Posts tagged with "omnifocus"

“A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus”→

“A Sledgehammer Called OmniFocus”

Finding the right tool to keep track of your projects sometimes feels more like a journey than a destination. Many task-management apps have come and gone (some of us have tried them all). But in the past few years, as task-management software has increased its footprint on the Mac, the one app which has stayed in active development and which continues to grow and improve is OmniFocus.

Insightful, in-depth, must-read OmniFocus review and analysis by Shawn Blanc. You can save it in Instapaper, or create an OmniFocus action just for this piece.

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How To: Add Tasks To OmniFocus or Things Using Dropbox and PlainText

OmniFocus and Things come with beautiful and useful mobile applications for iPhone and iPad, but sometimes you just want to have more control over how tasks are added to their databases. Or maybe you can’t afford paying for multiple mobile versions of the same app and you just use the desktop application.

But you’re a great Dropbox fan, and we’ve shown you many creative uses of Dropbox in the past. You can use the service to sync bookmarks and passwords across devices and computers, store music libraries, even control your Mac using Applescript and Folder Actions. Today, thanks to the efforts of our good friend Gianni Rondini (@giannivt), we’re featuring an interesting way to add tasks (with optional notes) to Things and OmniFocus for Mac using Dropbox and HogBay Software’s PlainText, inspired by Elastic Thread’s method to control your Mac using Dropbox.

Check out the instructions and download links after the break. Read more

The Power Of OmniFocus’ Perspectives→

The Power Of OmniFocus’ Perspectives

Even more on OmniFocus. Tyler Hall:

It’s hard to describe how incredibly powerful Perspectives are until you actually spend a few days with them in your workflow. Other task managers have smart folders or dedicated “Today” lists, but they absolutely pale in comparison to the flexibility that Perspectives afford.

I agree. I have four custom perspectives set up, two of them helping me “focus” on iPhone and iPad reviews that need to be done. More interesting tips in the article.

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Dave Caolo on OmniFocus and the Printable CEO Forms→

Dave Caolo on OmniFocus and the Printable CEO Forms

Why use a piece of paper when you’ve purchased powerful, expensive software?

I need both. Some information, like images, can’t be stored on paper. Also, OmniFocus is where I keep all aspects of a given project together, like files, research, email correspondence. There’s no denying that OmniFocus is tremendously powerful. The over-the-air sync alone is a huge selling point. Check it out if you haven’t.

Then there’s this: I just like writing on paper.

You can grab David Seah’s Printable CEO forms here. I want to give this method a try.

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Shawn Blanc on OmniFocus→

Shawn Blanc on OmniFocus

Getting actions in is easy. It’s in the processing of those actions where the most friction exists. However, that’s because the organization and output is what makes OmniFocus so mind-blowingly powerful. I’m not exaggerating when I say that OmniFocus pretty much organizes your lists for you. It will take your relevant tasks and intelligently order them for you so you only see what you need to see without worrying about other stuff. After years of keeping a to-do list, I just may now be finally understanding what people mean by a “trusted system”.

That’s exactly what OmniFocus is all about: giving you powerful (yet unobtrusive) tools to help you sort your tasks and projects. Integration with other applications is the next logical step.

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My 3 Favorite OmniFocus Addons

I stash my GTD in OmniFocus. For many months now I’ve been a die-hard OmniFocus user, and no one - I repeat, no one - can’t take my GTD away from OmniFocus and me. Not even a buggy iOS 4.2 beta that prevented me from loggin in my Omni Sync Server database in the iPad app. OmniFocus perfectly fits my workflow because it lets me add tasks and throw anything in there in seconds, but it’s also got the power I need when digging through dozens of projects and contexts. OmniFocus keeps my workflow on rails.

In the past two weeks I started looking for some neat hacks/tweaks/addons to integrate the OmniFocus desktop application with other parts of my workflow: the browser, Google Reader and DEVONthink. Here’s what I found. Read more

OmniFocus for iPad Reinvented My GTD Workflow

To me, GTD apps used to be worse than Twitter clients on the iPhone before Tweetie: ephemeral.

Yes, even worse than financial apps: I didn’t know how to choose one and keep rolling with it. You know - that new kid on the block could be better and has a beautiful UI. You know the drill. I was a GTD user who couldn’t manage to find an actual GTD to get going with. To better understand the situation, it’s important to specify the workflow I used to have, and the one I have now. Before the iPad came out, I organized all my tasks and projects on my Mac (whether in a desktop app or online service) and didn’t really care about achieving a cloud-based workflow. I had an iPhone (a 3GS, to be exact) but I just didn’t see it as a device to carry my GTD database around. I tried Things, iCal to-dos, Basecamp, Backpack - all sorts of productivity apps / project management tools out there. None of them survived.

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