Before that, I had been using The Omni Group’s venerable OmniFocus as my task management tool-of-choice, mostly because, in mid-2010, I convinced myself I absolutely needed over-the-air sync between my Macs and iPhone (Omnifocus has it; Things does not).

Now, if you’re like me, you probably follow the work of some notable figures in the Mac community; people like Ben Brooks, David Sparks and Merlin Mann. It seems that those guys are OmniFocus ninjas. There’s nothing they can’t do with OmniFocus. I’m just not that good, and I don’t think I ever could be. To make the most of OmniFocus, I feel like I need to become both a GTD guru and commit hours and hours of my life to learning the software. Things, on the other hand, is so simple it requires almost no learning. For someone as old and inflexible as me, that’s a bonus!

Fiddly Bits

In trying (for six months!) to really get to grips with OmniFocus, I discovered that its greatest strength can also be its greatest weakness — everything is just so endlessly tweakable! Start dates, due dates, priorities, flags, perspectives, custom folders, nested folders, projects, location awareness, contexts, actions and who knows what else all add to the mountain of fiddly bits of detail that can be added, edited and generally mucked-about-with. In fact, there’s so much scope for fiddly details that Omnifocus offers its own Inspectors to make it more manageable. To be honest, when I have to open an Inspector, I don’t feel like I’m using a to-do manager any more.

Let me be fair; OmniFocus is a wonderful tool. But I always felt like I was neglecting some awesome functionality that could make me super-productive. I suffered a kind of productivity anxiety with OmniFocus: a nagging worry that I wasn’t making the most of this fantastic software the Merlin Manns of the world talk about with such enthusiasm. Finally, though, I’ve arrived at something of an epiphany; I wasn’t missing anything other than the discipline to stop tweaking my to-do lists and just get things done.

Choices, Choices

Mac users today are spoiled for choice when it comes to powerful, beautiful productivity software. Don’t like Microsoft Office? No problem; use iWork. Don’t like Pages? There’s always WriteRoom, Scrivener or TextMate. Every one of those apps is a great word processor without the Microsoft bloat.

This philosophy of “less is more” should be familiar to us all; it’s baked-in to Apple’s DNA, and it seems poised going to become even more of a Mac feature with OS X Lion. It’s also the reason Pages isn’t like Microsoft Word, and it’s why the iPad isn’t a Windows 7 Tablet PC.

So why, when it comes to personal productivity software as fundamental as a to-do manager, do we often think we need more complexity, more sophistication and ever more bells and whistles? Could it be that we all trick ourselves into thinking that time spent poring over our to-do’s is time spent getting things done?

One of the primary reasons for my switching to the Mac was the Apple philosophy of design; everything that’s there — be it in the hardware or the operating system — is there for a clear and obvious reason. It’s simple; it’s easy, and it all just gets out of the way so I can concentrate on doing my work. That’s why I stick with Mail.app instead of using more sophisticated apps like Mailplane or Postbox. It’s why I use TextMate instead of Word. And I suppose I could even use TextEdit to keep a list of tasks; but then, that wouldn’t be as much fun as putting a tick in a box, would it?

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Years ago — even before Getting Things Done was all the rave — a powerful note-taking application named Notational Velocity, was all the rage. And then it lay nearly dormant. For years. But just a couple nights ago I received a fantastic email notifying me of all that’s been going on with Notational Velocity these many, many months.

Notational Velocity captures your notes in a way that’s so simplistic, you really need to try it out to grasp its brilliance. The application window, from top to bottom, consists of a text entry field, a listing of all notes that have been created, and then the selected note’s content. The top field is multipurpose: Type a note’s title into it and if there’s no currently saved note with that title, hitting return creates the new note and moves your cursor to the body area. If the title you’ve typed matches an existing note, hitting tab selects that note and moves you into the body of that note’s content to continue editing. It’s an elegant concept, and in this writer’s opinion, creates a hugely simple and effective user interface.

