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Omnifocus...Why Buy?

G

Gala

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 2, 2012
165
0
Can someone explain to me why apps like Omnifocus & Things are worth the money now that Apple has iCloud and Calendar, Reminders, & Notes on iPhone/iPad/Mac for free?

I've seen all the reviews and watch the videos about the other apps. I understand they are more powerful, but you're looking at $80-$90 for all apps combined for a given service.

If you do use one of these do you just not use any of the Apple apps? I mean Siri only integrates with the Apple ones right? Would you say it's really worth it?
 
D

dws90

macrumors regular
Jan 16, 2008
122
0
Your question is odd for several reasons. You compare two task applications (Omnifocus and Things) with a calendar application, a task application, and a notepad application. Using Omnifocus or Things does not prevent you from using either Calendar or Notes.

The only real comparison here is Reminders vs Omnifocus and Things. Reminders is a very simple app, and Omnifocus and Things are much more powerful. Not everyone needs this extra power, and so they stick with the free reminders. Some power want something more powerful, and are willing to pay for it.

Task applications in particular tend to be very personal things. If you do not see any advantages to Omnifocus or Things (or at least not enough advantages to be worth the money), then by all means stick with Reminders.
 
Z

Zerozal

macrumors 6502
Apr 3, 2009
443
4
PA
I echo everything dws said above.

I am a heavy OmniFocus user and use it daily (Mac and iPhone versions)--I really don't know what I would do without it. Apple's Reminders app doesn't even come close to doing what I need as far as task management, which is really the crux of the issue. There are lots of "to-do" lists, some are even free, including Apple's Reminders, but that's not what OmniFocus is. OmniFocus is a task management system that follows a published and well-defined methodology (Getting Things Done®). It also works seamlessly with Siri (You can tell Siri "Remember to ask Bob for the updated TPS report", and "Ask Bob for the updated TPS report" appears in your OF inbox).

Here's one simple example of a feature that OF has that Reminders (nor Things for that matter) does not: OmniFocus has the ability to set a "start date" for a task, so when I suddenly remember that I need to ask Bob for that TPS report, but Bob is on vacation until next Tuesday, I don't have to try and remember this, nor do I have to keep looking at a list of tasks that contains "Ask Bob for TPS report" even though I can't actually do anything about it (which causes mistrust in and ignoring your list of tasks). With OF, I can still add the task, but set a start date of next Tuesday and Bam--it's off my mind, it's in a trusted system, and I don't have to keep looking at it for a week when there's nothing I can do about it.

That seems like a small thing, but when you compound several (or dozens) of Projects, each with dozens of tasks, the ability to do things like this, as well as keep track of these tasks across multiple "Contexts" (I won't bother going in to that in this post) makes OF a very powerful tool, and one that I know can be relied upon to show me what I can do at any specific time or location.

Most people don't need OF and can get along just fine with Reminders or some other free to-do list. But some people need something with more power and features.

By the way, I still use Calendar to schedule meetings, events, etc. OF doesn't replace a calendar, and actually integrates very well with it--on any given day, it will show you the tasks that are starting that day, due that day, and on the same screen, shows you your meetings that it pulls from Apple Calendar.

Sorry for the long post--hope that was helpful.
 
T

Tanax

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2011
1,018
335
Stockholm, Sweden
Zerozal said:
I echo everything dws said above.

I am a heavy OmniFocus user and use it daily (Mac and iPhone versions)--I really don't know what I would do without it. Apple's Reminders app doesn't even come close to doing what I need as far as task management, which is really the crux of the issue. There are lots of "to-do" lists, some are even free, including Apple's Reminders, but that's not what OmniFocus is. OmniFocus is a task management system that follows a published and well-defined methodology (Getting Things Done®). It also works seamlessly with Siri (You can tell Siri "Remember to ask Bob for the updated TPS report", and "Ask Bob for the updated TPS report" appears in your OF inbox).

Here's one simple example of a feature that OF has that Reminders (nor Things for that matter) does not: OmniFocus has the ability to set a "start date" for a task, so when I suddenly remember that I need to ask Bob for that TPS report, but Bob is on vacation until next Tuesday, I don't have to try and remember this, nor do I have to keep looking at a list of tasks that contains "Ask Bob for TPS report" even though I can't actually do anything about it (which causes mistrust in and ignoring your list of tasks). With OF, I can still add the task, but set a start date of next Tuesday and Bam--it's off my mind, it's in a trusted system, and I don't have to keep looking at it for a week when there's nothing I can do about it.

That seems like a small thing, but when you compound several (or dozens) of Projects, each with dozens of tasks, the ability to do things like this, as well as keep track of these tasks across multiple "Contexts" (I won't bother going in to that in this post) makes OF a very powerful tool, and one that I know can be relied upon to show me what I can do at any specific time or location.

Most people don't need OF and can get along just fine with Reminders or some other free to-do list. But some people need something with more power and features.

By the way, I still use Calendar to schedule meetings, events, etc. OF doesn't replace a calendar, and actually integrates very well with it--on any given day, it will show you the tasks that are starting that day, due that day, and on the same screen, shows you your meetings that it pulls from Apple Calendar.

Sorry for the long post--hope that was helpful.
Click to expand...

Either I'm not understanding your post, or you haven't checked out Things lately but you can set a due-date for a task. You can also set when you want this task to appear in "Today", the same day, 1 day before or whatever you want.

So you can set your task to remind you to ask Bob for that report, set the due-date to next Thursday and that it shouldn't show up in "Today" the same day it's due. You won't see it and won't have to think about it until next Thursday. So mhm.
 
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