iPad OmniFocus Review
Productivity nerds rejoice. iPad OmniFocus, $40, is now available. I was a beta tester and have been using iPad OmniFocus for several weeks. So does OmniFocus’s much awaited iPad incarnation live up to the hype or fall flat on its face? I’m pleased to report the Omni Group succeeded, brilliantly. If you aren’t in the mood to read 2,000 words, just go buy it. Otherwise, read on.
First a Word about OmniFocus
OmniFocus is one of those apps that has rabid fans and confused detractors. There are a lot of moving parts to OmniFocus. It goes far beyond a simple task list and that is why people love it so much. That is also why a lot people give up on it, deciding that the barrier to entry is not worth any eventual payoff. One of the benefits of OmniFocus for iPad is that it simplifies the OmniFocus tools without dumbing them down. This makes many of OmniFocus’s more powerful tools more accessible, which is a good thing for veterans and new users alike. This review is written assuming you are already familiar with OmniFocus on the Mac. If you need a refresher, read my past OmniFocus coverage including a somewhat dated review.
The Interface Overview
OmniFocus works in both portrait and landscape view. Landscape works best and presents the familiar “steering wheel” control scheme with navigation on the sidebar and data manipulation on a larger right pane. The sidebar includes a new item button, an inbox count, project, context, and map views, a new forecast mode (covered later), flag status, a review button (also covered later), and custom perspectives.
If you use the application in portrait mode, the navigation pane is activated by pressing the OmniFocus button in the upper left corner.
Capture
OmniFocus for iPad includes several ways to add new tasks to your list. The easiest is the Quick Entry window accessed with the following icon. You can also get the Quick Entry window by clicking the plus (+) in the menu bar. (This is simplest way when working in portrait mode.)
The Quick Entry button allows you to add new tasks without leaving your current context or project. This is great for the little things that occur to you while random synapses are firing and you need to get back to work. (Like when you are neck deep in a writing project and suddenly remember you need more spicy carrots.)
The Action Editor
No matter how you go about it, when you add an action, you will get the Action Editor. This is the standard window for editing actions in iPad OmniFocus. It includes four tabbed views: Info, Dates, Notes, and Attachments.
You can adjust an action’s name from any tab. The Info tab includes context, project, and flag status. By touching any of these buttons you can add or adjust the entry. Touching the grey circled X to the right of any field deletes its current entry. The app is intelligent about adding contexts and projects. For the MacSparky Blog Entry project I can type “mabl” and the app figures it out.
The Dates tab lets you set start and due dates for new and existing tasks. Tapping the date field opens up the slot machine style date picker iPhone OmniFocus users are used to. You are managing your start dates, aren’t you?
It also has buttons to quickly move a task forward a day, week, or month. The Date tab includes a repeat button letting you assign a task or project to repeat on a set schedule or restart after completion. The seamless way you can set a repeat schedule was one of several features I found easier to operate on the iPad than the Mac. It is more intuitive and easier to find.
Using the Notes tab you can add notes to a task. This is also where text clippings from your Mac appear.
The Attachments tab lets you add photos and voice notes to you actions. Any PDF files or other attachments to tasks from your Mac can be accessed and viewed here.
Organize
Organizing tasks with iPhone OmniFocus always felt a bit cramped. With the limited screen space, there was way too much drilling involved to make it feel efficient. This is not the case with iPad OmniFocus. Particularly in landscape view, it is easy to jump between perspectives, contexts and projects to organize my day. It is one of the most liberating aspects of iPad OmniFocus that I no longer need to sit at my Mac to organize my tasks in the morning. It can be done over tea, in bed, in the back of a courtroom, or anywhere else I happen to find myself. The process of tapping on tasks and resetting dates and priorities is intuitive and fast. You lose the ability to select and process multiple items like you can on your Mac but in some ways that is a good thing. It is easy to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Either way, managing actions is fast enough on the iPad that I haven’t done my morning organization on my Mac in two weeks. In all views, you can collapse or expand all objects by tapping and holding the disclosure triangle.
If you want to focus on a particular project or context, tap and hold its name. Project organization is accomplished with the Project window, accessed by tapping on any project name. This is very similar to the Quick Entry window except the Info pane has entries for type and status.
By tapping and holding you can focus on or modify projects.
There is also full support for flags and maps. While limited use of flags can be helpful, I’ve never found much use for the map feature, which limits the viewable tasks to those near your location. Maybe if I wasn’t such a slug and moved about more, it would make more sense.
iPad OmniFocus also imports custom perspectives from your Mac. While there is no way to creat custom perspectives on the iPad (that still can only be done on the Mac), you add your custom perspectives to the default sidebar as shown throughout the screenshots attached to this review with my custom Today, Clear, and other unique OmniFocus Perspectives. To place a Perspective in your sidebar, tap the star next to the desired Perspective in Perspective view.