There’s a great deal of new features in version 2.0. Making it a universal binary (for Intel Macs) is a great first step. The list is long, so here it is directly from the email:

- Option to maintain/synchronize notes as text files for Spotlight and/or text editor access
- More robust and space-efficient database with encrypted, compressed write-ahead logging
- On-demand mounting of disk images and servers while loading the database
- Optional AES encryption with variable-strength key derivation
- Styled text editor supports font-independent formatting, an alternative to “rich text”
- Partial word-by-word or full-phrase searching
- Highlighting of found words
- Multiple-note selections and sorting by different criteria
- Support for input methods and unicode searching
- Basic support for editing structured text and code
- Per-note undo histories
- Importing of additional file types, including the Mac OS X Stickies database
- “Paste clipboard as new note” command grabs the current web context
- URL and email address recognition

Though the list of enhancements is great, almost more noteworthy is the open status of this great application. If you’re a developer who’s interested in getting your hands dirty in Notational Velocity code, or just want to learn a thing or two, check it out over at github. Hopefully this means that subsequent updates won’t be nearly as few and far between.

It doesn’t get easier than taking and retrieving notes with Notational Velocity. I’m thrilled with the update, and highly recommend giving it a try to see it it will fulfill your note-taking needs as well.

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What You Need

1. Fluid – This allows you to create applications from web sites. In our case we will be creating a Google Calendar application, and a Google Tasks application.

2. Calendar icon

3. Tasks icon

4. 10 minutes

The Steps

1. Download Fluid.

2. Open Fluid.app.

3. The first app we’ll create is for Google Calendar.  Let’s use “Calendar” for the name.

4. The URL for Google Calendar is google.com/calendar/m.

Note: For Google Apps users it’s google.com/calendar/hosted/[your domain name]/m.

5. The dock or menu bar icon for this application can either be Google Calendar’s favicon, the tiny icon that appears in the address bar of your browser when you visit the site, or something a little fancier, like what I suggested above.  To use the fancy icon select “Other” from the Icon menu, and locate the newly downloaded icon on your hard drive.

6. Click Create.

7. After a few seconds you’ll have the option to Launch. Go ahead. Don’t be afraid.

8. The window that appears is a web browser that will automatically open to Google Calendar.  Log in (if necessary).

9. Go to the Calendar menu and hover over User Agent.  Select “Mobile Safari 1.1.3 – iPhone”.

10. Go to the File menu and select Close Window.

11. Go to the File menu and select New Window.

12. Go to the Calendar menu and select “Convert to MenuExtra SSB…”  Click OK in the warning window and you’ll have a new item in the menu bar: a tiny calendar icon.  Click on it to see the mobile version of your Google Calendar.  You can drag the lower-left corner to resize the window.

Repeat for Google Tasks

For Google Tasks, follow the same steps (you obviously don’t have to download Fluid again).  The URL you will use is gmail.com/tasks.

Note: For Google Apps users it’s mail.google.com/tasks/a/[your domain name].

Tasks will not properly load until you perform step 9 and set the User Agent to “Other”.  Enter the following text into the window:

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20

You’re done! Now you can quickly and easily view upcoming appointments and manage your tasks list.

If you have any questions leave a comment.  Good luck getting organized!

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iPhone OS, from its very first version to the current 2.2.1, lacks certain features that many users typically expect in a smartphone. Jailbreaking arose largely to address those shortcomings. With iPhone OS 3.0, Apple has made the first of what will surely be many waves to come that will rock the jailbreak boat.

Having used beta developer builds of iPhone OS 3.0 for a few weeks now, I believe that the release of iPhone OS 3.0 will eliminate a large number of reasons for which users have jailbroken their iPhones.

Of the hundreds of enhancements jailbreaking can bring, the popular ones are, arguably, unlocking the iPhone to accept SIM cards worldwide, SMS management, MMS, Internet tethering, the built-in camera, the Lock Screen, UI theming, and cut, copy and paste. So how do the new features in iPhone OS 3.0 stack up against their jailbreak counterparts? Let’s take a look.

Unlocking the iPhone

For those of you whose iPhones are locked to your respective carrier, sorry, you’ll still have to jailbreak 3.0 in order to unlock your device.

SMS

With iPhone OS 3.0, you can finally forward text messages, delete individual text messages, and read and compose text messages in landscape mode, functionality that would otherwise require third-party apps such as BiteSMS, iRealSMS or MySMS. But there is one feature, available in both BiteSMS and MySMS, that I miss in 3.0: Quick Reply.

