[tedhogan]

I recently found this site:

http://www.skoach.com

I have found that it helps me much more than Omnifocus. I really like Omnifocus and have been a user for a while, but could never get it to "stick".

I ran across Skoach and I'm hooked. I was looking through the forums here about the possibility of incorporating a calendar view into OF and noticed that it seems like it's not really wanted.

The problem I have with OF is that I want my tasking application to have everything in it. I don't like the idea of working with one application (OF) that does some tasks and another (iCal) for other tasks. That makes no sense to me.

Hard and soft landscape tasks may be different in one respect, but they are essentially the same thing: a task. Working between two completely different applications just feels wrong to me. Now, if I were doing everything on paper having a calendar and task list works because I would simply keep both in the same binder. On a computer though, two applications feel like two different worlds to me.

I also like the way that you can see tasks in Skoach and then drag them into your schedule which is broken up into different time "zones". It makes it much easier to come up with a realistic plan for the week ahead. I find myself getting lost with the GTD approach where all I see is an endless list of tasks with no plan whatsoever to actually fit them in.

Just thought I'd post this to give Omni some ideas and help other users who may be like me and get something out of Skoach.

Ted

[whpalmer4]

Interesting. While the notion of having the computer spit out an optimized schedule that I simply have to follow to get everything done is appealing, as a practical matter, I find that life just doesn't work that way for me. The whole approach here seems to be very much at odds with my conception of what GTD is with regard to planning and scheduling. The insistence on assigning a time at task entry when each task will be done, in particular, gives me pause, not to mention the apparent need to estimate duration information for every single task. I appreciate that this makes it easier to see if I'm overcommitting myself in a given interval, but a rapid stream of incoming tasks of various durations would appear to be a recipe for fragmentation of the available time and the need to frequently reschedule to make room for larger blocks of time. Also not clear to me from the slideshow is how I would handle the many hundreds of tasks I have in OmniFocus which aren't tied to a specific time frame -- would it build me a schedule for the next 3 years? With OmniFocus/GTD, I can sit here and work on those tasks all week without losing the ability to pick up some new, urgent task(s) precisely because they aren't scheduled; with Skoach it looks like I would immediately have to rejigger my schedule, and the commitment bar might tell me that I couldn't take it on because my available time was all blocked in with tasks that could be done this week, but don't have to be done this week. And then there's the monthly fee, and my data is locked up in their website, no notion of context, no sequential projects...

[tedhogan]

You have pointed out several shortcomings that I agree with.

I think my overall concern is my apparent "lack of direction" with Omnifocus as it is. For some reason, I cannot seem to lock on to doing the tasks without a hard landscape integrated at some point.

I would not suggest Skoach as a replacement for OF or GTD. Rather, I think it has some very worthwhile elements that I have not seen elsewhere. Elements that seem to make a huge difference for me at least.

OF is outstanding for collection all possible tasks and breaking them down to a level of detail that I feel is unparalleled. It does not address the hard landscape at all and I think this is where it fails me.

I hope that Omni takes a good look at Skoach. You really need to sign up for the 14 day trial and use it for a week or so before it starts to sink in. It's a bit overwhelming at first because it's so different. Once you get it though, it's very powerful.

Everything I've seen out there is just a re-hash of the same stuff. Skoach is something that I feel is unique. There is something to be said for the commitment bar, time zones, and the way in which you can see a week and instantly see where you can fit tasks in. It helps me stay on track and actually prods me into action because I can see immediately the effect that skipping a task will have on my entire schedule. I can't put something off by thinking their is always more time when I can look right at the calendar and it's showing me, point blank, that no, there is no more time. It's just too easy for me to ignore tasks in OF. In Skoach, I am forced to deal with the reality of time as a finite resource.

Maybe some of these ideas could be compatible with GTD and incorporated into OF. Just a thought.

PS - I haven't used the auto-scedule yet.

Ted

Originally Posted by whpalmer4

Interesting. While the notion of having the computer spit out an optimized schedule that I simply have to follow to get everything done is appealing, as a practical matter, I find that life just doesn't work that way for me. The whole approach here seems to be very much at odds with my conception of what GTD is with regard to planning and scheduling. The insistence on assigning a time at task entry when each task will be done, in particular, gives me pause, not to mention the apparent need to estimate duration information for every single task. I appreciate that this makes it easier to see if I'm overcommitting myself in a given interval, but a rapid stream of incoming tasks of various durations would appear to be a recipe for fragmentation of the available time and the need to frequently reschedule to make room for larger blocks of time. Also not clear to me from the slideshow is how I would handle the many hundreds of tasks I have in OmniFocus which aren't tied to a specific time frame -- would it build me a schedule for the next 3 years? With OmniFocus/GTD, I can sit here and work on those tasks all week without losing the ability to pick up some new, urgent task(s) precisely because they aren't scheduled; with Skoach it looks like I would immediately have to rejigger my schedule, and the commitment bar might tell me that I couldn't take it on because my available time was all blocked in with tasks that could be done this week, but don't have to be done this week. And then there's the monthly fee, and my data is locked up in their website, no notion of context, no sequential projects...