Finally made GTD click for me and changed my life

I had read and tried to implement the Getting Things Done method for about a year, and always failed. I tried with folders and lists (both physical and on my computer), I tried with evernote, I tried with wunderlist (which I still use for grocery lists) ultimately it always ended up being too coumbersome for me personally and I’d always end up giving up on keeping my system up to date. When I had huge busts of energy I could keep up with everything, but as soon as things got hectic and my energy was low, my system would fall apart, just when I needed it most.

Finally, after a particularly rough patch at work, I gave in and decided to pay for a ready made software system. After looking through a lot of resources I chose Omnifocus. And it clicked pretty much right away for me. And it took off when I upgraded to the pro version.

The tools are lightning quick to get things into lists and perspectives that are useful for me. E-mail into the inbox is a godsend, allowing me to voice dictate things that spontaneously come to me while I’m driving. “hey siri, email omnifocus. update auto pay information for cell phone with new credit card info.” Actionable email comes in? Just forward to omni-focus and most of the work I’d need to do is already done entry wise. I simply need to assign it to the right project and give it any contexts, due or defer dates that might be relevant.

The trick was two things: 1) it made it easy to enter. Easier to enter in action items and projects and relevant data than any other system I’ve tried, and certainly easier than lists and folders. 2) it made it easy to review everything I had without putting duplicates in several lists.

I still use evernote, but only for reference storage (I also use email folders for reference storage). Really, reference storage system and slightly deeper email integration integration are about the only things missing from omnifocus keeping it from being a complete GTD solution for me.

I ended up getting the pro version for my mac and use the standard version for my iPhone, which works well for me. On my iPhone, I’m primarily just using it to check off things and put stuff in my inbox. I do very little review and project management from my phone anyway, so I don’t really need the advanced features of the pro iPhone app. But the pro version of the mac app is incredible.

Custom perspectives and the “focus on” features are easily worth the extra money for the pro app, IMHO.

Yes, this is relatively expensive, but I don’t think I would have gotten a bonus this year without it, so that’s $10,000 for the ~$100 I’ve sunk into the pro mac version and the standard iPhone version. Well worth it, IMHO.

You could pay less for other apps, but given that this is the app that finally made GTD stick for me, I’d gladly pay $1000 if it came down to it.

My life is truly better because of Getting Things Done + Omnifocus. I’m fare more productive, just got a bonus, raise and promotion, and I wake up feeling refreshed and excited, not with a feeling of anxiety every morning.

My life is in a much better place than it was a year ago, and I can credit a few software programs for that: Omnifocus, YouNeedABudget and BusyCal. A lot of people balk at the price tage of those programs in this age of free apps, but the selfish part of me is glad, because it feels like I have a secret weapon nobody else is willing to pay the miniscule price to have.

The only features I can even think of that could make this work better for me: 1) the ability to use multiple contexts 2) the ability to create a custom perspective for any of tyour created contexts 3) a reference storage integration system (maybe it creates some files on your mac or dropbox account that it can search and assign contexts to) 4) deeper email and contacts integration. Some of those I don’t know if they’re even possible for security reasons and multi-platform compatability, but that’s it as far as a wishlist.

FJRabon about OmniFocus 2