When a text message comes in, BiteSMS pops up a floating alert dialog box that lets you send a reply to that message without quitting whichever application is currently running. It’s a huge convenience, and elegant, to boot.

MMS

Some swear by it, while others think its absence is a non-issue. Personally, I stand somewhere in the middle. If I am on a shoot somewhere out on location, and I need to get a photo across to someone quickly, MMS can be really useful. While some might argue that emailing would serve the same purpose, many recipients would much prefer receiving an MMS for the simple fact that not all cell phones have e-mail clients as capable as that of the iPhone. And you’d be surprised at how many cell phone users still do not have a data plan for push e-email and the such.

Internet Tethering

Remember the days when you would tether your cell phone to your laptop via a data cable, Bluetooth, or, horror of horrors, infrared? My old 2G Nokia cell phone did it, even if it was a measly 14.4K connection, so it was quite an inconvenience not being able to use my iPhone as a modem.

Internet tethering via USB or Bluetooth is built into 3.0. I’m happy to report that it just works (for now). I no longer require apps such as PdaNet or iPhoneModem, some of which cost quite a fair bit to purchase. But, as built-in HSPDA connectivity becomes increasingly ubiquitous in laptops, Internet tethering in the iPhone will eventually become irrelevant.

Camera

This is the one area that has not been improved upon in 3.0. The native Camera app still does not offer manual controls such as burst mode, slow shutter, or EV override, things that I, as a photographer, would like to have. On the hardware side, I would love to have auto-focus, something my other cell phone, an old Sony Ericsson, does very well. A full-featured camera app such as Snapture is, hence, still a very attractive incentive for jailbreaking.

Then, there is video recording. Cycorder is what I miss in my now-stock iPhone 3G. I do believe it is inevitable that video recording will make its way into the iPhone. Rumors floating around the Internet seem to strongly indicate that it could be as soon as the next hardware revision of the iPhone we’ll see this June. When that happens, the last of what I feel are the three key ‘jailbreak-worthy’ aspects of iPhone OS — video, Bluetooth file transfers, and cut/copy/paste — will be solved, as far as I’m concerned.

Lock Screen

All that screen real estate and nothing to show for it. Being a convert from Windows Mobile, which has a Today Screen that displays upcoming appointments and system notifications, the Lock Screen of iPhone OS is one area I really wish Apple would devote some attention to next. Of all the goodness I can get with jailbreaking, apps that enhance the Lock Screen are what I treasure most.

When I take a quick glance at the Lock Screen, I want to see information and not just album cover artwork or wallpaper. There is so much potential in what can go onto the Lock Screen. Calendar events, quick-dial for favorite contacts, detailed notifications for missed calls or incoming text messages, or even a preview of new mail — all of these are possible today on the jailbroken iPhone, courtesy of apps such as IntelliScreen and LockCalendar.

And, speaking of what I should see on the Lock Screen at a glance, I sorely miss Notifier, a Mobile Substrate hack that displays in the Date Bar notification icons for new mail, new messages, new IM messages, missed calls, and, especially useful, one for ringer mute.

UI Theming

The user interface plays such an important role in user experience that it is an area Apple will never relinquish control of. This is not a big deal for me, especially more so if it is at the expense of system responsiveness. But the sheer number of ugly themes created by users for WinterBoard, let alone those for other mobile platforms that freely allow theming, should be proof enough that it matters to some. On the iPhone, though, changing the wallpaper is still about as far as it goes…or Snow Leopard’s rumored ‘Marble’ interface at some point in 3.x. But full theming? Don’t hold your breath.

Cut, Copy and Paste

This is a big one. I still do not understand how some users can claim that the lack of cut, copy and paste is not a big deal to them. As someone who likes to write while commuting, the anemic ways in which iPhone OS 2.x lets me move bits of text around drove me to near insanity. Move a paragraph? Sorry, can’t do that. OK, how about something really simple, such as copying the name of a location from one Calendar event to another? Nope, no dice.

As I had stated in a previous post, cut, copy and paste in iPhone OS 3.0 addresses one of the biggest reasons I jailbroke my iPhone (and later, my iPod touch). Despite the best intentions behind jailbreak solutions such as hClipboard and Clippy, cut, copy and paste is really a low-level problem that only Apple can address satisfactorily, which it has in iPhone OS 3.0.

