A Community Contribution from Jason Verly

For anyone who uses a Mac and utilizes the GTD method, you may eventually look into what software you can use to help manage your project and next action lists. Currently on the Mac, the leading apps to help manage your lists are OmniFocus and Things. Each app covers four of the five steps of the GTD workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, and Review. (Sorry, but you still have to do ‘Do’ on you own.)   Here is a comparison of how each application handles these four steps.

Read more from Jason Verly’s article

Editors Note: Many of you know we are partners with OmniGroup. We wanted to provide this article to our GTD Times readers, as Jason has done a great job comparing these two popular applications.  It should give you some great information from a fellow GTDer, when choosing which one is best for you.

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A challenge for many GTDers is how to have a trusted system among several discrete software systems. Typically the situation arises in the workplace where either Outlook or Lotus Notes exists, plus other systems that may be CRMs, databases, or dashboard and reporting tools. Additionally, the workplace systems might not be convenient or available for one’s personal life.

My system was working great for me. My lists were in Omnifocus on my MacBook Pro and iPhone.  I used web-based Gmail, and I would copy the URL for an email and paste its hyperlink into the note field of an item in Omnifocus. I used iCalendar that syncs to Google Calendar. I also used a David Allen Note Taker wallet for my ubiquitous capture tool.

Being hired by David Allen Company created significant problems to my tidy GTD ecosystem.  [Read more →]

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Ryan Norbauer wrote an interesting article on what he calls, “The Psychology of OmniFocus: How to Wrap your Head Around the Finest (and Most Perplexing) GTD App on the Market.”  We know many of you are OmniFocus fans out there (we are too) and I thought this was an interesting read.  I particularly liked:

“If you’re just borrowing ideas from GTD here and there, like the idea of grouping your to-do lists by context, you’re missing almost everything GTD has to offer, which is a terrible shame.”

This article is worth a read on tapping into the full power of GTD + OmniFocus.  Read more…

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Wikipedia defines a killer app as “…so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology.”  So, what are your killer GTD apps?  What do you use regularly AND find to be essential to your GTD implementation?

• Where do you keep your lists? Your calendar?
• Do you sync to a handheld? If so, what is that?
• Your favorite collection tools?
• Killer desk supplies?
• Project planning, brainstorming and creative mapping tools?
• What else??

[Small request:   If you are commenting about an app, please disclose if you are the developer and/or involved with it in some way. Thanks.]

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GTD enthusiast Kerry Gallivan has been working with a wonderful project in Maine that is bringing MacBooks,  OmniFocus & GTD to nearly 60,000 students and educators.  It’s an amazing story and congratulations to all involved in making this happen.  Truly a remarkable achievement which will greatly benefit the students, teachers, their families and communities.

As a GTD evangelist myself, last March I was fortunate to attend the GTD Summit in San Francisco. This was a first-ever event hosted by David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, and his company, David Allen Company. It was a networking event which brought together all of the best and brightest GTD practicers from literally around the world. It was at the GTD Summit that I met Ken Case – the President of the Omni Group.  Being a Technology Director at a school district in Maine and a GTD evangelist, I encouraged him to consider donating OmniFocus to the MLTI program as a first step in exposing the educational community within Maine to the benefits of the GTD system.  Read more–>

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This week, in our ongoing series giving you a look inside other people’s GTD setups, Andy Reed sent along some photos for our GTD Times readers.

On his desk, Andy uses Inbox, Pending and Read/Review trays.

[Read more →]

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I recently interviewed Ken Case, CEO for OmniGroup, about the ever popular OmniFocus for Mac.  You’ll hear about the history of OmniGroup, what their company culture is like today, what OmniFocus does for a GTD’er, and more.  Here’s an excerpt:  

Ken Case: The big thing that we tried to do as we were designing the application is really think about the parts of the GTD workflow that we could address, and automate those, and then maybe not try to touch the parts that didn’t make as much sense. For example, we don’t do calendaring; we leave that to whatever calendaring system you already have. I use the calendar app that’s built-in to the iPhone, but you can use a paper calendar or whatever works for you for that part of the system. We do focus on the GTD collecting and processing–capturing stuff out of your head and getting it into your inbox. We tried to make that really easy with a keystroke…

LISTEN NOW>>

Grab a list of all of the OmniFocus speed keys.

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Like the desktop quest, many GTD’ers are searching for the perfect GTD list manager app for the iPhone.  The NY Times just posted a nice, simple article on organizing apps for the iPhone. While it’s certainly not an extensive look at the topic, nor will it cover all of what’s out there, or even your favorites (but I’m sure you’ll let us know!), it’s worth a read.

I’ve also written a few articles on my experience of GTD & iPhone over on my blog:

• GTD & iPhone – Part I – My criteria for choosing
  
• GTD & iPhone – Part II – My system evolves
  
• GTD & iPhone – Part III – Still looking for Lotus Notes sync
  
• GTD & iPhone – Final – Update on Chapura (it’s no longer an option)

Stay tuned to GTD Times for more on Getting Things Done with the iPhone.

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