SimonWaldman.net

A few days ago, an unbearably exciting e-mail arrived. I was being asked if I would like to download the sneaky peek alpha preview of Omnifocus.

If that sentence means absolutely nothing to you, then it’s very likely that what follows is going to read like the gibberish ramblings of a man for whom the phrase ‘get a life’ was first invented.

However, if you are thinking ‘you lucky bastard’ or ‘only a few days ago…you’re obviously not that special’, then I hope you will be able to relate to this. You will know where I’m coming from. You will feel my pain.

Omnifocus is a new bit of software from the Omni Group - a software company that makes some very lovely bits of software for the Mac. Omnifocus is a to-do list manager that is modelled around David Allen’s Getting Things Done.

Actually, it is not just a to-do list manager - it is the David Beckham (in his peak) and Cristiano Ronaldo combined of to-do list managers, it is the Rolling Stones c. 1972 of to-do list managers; it is the…oh, you get the idea…

The problem is - Ominifocus is just the latest for me in a long line of gadgets, bits of software or failsafe systems that I willingly believe are going to make me super organised. I never learn. I simply can’t stop myself from trying the latest sites and bits of software to keep me organised.

In the old analogue days, a filofax was fine for me. Then a few things happened. I went freelance and bought a laptop (one of the early powerbooks). I started to find myself doing dipshit things like writting ‘1pm lunch’ in my diary but not bothering with the detail of who and where (my mind had already wandered by the time that pen hit paper).

So - I went through various bits of software that no-longer existed. Then I bought a PC and sort of survived with Outlook.

For a while it was all about gadgets. There were various Psions and Palms (wasn’t the Psion 5 a god among machines?). All good, but never quite good enough . In those days, the big thing was synching. Oh the delights of finding every diary and address entry appearing five times on your pda, or being wiped all together. Innocent happy days.

[Incidentally, I believe some of this is genetic. My dad bought both the very first Psion Organiser and an Apple Newton - and I honestly don’t think he even got them out of the box.]

I read a few books on getting organised, but one day, I can’t quite remember when, I bought a copy of David Allen’s Getting Things Done - and that was it. I was hooked. .

Initially it was just a Palm thing (just like Dave!) so obviously I downloaded and installed every single Palm OS to-do list program and subscribed to the various GTD groups..just to keep up.

Then a few years ago, I switched to a Mac. Now, the combination of Mac and GettingThingsDone is the speedball of organisation fixes.

To make it worse, there are not a whole raft of Web 2.0 solutions [yes, that’s you Nozbe and Vitalist] and the number of blogs on productivity and in particular GTD stuff and it’s a dangerous world out there.

I don’t quite know where to start on my most recent trials and tribulations - what follows is more of a stream of GTD conscious than a chronological account.

I loved Actiontastic, but got rather annoyed when I just couldn’t get it to print out properly. I purchased OmniOutliner Pro just so I could try KGtd - but found it just that teeny bit too fiddly having to run all those apple scripts to get it working.

For nearly three days, I loved iGTD - which is divine, but again, the lack of a proper print function was a bit of a bummer, and for some reason, I just never quite used it.

I found a workround on the printing thing, though - syncing with iCal and then using the DoBeDo widget which lets you get .pdf . Although, I realised that using three bits of software just to manage one to do list was a bit too much - even for me.

I have dabbled with Easy Task Manager (can’t remember why I didn’t like it); GhostAction didn’t do it for me, and nor did WhatToDo.

The one that I found genuinely neat and useful was by far the simplest - ToDo Stickies, which is exactly what you think it is…and, I have to say, well worth a try.

Oh, and I’ve tried all the online versions. Let’s see.

Tracks is brilliant - I installed a version on this server, which was great, but I couldn’t use it on the train, so I then went for a different option when you put Ruby on your hard drive, using a bit of software called Locomotive (ironic given where I needed to use it), but it was then just a bit too clunky. And, anyway, by then I’d sort of gone off Tracks because you had to use the text feeds to get simple, printable lists out.

I keep coming back to Remember the Milk, but in truth - despite the fact i really, really want to use it, I can never quite find a reason . Similarly Backpack never quite fits into my life - which I know lots of people use for GTD, but it’s a little too free form for me (although now I have found the genius offline tool, Packrat, I’m sure I’ll have a dabble with it for some reason or other in the not too distant future).

