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Trying to like OmniFocus, but ..... Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay6821 View Post
As someone who has gone between Things and OmniFocus a few times ... for me, the two critical differences between them are Tags and Nested Actions or Folders. ...
The lack of multiple contexts (or tags) eliminates options to filter for tasks that combine such differences as location + frame-of-mind + priority + ... . The lack of nested folders and actions (as well as settings for sequential versus parallel action groups) essentially flattens all projects to be constructed foremost as parallel sets of tasks.

These two fundamental differences really lead to two different fundamental approaches on how one plans and works. IMO, one (OF) is more about providing a user with different ways to combine tasks to build a project with only limited ways to categorize each part, while the other (Things) is more about giving a user different ways to categorize tasks with only one way to collect them in (containers called) projects.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJJWMac View Post
OTOH, they can help aleviate the pains of reviewing / preparing activity reports.

--
JJW
Yes, OF does need improved report features.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay6821 View Post
Now that Things has a very nice sync solution, for me, the two critical differences between them are Tags and Nested Actions or Folders. Between the two programs I can have one, or the other, not both (without resorting to elaborate duct taped workarounds). Given the choice between those two features, I choose Tags (and therefore Things). I find being limited to a single context useless.

A month from now I may be complaining about the lack of nested folders in Things and find myself back in the OmniFocus camp, bit I'm not so sure. The complexity of OmniFocus is a turn off and I've been using the program for almost 4 years. If I have a complex project, I don't turn to OmniFocus, I turn to OmniOutliner.

I've tried to move to Things but keep coming right back. I also missed parallel and sequential projects, review mode (with the ability to set review intervals), folders, and subtasks have kept me here.

But I do pine for Thing's elegance. OF's power can humble a beginner. Grappling the idea of parallel and sequential projects, or figuring out the concept of project mode vs context mode was a great challenge for me in my earlier years.

I actually started using GTD with Things then ran parallel GTD setups in Things and OmniFocus. For a while I was switching back and forth but now I'm just too fatigued and have opted to stay with Things.

I'll open up Things every now and then to see if there is something there to grab me but I just can't see past its skin-deep beauty.

Crossing my fingers for OmniFocus 2. Hopefully it will break away from the strong OmniOutliner roots and incorporate a decent report generator and forecast view.
 
I'm afraid I don't buy the explanation that once you get your Ph.D. in GTD you'll see why Omnifocus is a better product. All you have to do is look at the screenshots on the website to see that OF gives you too much information.

GTD is about simplifying your process so you can spend your time doing things that move the ball. It relies on your having trust that your system has retained all you've put in it and has categorized in a way that will present you with something when its time has come.

That's why I use Things (and I used OF for quite a while before I changed two years ago). I can trust Things, and I very rarely revisit my process itself. That happens every 3-6 months, and then I make a minor, happy improvement.

With OF, I didn't trust it, and I found myself tweaking my process almost weekly. That went on for months, and I never got comfortable.
 
When your life is simple enough, move to Things. When your life starts complicated, move to OmniFocus.

I've done the same thing. I often use Apple iWorks' Pages and Numbers for most of my word processing and spreadsheet needs. Then I'll use Microsoft Word and Excel when the demands of my current project needs something stronger.

I'm fatigued from working through Things' limitations. So I've switched. On a podcast somewhere in my iTunes library, there was one guest who commented that he/she would keep his/her personal life in Things but keep his/her professional life in OmniFocus. He/She was switching between programs based on his/her needs of different parts of his/her life.

If you want to tone down the information overload in OmniFocus, you can control click on the column headers to show or hide the various columns. I've hidden the duration column because I don't use it like other folks do. Some folks even use this column as a way to get priorities into OmniFocus.

By creating and using perspectives, you can also simplify/focus what gets presented.

I have my projects perspectives and the left-hand sidebar lets me focus in on just one project at a time.

I have an Action perspective which shows me all available actions for all my active projects.

