Filed under: Software, Productivity
OmniFocus public beta released
The Mac platform has an embarrasment of riches with regards to Getting Things Done applications, but the grand-daddy of GTD on the Mac is Ethan Schoonover's Kinkless GTD, a set of AppleScripts built on top of Omni Software's OmniOutliner Pro. Omni finally seemed to realize the significance of this and sought out help from Ethan and other GTD-folk like Merlin Mann in developing their new GTD application OmniFocus. Now, a year later, they've actually hired Ethan. After an extended private beta and lots of teasing glimpses, Omni has finally announced the initial public beta and introductory pricing.You can download the public beta now and if you like what you see you can pre-purchase it for 50% off the release price. So if you buy it before January 8, 2008 it's $39.95, afterwards it's $79.95. Given the many (cheaper) GTD applications out there it will be interesting to see how well received OmniFocus is. But given its pedigree, one would expect it to be a leading contender out of the box. If you want an introduction to OmniFocus they also have a 15 minute quick start video available on their main page.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gunnar said 4:23PM on 11-18-2007
From Omni's blog: "Also, if you are an OmniOutliner Professional license owner, you get an additional 25% discount on top of the current introductory pricing."
A nice nod to those of us who purchased OmniOutliner Pro in order to use KGTD.
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Ryan said 4:50PM on 11-18-2007
I paid 18 for it. Half off, plus education discount, plus omnioutliner pro discount!
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Able-X said 5:46PM on 11-18-2007
Can someone explain what a GTD (getting things done) actually is? Is that like a PIM but less descriptive in the name? I'm a bit confused.
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Dave Barnes said 5:54PM on 11-18-2007
GTD was created by David Allen. See http://www.davidco.com/ and has become a religion. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done
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Chris said 5:55PM on 11-18-2007
@Able-X
GTD is a productivity and life-management paradigm that focuses on actions and "doing" more than planning. It is the brain child of David Allen and based on his book of the same name. It's actually a very easy to implement and use system and A LOT of people have success with it. The Apple community has also come out in strides creating tools and applications that work together to implement GTD with your Mac as the center piece.
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Mucx said 5:58PM on 11-18-2007
This looks incredibly complex (well judging by the video on their site at least)...
What's wrong with writing a todo list on a post it note or piece of paper like the rest of the world?
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Anthony said 6:06PM on 11-18-2007
Oh dear god I wish this company would build a timesheet/time reporting/accounting type software package. They're just the right company to pull off such a challenge.
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mentalsticks said 6:11PM on 11-18-2007
That was a long, long wait.
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Geoff said 6:52PM on 11-18-2007
What's with the striped title bar? Is that a temporary "beta" indicator, or something more sinister?
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Joel said 6:59PM on 11-18-2007
The cost is turning me off but I'm sure it's of value to anyone who needs it.
Currently, I'm happy with Actiontastic.
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Tom said 8:49PM on 11-18-2007
I've been using the "sneaky peek" pre-beta version of this for about five months now, and it's great (and no, I don't work for omnigroup). Eager to plunk down some cash for this app. I've gone from kGTD to iGTD to Actiontastic (and probably others), but I think this is going to be best in class for GTD apps.
@mucx:
It's as complex as you want it to be. Don't need folders for your projects? Fine. Don't want to sweat start and due dates for actions? Fine. (that was one of my frustrations with another one of those GTD apps -- I couldn't set an arbitrary order for actions without using due dates, and that's just too much work)
One of the tenets of GTD is that to-do lists are good, but items on your to-do list need context. My contexts include email, phone, online, errands, etc. What Omnifocus and other GTD apps allow you to do is then see all of the to-do items you've got for a particular context across all projects, so you could (for example) go into "phone mode" and knock out all of the phone calls you need to make.
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shubopshadangalang said 1:28AM on 11-19-2007
The article here is a little misleading... It looks like OmniFocus is more than just a "GTD" app - it's a general task management app which can work within a GTD system, but it's useful even if you're not one of "those" people.
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kristian said 12:28AM on 11-19-2007
Can it sync up with the iPod yet? That would be the killer feature for me, and then I would be interested in getting into GTD..
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Mark S said 2:49AM on 11-19-2007
I can already tell that OmniFocus is on its way to becoming the premier GTD app on the Mac. I really think the price is what will halt some of its growth. It's a really nice app, but $79 is just an insane amount to ask for this type of application. I would be willing to pay maybe $40-50 retail for it. iGTD already meets it feature for feature in many ways and it's free. iGTD 2.0 and iGTD Pro are coming really soon (there are some screenshots available at http://www.igtd.pl/iGTD/iGTD2/index.html). I really think those are the top two contenders at this point.
I already have iGTD and TaskPaper (version 1.1 will be out really soon with some major new features), but I am serious tempted to pick up OmniFocus. I'm a big Omni Group fan and the $25 education pre-order price is almost the dealmaker for me. I guess I have until January 8 to decide.
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Andrew Murray said 11:50AM on 11-19-2007
I've been in the private beta of omnifocus for a few months now (I have no affiliation with omni beyond that) and I can say first-hand that this is a great piece of software. I used iGTD before getting into the beta and I plan on paying for the final version of omnifocus.
In response to the "this looks complicated" post above. It really is pretty simple to use. It improves upon a simple todo list by embracing the notion of contexts from GTD as a first class organizational mechanism.
Anybody looking for a good organizational app owes it to themselves to try this program.
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Ward Clark said 12:36AM on 11-21-2007
I was keeping my to-do lists (one for each client) in OmniOutliner Pro. When that got to be too much to handle, another OO user recommended Kinkless GTD. OmniFocus appeared on the scene a few days later.
I've been using OmniFocus every day since mid-June. Although I never made it past chapter 1 in David Allen's book, OmniFocus has changed my life - one master to-do list covering home, development and consulting tasks. OmniFocus keeps track of what I need to do. All I'm responsible for is the doing.
My only relationship with the Omni Group is very satisfied user of OmniWeb, OmniGraffle Pro, OmniOutliner Pro, OmniDiskSweeper, and now OmniFocus.
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