OmniFocus to Todoist
I’ve been testing a switch from OmniFocus to Todoist. I’ve got years with OF and just under three weeks with Todoist. And yet, nostalgia keeps OmniFocus hanging around my devices. Or is it something else?
I cannot help myself, but I miss OmniFocus. I’ve used it for several years now. I was a late comer, missing the Kinkless GTD days, but I was on board with OmniFocus . It was revolutionary. I had read and reread David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, and with OmniFocus I felt like I had a super power.
Then came the iPhone and iPad and with it some great discussions on how each version was better suited for different levels of work. Strategic planning on desktop, floor level tasks on iPhone, and review on iPad. The reasoning went that the app on the iPhone was not well suited to do project maintenance in. The small size and how the UX really lent itself to having a focused list of tasks to do. In this regard, OmniFocus is hard to beat. If you’ve setup your perspectives well, you simply pull out your phone, go to the perspective of choice, and get to work.
However, if you had to do some reviewing of projects, moving tasks around, general maintenance in your system, the iPhone was not the place to do so. Tiny screen. Lots of tapping. Never a full view. The iPad, however, had a larger screen, plus it had a fun “Review Mode”. It was pleasant to just sit down with a cup of coffee, enter review mode. Still, if you really needed to dive deep into projects and also look wide at all your projects, the iPad was still not the place to be.
Back to the desktop! This was where one was the manager of everything. You could look at all of your projects, jump around them, dive into tasks, create perspectives, run Applescripts, and more. For any serious GTDer, there wasn’t anything close to OmniFocus, and to really run on all cylinders was to use all three levels.
Then came OmniFocus 2. It was a breath of fresh air with its design. Again, nothing came close to its ability to manage tasks, especially for GTD-minded folks. Many, many words were written on the pros and cons of having a single tag (OF called it a “context” in true GTD style). And many more words and videos were written/made on how to come up with the best set of contexts (tags) for a particular workflow.
Other task managers were catching up, however. Things was growing in popularity, as was Todoist, 2Do, and others. Many other programs allowed people to use multiple tags. It seemed the writing was on the wall for OmniFocus to bring about multiple tags.
With OmniFocus 3, contexts were renamed to tags, and we could have more than one. Also, the perspective builder was upgraded. There were tweaks to the inspector, allowing people to change how much was visible, as well as fine tuning of dates and repeating patterns and such. But if there was more, I must go look it up. I cannot remember. The folks at OmniGroup said, in blogs and podcasts, that this was a rewriting of the program, it was all new, and warranted the new program price. Perhaps the change was all in the back, because the storefront looked the same. It acted the same, looked the same, and aside from multiple tags, wasn’t much different for anyone except for perhap the truly pro users using automation. For the rest of us muggles, it was version 2.5… multiple contexts renamed as tags.
During all of this time, the iPad and iPhone got better and better. Splitscreen, slideover, and a host of other improvements came along. It was easier and easier to do more work on the iPad without having to be a genius like Federico Viticci. But still, the hampering effects of the UX that hobbled the iPad and iPhone apps as suitable for looking at the tasks, or doing a review, saving all broader strategic planning for the desktop, were still there. Nothing in the how of OmniFocus changed, just its appearance. OF3 didn’t bring about any changes in usability within the app.
Meanwhile, other apps were leapfrogging OmniFocus in elegance and user experience. Things 3 (just before OF3) was released and instantly took the world by storm. It was pretty, everyone pretty much agrees to, but also extremely easy to operate. Once I had spent 2 hours in OmniFocus on my iPad, building projects, adding due dates and tags, and so on. After I was done, I typed out the same in Things and was finished in less than 15 minutes. FIFTEEN MINUTES! Another time I was at a loud concert in a small bar in Portland, Oregon. I pulled out my phone while listening to the band, and did some upkeep on a couple of projects in OmniFocus. It wasn’t easy. I had to set my beer down and work at it. The loud venue hampered my focus and OmniFocus didn’t cut me any slack. Usability issues abound. The slide from left doesn’t always bring back the previous menu, but instead flags a task, picking dates is pain, and so on. I got frustrated and gave up. I opened the Things app and was able to easily navigate around, change details of tasks, with one hand near effortlessly, using half my attention, while also following a conversation with someone at the bar. I could hold and drink my beer, I completed some tasks, reviewed and adjusted projects, all with one hand… in 1/5th the time and 1/10th the frustration. EASY!
