[Greg Jones]

I don't see Brian's message as one of what Omni is, or is not, able to do, rather it is a statement of direction for OmniFocus. Personally, I applaud the decision to keep OmniFocus as a GTD-inspired task manager used in conjunction with, rather than a replacement for, a calendar. Things and THL have a similar philosophy, at least for now, so only time will tell if that changes, but I'm sure that they, like Omni, could integrate a calendar if they chose to do so.

Life Balance (and I have not looked at it for several years, so I could be mistaken) has its roots more in the Covey/Smith model of time management as opposed to task management. It's understandable, given that model, that Life Balance would include a calendar. But I do have a question; if Life Balance does what you want quite well, I'm curious why you left it in the first place?

[TimothyRobinson]

In the absence of a Time Management feature in OmniFocus, is there a way to "set the clock forward" so to speak? OmniFocus shows me what tasks are due or pending today, is there any way to jump forward two weeks and see what tasks will be due or pending then?

[joelande]

When you are viewing sorted and grouped by due/start dates, the display will show you due next week, two weeks from now, one month from now, etc

[focusedphil]

Originally Posted by Greg Jones

I don't see Brian's message as one of what Omni is, or is not, able to do, rather it is a statement of direction for OmniFocus. Personally, I applaud the decision to keep OmniFocus as a GTD-inspired task manager used in conjunction with, rather than a replacement for, a calendar. Things and THL have a similar philosophy, at least for now, so only time will tell if that changes, but I'm sure that they, like Omni, could integrate a calendar if they chose to do so.

Life Balance (and I have not looked at it for several years, so I could be mistaken) has its roots more in the Covey/Smith model of time management as opposed to task management. It's understandable, given that model, that Life Balance would include a calendar. But I do have a question; if Life Balance does what you want quite well, I'm curious why you left it in the first place?

LifeBalance works quite well for GTD systems ( you have to change a couple of settings). So not sure about your point there.

LB's interface is quite old (very mouse driven a la OS 7) and the sync'ing is more machine specific as opposed to MobileMe focused, a couple of other minor issues - I hoped that OF would be the best of both worlds.

LB's built in calender is not really that effective but it's iCal syncing (both appointments, all day and multi-day events) works perfectly, so not sure why the Omni group has such trouble with this issue - the problem has already been fixed - perhaps just a fundamental mis-understanding of the GTD system - it's a book that really needs 3 careful readings to get it all (a yellow highlighter is really helpful).

I've tried all the Task management / GTD programs out there - so far no one has really knocked it out of the park yet.

[Greg Jones]

Originally Posted by focusedphil

LifeBalance works quite well for GTD systems ( you have to change a couple of settings). So not sure about your point there.

As I mentioned, it has been years since I took a look at Life Balance. At that time, it was very entrenched with creating large daily to-lists that were sorted by user-assigned (A-B-C) priorities-very much not GTD in its implementation. I would assume that the program has evolved since I looked at it if it can now be made GTD friendly.

LB's built in calender is not really that effective but it's iCal syncing (both appointments, all day and multi-day events) works perfectly, so not sure why the Omni group has such trouble with this issue - the problem has already been fixed - perhaps just a fundamental mis-understanding of the GTD system - it's a book that really needs 3 careful readings to get it all (a yellow highlighter is really helpful).

I think the Omni folks 'get it all' with respect to GTD. Brian's post above clearly mirrors David Allen's philosophy of separating (with hard edges) time/date-specific actions that belong on a calendar and next action items that do not belong on a calendar. OmniFocus is all about dealing with the latter and everything else belongs on a calendar.

[wilsonng]

I agree with Brian about using different programs for different things.

I keep my calendar stuff on my calendar. These are the hard deadline items.

Then I keep my Project stuff (Visions, Outcomes, etc.) in OmniOutliner Pro.

I keep my reference stuff in DevonThink Pro Office.

Each tool is specifically tailored for a particular function.

Keeping OmniFocus as my catch-all for current tasks and someday/maybe tasks works better for me.


Yes, there have been opinions voiced about making OmniFocus a swiss-army knife and being a calendar and task manager. But this could make OmniFocus harder to use when the calendar mode is introduced.

