Longtime generally-satisfied OmniFocus user, but I’d really love:
- seamless two-way (Catalina/iOS 13) Reminders integration
- a kanban view
Is there any such thing out there?
Perhaps in a few months time when Todoist rolls their upgrade…
There is no seamless Reminders integration because Apple does not allow it. But Good Task should have a nice integration with Reminders. No Kanban, though.
Amazing Marvin has Kanban, but it still needs a year to be able to compete with the big boys.
No simple Reminders integration. If you’re interested in kanban implementations Todoist Foundations, which just rolled out, will be adding it in the next few months. In the mean time Airtable, Zenkit and to a certain extent Asana and Realtimeboard offer similar functionality.
You can achieve a kanban-like experience in OF on macOS by laying out a variety of perspectives in multiple windows. It isn’t perfect but it works to give you a high-level overview of your work. I have a Keyboard Maestro script to lay out a bunch of (my) perspectives this way, if you’re curious.
I’ve tried that sort of thing in the past using tags to define the perspectives, but if there’s a quick way to drag tasks from column to column, I haven’t figured it out. I suppose I could create KM macros that would effectively move selected tasks over in response to a hotkey by removing one tag and adding another, but I haven’t tried anything that elaborate.
That KM idea is a good one. Indeed, you can’t remove a tag by dragging an action out. You can add tags to actions by dragging them in, though. Definitely not ideal.
You’re probably familiar with Trello for kanban-style work?
Fantastical works with Reminders - but maybe you all are talking about some other sort of integration?
What I’d like to see, but that doesn’t seem to exist, is the kind of Reminders integration that exists in Fantastical and a kanban view in the same app.
I don’t see the point of using a task manager with integration with another task manager. If you’re happy with OF you won’t get kanban any time soon, though Zapier offers an integration.
Sadly it’s only one-way: Trello triggers to creating OmniFocus tasks.
This might change eventually—Omni has suggested that the development of OmniFocus for the Web unlocks better web API options for them, but nothing concrete is publicly announced.
Trello doesn’t have two-way sync with Reminders, does it? I might be prepared to drop OmniFocus for what I’m asking for, although I’d have to test-drive it for a while first. Also not sure I want my “truth” to be on someone else’s servers unless it’s iCloud.
Apple Reminders is mainly siloed. What you are asking for with regard to OF and Trello is not currently doable. I already pointed you to task managers apps that have or will have kanban features, but if you prefer to use OF then given its own limitations your integration options are limited, but you should do research to see specifically what IFTTT and Zapier integrations offer with various kanban or task manager apps.
Integration with OmniFocus would be great but I’m not really expecting it. But Reminders tasks are designed to be available to other applications through the EventKit framework. I know the new Reminders format in Catalina and iOS 13 no longer supports CalDAV, but AFAIK Fantastical, BusyCal, NotePlan, GoodTask, and various other apps are still able to create and display them — just apparently none with a kanban view.
Focusing on Reminders clearly is not going to get where you want to go right now either.
There are alternative task managers which include kanban view, or will soon, and some have useful free tiers. And there are many powerful kanban board products available as well with free tiers (Trello, MeisterTask, KanbanTool and more). If Reminders isn’t going to get you sufficient integration, research what IFTTT and Zapier offer with those other task managers & kanban boards (assuming you’ve already researched the IFTTT/Zapier integrations of all kanban products with OF).
Follow-up: someone noted on Reddit that the new Todoist beta includes the long-promised ‘boards’ kanban function, and the poster included a screenshot.
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