Omnifocus and Things

I found myself bouncing back and forth between the 2. Can’t seem to choose one. Anyone else?

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Not particularly Omnifocus and Things, but Omnifocus and Todoist. Are there any particular reasons you keep bouncing back and forth?

Agree with @justindirose , @Adrian what are the particular reasons for bouncing ?

@justindirose I used to bounce back and forth between Omnifcous and Todoist, until I separated the uses for myself.

Omnifocus - Tracking projects, work, finance, etc
Todoist - Use with my wife for grocery lists, shopping lists, etc. If it’s a quick trip and doesn’t involve a bigger project or plan, I use Todoist (think of like groceries, dinner, etc) If we are planning a party or something larger, then I track in Omnifocus.

I have largely bounced back and forth because I use Windows at work. But the lack of defer dates in Todoist kept me from keeping with it. I’ve found Reminders great for list sharing with my wife.

Bigger picture, I’ve found I want to switch apps because I feel overwhelmed, when probably a good system review and think-through of my workflow is in order.

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Same here. OmniFocus and Things, seems like every few months. I’m currently on OF and it I think with V3 it may be more sticky.

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I was faced with the same issue but I also had the problem of managing large teams with a lot of projects. I finally settled** on Asana for work because I have to have collaboration features and Things for all things personal.

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OmniFocus. It’s not the prettiest by far, but its organisational powers and ability to present tasks in a fully customised way in unrivalled, and I’m not even talking about automation. I would love to love Things but it’s just not powerful enough for my taste.

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Sometimes It’s more about the workflow. If you don’t have the system settled, it won’t matter.

  • If you don’t capture, then you’ll miss something because you never recorded it and processed it into your task manager. That’s up to you.
  • If you don’t review on a timely basis, your projects and tasks will become outdated very quickly. Some of our lives move at a fast pace. Our task manager won’t update itself. That’s up to you.
  • If you don’t organize your tasks into the correct list or project, you won’t know where anything is.Your task manager won’t organize your tasks into the proper container. That’s up to you.
  • If you don’t dedicate a time block for you to spend time on your tasks, they won’t get done by themselves. That’s up to you.

I’m an advocate of creating a workflow first. Start off with pen and paper if you need to break it down to its simplest elements. Then find an app that will do 80% of your needs. The other 20% can be accommodated by supplementary apps or scripting.

Your task manager will magnify the weaknesses in your workflow. If you don’t capture, organize, review, or start working on tasks, your task manager will not do any of these things for you.

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As a followup, I like Things 3 because it offers a pre-designed workflow for those of us who don’t have a solid workflow. We look at tasks in terms to Today, Upcoming, and Lists. That’s from what I understand with my limited interaction with the Things 3 demo. Maybe a more qualified Things 3 user can enlighten us.

OmniFocus 3 can be intimidating because you’re left on your own to figure out how you want to setup your workflow. Some people give up because they haven’t tweaked their workflow to work for them. It took me years to get to where I’m at. But I’m comfortable with my setup. But it was a lot of hair pulling in the early beginnings. I fell off the GTD bandwagon and got back on multiple times before figuring out what I needed.

I appreciate the power of OmniFocus because I can tweak something to fit my current situation or deal with future situations. I love my custom perspectives to handle any situation.

If you’re still unsure of your workflow, try Things 3. If you have your workflow, try OmniFocus 3.

They have demo trials which should give you an idea of which way you’ll lean.

I do see a lot of users on Twitter who declare love for Things 3 then abandon it for OmniFocus 3. Then they get frustrated and return back to Things 3. Then they bounce back and forth and try some other apps such as 2Do, Todoist, and Asana.

Each app will have its strengths and weaknesses. Which one you want to use depends on what you need to do.

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Remember where there were no task management apps for Mac? It really wasn’t that long ago. The good news is that you have a lot of choices and most of these companies have a free trial period. Kick the tires on everything. Pick the one that works for you.

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I had that bouncing between OF and 2Do. I think (hope) I‘m settled with 2Do now. I‘m convinced that it is better to stick with an app you know. But new shiny things are so seductive.
I watched Davids OF field guide twice, tried to set up everything to my needs, but OF simply doesn’t work for me. I always feel like it’s trying to hide tasks from me and wants me to spend my time digging for them instead of working on actual stuff.
With 2Do I feel easy. As most of my tasks don’t have a specific deadline, I found Davids advice very helpful to only assign due dates if actually due. I need more like a queue of tasks, telling me what to work next. With tags and flags in 2Do I found a nice way for that now.

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I like parts of both apps.

The simplicity of things. I like being able to add tasks to an area and not make everything go into a project. Although, things implementation of repeating tasks is annoying.

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I adore Omnifocus because it caters to my compulsive need to organize, and yet I always wind up back in Things. No matter how much time I spend in Omnifocus, I always wind up hunting for what I need. In Things, my data feels more in front and available…if that makes any sense.

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I have been an Omnifocus user for 5+ years. However I have just realised I had a whole load of tasks I was not completing, and Omnifocus was just not productive for me.

So I have gotten off the bandwagon and moved to 2do. It is actually much better imo.

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In OF, I just use custom perspectives on my OF3/iPad homescreen to present to me what I need. I also have the same custom perspectives inn the left sidebar or the top toolbar for easy access. No hunting here for me.

Custom perspectives are saved views or searches. I have a “House” perspective when I want to do home maintenance. I have an “App” perspective whenever I want to work on my digital devices (iPads, iPhones, Desktop Macs). I have a “Warehouse” perspective when I want to check one any job orders in the warehouse.

I think OF custom perspectives are the equivalent of 2Do’s smart lists?

Once you set up 2Do smart lists or OF3 custom perspectives, everything is easy to find.

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Same, I bounce between these two apps. I’m finding things be a bit less stressful, feels bit more of a relaxed app for me. Missing OF dark mode though.

I used to use Things when I was strictly a Mac / iPhone user. However, I’ve switched to an Android phone for now and have switched to Todoist. I use Linux at work and Todoist is great in the browser. Any device, anywhere, it just works.

I fully support Wilson’s comment about a workflow. Mine is based around Getting Things Done and I’ve found making the regular reviews a habit is essential to keeping the lists from growing.

My wife is currently using another system, but will be switching shortly to Todoist as well which will give us the ability to share lists for things like groceries or the todo tasks around the house.

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Exactly my problem with OF!

This is a good way to put it.

I’ve tried all the alternatives but I’m one of the few people who use almost every feature in OmniFocus (I work for 3 universities and I am involved in dozens of research and teaching projects at a time). Things and Todoist leave me frustrated because of the complexity of my work, I’ve tried both for extended periods but they cannot do what OF can, at least with my workflow.

I’m also fortunate in that I can use Apple systems all the time.

For family matters, Reminders is more than enough for me and my wife is not into tech at all so making her use something else would be impossible!

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