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How do you use the OF Suite of Three? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
After a stint with diligent use of OF on all three platforms (desktop, iPhone, iPad), I am moving toward just using the desktop + iPad versions. This idea got me thinking. Is anyone else making this kind of transition too? Or are some folks seeing absolute advantages to have OF on all three platforms that perhaps I am missing?

My overall question is, how do you use the OF Suite of Three (desktop, iPhone, iPad)? Do you diligently use all three? Do you work well or even entirely with just a combination of only two platforms and, if so, which two? Finally, if you use only one platform, which one and what do you find missing? An underlying presumption in this questions is that you happen to have all three platforms at hand (i.e., you are not limited to the iPhone-only version because you use Windows and have no iPad). So, for example, I am less interested in comments along the lines of how the iPhone version entirely by itself is mostly useless to develop new workflows.

Ultimately, I have begun to realize that, having a GTD tool with me everywhere I go on every device I own is not the be-all and end-all of stress-free life for me. Indeed, almost the opposite has been true. I find a distinct comfort anymore in the fact that I don't always have such tools immediately at hand, just as in the old days when all I had were cave walls and charcoal. :-)
 
My iPhone is my day-to-day GTD tool. I use my Mac for weekly review and larger-scale shuffling of tasks and projects--it's surprisingly rare for me to enter an item on the Mac. In fact if I'm doing something else on my Mac and have a thought, I'm likely to grab my phone and enter it. Weird, but there it is; no point in going to a lot of trouble to break a harmless habit.

I very rarely use OmniFocus on my iPad, but that's mainly because I make the most use of my iPad when I'm traveling without my Mac, and those trips are rarely long enough for a weekly review. If they were, I'd use the iPad (with the keyboard in its case) for the weekly review.

However, part of the reason behind this was that there was no point in using both phone and iPad while away from the Mac, because I was determinedly holding out and doing syncing through the Mac, so they'd get out of sync with each other. I finally gave up and turned on cloud syncing a few weeks ago, so we'll see if my habits change at all.
 
Until OF2 for me it was...
Mac - planning and editing, focused views in perspective locations for the 'do' part.
iPad - review, reference (esp. in meetings for chasing others actions)
Phone - capture (often via Siri), ticking off errands as completed.

With OF2 review is more likely on the mac, but there is still merit (for me anyway) of using the ipad to step through each project and the mac (with decent keyboard) for editing when the review triggers actions.

I use a day book in meetings to capture actions & ideas, which then get processed into OmniFocus later. I use a variant of the approach shown at bulletjournal.com. For many years I used an generic A4 (letter) book but have found that the leuchtturm1977 A5 books are infinitely better (and lighter to carry).

At the start of the day I pick my three core actions and my 'task of the day' and record these in the day book. This works better for me than ticking stuff off in OmniFocus during the day.
 
All weekly review on the Mac, I hate that on the iPad I can't do the review by type of project (stalled, pending, active, on hold and finally remaining in case I changed a few along the way.)

Most entry of project and all project planning, moving actions, adding links to reference or project support material etc on the Mac and very rarely on the iPad.

iPhone only for checking things off that I've planned. To difficult to add stuff there, I usually write it on a notepad I carry all the time and enter it in later when I'm back at my Mac.

I am not fond of the iOS7 interfaces so use both mobile version much less now than I did before the changes. I am really leery of the potential for screwing up my workflow with OF 2, I'm especially worried about the user interface and usability. Nothing I've heard gives me a good feeling that things will still work as well.
 
I also have all three. unfortunately I cannot use a Mac for work, so I use them as below

* Mac - Setting up Perspectives, looking at project based perspectives, Less than 5% of total time in Ominfocusland.

* iphone - Adding Tasks on the go, notification of location based tasks, less than 5% of total time in Ominfocusland.

* iPad - Daily, Weekly and Monthly Reviews, working on tasks, adding new tasks, forecasting and planning. More than 90% of the time.

I find OF 1 for Mac confusing to use, probably as much due to the lack of time I spend in it as to the lacking functionality around Review and Forcasting and the the outdated UI. However OF2 is far easier to use and if I could use a Mac for work, I would be migrating to OF2 asap.

I love the iPad version, and the sooner the UI on it can reflect OF2 for Mac, the better it will be.
 
I'm at my Mac more than iPhone and iPad (I have OF on all three), so I do most of the text entry on the mac and then rely on the iOS devices for mostly reading data, but I do add tasks on the devices when out and about, like at the doctor's office, setting up a new appointment.
 
 


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