I’ve been back and forth in a similar fashion. I had OF really dialed in on the Mac, thanks in part to @Sparky ‘s field guide, as well as the AE products. However, I never felt that it translated properly to the iPad, because I’d dump a lot of things into the inbox and couldn’t easily move them to projects etc, and my setup had too deep of a hierarchy set - I like to be able to do a quick review and then add things via flags or tags to a today set. I switched to Things and found that it helped on all those issues, but I missed some custom perspective options, and that the recurring tasks issue has bit me a few times; all of which is causing me to consider going back to OF as the new version seems to fix many issues - it’s really a question of do I want to take the time to convert back.
I did notice that for a while, it seemed like people that were leaning more towards an iPad centric lifestyle (Viticci, Brooks and Shawn Blanc in particular) tended towards things, while people that seem to still do a lot of their main work on a Mac like David, Katie and Rose (Rose, I’m less sure about which device you use mainly) were sticking with OF. I think that’s indiciative of both system - if your life and workflows are simple enough for an iPad to be your main device, it may benefit from the comparative simplicity of things, if you’ve done a ton of apple scrips and hazel rules etc, the sheer power of OF may be the way to go. I’m probably over-generalizing though.
Every time I try a new task management system, even pen and paper, I always end up back at Omnifocus. The primary reason being the extreme customization availabale. OF can be as complex, or as simple as I need it, given the situation I am working in. It also is super easy to get tasks into, and simple to cull them away when things get out of hand. Also, I have gotten so used to only seeing what I need to see RIGHT NOW, I always have difficulty scrolling through my tasks to find what I need to be doing right now. I’m sure that there are similar functions in some other task management apps, but I am so used to OF, it always feels like to much friction to get into another one.
I like that Things has a parent task that preserves its own settings, but it can be frustrating when you forget that.
I wish both task managers would treat recurring tasks like a calendar event. A simple selection which includes something like “change all, or change just this one?” Sounds like a UI nightmare for multiple tasks, but something to that effect.
I was an OF user since the first Mac beta…I too have bounced back between OF and Things. At the moment, I’m all in on Things for a simple reason: I spend more time fiddling with OF and more time getting things done with Things. I LOVE fiddling with OF but it’s more important that I get things done. This doesn’t mean that I won’t switch back at some point
The more I think about the two apps, I realize something about myself. I think I want to use OF because of its history and reputation as the power users tool of choice, but I actually like to use Things more. I definitely spend less time fiddling with it.
It’s absurd how much time I think about this… But it’s comforting I don’t seem to be alone in that.
Hearing David on MPU436 say that he spent 35 minutes fiddling with OF in the morning cements my reasoning for switching to Things. I would rather spend that time actually doing stuff, rather than messing with my system.
Well, let’s try to visualize what @MacSparky is up to. Based on what he has revealed on his podcasts, this is what he might have on his plate:
His own law firm: different clients with their own cases (sometimes more than one case per client).
The MPU podcast - Getting interview guests, researching, recording.
The Free Agents podcast - Getting interview guests, researching, recording.
His Field Guide screencasts - Researching, testing out the app, creating and producing the screencast.
The MacSparky blog - Keeping the blog updated with new blog posts.
Family life - being a husband and father takes up more time than you realize.
That’s six different Areas of Responsibility that we’re aware of. That means he’ll spend about 6 minutes each morning reviewing each folder or Area of Responsibility. So do you think 35 minutes is too much?
This isn’t including anything else in his personal life that he hasn’t shared on the podcasts. Maybe he is a volunteer at his church or community softball team? I probably forgot his ebook series that he’s also working on.
I wouldn’t call that fiddling… Imagine an American football team. They spend the entire week preparing a game plan for their opponent on Sunday. The game is 3 hours long. But the planning and preparation will probably start on Tuesday and finish on Saturday. I don’t think David “fiddles.”
I have been an OmniFocus fan from the start. While there is a lot of complexity, you can ignore it. OF3 is amazing. Using multiple tags is very powerful and very useful. I use it daily, and enjoy working with OF to get things done.
I’ve changed things up a bit where most of that 35 minutes get spent the night before these days but I don’t view that as time lost but instead massive amounts of time gained since I wake up the next day with a clear plan. I’m sure if I’d use Things, I’d need an equal amount of time to plan. I’m a pretty busy guy, as @Wilson_Ng points out.
I’m using both at the moment, trying to work out which is better for me. I’m using a Drafts action to send the same task to both inboxes so that we start off on the same footing. I can get perspective equivalents by saved Things 3 searches on Launcher (thanks Frederick Vitticci for the idea). So, it mostly comes down to look and feel.
I’m finding OF3 to be incredibly buggy. While doing reviews I constantly have to restart the app. Using the inspector is buggy. It freezes, doesn’t appear, and the tag pane seems to be a culprit.
I used Things3 for a while, then switched to OF3 when it left beta (which was worse). I love the ability to focus with OF. But I find the app incredibly ugly on the iPhone. The text spacing is just so unappealing to me. Plus, navigating around requires so many clicks into, out of, and so forth, that it feels like one is constantly digging deep into a various gopher holes, only to realize you’d like to see another gopher hole and have to withdraw all the way out, and drill down all the way back into another one. If you click on a task and look in the inspector there is the name of the project that you can press on to GO to that project. You cannot long press on the task in order to do so. Consequentially, if you are looking at a list of projects and tasks in any other view (say one of the dozen or so perspectives you need to create in order to make this app navigatable), you cannot go to the inspector to travel to the project. Instead, you have to long press on the project name.
You know how we tend to love working on Macs instead of Windows machines? When we are forced to work on a Windows machine at work, we are bombarded with all the extra clicks we must take to do something, the cluttered interface, and so on, just creates a negative experience. Compare this to the more elegant Mac, and you see why we love it so. Omnifocus feels like a Windows app now. It is inconsistent in design. Feels cluttered. Is buggy. It is powerful and does great stuff. But I find that I am constantly hampered in moving around. I have a top level tag called Errands. I’ve found it is easier to just create a perspective for Errands than it is to simply go to Tags.
Things, elegant. It isn’t as powerful as OF and I lament the lack of serial tasks, or a global hide deferred tasks button. But there’s no friction to get in, get out.
Well said, David, and I definitely agree that planning is important. If that takes you 35 minutes, then it’s time well spent, for sure. I was just expressing what I’m sure most of us have encountered where we spend more time messing with the system vs. getting things done. It’s a delicate balance sometimes until you find that perfect workflow. For me, that means using a “simpler” app like Things, but I can completely understand how busier people like yourself need a more “powerful” app like OF.
Yes, everybody gets caught up in this cycle where we end up procrastinating and planning our work instead of actually doing the work. I noticed that I would be in either a planning mindset or a doing mindset. Sometimes we think that planning and curating our projects is work but it’s actually “busy” work. We’re not moving the needle. I reminisced about it here:
TL;DR - I arranged all of my planning perspectives in the top toolbar and my doing perspectives in the left sidebar. When I am doing working, I actively focus on using perspectives in the left sidebar.