But this isn’t a love letter for a Things. I’ve waffled back and forth between Things and OmniFocus for a couple years now. I don’t like working with the Today view in things. In fact I hate it. I know that’s harsh. It’s the truth. I’d rather stuff not go there automatically unless it is due/overdue. But I won’t get into that here. It is a mute point for now, as I cannot use it while in the office, as will be made clear.
Currently I am on a deployment and I spend many hours in a room with Windows PCs. Old ones. Slow ones. Without any useful software on it at all. And they’re locked down on a secure network. No installing anything. And I cannot bring in outside devices. My iPhone and iPad sit outside the room. I needed a web app. I heard that OmniFocus released a web app. I instantly paid the full year’s price. I regret it. The app looks like Omnifocus, only without the custom perspectives (OmniGroup says they will be available this month). It is a pain to use.
Just clicking on any of the perspectives (flagged, forecast, projects, tags) shows the complete list of projects/tags. But every project is closed. That is, the list is compressed and you must click the triangle to open it up. There’s a lot of clicking and hunting and pecking to find what you’re looking for.
A podcaster, whom I enjoy listening to, but will not name, has remarked repeatedly on his show that it is a true wonder that we have OmniFocus on the web, usable on a Windows PC. Surely he is jesting. His commercial for OmniFocus 3 (on his podcast) refers to it as a “fresh new design”. Perhaps he is comparing it to OF1. The design is the same as OF2. But beside the point, has this man never opened up Todoist, or Asana (or several other web apps) on the web before? Todoist on the web, on any device (the browser on my iPhone) blows OmniFocus for the web out of the water. It isn’t even a close contest.
Which is why I stated looking at Todoist. I needed something I could use on the PC, that synced with my Apple ecosystem. Yes, I tried using Things, but I got tired of walking outside the building to see the task I needed, and walking back inside. It wasn’t an option. I tried using Reminders, but was dismayed to find out that the web app for Reminders is beyond bare bones. You cannot work with repeating tasks, or notes, or more. Reminder on iCloud.com is pretty useless.
Todoist
Todoist has been on my radar for a while. I started it four years ago but it didn’t last long. I never fully committed deeply to learn it. The lack of deferred tasks was an issue and I stayed away. That and its dependence on due dates for repeating tasks. For the non GTDers out there this may seem insignificant. But I’m a purist. A task or project doesn’t get a due date unless it is actually a due date. It isn’t a date you’d like to do the task, but when it is due. If you use too many fake due dates, you eventually start pushing them back because, well, they’re not really due dates and you can get to it tomorrow. But you soon forget how to tell the difference between real and fake due date and soon you’re less productive and/or reliable.
But now I had to find something and so I went all in. Due dates or not… I had to try something. Planning in OF for iOS was a pain, on the web was a pain, and I was tired of trying to make a system work for me.
There was a big learning curve in using Todoist as a GTD system. It isn’t fully suited for it. I know, there are people out there that use it as such (you can also use paper planner for GTD). There are hacks to try and make it work, requiring extra effort to do so. Again, Todoist isn’t fully suited to function as a pure GTD system, particularly in accurately displaying Next Actions and my problems in using it stemmed from that.
It is perfectly fine to look for a good app, spend time looking at different ones, testing, etc. Some people in forums think I’m nuts, troubled, misguided, or who knows what. Perhaps I am. I still maintain that it is okay to keep looking for a system that fits how you work. However, the other side is that one should approach an app for what it is. This had been my problem with Todoist. I approached it as a GTD app, like approaching a Bentley as a rally car. It isn’t the best. But you can hack it and make it work. But its best to find another app. Or… use the Bentley as it was designed. This is the learning curve. It is a paradigm shift.
