View Single Post
After ten years of using other hierarchical todo tools, I am struggling very hard with OmniFocus for iPhone.
It feels like iPhone version is only made for completing items added on Mac, but hardly for capturing and organizing further actions as I go with my projects. While, as for me, on-the-go usage is one of the most productive in organizing thoughts in an actionable way.

My previous experience is mostly with Bonsai and, to less degree with MyLifeOrganized. Both had/have a smartphone version which is much more hierarchies-friendly.

Here are some cases when dealing with hierarchies is most frustrating and time-consuming:

= after adding a new item to Inbox, it takes too many steps to move it into a right place inside a project (given the project have hierarchy of items): (1) assign an item to the right project during initial entry to inbox; (2) exit item entry only to find the project I just placed the item into; find there the item I just moved to that project; (3) open the item only to move it under the right parent item; (4) move under that parent, tap Edit to put the item into the right order against its siblings

= when browsing a project, adding a new parent action with several child actions is also hard: (1) tap (+) to create the potential parent item; (2) tap (Save+) to proceed to creating first potential child; (3) exit editing the potential child, find it again the list, re-enter editing it--only to move it under the item from #1; (4) open the list of children for parent from #1 to create second and further children

= when decided what to do with a next Flagged item (which can be, beyond "mark as complete": make it parent for new items I am about to create; make it one of childs for a parent I am about to create), it's relatively easy to switch from that flagged item into its place in the project, but (a) again multiple steps to make it parent or child, and (b) to switch back from the depths of the particular project to the list of all Flagged items (yes, I am aware of long-tap on left upper corner--it doesn't help that much)

= last but not least, it's impossible to view my project as a tree of nested actions on a single screen--only to browse one level at a time. Miss it a lot every time I need to see what was recently completed and thinking about the next action--and how to restructure a project as my understanding of it evolves

I love OmniFocus for how helpful it is in focusing, flagging and deferring--but for hierarchies alone I tend to use MLO, even despite its Windows-only desktop platform.