Conclusion

Going forward, I would love to see even more of what can be achieved only by jailbreaking in future versions of iPhone OS, namely enhancements to the Camera app and the Lockscreen. Even if there are no unannounced features hidden up Apple’s sleeve, and what we are seeing in the beta builds now is all there is, 3.x is clearly shaping up to be the first version of iPhone OS feature-rich enough that many users may no longer have a reason to continue jailbreaking their devices.

Will I jailbreak 3.0? I’m still on the fence. But, in using iPhone OS 3.0, the thought of sticking with a stock iPhone crossed my mind for the very first time, a thought that was simply unfathomable in the days of 2.x.

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A calendar specifically designed for tracking your goals, Streaks aims to join the pantheon of excellent iPhone productivity apps.

Both the touch and the iPhone, the latter in particular, are ideal platforms for productivity tools. The connected nature of the pocketable Apple devices means we can be grabbing all sorts of data about our daily lives — processing, tracking and taking action.

This latest productivity app, Streaks, is an interesting offering in that it totes only one feature — tracking a repeated task on a day-to-day basis. The objective in using the app seems to be to motivate the user in to staying on course and so gives a serious boost to productivity.

Winning Streak

Once installed, Streaks takes moments to configure — you simply name your first calendar and then get tracking. Naming and creating new calendars is as simple as tapping the in-app settings icon and adding a new calendar.

Essentially the app is designed for those times in life when you need to ensure you’re repeating one task — the same task — on a daily basis. I wanted to make sure I work on my album everyday and also setup another calendar to encourage me to tweet on a daily basis.

I tested Streaks by tracking my Twitter use (ensuring I try to tweet on a daily basis), although more common uses could be tracking your daily run or exercise, a daily study or revision regime, or even as an aid for quitting smoking.

Each task you wish to track is given its own dedicated calendar. Each day, you simply load up the app and mark the calendar (by tapping today’s date) to indicate you’ve completed the task. The app gets exciting when you start to generate various stats related to each task.

Task Statistics

Displayed prominently on each calendar is the current streak and the longest streak. It’s a nice touch that highlights the app’s usefulness as a motivational device. Stats geeks can delve further in to the sea of numerical goodness via the list icon at the top right.

The in-depth stats screen provides further detail for the current and longest streak — displaying specifically which month/day the streaks began and ended. There’s also a potentially handy readout of past streaks, perhaps useful in showing when you may have been at your most productive.

Looks & Features

The app looks great, and yet take a closer look and you’ll see it’s incredibly light on features. The lack of features is a good thing, though; it’s less convoluted and therefore allows for the user to be much more focused on their tasks rather than grappling for control of the app.

The settings menu provides access to basic calendar management and the choice between two themes: Paper and Chalkboard. The Chalkboard theme seems a tad gloomy in comparison to the former, however it’s still a definite plus to be able to choose between two skins.

When first trying the app, it wasn’t immediately clear as to how to swap between multiple calendars. After much tapping, dragging and pinching, I discovered that simply dragging the current calendar up the screen slides the next one in to view — not so intuitive, but quite satisfying in practice.

Another nice touch to Streaks is the use of icon badges. Streaks will actually display the current streak on your primary calendar as a number on the app icon. It’s a great way of keeping the user informed and engaged with the app even when it’s not in use.

Quotidian Quest

The developer claims that the app can be used in less than two minutes, intended to be used daily. I wouldn’t disagree with this — it is indeed very simple to use — however I wonder if there’s enough meat on the bones of this concept to hold the target audience’s interest.

I’d imagine that the kind of person who uses Streaks feels that they need a tool to help them in becoming habitual about completing certain tasks. These people might just be busy, or they might be prize procrastinators, whatever the case, they need that extra boost when in comes to integrating certain tasks in to their daily routine.

It seems somewhat odd, therefore, to further convolute someone’s daily routine by adding in another tool, and thus another task — that of using Streaks — to simply keep score of the various objectives the user has.

There are also several improvements that I’d like to see in future updates to make it truly enhance a daily routine. Specifically, Streaks should do more to take advantage of the iPhone’s connectivity — mailing the user with congratulation notes on successful long streaks and nudging the user if they’ve stopped focusing on a specific task.