Checking the Weather
The new Forecast view is clever. It replaces the Due Perspective from Mac OmniFocus and gives you a breakdown of tasks with due dates over the next seven days. You can click on any specific date to see what you are up against. While the Due Perspective in Mac OmniFocus does a good job at managing the next few days, it doesn’t go any further. With iPad OmniFocus’s Forecast, you can know at a glance if next Thursday you are going to get crushed with deadlines and plan appropriately. This is another example of how iPad OmniFocus processes your task list for you. I hope this innovation finds its way to the iPhone and Mac versions, soon.
Process
Processing your tasks in iPad OmniFocus is easy and convenient. You can jump between Perspective and Context views obliterating your task list as you go. Since some of my daily routine involves driving a Windows PC, it is nice have my OmniFocus list on that big iPad screen nearby. While I could do this before with my iPhone, it is more natural (and faster) on the iPad.
Review
The one OmniFocus feature that a lot of people miss is Review. On the Mac, you’ve always had the ability to set a review timer on your projects. For important projects that review timer may be a week. For back-burner projects, it may be 3 months. OmniFocus will then give you a list of projects that are “due” for review. You can go through each project and confirm they are still relevant and on track. If you use the review tools on Mac OmniFocus, you can rest easier knowing projects will not fall off your radar.
The trouble is the review tools are not obvious and a lot of people aren’t sure how to use them. I also found taking the time at my desk to conduct the review difficult. It always felt like there was something more pressing. I eventually resorted to setting an appointment with myself and taking my MacBook to the local Peet’s once a week with the purpose of doing nothing but drinking hot tea and reviewing projects.
iPad OmniFocus solves these problems. Review is accessed from the sidebar. Once in Review view, you get a list of just the Projects due for review. From there you can audit each project and mark it as reviewed. You can also drop, complete, and place a project on hold. Finally, you can set (or change) the review timer. The iPad Review laps the Mac OmniFocus review tools. It feels very natural and I expect a lot more users will start adding a review process to their workflows.
Clipping and E-mail
Mac OmniFocus lets you take clippings from text and e-mails and add them to the inbox for later processing. This is particularly useful for e-mail because it gives you a way to forward plan an e-mail response and get the source e-mail out of your inbox. I explained my workflow for this at length on the Mac Power Users. Unfortunately, this is not possible on the iPad. Because the way iOS sandboxes applications, there is no way to easily take an e-mail message and drop it in your OmniFocus inbox on the iPad. I tried several experiments and none of them were acceptable. Copying and pasting text is possible, but slow and you lose the link to the original e-mail message that you get on the Mac. (As an aside, clipping links to original e-mail messages made on the Mac appear in iPad OmniFocus but don’t work.) This may get easier when the iPad gets multitasking but I doubt it is possible to make it as seamless on the iPad as it is on the Mac given the platform’s constraints. The solution I have reluctantly gravitated to is walking over to the Mac and hot-keying e-mails into the Mac OmniFocus Inbox. I can then process the inbox on either the Mac or iPad (or iPhone).
1.0
Despite being a 1.0 version, the app was stable throughout the beta process. It never crashed. It is clear a lot of thought went into the layout and user interface. The help window is also very thorough walking you through how the app works and even including a link to the OmniFocus GTD White Paper. I’m sure it will get more spit and polish with future releases but as some smart guy once said, “Great artists ship.”
Settings and Syncing
The settings are similar to those available on iPhone OmniFocus except some of the optional items from iPhone (such as perspective sync) is now baked in.
There are several syncing options, including Omni’s own developing sync service.
Overall
While there has been much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth as we waited for OmniFocus to make it to the iPad, the wait was worth it. OmniFocus is not a compromised version of the Mac app but stands on its own and, in some ways, outshines its Mac sibling. If you already “get” OmniFocus and own an iPad, go get it now. If you are not-so-sure about OmniFocus, it is time to take another look. I believe the ease of use you get with the iPad (capture, organize, process, and review) make the application much more accessible.
It is remarkable how far iPad app development has come in just a few months. In February, the Omni Group was laying out apps on plastic iPad mock-ups with scotch tape. It is amazing that just five months later they can release this stellar application with such a sophisticated and accessible user interface that gets so much right.
iPad OmniFocus was the tipping point for me where the iPad transformed from a delightful curiosity to a bare-knuckle, get-it-done tool. Using OmniFocus, along with the rest of my nerdy work arsenal (Mail, SimpleNote, Instapaper, Dropbox, Keynote, and remote access tools), I’m getting through entire days of extremely productive work with nothing but my iPad. Bravo Omni Group.