I mentioned Nozbe (to expensive, not portable) and Vitalist (too windows), didn’t I? Oh, and I had a bit of fun with Schtuff although again, it’s a little too freeform. [Talking of wiki style treatments I also had a brief flirtation with Voodoo Pad - which lets you do some wizard things with AppleScript..perhaps a little too wizard for me.

I loved Todoist (it rocks!) and TadaLists - but I keep coming back to the fact that an offline solution is really what I need.
I’ve even tried installing the Python ToDo.txt except I don’t actually know how to run a python script so that never quite works out.

Plain text files? Of course..and yes, naturally, everything was input by Quicksilver…but it was just a little too crude.

Oh, and of course, I’ve tried the Gtd/ GMail plug in. That entertained me for less than an hour and just added 50 categories to my gmail that I’ve never got rid of.

What about going analogue?

Well, obviously, I have a pile of discarded pocket Moleskines. They’re great, but I keep losing them or failing to put them into my pocket.

I have done just about everything possible with 5 x 3 index cards. Including at one stage buying them plain and print out little lines and headings on them [’@Work’ etc]. And whatever the online equivalent of window shopping is…I do it all the time at Levenger as I think of all the wizard 3 x 5 organising systems I can cook up (none of them, I should add as sophisticated as this).

A Hipster PDA? Of course, but the bulldog clip was too bulky, so I was skimming through a craft book and it showed how you can make one with a screw poll and then by applying sticky back plastic.

And sure enough, one sleepless morning about about 4.30 when the boys finally slept and I couldn’t; I managed to find a place in Germany that sold mock-croc sticky back plastic to make myself that mother of all Hipster PDAs…and it remains my notebook of choice, even though I tend not to chose to use a notebook that often.

I’ve printed out a few neat templates in my time, but never really got round to using them

And then, there are the blogs.

I used to read Merlin Mann’s completely and utterly excellent 43 folders - except I just found it too addictive, and in one of his lists he said you should prune your RSS feeds, so his went. But I think it’s time to bring it back again.

My latest favourite read is the fantastically earnest Zen Habits, written by a Leo Babauta - a guy with six children who gets up every morning at 4.30 (to ensure he doesn’t have a seventh?). He even has the balls to tell the great David Allen where he is going wrong. Which is rather like going to church and giving God a good talking to.

All in all - I’m sure that if I added up all the time over the last decade or so that I’ve spent tinkering with various organisation solutions, I probably would have had enough time to write a novel or two. Hell, I’d probably have had time to bring about world peace and end global warming if I’d stopped blogging as well.

Of course, all of this effort in getting organised is completely counter productive. I would be much better sticking with something completely basic and getting on with stuff rather getting organised.

The whole point with GTD is that the system is meant to just slip into the background. But, I think that’s a bit disigenuous. The reason it has such a following among Geeks is because it is like a platform that endless solutions can be built on. It suits the incessent tinkerers among us: those who feel that nothing is ever quite finished and there is always a better way. Tweaking, trying new bits out - that is where the real fun. Actually being organised and getting on with stuff - where is the fun in that?

Here, as just one example of a like minded soul is Jason Alan Moore’s GTD implementation and his comment

You’ll notice that I am the quintessential Lifehacker. I am constantly tweaking my “system” to improve its effectiveness and hence, my effectiveness. (In fact, I plan on writing on that exact subject in a future entry as it impedes on me getting things done.) So I devoured the book – read it cover to cover twice and was excited about implementing this new methodology into my life. It was ripe with possibilities and I knew that it was extremely customizable to match how I wanted to get things done. …So of course I have gone through several iterations of how I utilize the methodology.

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The very fact that someone can put down a list of 50 essential GTD resources proves this. How can 50 of them be essential? The point is..if you’re a hopeless addict like myself, it is indeed essential that you at least try all of them. Life is not complete otherwise.

One of the first comments that followed this list is:

‘Hey Kim, great list! This will take me a while to get through…’.

Of course it will take you a while to get through!!!! Shouldn’t you be getting on with actually doing stuff instead? Oh - but if you’re looking for lists of GTD stuff that will suck days and weeks out of your existence, can I recommend.The listible GTD resources; or (even better) Zen Habit’s list (now you can see why he has to get up at 4.30am).

Which brings me back to Omnifocus. It’s great. Does everything I need without trying to do too much. Really intuitive. I love it to bits. For this week, at least.

Oh, and I promise..I do actually get quite a lot of work done as well…