Summing Up

The app’s aim is admirable — in essence it makes you feel good for staying on track with a given daily task — and its execution is undoubtedly charming. It’s just that, despite the concept’s excellent execution, this clearly isn’t a tool that will prove effective for everyone.

However, there are going to be those that could certainly do with tracking tasks in this very specific way. And, for those that could use a tool like this, I think Streaks could potentially be a wonderful motivational device.

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I’ll be taking a look at the packaging, unboxing the iPod shuffle, and offering my thoughts on the hardware and software bundled with the gadget.

Unboxing

Apple seems to be continuing down the road of shrinking packaging material, and the box for the iPod shuffle is really small. It comes presented with the shuffle center stage, containing a simple manual, 3.5mm audio to USB adaptor, and the headphones.

Initial Impressions

The first thing to note, as you’d expect, is that the iPod shuffle is absolutely tiny. I’m fascinated to see where the constant shrinking of the shuffle will ultimately lead to, and I don’t think it’ll be long before you’ll struggle to find it in your pocket. The build quality is also remarkable, with the aluminum construction feeling bulletproof.

As with the previous generation, the entire device is fashioned into a large clip. You can easily attach it anywhere, and it’s sturdy enough that I wouldn’t be concerned about it falling off when running. The top of the shuffle sports a small switch which toggles between shuffling tracks or playing music sequentially.

The headphones are (unfortunately) exactly what you’d expect. They’re standard iPod headphones, albeit with a new and sleek in-line track/volume controller. They have the same ‘rubbery’ feel as recent iPod model earphones, and offer the same reasonable level of comfort and sound. Don’t expect to be blown away, though Apple should be working on an adaptor to allow you to use your own earphones in the near future.

iTunes Connectivity

Connecting to iTunes is as simple as ever, and includes a few options which haven’t been present before. Upon connecting, you’re asked to register your iPod (with a nice new graphic to show the new shuffle in the lineup):

Registering the iPod Shuffle

When setting up, you’re asked if you’d like to enable VoiceOver. This works by generating spoken audio for the names of your tracks on your Mac (or Windows machine), before transferring them to your iPod along with the music. Because of this, you’re asked if you’re happy to install the VoiceOver desktop software.

Installing VoiceOver

This integrates silently into iTunes, and you don’t really notice anything is occurring. A short downloading status message appears, and then syncing music is handled as normal. You’ll be pleased to know that disk mode is supported as before, allowing you to transfer other files on the iPod. If you’d like, you can also set a volume limit and automatically reduce the quality of audio when syncing to fit more on the device.

iTunes Settings

Track Navigation & VoiceOver

There has been a decent amount of debate over how usable the headphone remote would actually be for skipping between tracks. I’d say it’s probably the least user-friendly interface that Apple has created for the iPod to date, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still function very well.

The annoying aspect of VoiceOver is that it isn’t the quickest method of navigating your iPod’s content. There’s quite a bit of waiting involved, and it’s tricky to skip through what is being read out. Not a problem if you have two or three playlists, but increasingly annoying as you add more. While the new computer voice in Leopard was noted as a decent improvement, I still think that artificial computer vocals have some way to come before they’re anything like the real thing. ‘Alex’ is perfectly coherent, but it’s a little odd to have your track information spoken to you by a digital voice.

Commendations, Complaints and Caution

On the whole, the size reduction and multiple playlist support do make the iPod shuffle a decent improvement. It’s brilliant if you’re exercising, and the controls do allow for simple track control without fumbling with the iPod itself. I’d really appreciate a way to use my own headphones with the shuffle, and look forward to some form of adaptor being released.

It is possible to trick the iPod, by setting the track and volume playing with the default phones and switching across to your own. Far from ideal, and doesn’t allow any subsequent control of the player. If you’d like to buy a better pair of supported in-ear phones, you can do so from Apple.

However, the general fact is that most shuffle owners don’t want to carefully select specific tracks to play; there’s been no way to do this in the past (even lacking multiple playlist support), so in many senses the new version is a step forward. I’ll certainly be happy with being able to use the new navigation method and appreciate the ability to flick through playlists.

