OmniFocus Is Coming Out and You Probably Need It
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
The great mac developers over at OmniGroup finally made OmniFocus public this week. It will be officially on sale on January 8th, but you can check out the public beta now and even pre-order it for half-price before it comes out.
I’ve been using the alpha version steadily for a couple months now, and I have to say that it’s awesome (besides the random earth-shattering bugs that happen in an alpha). I’ve used kGTD and iGTD, and I am pretty sure I’ve tried out every other task management app out there for the Mac. My biggest complaint was that kGTD needed constant syncing to be useful and iGTD didn’t give me the project overview that I need during my weekly reviews and professional “Oh crap, I’m supposed to be a project manager not just an overworked idiot with 3,400 to-dos” triage. I am happy to say OmniFocus has the best of both worlds for me: kGTD’s ability to see all of my open projects and their statuses at a glance and iGTD’s ability to be it’s own small app that I can leave running all day long. On top of that, it’s got the Quicksilver, Mail, Safari, everything else integration that I really need and used in iGTD (iGTD is really great for a lot of people and I loved it).
I’m really not one to push software on anybody; choosing software is a very personal matter for control freaks who are in so many ways trusting their livelihood on the computer. I remember when kGTD/Missing Sync screwed up once and wiped out my whole task list (and the backups in a miraculous swoop)… I really thought I would have to quit my job and live as a rambler because I couldn’t remember what was so important about my current project and what the heck was my next action? I’m recommending this one, though, because everybody has stuff to do. Heck, if you’re still reading this it’s because you’re either a fellow developer/manager/administrator/person with a computer who’s begging for a way to make his job easier… or you’re my wife. Everyone else can stop now. Seriously, though, you need task management. Everyone who wants to do more than one task before they die has a to-do list, and everyone who wants to finish more than project before they die needs a system. If you have only one task left, congratulations. If you have only one project left, I hope it’s really, really interesting. Everyone else probably needs a system. So, try out OmniFocus in the public beta (but don’t sue me if it loses your data while they’re fixing bugs… their support ninjas are good, but not perfect). If you don’t like it, try out iGTD or another app out there. If you don’t like either or you need something in your back pocket, buy a notebook or some notecards. Just don’t keep sitting around waiting for something to install itself on your computer while you’re asleep and organize all your tasks. Choose one and run with it. Now.
