Using Omnifocus on iPad and Outlook on Windows PC - SOOOO Confused!

[Mark@Home]

Hi all! I'm a GTD newbie. I feel like I'm drowning in email, tasks, and projects and after researching new methods, I have decided on GTD because it closely matches my style (plus the friendly folks on here make it seem like the right choice). I hate to start a new thread on something that has been talked about ad nauseam, but I'm just not finding enough information to make a solid decision. I'm ready to get setup but want to make the right choice just once and not keep reworking my system. So, here's my question...

I work in a Windows environment (Win 7). I love the features of Omnifocus, but as we all know there is no PC equivalent. I'm familiar with Outlook, but am afraid that if I setup GTD in it I won't have the functionality of carrying it with me on my iPad. I think I've decided on using Omnifocus on my iPad, Outlook for email, and Evernote for reference material. Somehow I just keep getting confused and ask myself - Should I just use Outlook and Evernote? Should I use OneNote instead of Evernote? Maybe I should use Omnifocus, Outlook, and OneNote? Wait... what are the feature differences again? All that inner discussion has led me to spend time everyday over the past 3 weeks searching online for the answer. I keep coming across different forum threads and it seems to all come down to personal preference. I wish I could find one definitive answer that said, "Mark, in your situation you need these apps and programs. Now, go set them up and enjoy your new stress free life." Does any one have such an answer?

P.S. I'd like to add that a part of my confusion is how do I manage so many emails and actions, delegate, defers in outlook AND Omnifocus? Won't I be duplicating steps and keeping things in 2 places?

 

[Barb]

Keeping it simple

Hi, Mark,

I actually have the exact setup you describe: Outlook for email and calendar, Omnifocus for the iPad/iPhone, and Evernote for reference. I have no problem with it, but I don't get tons and tons of emails either. I also have about 10 years of experience with GTD. Remembering back to when I first started, my advice to you would be to keep it as simple as you possibly can while learning.

By the way, you can create an email and send to a specific Omnifocus address and the OmniGroup turns it into an email you can just tap on and enter it into your system easily. Check with them to find out how to do that if you stick with the iPad set up idea.

 

[Mark@Home]

Tons of email

Thanks, Barb! What worries me is that I do have tons of email. I receive over 300 per day. I only have one shot to get this up and running. I don't want to make the wrong setup choices. With so much email, would you recommend a dual system? GTD setup in outlook to deal with email and follow ups then Omnifocus for projects and tasks?

 

[Barb]

More...

Mark,

Why not 100% Outlook? I guess I'm just not following why you want part of your system in Omnifocus. It works great for me, but would not work great if I had 300 emails a day. Remember, those emails have both tasks and projects embedded in them.

 

[clw2112]

Mark,

Why not 100% Outlook? I guess I'm just not following why you want part of your system in Omnifocus. It works great for me, but would not work great if I had 300 emails a day. Remember, those emails have both tasks and projects embedded in them.

I have just started using GTD and since I use Outlook for my email and calendar at work have decided to work in Outlook. I use Outlook for all of my emails and calendar. Then Tasks in Outlook for my lists. DAC has a really nice Outlook setup paper you can buy that helps guide you through how to best setup your task lists. By using Outlook I can set up tasks straight from an email and even attach the email to the task. This is very helpful when setting up items in my Waiting For list or items that I am deferring to a later date. I then use Remember the Milk on my Android, you can purchase Milk Sync and that will allow your tasks in Outlook to sync with RTM and be available on your phone. I use this a lot for capturing items that come to me when I'm outside of my office and away from my laptop. As for reference I use Evernote just a little because most of my reference material I keep paper based.

I know my system probably isn't the greatest but it works for me. One day once I have a better grasp of GTD I will probably take some time to reevaluate my system and try to improve some things but right now I'm off and running and my system is working for me.

 

[Barb]

Excellent coaching!

I have just started using GTD and since I use Outlook for my email and calendar at work have decided to work in Outlook. I use Outlook for all of my emails and calendar. Then Tasks in Outlook for my lists. DAC has a really nice Outlook setup paper you can buy that helps guide you through how to best setup your task lists. By using Outlook I can set up tasks straight from an email and even attach the email to the task. This is very helpful when setting up items in my Waiting For list or items that I am deferring to a later date. I then use Remember the Milk on my Android, you can purchase Milk Sync and that will allow your tasks in Outlook to sync with RTM and be available on your phone. I use this a lot for capturing items that come to me when I'm outside of my office and away from my laptop. As for reference I use Evernote just a little because most of my reference material I keep paper based.

I know my system probably isn't the greatest but it works for me. One day once I have a better grasp of GTD I will probably take some time to reevaluate my system and try to improve some things but right now I'm off and running and my system is working for me.

I think your system is perfect, especially for someone learning GTD and pc based. This is essentially what I did for many, many years. I never used Remember The Milk, though, because I didn't care about syncing at the time.

 

[Mark@Home]

Great info - Now one last question

I've continued to do research about how to better organize myself. From what I've read elsewhere and your replies here, I've decided to start with Outlook because of my email volume and work environment. So now for the next big question - Evernote or OneNote. Talk about confusing. I find an equal number of reviews favoring each. How does one decide? I don't want to find out later that I should have gone with a different note taking / reference app and then have to rebuild.

If it helps, I will primarily use my windows laptop but want to take my notes with me on ipad and take new notes in meetings on ipad.