I've been waiting for a calendar program called Now NightHawk (public beta to be released Feb. 26). It will show tasks on the monthly calendar view.

So I was thinking of using OmniFocus to sync my tasks to iCal. Then NightHawk will also sync to iCal, read the OmniFocus tasks and then place them into the NightHawk database. NightHawk will be able to show tasks directly on the monthly calendar.

I think this is what Apple had in mind when it came to sync services. Using iCal as a system-wide depository to share information between different programs.

Yes, some people may cringe at having multiple programs for multiple functions. But it may work out yet!

[TimothyRobinson]

Thanks

[ksrhee]

Originally Posted by wilsonng

I agree with Brian about using different programs for different things.

I keep my calendar stuff on my calendar. These are the hard deadline items.

Then I keep my Project stuff (Visions, Outcomes, etc.) in OmniOutliner Pro.

I keep my reference stuff in DevonThink Pro Office.

Each tool is specifically tailored for a particular function.

I've been waiting for a calendar program called Now NightHawk (public beta to be released Feb. 26). It will show tasks on the monthly calendar view.

So I was thinking of using OmniFocus to sync my tasks to iCal. Then NightHawk will also sync to iCal, read the OmniFocus tasks and then place them into the NightHawk database. NightHawk will be able to show tasks directly on the monthly calendar.

There is a program called Soho Organizer that does what you want right now. It syncs with iCal both calendar and task and also sync with Apple Address Book. It also has a nice note program called Soho Notes that comes with the organizer which can also used separately. Notes can also sync with MobileMe so that I can have access to note in multiple Mac Laptops.

I believe NightHawk is the next iteration of Now Up to Date program, which was nice calendar program, but not sure how it's going to fare.

I like the interface of Soho, but when it comes to task management, it is often easier to crank up OF and use it than use other programs.

However, it is often nice to use Soho to get the full landscape view.

Hope this helps.

[wilsonng]

Yes, I have seen SOHO Organizer but I have been wary of the company's reputation. When Chronos released SOHO Organizer, they bombed big time. They pulled the forums when users blasted the developers for charging what basically amounted to a beta. Then the developers had the audacity to charge for "upgrades" to an incomplete package. The program was riddled with bugs. Heck, they didn't even have a monthly calendar view until the second or third release. It was agonizing to see this unfold.

Now NightHawk hasn't fared too well either.... Potential users have been impatient in getting a look-see at NightHawk. They're finally getting around to a public beta release on February 26th but we'll see if it's too little too late.

I was thinking of using OmniFocus purely for tasks and then NightHawk for my calendar and contacts. Then I sync OmniFocus -> iCal -> NightHawk to show when completed tasks are done in my monthly calendar view. I mostly use the calendar view to show when tasks are completed and to look for hard deadline events (which usually aren't tasks but are more like appointments).

OmniFocus just beats the crap out of SOHO Organizer and Now Up-To-Date for task management.

Omni's tech support beats Chronos. Now Software's development team has been responsive in their forums but it's still vaporware (at least until Feb 26).

All I want now is a "Today" feature showing Due, Due Soon, Overdue, Today, and flagged tasks.

The only thing that OmniFocus can do is to create a program called "OmniCal" or "OmniPIM". Then it'll have task manager, calendar, and contacts all in one package!

Being a student, OF 1.6 is missing a critical function for me: the ability to sync "hard-due-date" actions found in projects as events in iCal, say, under a red "Deadlines" calendar.

Basically, what I'm looking for is a way to synchronize the actions in my "Things Due" project (which amalgamates all "hard-due-date" actions from different contexts, like Classes, Networking, Law Review, etc.) with my iCal calendar (labeled "Deadlines") as events. For example, my upcoming Con Law paper would sync with iCal as an event starting and ending at 9:40 AM on April 15, and it would show up on my red-colored "Deadlines" calendar. The Con Law paper is found under my "Things Due" project in OF, but it's just one of many actions within my "Law School" context that may or may not have hard deadlines (thus, no use to sync the entire Law School context).

See what I'm getting at?

This is my most-wanted feature at the moment, and I'm wanting it badly!