I’ve been using Todoist for two weeks now,have done a couple hundred tasks, have quickly reached Intermediate status on the Karma, and have been productive as all get out. The interface is a bit busy with info, but it is less bothersome than the same issues were with Omnifocus (I railed about the visibility of tags). But the app is smooth! I can zip around it easily. Natural Language Processing and ability to use markdown, are both much more beneficial than I anticipated. It is so much more convenient to have a link within a task via markdown than it is a notes section. And this isn’t a so-called “first world problem” (as I used to comment on this difference), but truly a functionality issue. Omnifocus is overrun with little points of friction. Everywhere. In every button and page and feature. On iPadOS and iOS it is even worse. I cannot remember a single post or podcast stating what a joy it is to use Omnifocus. The point is always “it gives me focus and clarity”. True. It does. But at what expense?
Using Todoist I’ve been able to simply enter my task and go. Want to see a task? Scroll down to the project. Or click on the label (tag). Or scroll to the filter. Easy. To see any task, it is never more than one tap. That’s it. Scroll and tap. To see a task on Omnifocus. Tap, tap, tap… depending on how many levels your folders are.
Omnifocus love and hurt
I still have love for Omnifocus. Truly. I cannot point to the reason why.
When I use it on iOS, I must tap a task to open the inspector. If I want to see the attached note, I must tap the notes tab within the inspector. If, more often than not, I wish to see the note that is linked (Drafts or some other source), I tap the link. That’s three taps. That’s also if I’m open to that task. To see the task within a project, I must tap the projects list, tap the area, tap the folder, tap the project, then I can do the three above. Folders are great on the desktop, but became frustrating to use at all on iOS. I got tired of tapping down into a deep hole of projects just to glance at one, that I eventually deleted most of my folders. I may continue to delete folders and just use tags. There are debates online about using a folder system versus tag system. If you use the desktop app, go either way. But if you use iOS, stay away from folders!
If I’m in a perspective I can tap the task and see the details of the perspective, but if I go to any project from with that (a bit cumbersome, as I must tap the task, tap the inspector, tap the go to project, tap yes I meant to do that) and find myself in some deep hole of a project somewhere. It may seem silly, but many times I’ve asked myself “what perspective was I just in?” and had no clue. Navigating within Omnifocus is a chore.
Enter a Date
Let’s enter a date into a task. First with OmniFocus.
Front the start, five clicks to get into the date picker. Three just to see the projects. I used to have more folders, but using it on iPhone and web app, folders were a chore and I deleted most of them to make OF as flat as possible. And don’t get me started on the date picker. OF uses a type common in many apps, but it is not well suited for planning tasks out farther than a week. Omni added days to the rolling date in the picker, but I get lost when using it.
Now let’s look at Todoist…
Three clicks to get into the date picker. This may not seem like much to the average person. Then again the average person may be happy with spending six hours on an Excel spreadsheet. I’ll spend twice that to build formulas to automate it down to a five minute task and my coworkers are amazed that I’m already finished quickly. Efficiency.
But here’s another advantage of Todoist. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and its ability to use markdown. That means that I can write;
look at [cat videos](http://www.cats.com) today ar 15:00 p2 #personalAnd it will show up as
And if I tap on the link in the title, I’m taken to the website (or linked file) and I don’t need to tap open another menu to see notes and tap on that as well. Typing tasks out like this works extremely well. I use Drafts and Notes and Bear and I can type out a task that makes sense to me and export or copy/paste to Todoist and it works. I don’t have to try and make the TaskPaper method work as I did with OmniFocus. Writing in TaskPaper format just never clicked for me and was too cumbersome to do when taking notes. But p1 for priority 1, @email for email tag, and hashtags for projects is just simple.
Crushing it in Todoist
I have been using Todoist for almost two weeks now, I think. Not sure. But I’ve been crushing it. At first I HATED that I had to have due dates for repeating tasks. The GTD purist in me railed at this. But I’ve had to adapt. What I’ve found is that it is much MUCH more fluid. And navigating within Todoist is easy. It’s a snap. The upcoming view is great, and searching for a date will take you to that date in the upcoming view. And if I tap on any task, I can tap on and edit the details of it, navigate to it, move around, and so on. And easily find my way back to where I was. It doesn’t have a back button, such as Things. But one doesn’t miss it. Everything is there. It is a bit cluttered in appearance, but it makes up for it in ease of use.