 

[Barb]

Help, part 2

You decide based on whichever tool meets your needs and, admittedly, attracts you! Mark, this has got to be fun so you'll want to engage with your tool!

I have One Note, but I don't sync it up. Can you easily access it from the internet? Another question you might ask is can you get to your reference material when you are offline? Personally, I went with Evernote and a premium account because some of the data I had in there HAD to be accessible to me at all times. For not the first time, I was shown I had made the right decision when, just recently, I was visiting my father and had to call an ambulance. I had his meds and pertinent medical history, names of his docs, etc. right on my phone--including available to me offline. Everyone is different, however, but that's my world.

I have to smile that you feel like you're making a permanent decision with your tools. SO many people tinker and tinker and never seem to actually Get Stuff Done. No matter what you do, stay with it at least 3 months so you don't become one of THOSE people (said lovingly, but with a bit of an eye roll).

 

[Kevin_AB]

Outlook Tasks on the iPad

If you want to access your OutlookExchange Tasks on the iPad or iPhone try the iMExchange 2 app. It is not as elegant as Omnifocus on the iPad but it gets the job done.

 

[Mark@Home]

Excellent advice

You decide based on whichever tool meets your needs and, admittedly, attracts you! Mark, this has got to be fun so you'll want to engage with your tool!

I have One Note, but I don't sync it up. Can you easily access it from the internet? Another question you might ask is can you get to your reference material when you are offline? Personally, I went with Evernote and a premium account because some of the data I had in there HAD to be accessible to me at all times. For not the first time, I was shown I had made the right decision when, just recently, I was visiting my father and had to call an ambulance. I had his meds and pertinent medical history, names of his docs, etc. right on my phone--including available to me offline. Everyone is different, however, but that's my world.

I have to smile that you feel like you're making a permanent decision with your tools. SO many people tinker and tinker and never seem to actually Get Stuff Done. No matter what you do, stay with it at least 3 months so you don't become one of THOSE people (said lovingly, but with a bit of an eye roll).

I love your advice. I promise not to become one of THOSE people.

 

[Gardener]

I would have no problem with the set of tools in your original post, because I want those three functions--GTD action lists, email, and project support material--to be in three different places. I'd need a keyboard case for the iPad--I hate typing on a screen, even the pretty-nice iPad onscreen keyboard--but that's all.

I'm not familiar with EverNote, but I know that I actively dislike OneNote, so I'm not going to recommend that. And a lot of people seem to adore EverNote, so it seems like a good choice to start with.

You refer to delegating and deferring and actions in Outlook. Do you have to do it there? Does your employer require it or do colleagues depend on you doing it? Because if you don't have to, I'd recommend that you use Outlook just for email and "hard landscape" calendar.

Similarly, you refer to having emails in OmniFocus. I wouldn't do that either. When an email contains an action, I'd recommend entering that action into OmniFocus, rather than copying the email there.

So my recommendation would be:

- Email in Outlook and nowhere else, *without* any Outlook-based GTD setup.
- Hard landscape calendar in Outlook and nowhere else.
- Actions, delegation/defer, active projects, contexts, etc., in OmniFocus and nowhere else.
- Project support material (that is, anything more complicated than a couple of actions per project), someday/maybe projects, various other reference, in EverNote and nowhere else.

So, nothing duplicated at all.

Now, this is in part motivated by the fact that after using OmniFocus, I find Outlook simply unbearable for tasks. I gave it a good six months, and I just couldn't take it any more. Tragically, I can't use OmniFocus for work, so I use Outlook for email and calendar as I describe above, and I built a quick and sloppy task database that, rudimentary as it is, I find more bearable than Outlook for tasks.

I see that you're going with Outlook, so I hope that you find it less annoying than I do.

 

[simdepgiare]

If you want to access your OutlookExchange Tasks on the iPad or iPhone try the iMExchange 2 app. It is not as elegant as Omnifocus on the iPad but it gets the job done.
You refer to delegating and deferring and actions in Outlook. Do you have to do it there? Does your employer require it or do colleagues depend on you doing it? Because if you don't have to, I'd recommend that you use Outlook just for email and "hard landscape" calendar.

Similarly, you refer to having emails in OmniFocus. I wouldn't do that either. When an email contains an action, I'd recommend entering that action into OmniFocus, rather than copying the email there.

 

[PeterW]

Mark@Home,

Until recently my job required me to work in a Windows environment (Win 7) and use of Outlook email and calendar was mandatory. I had an iPhone, iPad and a Mac at home but thankfully the work Exchange server synced email and calendars to the iOS devices nicely so email and calendars remained in sync.

However I hated Outlook Tasks, so my solution was to use Appigo Todo. Appigo develops a nice Todo app for iOS and a cloud-based version accessible by web browser so I could use it work in the Win environment. Importantly, they have email-to-inbox functionality so I was able to email from Outlook to Appigo Todo in the cloud to create tasks and they automatically synced down to my iOS devices. This all worked quite well.

 

[techienewbie]

Hi, have only just heard of onmifocus but trying to unclutter my head & office & get more productive. I work on a windows PC for outlook email & calendar and that (somehow) synchs to my apple ipods & iphone email & calendar. I want to know the best advice for using omnifocus with this set up as I think it's a wonderful solution if I can integrate it all. help - all comments welcome please. Many thanks Alison