Ultimately, the new iPod shuffle is a decent looking flash drive, backed up with a seasoned and fantastic piece of software — iTunes. The player has a few areas in which improvement is needed, but represents a solid advancement of Apple’s iPod device.

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While Apple still seems stubbornly set against allowing iPhone users to get things done, since they haven’t introduced any kind of note or to-do syncing for the iPhone, Google appears eager to scratch the itch.

Today, Google announced that iPhone users can now visit an iPhone-optimized Gmail Tasks site by pointing their Safari browser to http://gmail.com/tasks. Tasks you create at the site are automatically synced to your Gmail account and are accessible via your desktop browser as well. The new optimized site was unveiled by Google Tasks Engineer Michael Bolin at the Official Gmail Blog yesterday.

After playing with the new web app for a little while, I can say that it’s an impressive offering from the folks at Google. The interface is visually appealing, and not too flashy. It works so well you almost forget you’re using a web app at all, with smooth transitions back and forth between screens, and easy to hit checkboxes for marking tasks complete or incomplete. You can create multiple lists to keep track of your tasks, and add Notes to any individual item on your lists. And it comes complete with a nice icon, should you decide to add a bookmark to your home screen.

The blog post by Bolin focuses on the whys and wherefores of how the design for the mobile version of Tasks came about, and it makes sense that his goal was accessibility and simplicity. Still, as someone who uses Remember the Milk and Appigo Todo, I do find myself missing some of the more advanced features of those apps. RTM’s location and tagging features in particular are ones that I find myself using a lot. And they still offer simple, quick task addition if you’re in a hurry or can’t be bothered to go into detail.

Still, Google’s offering is free, works well, and does what it means to, so if you’re just looking to keep things simple and remember to pick up your dry cleaning, then this is a great little app that fills in for some of Apple’s missing features. Check out the video below, or just navigate to the site with your iPhone or iPod touch.

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My recent look at Appigo Notebook for the iPhone and iPod touch had me reevaluating my choice of task management app for the platform. Conveniently, Appigo also offers Todo ($9.99, App Store), one of the leading task management apps in the App Store. While the “integration” Appigo offers between the two apps is more of a basic export function, it still does save some typing, which is nice on a device whose primary virtue is not text entry.

Right away, I can tell that Appigo Todo has done the basic things right. When it comes to task management, I am a man of very simple needs. I want an easy way to check off items as completed, some sort of task prioritization ability, and the ability to sort tasks by group. All of these things are there, with the added benefit that you can both mark a task completed and delete it from the home view, something which is not always possible with apps in this category.

Todo also offers a quick task option, which is great when you just want to remind yourself of something without getting in to too much detail. It’s the advanced functions that make Todo stand out from the pack, though. When creating a new task, you can choose from a number of preset types, which change the appearance of the task’s icon. Choosing one of these presets opens up additional options, like choosing a contact from your address book or entering a website URL.

You can also add Tags and Contexts to your tasks, above and beyond organizing them by lists, which are also fully customizable. If you’re an obsessive task tracker, your inbox can become pretty cluttered fairly quickly, so being able to filter in three different ways from very broad to very specific really adds to your ability to organize and drill down.

Appigo Todo offers a variety of synchronization options. If you’re partial to locally stored data, you can go the desktop route, using the Appigo Sync desktop application, which allows Mac users to sync their Todo tasks with Apple’s iCal. No Windows version exists, although Appigo reports that one is currently in the works. If you’re more of a cloud kind of user, you can sync with either Toodledo.com or Remember the Milk, making this the app of choice for those who want to keep their options open.

Aside from being one of the most robust task management apps available for the iPhone, Appigo Todo is also one of the most expensive. That said, if you’re serious about getting things done, it might be just what you’re looking for. Anyone interested can also try out Todo Lite (App Store) for free before they lay down any serious cash.

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The latest application from Cultured Code is Things, a task organizer and to-do list manager for Mac and iPhone. It centers around the ideas encompassed in Getting Things Done (GTD) and makes it easy to break down and organize tasks.

Far from being a straight forward To Do list manager, Things provides separation between tasks due now, scheduled for a future date, postponed indefinitely, or completed. Comprehensive features make searching and organizing your tasks a piece of cake.

