Who is using Omnifocus and Why ?

FocusGuy

FocusGuy

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I work with Omnifocus since 14 years. It has a lot of advantages for GTD. Who uses Omnifocus ? What are your feelings about this tool ? Have you tried the Beta on IOS 15 What do you think about it ?
 
I started out as a fan, when I got into the original beta. Over time, I moved away from it, as the user interface never made me feel like a captain or a commander.
 
Jim said:
I started out as a fan, when I got into the original beta. Over time, I moved away from it, as the user interface never made me feel like a captain or a commander.
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This is interesting. I. made a very good job with it and I think I optimized it by 90% but there are still some frictions for me.
So I wonder about you : Why ? Was it a difficulty of settings ? Perspective ? What was missing for you ? What do you use now
 
The user interface was too cluttered, the design too complex. Even after they refined it. Hiding complexity doesn't remove it.

OmniFocus makes me feel like its design is in control. Opening OmniFocus felt bad to me. Clutter and fuss come to mind. I never got a lot done when using OmniFocus.

I use TaskPaper, which has an elegant and simple design. TaskPaper is a joy to open for me. Clean, elegant and focused are what comes to mind with it. The user interface is a simple list, formatted as an outline. No grids, widgets, toolbars, buttons or inspectors to distract from my focus. I can extend the functionality of TaskPaper with AppleScript or JavaScript.

TaskPaper makes me feel like I am in control of it. I get stuff done with TaskPaper. Ecstatic is the right word here.

I hope that explains my sentiment over them.
 
Thank you it is interesting. I know task paper witch is a great plain text tool. I understand why you do so, as it is fast and elegant. Sometime it is difficult to act with data bases. All must be in a strict way and task paper as others like workflowy only offers more freedom for doing things.
 
FocusGuy said:
Thank you it is interesting. I know task paper witch is a great plain text tool. I understand why you do so, as it is fast and elegant. Sometime it is difficult to act with data bases. All must be in a strict way and task paper as others like workflowy only offers more freedom for doing things.
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I react to that freedom as a lack of structure and a lack of tools. I react to OneNote in a similar way.

I use OmniFocus 2.1 (I'll consider upgrading if I ever upgrade all my devices at once; right now, some are too old) and now that I've finally pared down the number of features I actually use, it's working well for me. I want the database model for my project and task list, partly because only a database model makes it ultra easy to hide what I want to hide. If I want to brainstorm or muse about something, I'll use a different tool.
 
I gave a new try with task paper (I have the last version) and I have a lot of trouble about sorting stuff with it. I think I wont use it for a GTD app.
 
If you have an issue with it, give me an example of what you are trying to do, and I will see if I can find a solution.
 
Jim said:
If you have an issue with it, give me an example of what you are trying to do, and I will see if I can find a solution.
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Thanks but If I change, what is not sure at all ;) I would certainly go back to Nirvana...
 
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Jim said:
Not true in the case of TaskPaper. I have keyboard shortcuts that can show very precise items and lists, with everything else completely hidden. No database needed.
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Mostly, I want to see everything, minus items with a specific context and items with a future defer date.
 
Gardener said:
Mostly, I want to see everything, minus items with a specific context and items with a future defer date.
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In TaskPaper, contexts are anything with an @ symbol proceeding them.

Dates are set with a word, such as start, due or defer, followed with the date in parenthesis. Example: @due(2021-10-01)

So, if I have a list of projects and tasks, some with a specific context, and some with future dates:

Screen Shot 2021-09-22 at 4.00.19pm.png

And I apply a search, I can get this:

Screen Shot 2021-09-22 at 4.00.39pm.png

Here is what I used to get the above: *//not @due >=[d] today + 0d and not @specific

*//not @due >=[d] today + 0d removes the items with a date in the future. 0d can be changed to a different amount of days. 7d would represent a week.

not @specific removes items tagged with @specific.

In context:

Screen Shot 2021-09-22 at 4.00.50pm.png

The search can be saved, if you use it often. This saves you the time of typing it out.

I use a JavaScript to trigger a search. It takes a second, and voila, I see exactly what I want to see.

More on TaskPaper searches can be found here.
 
I should also mention a simpler search, if you don't care about the specific due date:

*//not @due and not @specific
 
Jim said:
More on TaskPaper searches can be found here.
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Thanks!

It's an interesting tool. My brain is offering me a theory that it might be perfect for something--garden planning and journaling, maybe? Planning the edit process for my novel when the first draft is finally done? Project support material stuff, where I want that extra flexibility.

For GTD project/action/context lists, though, I think it would remove some ease of use that I want, and give me flexibility that I don't actually need. I actually WANT my GTD lists to be fairly structured and inflexible.
 
Well, that is one of the strengths of TaskPaper, of simple list managers or of paper-based lists (that many GTD'ers love and use)—is that you make the choices about structure and flexibility.

I am rigid about the way I use tags and actions in TaskPaper. The app adapts to my structure, which is nice.
 
FocusGuy said:
Who uses Omnifocus ? What are your feelings about this tool ? Have you tried the Beta on IOS 15 What do you think about it ?
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I do, have done so sonce 2009. I really like it. I like the flexibilioty and power and they way I can adjust hwat I see with custom perspectives. No I have not tried the beta as I don't have anything that runs iOS 15 yet.
 
Oogiem said:
I do, have done so sonce 2009. I really like it. I like the flexibilioty and power and they way I can adjust hwat I see with custom perspectives. No I have not tried the beta as I don't have anything that runs iOS 15 yet.
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Now that iOS 15 is out, I’ve updated to the current beta of OF 4, but I’m just playing around, not using it IRL, where I use Things 3. It’s a real improvement over OF 3 in some ways, but not in other ways.
 
I have used OmniFocus a lot, since 2010 I think, and over the years I increasingly started to feel like Jim said. The setup guide from DAC helped me a lot in getting it simple again. I strongly recommend getting that guide. OmniFocus is really easy to over complicate nowadays.
 
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I switched from Omnifocus last year and went to Apple Notes, Reminders, and Calendar. I have found the simplicity and synchronization across devices to be refreshing in the Apple apps after using OF for 5 years or so. Now that tags have been added to Reminders it works even better for me. I found OF to be more than I needed. I also discontinued my use of Fantastical as well.
 
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