Reader Comments (39)
+1 for overpriced. Omnifocus have lost the plot. $20 would have been reasonable but this is plain stupidity. They can say it's about quality apps but they'd sell at least twice as much with a cheaper price. Sorry omnifocus, after buying your osx and iPhone versions, I'm switching to someone who doesn't try rip off their customers
Thanks for the review. Helped me discover ways to use the software more efficiently. I agree that there are a number of features of this version of the software that make it much more efficient to plan your day and update your lists of todos.
I would like to make a comment on Marcel's review. He indicates that he has: "179 projects, 2792 actions database". It does not sound to me that Omnifocus could be used to handle such significant database and that this sounds like an elaborate detailed project management issue that other tools may be more suited to. Perhaps a more pro level application such as OmniPlan is more suited to the task (no pun intended). http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omniplan/
David: I'd already purchased the iPad app yesterday within a couple hours of its availability but this review, just as your screencast on email management did, is going to change my productivity life. Thanks for sharing your comprehensive examination of these modern-day tools. You really are a guru.
(ok moderator, typed this on iPad so I've cleaned this one up a bit...sorry for duplicate post please delete prior....plus it would not accept my URL www.cultofpersonality.com). Gratis!
Ok guys...and maidens....I don't have any axes to grind nor agendas to push....I've tried Things, toddle, omni..... I don't KNOW what is best for me? I suspect of course the answer of what is "best" will depend on the needs of who is asking......?
All of you seem more knowledgeable about this than I am. Could a few of you give me your best thoughts on what system, or combo, you would use to accomplish the following:
1. I have a small company....10 to 12 of us involved at most and that's counting contract labor (who all have at least an iPhone but dif combos of ipads, makbooks, or windows laptops.
2. MAINLY I need something to personally manage about five unrelated companies:
A. Physical therapy staffing company
B. Custom motorcycle shop
C. Rivendell Farming (an animal rescue / rehab / release deal)
D. Runerings: a very low volume jewelry cnc fab shop specializing in creating rings with invisible writing (until heated)
E. A real estate holding company (first floor offices, coffee shop, 24 hour fitness----second floor loft apartments
F. A verticle software company witch has been developing and selling Medicare / therapy software since 1994
G. a surprisingly in demand demented candle company wich make "prank candles". (catpeecandle.com)
Ok. If you can bear to stay with methrough all that you can see my bad need for a GTD type system cause EVERYTHING falls through the cracks every day!
I need some system to help me organize "what's next" on the fly for any of e above disasterous (but profitable ventures). So I need something
1. Just for me....to make sense of it all
And
2. Something to address communications and accountability for "assignments" for the various people who work within often completely separated areas. In other words....if I'm sitting with my Mac, iPad, or Iphone and I want to ADD TASKS to various team members in a way that automatically shows up on their devices "to do" list....and then I can see what they have checked off ass done, or sent me back a "to do" that only I can do to keep them rolling..... HOW BEST CAN I set this up????
Right now we waste alot of time on phone calls where important deadline or other details are not documented and it all gets messed up and balls are dropped even with the best of intentions (not even factoring in the inevitable folks who just try to claim such in such wasn't "assigned" to them.
I know it's a long boring somewhat "Pandora's Box' type of scenario.....but any help, guidance, discussion would be awesome....I can't be the only one who would, say, right now, like to send a 'to do' to my dad's iPhone that will appear on Monday Morning saying: get two bales of hay, 50 pounds of raccoon feed, and hot stripper at the feedstore Monday morning". And then be able to have him just check if off "done" and have that reflected my devices? (or, allow him to check done yet being able to sent me a "to do" item saying "strippers no longer available at tractor supply, find another source". :). You get the drift....
Is there a way? I have ten .me accounts if that would help?
And...guys....if any of you are gracious enough to give me your thoughts...please don't fight over your different ideas....ALL of you smart bastards will say something that will help me even if its all different!!!!! Cause Im at a nerdy loss here as to how to get this done.....
from Texas with Love!
Bart & Linda Clark
Dallas,Texas
While I like the overall layout of OmniFocus for iPad, the quick entry for individual tasks is nowhere near as quick as in Todo by Appigo. Why can't I at least add the Info and Date information from a single screen and continue to add new tasks directly instead of having to press SAVE and then the + button again?
The terminology in the repeating section is convoluted as well.
Pluses (compared to Todo): Can view multiple project actions on same screen and focus; simpler layout (I don't need the faux notebook/agenda in Todo). Review and Forecast features.
Minuses: price, slower entry and processing of tasks in Omnifocus. The interface on the Mac version sucks.
OmniFocus is first and foremost a GTD tool. If you haven’t read David Allen’s book, GTD probably doesn’t mean what you think it means. If you don't get GTD, you are not going to get just how powerful the combination of OmniFocus for the Mac, iPhone and iPad really are. This is a problem for Omni, and they have tried to address it with a GTD white paper that many commenters seem to have not seen. That said, it is entirely true that OF is too much tool if all you need and want is a simple task list.