Features and Function

Things is broken down into a number of different sections:

• Next: The Next list contains single to-dos and action steps from active projects. These are items that you plan on completing in the near future.
• Inbox: This provides a quick way to get an idea out of your head quickly and place it, unfiled, into Things.
• Today: Your list of things you want to complete Today, along with scheduled items which are due today.
• Scheduled: Used for all to-dos that you want to start at a later date. Once that date arrives, they will be automatically moved to Today.
• Someday: A place for ideas you might want to pursue in the future.
• Logbook: Every day when you open Things for the first time, all to-dos completed on the previous day are moved to the Logbook.

The Interface

The user interface for Things has been heralded by many as exquisitely ‘Mac-like’. Icons, colors, graphics and gradients all take on a sleek and professional appearance; Things has an overwhelming sense of quality.

With many applications, you find yourself struggling a little at first to understand exactly how it works. Apple is exceptional at creating apps which just ‘feel’ right, though unfortunately many other Mac developers aren’t quite as intuitive. Thankfully, Things is an app which can be mastered five minutes after opening, on account of the useful tips and comments scattered around the interface.

Things allows you to set a system-wide hotkey to open a “quick-entry” dialog, where you can enter a task, add tags, notes, and decide where to file it. Personally, I find myself much more likely to use an app on a regular basis if the interface inspires and impresses me every time I open it. Things undoubtedly falls into this category.

Things for iPhone

An accompanying application is also available for iPhone. This offers very similar functionality to the desktop version, with identical separate areas for storing tasks. Syncing is facilitated via Wi-Fi when both your iPhone and Mac are on the same network. I don’t believe this is an ideal solution — it would be more practical to sync over whichever network is available (Wi-Fi, 3G, Edge etc) in a similar fashion to Mail or NetNewsWire.

The iPhone version of Things is similarly well designed, with a range of different time saving additions. To Do items can be added to today’s schedule through tapping a ‘star’ icon next to each item, with different colors making it easy to see which items are scheduled, due today, or overdue.

Competitors

While Things has put itself forward as a powerful contender in the GTD software area, it does come up against a number of competing applications. Nick Cernis has conducted an in-depth analysis of the different competing applications.

The essential differences between each app are:

• iGTD2 – Completely free, and designed specifically for GTD. Highlights include tabbing and a menu bar item for adding tasks quickly.
• Midnight Inbox – $35 for a single user license, with features including automation of collecting tasks and a method to check you’re not drifting off track when working.
• OmniFocus – $80 for a single user license. It allows you to easily ‘plan now, focus later’, with a satisfying “clean up” brush — almost as gratifying as crossing a To Do out on a paper pad.

The Road to Release

Things 1.0 is scheduled to be released in just over a week at the 2009 Macworld Expo. The application is available as a free download at present, and will cost $49 when released in January. A $10 discount is available if you subscribe to their email newsletter before the official launch. The team sounds as though they’ll be busy in the run up to Macworld:

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be hard at work finishing up the final features for the 1.0 release. We’ll also be working on some really cool accompanying details, including screencasts and a really cool print ad.

For those of you making the journey to the Moscone Center in San Francisco come January, Cultured Code will be located in the Mac Developer Pavilion (booth #1438).

Conclusion

Things provides a great tool for managing your daily tasks and to dos. It’s simple to quickly put an idea or thought into the application, and the interface provides all the functionality you require without getting in the way.

I’m excited to see the features that will be added in the final version and will certainly be purchasing the application when released. If you’re looking for a tool to accompany an organized lifestyle, Things seems to be a great option.

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I’m sure most of you have read, or at least heard of Getting Things Done by David Allen. He started a real productivity movement, and has millions of dedicated followers. He has excellent and practical advice for organizing your life and work, and there are a lot of tools available that you can use to take advantage of his recommendations… some specifically designed around his methodology. OmniFocus is one of them. At its core, OmniFocus IS “GTD” task management. Don’t worry if you don’t know what GTD is, fortunately you don’t have to know anything about it to become more productive using OmniFocus. For more information about Getting Things Done task management, check out David Allen’s website.

How OmniFocus is Different

OmniFocus categorizes your to-do items in two different ways, projects and contexts. At first this may seem to waste time, but once you get in the habit you’ll find that it’s amazing how simply you can manage your to-do’s this way.

