page and check out the screencasts.

The biggest thing that I liked about OF is the weekly review mode. Learn to get comfortable with that and you'll be flying.

Things is nice because they have these preset views such as people and today.

OF may be a little tough to digest at first. I've found that OF's flexibility makes it an incredibly powerful tool. You can experiment with different folder setups, different project planning setups, and so forth. I've learned to tweak my setup just a little at a time.

I'm sure you can browse through all the forum threads for days and find out how other people have set up their OF to work for them. We have to remember that everybody works differently.

Learn how to use perspectives and you can imitate many of the preset views from Things such as Today.

Kourosh has thoughtfully provided some tips on his blog about using OmniFocus in these forums. He has a variety of tips that have helped me with my workflow:

[url]http://kouroshdini.com/2009/04/23/how-to-use-omnifocus-a-guide-for-the-advanced-user/[/url]


I have wanted to like Things and I've contemplated switching. But OF just keeps me locked in when I miss things like review mode in Things. Yes, you are right. It's aggravating to wait for Things to catch up with some of the features that OF already has. I've made the switch to OF and haven't looked back.

With the combination of OF on my iPod touch and on my MacBook, I get so much more done. Eagerly awaiting OF for the iPad and OF 2.0 for the Mac!

Fraser Speirs has written a couple good pieces about OmniFocus as well. One is on his approach to using OF, the other on the review.

[url]http://speirs.org/blog/2008/9/3/omnifocus-my-approach.html[/url]
[url]http://speirs.org/blog/2009/11/18/the-weekly-review-as-an-omnifocus-project.html[/url]

@mgorman85

I certainly was active over in the Cultured Code forums, and still visit from time to time. I really liked the software (the UI is quite impressive) but I just couldn't wait for syncing anymore, so I purchased OmniFocus. Excited to see what happens with both OmniFocus and Things in the future.

Thanks for the mention, Wilson :-)

I think Ulmisch makes a strong point about OmniFocus. Adapting OF to you is the key.

The main reasons I see for the difficulties with OF is in this aspect. It doesn't really handhold you, but instead asks you to learn how it processes information. The better you learn that, the better you can adapt it to how you think.

It's complexity evolves from its handling of simple things: serial vs parallel, repeat, timing, etc. These are all very basic aspects of tasks, but taken together and at once, they can seem overwhelming.

The key is to play with it. Once you find a flow that works, the rest is gravy (to mix several metaphors).

I too am thinking about switching to OmniFocus from Things. The biggest thing holding me up is data import/export. What's the best way to get my content out of Things and into OmniFocus?

Another forum member posted a script to do just that [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=14846"]here[/URL].

So I just bought the iPhone app, and that sealed the deal for me as far as switching goes. I feel so liberated now, with everything just working and organized the way I like. It's adapting to me rather than me having to adapt to it. Joy.