[bigcloits]

Here’s a longish post about how OmniFocus slowly but steadily invaded my life over the last several months. I’ve tried to make it fun, and I hope that some Getting Things Done beginners will find it helpful, and I also hope someone at Omni reads it and will feel ... well, proud.


PHASE I: Just another interesting app

I stumbled on the OmniFocus beta late in 2007, with no prior knowledge of GTD, and only a passing acquaintance with Omni’s other applications. But I was instantly intrigued by the idea of seeing to-do list items grouped by context — all my disparate errands in one view? cool! — and I spent a few hours over the holidays experimenting with the application.

I don’t think I kept anything I started with! OF was not integrated into my life yet. It was still just a toy.



PHASE II: All potential, zero implementation

After maybe a month of tinkering and boring my wife with spontaneous outbursts of enthusiasm about the awesome potential of my new toy, I started to really realize that OmniFocus was rooted in something, that it hadn’t just sprung from the imaginations of the folks at Omni. So I made an action: “find out about this David Allen character.” Actually, I think the app shipped with an action something like that already present in the database — good idea — and I just decided to take it seriously.

Y’know, when I could find some time for it.

Meanwhile, despite its obvious potential, OmniFocus remained almost perfectly unhelpful to me in this stage. Its icon seemed to pulse with power from my dock, constantly urging me to use it, yet it didn’t have its hooks in my life. All day, every day I had to deal with lots o’ stuff that was not yet represented in OF in any way, or barely. Its features remained exasperatingly obscure.

More time passes ...



PHASE III: All hail David Allen

Does your life kinda suck? Are you besieged by constant spasms of anxiety as you feverishly recall things you’re supposed to be attending to? Do you wake up at 4:00am thinking wonderful thoughts like, “oh, frack, I have to deal with ___”?

That was me.

After listening to the abridged version of Mr. Allen’s audiobook and beginning to think in terms of putting my agreements with myself into a well-designed "trusted system", for the first time ever in my career I started to feel like it might not be necessary to live like that. That single idea was worth ... well, a lot more than the price of OmniFocus and David Allen’s book.

This wasn’t just a productivity revelation for me: it was a major improvement to my total health and well-being, much more valuable than anything I have ever learned from a psychologist.



PHASE IV: Sharpening the saw

OmniFocus and the way you use it is that “trusted system.” Once I understood GTD, OmniFocus ceased to just be an intriguing tool with lots of potential, and rapidly became mission critical.

It took me a long friggin’ time to “capture” my life in OmniFocus and start really doing things the GTD way. It was not an afternoon project. It was like trying to replace a piston in a running engine, and it took the better part of a month to really get on board.

But it was a fun and inspiring month of sharpening my saw, the better to do my work with. Once I understood what GTD was, OmniFocus really started to sing, and I found that everything GTDish that I wanted to do ... OmniFocus was there to help me do it.

Almost half a year after I started, OmniFocus is now fully integrated into my life. Hell, it dominates my life ... in a good way. Consequently, it is now in my personal Software Hall of Fame. It is as essential to my work as anything has ever been.

A sincerely and heartfelt thanks, Omni. You’ve made something pretty neat!