OmniFocus GTD application goes to public beta but does it crack GTD?

Published by neil on November 20th, 2007

Omni are the developers of the renowned OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle, and the less well known but equally superb OmniPlan (and there are other strings to their illustrious bow). Their latest foray is into the trendy world of Getting Things Done (GTD), but having spent a little time with it, it seems they may have failed to hit the mark for a large slice of prospective users.

I’ll not waffle on about GTD too much, but if you are not aware it is a set of simple rules for taming the tsunami of daily tasks we seem to never get done -note the use of the words “simple rules” here.

Omni developed OmniFocus with consultation from kGTD developer Ethan Schoonover - kGDT is a set of scripts for OmniOutliner to make it operate as a GTD solution. This was a good plan on Omni’s part as Ethan had been suffering the brunt of many a GTD solution activist during the kGTD development. (Now it seems, he’s joining Omni properly: Gettin Hitched.) You’re paying attention and keeping notes, right?

OmniFocus, Omni’s foray into the GTD solution world, finally went to public beta last week and is therefore released into the big bad world of GTD chaos. I’ve been beta testing OmniFocus for a few months - correction, I should say, struggling with and not really using OmniFocus for a few months.

Still just lists and lists and lists

OmniFocus (OF) is a great implementation of the GTD principles, allowing organisation and prioritising of tasks which form together into projects. Projects can be ‘focused’ to cut out some of the noise associated with looking at a list so large you are likely any minute to scarper off to the loo for a good old fashioned sob.

Where OF gets the application of this wrong is the interface. It’s still just a load of noise on the screen! To me it feels little more than a customised outliner.

There are two types of people who seek a GTD solution like this: those who are simply overloaded and struggling for task organisation; and those who have some form of adult ADD - whether genuine or just because it’s trendy right now - and need help in maintaining task focus. Unfortunately, adult ADD very often comes pre-packaged with the highly developed skill of completely disregarding anything which looks like noise. No sooner is the OF window stacked fit to tumble with a project’s tasks, then the ADD mothership kicks in and everything becomes just stuff. The ADDers ability to subconsciously disregard anything which is visually complex and demanding attention is a hurdle OF sadly fails to overcome. Too much happening on screen and a feeling that the application will suck up as much time as getting the tasks accomplished in the first place - this is a particular irritation for me with almost all GTD “solutions”: if the process of organising the tasks takes as much time as the tasks, what have you accomplished.

The only player

OF is the only big player in the GTD space right now. There are some free/shareware applications around which are usable, but also frequently fall into the “little more than an organised list” category.

There is something on the horizon which I am quite optimistic about, however, and it is being developed by a team which has created one of my most critically essential web development tools XyleScope.

By the look of screenshots and the screencast on the CulturedCode website, it looks as though Things is significantly less cluttered and noisy in its interface. I look at those shots and immediately see something I can work work, something which allows me to see the tasks clearly and not have my brain filter everything out as noise. Now if only these guys will let me in on the alpha testing - pretty please…

Story originally picked up from Hawkwings
Omni story

Tags: GTD, omni, OmniFocus, organisation, xylescope
Posted in Getting it Done |