Contact OmniFocus 3 Support

Omnifocus has added share sheet functionality to the iPad. You can now add Taskpaper format and raw html wherever you find them useful. Words fail me. As we all deal with the coronavirus pandemic, it is crucial to have effective tools. Life is at once simple and complicated. OF may or may not handle complicated for you, but it definitely doesn’t do simple. People are spending hundreds of dollars on third-party instruction. Omnifocus and I never really clicked, even though I am well-versed in GTD, and have spent more time with it than any other task manager. In principle, it does what I want. In practice, I find it very hard to use. The user interface is needlessly complex, and pulls attention away from your tasks. There are dark corners where the way it works can only be determined by experiment. iOS and Mac versions do not always work the same way. For example, the built-in Flagged views sort completely differently on the two platforms. There is an entire cottage industry devoted to telling people how to use it, and there’s a reason. It is slow, and many features are clunky. Drag and drop is very awkward. I would make it a program of last resort for most people.

Let me say it clearly: I think Omnifocus is probably the most comprehensive task manager for mac and ios and I gladly payed the pro upgrade for both. I like the omnifocus 3 upgrade, but it is largely tasks instead of contexts, and some tweaks in functionality and UI. What however feels more like a rip-off is that not only a upgrade fee needs to be paid, but I also have to re-purchase the pro upgrade. I would have expected that at least the pro upgrade carries forward to the new version. And I am certain, the same thing will happen with the Mac app once available. For that money, I could (and probably will) switch to another app, like 2do or Things 3. I am sure the developers of omnifocus will claim that OF3 is a completely new app and purchase, but I do not agree and follow that “unlogic”, because this is not a complete redesign of the app. In summary, I like the app and some of the new functions (not sure about events mingled with the tasks). BUT I do not like having to purchase again the pro upgrade. That just does not feel right and existing OF2 pro users should have been appreciated enough to provide this option without an additional fee. Sad.

Omnifocus was the first real productivity app I used on iOS way back in 2011, and it doesn’t look like it has changed much since then. The app does not work well with gestures on iOS and seems to really want to be a Mac-only app (I have no idea how well the web app works), or at least is designed to work best on Mac, with iOS and iPadOS versions not working as well. Creating smart perspectives seems buggy, in that sometimes the right tasks show up given perspective parameters, and sometimes no tasks show up. It struggles with ID’ing what tasks are “available” as opposed to “remaining,” and needs some updating as to perspectives and search. Notes are hidden away when they should be front and center with a task. Setting repeating tasks is confusing, not the least because sometimes repeating tasks don’t become available when they seem like they should. I think other productivity apps have passed Omnifocus by in terms of ease of use, design, and search, especially on mobile and tablet. Improves and Sustains: If I had a prioritized wish list of improvements to Omnifocus, I would recommend improving perspectives, particularly by making them work consistently in the same fashion; I would recommend improving the repeating task functionality; and I would update the design to better use space, as the app looks cluttered. I suppose scripting is something I would sustain, but I don’t really use scripting any more.