Projects
Just as they sound, projects are anything with a desired outcome. You can probably think of many projects right now if you try. Everything from “file taxes” to “go to the beach” is a project. You’ll have projects related to work, and projects in your personal life.

Contexts
Contexts are where or how you get things done. To write an article, you might need to be at your computer. To file paperwork, maybe you’d have to be at your office. To call a client, you’d need to be around a phone. Contexts associate actions with the context in which you’d perform them, so you can group actions by where you will be or what you have access to.

OmniFocus for Mac

The desktop application is a fairly straightforward but there is a great video tutorial on the OmniFocus website and a quick reference card you can download. The home screen is comprised of a menubar at the top, projects or contexts in a sidebar on the left and tasks on the right. When OmniFocus opens it returns the context or project you were last viewing before you closed the program.

Inbox
The inbox is the “home screen” of OmniFocus. Here any uncategorized tasks without a context will be waiting on you to categorize them. This is similar tot he GTD inbox in that it’s just a temporary holding bin for tasks you need to record quickly. You should go through the inbox regularly and give each task a project (even if it’s miscellaneous) and a context.

Quick Entry Shortcut
One feature that I absolutely love about OmniFocus is the quick entry shortcut. The shortcut lets you quickly enter tasks, even when OmniFocus isn’t the frontmost application.

Email Entries
You can email yourself tasks when you’re on the road, and OmniFocus will grab them and add them to your inbox. I tested the feature and it works well, but since I use the OmniFocus iPhone application, I don’t really have a use for it. Blackberry or Treo owners will find it’s a lifesaver though.

Backups
OmniFocus might just be a little OCD when it comes to backing up your information (which is a good thing). It seems by default OmniFocus backs up your database twice daily and when you close OmniFocus. If you open OmniFocus several times a day, you can easily rack up half a dozen backups in a day. Of course, this is better than losing tasks you’ve entered due to a software or system crash.

OmniFocus for iPhone

I’m surprised that over a year after it’s initial launch, the iPhone still has no ability to sync iCal tasks. When OmniFocus released the iPhone application, I immediately purchased it even though I had never used the desktop version. I had already tried several free (and a couple paid) task management applications from the App Store and none of them worked well for me. After looking at the information on their website, and knowing it was built around GTD, I was comfortable spending $20 on a quality GTD task management system.

The iPhone application is simple, easy to use and has some great iPhone-centric features.

Adding New Tasks
Adding new tasks is the best feature of the iPhone application, and the one that will likely be the most used. When you’re in the car or eating dinner at a restaurant and suddenly think of something you need to do, what do you do? Take out a napkin or scrap of paper to write on? Then what? A week or two goes by and you lose the scrap of paper containing the note, forget completely about the task and only remember it when it’s almost (or already) late. Adding tasks in OmniFocus for iPhone is extremely simple, and the new task button is on the menubar in every screen. You can also attach a voice recording or photo to the task, which is a very handy feature. You can give the tasks a context and project or just let them sync to your computer and organize them later.

Location Aware
You can associate contexts with geographic locations. Office and home are two excellent examples, but you could do many more. Then just hit the location icon in the menubar to find all the tasks near your current location.

Syncing
To sync with OmniFocus on your Mac, you have to have the latest “Sneaky Peek” version, which you can download on this page. The full upgrade from 1.0 to 1.1 will be a free upgrade, so don’t let that keep you from purchasing OmniFocus. I’ve found the “Sneaky Peek” version to be very stable. It seems the only changes over the stable version of OmniFocus 1.0 is the iPhone syncing.

Conclusions

I have found few flaws in OmniFocus. I’ve managed to get it to crash a handful of times but that’s not really any different from any other application on my computer. I crash Firefox 2 or 3 times a day so I can’t fault OmniFocus too badly for crashing 2 or 3 times in the month I’ve been using it. I’ve used it day-in and day-out.

If you need better task management and want something that will work both on your Mac and iPhone, I highly recommend OmniFocus. My only caveat is the price. At $80 for OmniFocus, the $20 iPhone application hurts a little. I wish they’d give the iPhone application to registered users of OmniFocus. It would probably increase sales of the desktop client (and $80 is better than $20!)

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