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The current state of the choice between Omnifocus and Things Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I'm sticking with OF, but yeah, tags and smart folders would be the way to go. Anyone who uses iTunes or iPhoto already gets how they work, and it seems like the obvious solution. The FLAG feature is sort of a primitive tag, but instead of offering more colored flags or whatever, why not just let people create their own tags? I have no doubt this is where task management is going, I just would like to see OF get there.
 
Alright, I've made the transition to Omnifocus and am coming along more every day.

I'm in the middle of getting everything in to OF and off my mind; since I'm already going at full-throttle with work in my life, this is a major bump to get over. I actually did one of these brain dumps a few years ago before I had heard of GTD; it was a great experience, but eventually, I just had a giant amount of data that ended up never being looked at again as it was too overwhelming to do anything with. I still have that saved on some giant mind-maps on my Iphone which will be making it in to OF shortly.

The Omni developers might be interested in my journey:

1. Man, I have so much going on, I really need a software tool to help me out.
2. Mindmapping looks cool. But there are much better task-management programs.
3. I've done some researching and Omnifocus is the most advanced, I have to get that.
4. Oh, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I like my projects, where'd they go when I click on flagged view? So OF doesn't work unless I plug in contexts? But everything is done from my computer anyway, hmm...
5. Wow, lots of smart GTD people use this fun program called Things! And I'm able to get started right away with a cool work flow. This is fun! This could really work!
6. Hmm, this is rather annoying that I can't break this task down in to sub-tasks. And man I'm gonna have lots of projects existing with poor organization. Hmm, they can't even put together a syncing system and have been promising it for like 2 years? The Things forums seem to have a lot of unpleasant people.
7. Wow, check out The Hit List! It has almost everything I want, and it's done in such a cool way! Man, Things and OF are going out of business!
8. Well, I don't think I could really trust this like I could OF. It actually still feels kind of beta. It's basically a one-man show, though he is an awesome guy. It doesn't have such a straightforward flow like Things, so if I'm going to take the time to really customize the system, why not go with OF?
9. Alright, OF is the most robust system by far and we're lucky to have such a tool at this point in human history. Go with it and don't look back.

The 3 Ninja screencasts were useful. And trying out Things and The Hit List were also very useful as that taught me how such a system works.

At this point, if I could offer my still new-user observations, I wish that OF had more of that "fun" factor. This is actually a key part of the GTD system and I highlighted several sections of the book where David mentions this. This is not to knock on OF too much, as it's not that bad and IS fun as you get in to your own OF groove.

But I think that perhaps some less-motivated people may have stopped at Things or THL along the way.

But anyway, thoughts about other systems are pretty much history. OF is the best and I have bigger things to deal with now.

Thanks for the help all! I may come back here to post updates of my OF/GTD progress.

Last edited by Danworld; 2011-08-26 at 08:14 PM..
 
IMO, the developments with OF / iPod has brought it to a far better state of being "fun" to use compared to OF / Mac. A presumption in this however is that you first use OF on the Mac to establish perspectives that will be the key for your workflow.

In the meantime, don't give up hope on having fun with OF / Mac, even though it does take more time than with the other apps to get a good picture of how to use OF efficiently in your GTD methods. Also, the sense of the postings on the forum is, OF 2 on the Mac will incorporate more of the "fun" features from OF / iPod and OF / iPad.

Thanks for posting the background on your research.

--
JJW
 
I think that part of the fear factor of OmniFocus is that we don't know how to take advantage of the various things available in OmniFocus.

I'd suggest getting a copy of "Creating Flow with OmniFocus." at http://usingomnifocus.com/

If you click on the resources link at the top of the page, you'll find a list of articles about utilizing OF. But the true gem is the eBook. It shows you different workflows and will ease you into some of the more powerful stuff like Review, flagging, etc.

Once you learn how to tame the beast called OmniFocus, you can become a true master.

I see the various posts about multi-colored flags, tags, etc. At first I thought it was a great idea. But then it becomes a bit more complex and may become unwieldy if not used correctly. Suddenly, you'll have multiple colored flags and you can't remember what they mean because you have so many colors. You'll have so many tags that you don't know why you made them in the first place.

If done right, tags and flags would be beneficial. If overdone, they can just complicate your GTD system even further.
 
Wow, I see that this thread has gained over 3,000 views.

It's been almost a year now, and I'd just like to say that I'm glad I chose OF. It's become an integral part of my life I couldn't do what I do with any other program.

Generally, my mind is calmer and I'm more productive now that I manage my ideas in OF.
 
 


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