I have a Today perspective (a subset of the Action perspective) that lets me focus on only my flagged and due soon/due now tasks (the high priority stuff).


Then I have project perspectives that focus only on the 2-3 projects I have on my plate this week.

These are all perspectives that I emulated from Things. So simplifying and focusing can be done in OmniFocus.


If Things works for you, I'm glad that you've found the sweet spot. But you are free to use OmniFocus for more demanding agendas.

Last edited by wilsonng; 2012-05-27 at 03:42 PM..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by wilsonng View Post
When your life is simple enough, move to Things. When your life starts complicated, move to OmniFocus....
I would say simple versus complicated is too fuzzy. Rather ... When your work is organized around Tasks that could be collected in projects, move to Things. When your life is dominated by Projects that are subsequently built by tasks within them, move to Omnifocus.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJJWMac View Post
I would say simple versus complicated is too fuzzy. Rather ... When your work is organized around Tasks that could be collected in projects, move to Things. When your life is dominated by Projects that are subsequently built by tasks within them, move to Omnifocus.
Thanks Doc!
 
Really interesting thread with some great links, especially the Asian Efficiency stuff.

Has given me some food for thought and already applied some of the principles to my OF workflows.

OF does take some effort but I'm glad I stuck with it as I really would be lost without it now.
 
What I'm seeing in this thread is that we're all hoping to find a friendlier interface with OmniFocus. A bit more hand-holding, perhaps? Something more user friendly?

OF's flexibility is what makes it more difficult to grasp. We're all hoping that OF 2.0 would come out sooner rather than later and hoping that it will be easier to use.

Things' interface does provide an easier workflow. if only we could have OF's power with Things' simplicity.... *sigh*

I just saw the Marketcircle finally released their long-awaited Daylite 4. I remembered waiting for 3 years for that program. I had wished for CRM (Contact Relationship Management) features coupled with a calendar and project/task management. Daylite 3.x looked promising but it was just an unpleasant workflow.

I must admit that I do like the new Daylite 4 but I'm too fatigued to try switching over from OmniFocus to Daylite 4.

Daylite has just about everything i wanted when I was a former Now-Up-To-Date/Contact user. But it's been a long time since I last used Daylite. I'm too entrenched in OmniFocus to want to switch back and forth between Daylite 4, Things, and OmniFocus.

I like the new interface. There is one window that breaks away from the typical OmniFocus outline interface showing due soon (in the next 7 days), overdue, and pending tasks.

Perhaps a new paradigm which helps to differentiate projects, contexts, and tasks would help OF?



I've seen the same complaints in the Daylite forums that i see here:

> When is it going to have feature A, B, and C? It should've been a part of it since the beginning.

> What is the staff doing? Why haven't they released product X yet? It shouldn't be that hard! Just release it already!

> Well, I'm not buying it if it doesn't have this or that feature! Good riddance!





So, I'm sure we've seen all the flame wars and we're all tired of waiting. But good things will come surely.


I don't know if we need a PhD in GTD to get things done. But what I do see is that if you put some more elbow grease (AKA effort) into something, you'll be rewarded well.

When my project/task management needs were simple, I didn't really need anything as strong as OmniFocus. I didn't need to put a lot of effort into managing proejcts/tasks. Things was perfect for me. But when my life became more intense and I needed stronger aspirin, i switched to OF. It wasn't easy but I was able to create a better workflow.

It's like working out at the gym - if you don't put the time and effort into it, don't expect big results (if any).


I'm glad you like the Asian Efficiency OmniFocus site. All the resources are available to us. Just reach out and grab it.



Personally, I think I would use a "sync" tag for certain projects/tasks to sync over to iCal instead of using contexts or publishing reminders to iCal. The current method just felt too difficult for beginners to understand.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by wilsonng View Post
I must admit that I do like the new Daylite 4 but I'm too fatigued to try switching over from OmniFocus to Daylite 4.
I read recently that switching between Things and OF has been described on CC's forums as GOD!, GTD Oscillation Disorder. :)
 
 


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