In GTD speak, a project is just a task that takes more than one step to complete. That is it. This is not the sort of “project” that some commenters seem to be thinking of - as they are thinking of project in terms of wikipedia’s “Project management” article. I’ll distinguish the two as “project vs. Project” from here on.
GTD can advise how you manage a Project, but it is no substitute for whatever system/framework your organization uses to manage Projects. I’ve had success using OmniFocus alone for small Projects that represented less than 40 hours of effort. Anything more than that, and it is time for spreadsheets (or OmniOutliner), or real Project management software. There is a reason why multi-user Project management solutions cost thousands of dollars. Even single user costs for Project management software are typically in the hundreds of dollars. Bottom line, OF is not Project management software.
GTD, as described by David Allen, is a PERSONAL approach to productivity. So. There is that to start with. Furthermore, I don't see how Google Apps or Google Docs is really suited as a workgroup GTD application. Would someone doing this please explain? People seem to want groupware . . . as in Lotus Notes. Yikes! In my opinion, “groupware” is one of the classic blunders - like getting involved in a land-war in asia.
Ignoring the whole groupware angle, I don’t think GTD is going to work for a group unless everyone buys into it; and, even then, every one is different - your GTD tool(s) depend as much on who you are as what you do. You can practice GTD using pen and paper, text files (with or without macros), or an application like OmniFocus. I think it would be counterproductive to force one tool on everyone.
As to the cost of OmniFocus, when judged as just another business expense, OF costs less than a case (10 reams) of office paper. Assuming you actually use OF, I don’t see how OF fails the ROI test. Perhaps what people are trying to say is that $40 is too much for something they can’t be sure they are going to use? If so and if you own a Mac, try the desktop version for free for 14 days. That will give you some idea if GTD and OF are for you.
If you are Windows or *nix only, then yeah . . . $40 on a leap of faith, especially if you aren’t already practicing GTD, is a bit much. Keep in mind, that you are likely to get the most out of OF if you use both the Mac and one of the mobile versions. So. Windows and *nix heads may want to skip this particular tool in any event.
Nice review. I use OmniFocus at home and on the iPhone and love it. The syncing system in Things I don't like much and that's a feature I use a lot on OmniFocus. Todo seems to have grown up a lot since I last looked at it, although OF seems more usable, especially on the desktop.
I can certainly understand how for some users Google's tools might be more valuable, but in my case all those online sites are blocked at my office so Omni is by far the better solution. It helps that I prefer it. Most google services have been blocked at every company I've been at the past 3 years.
I was balking at the price. I'm glad to see they've put a lot more work into it to really make it a first class citizen on the iPad. Considering you really have to buy the desktop app to get the most out of it the price seems rather high.
I have to say now that this application is out on the iPad it's so much easier to manage my tasks/projects. Before I would always spend time at the start and end of the day, updating and processing my tasks, now I have the option to properly keep track and update my information wherever I am and whenever I want.
I did use the iPhone app but it was mainly to just add quick inbox tasks and tick the items completed, the iPhone app is good but there is not enough screen real esate for me use the application properly.
I did worry about the cost when it came out but now I can organize myself better, I have more than made the money back, it's in my top 5 must have applications
Nice review!
So here's a dumb question. How does one look at a simple list of Today's To Dos?
Thanks.
Regarding the GTD can it be done manually like someone else ask before, because I think this is something that is important and of interest to us?
Fantastic review by the way! I really enjoyed it!
Regarding the whole "it's overpriced" thing- if you think it's over priced, don't buy it. OmniGroup is hardly hurting for customers so they must know something.
One other thought- how much is a productive lifestyle really worth? If $40 is going to break the bank, this is NOT the product for you. On the other hand, if you want maximum performance, $40 is nothing at all.
All depends on how you look at it.
Hi David,
i like your post and the review. As you describe all the things step-By-step with the use pictures. I feel that Omnifocus Is a very good app as it provides us multi functionality at reasonable price.
OmniFocus is worth every penny, I just wish that The Omni Group could focus more on their OmniFocus applications than the other ones or take more workers on to speed up the release schedule.
OmniFocus for Mac needs to adopt some of the wonderful things that the iPad application brought to the table along with a 'team' feature. OmniFocus rules my life and I love it.
I am a long time user of Pocket Informant, and I have many people, including some of my own blog readers asking me if they (and I) should switch to Omni Focus. Given the price, I am going to need some serious convincing if I am to switch. Your article is great - and based on your review, I am sure the Omni Focus would meet my needs as well as Pocket Informant (since I have a Macbook), but can you tell me something that will make me want to switch from a one great app to another great app (given the system I would be switching to costs nearly five times more than the system I am using?) I appreciate any feedback!