OmniPeace
Whenever I see a screenshot of OmniFocus on someone’s blog, I get nostalgic and open it up. Whenever Rosemary Orchard talks about it, or Kourosh Dini writes about it, or anything… I get the urge to spend a couple of minutes going in and organizing, cleaning, and feel good to see a well organized system, with all tags and sub tags working together to give me a clear picture. This is something that, if your system of tags and folders and perspectives are set up, and you are diligent in processing and organizing, OmniFocus shines still. If set up, it will give you clarity. Stark and uncompromising clarity. Want to see all your tasks? Okay. Want to see all your tasks that you’ve tagged with a worker on your team, with waiting for items, ordered by due date? Okay. If asked about what tasks I have coming up, I simply look at remaining due items by date. Done. Clarity. I don’t have to stop and ponder which of these many due tasks are real ones that I can move, and which ones I must get done. OmniFocus is a GTD app in its soul, Todoist is not.
Here are upcoming due tasks in Omnifocus. One page and I see up to July. Note the greyed-out text. It is deferred and “not available”. I wish Omni would lessen this distinction a bit as I selected the option to view all and I want to see them.
Now let’s look at the Upcoming View in Todoist. Four pages and I’m not even out of this week! I have a lot of recurring tasks and Todoist forces one to use due dates for them. The majority of these tasks are not truly due. If I’m asked what I have on my plate and can I do XYZ ( as bosses are sometimes going to do), I have to scroll and think and look and scratch my head. There’s no clarity.
Meanwhile, back in OmniFocus, I also have a lot of repeating tasks, most of which are tagged as “maintenance” (taking care of myself, equipment, or skills… maintaining something). Once they are done, they disappear from view until I can do them again. Here is the view of my available tasks that clutter up my Todoist view.
Where will I land?
I don’t know.
With Todoist, I do just enough organizing and tagging to make sense. I don’t fiddle with making it present to me the clearest perception of reality (it takes a good amount of work to even try), but on listing the tasks that need done. As much as I wanted ‘waiting’ tags to be hidden, I now appreciate that they are not hidden and that I can at a glance get an update and move on. Though in OmniFocus, one could simply make a waiting tag that doesn’t hide from view. Rosemary Orchard and Ryan Dorson had a neat bit about using more than one type of waiting for tag in their book Build Your OmniFocus Workflow.
I also don’t want to miss a streak in a Todoist. I want to go in and knock out some tasks because of Karma. Whereas in OmniFocus, sometimes the items that didn’t have a due date (many supplemental tasks I have, such as reading books, and so on) are pushed aside. In Todoist I’m faced with a list of 25 tasks and I chew through these tasks. It has a different sense of urgency about it than I found in Things. In Things, the daily list was annoying and wasn’t a true list for me, adding only deadlines and whatever happened to come up from deferred. I still had to go in and process projects every damn morning and it was a chore. With Todoist, I just open it up and go.
I have a lot of love in my heart for Omnifocus. It’s like that 66 Mustang that I had. My first car that I bought myself. It broke down all the time. I carried lots of parts with me and you might see me on the side of the road in southern California, getting it back running. But I loved that car. Man! I still love that car and it’s been gone for years. Meanwhile, my daily driver is a car that is dependable and gets the job done. It might be a sedan, with seat warmers, cup holders, automatic doors, and a bunch of other stuff, but it’s easy to drive.
It’s been a couple of weeks and I’m adding more and more projects in it. I am the NCOIC of a platoon on deployment. I have a variety of tasks to perform and keep up on. Weapons maintenance, ranges, security, logistics, personnel moves, and more. Add to this the various projects I’m working on for myself, learning programming languages, front end web development, moving to a new city when I return home, and more. As I add more and more to Todoist, I am faced with more and more clutter from the weight of recurring tasks. The upcoming view is all but useless for me. Instead I use filter I’ve made and rely on flags. It isn’t perfect. And it isn’t clarity.
And then I open up OmniFocus. Clarity.
Here’s to hoping for the very best for the fine folks at OmniGroup. I hope that OF4 is poetry and style and polish. I hope that the soul of OmniFocus stays there, but finds a design that gets out of the way and lets the user dance.
