Always thought the same things you said in this video. Things UI is magical, it makes task management fun and less stressful. But I would like sometimes some more advanced features or a better updated user experience in OF like you said. But it doesn’t look like OF4 will be the definitive update sadly
I loathe how much friction there is with the UI in Omnifocus 3 and it doesn't seem like 4 is solving those issues. Things 3 has less options but it does navigate a whole lot better and stops me from fiddling with all those settings and helps actually get things done.
Task sharing that was on the OF3 roadmap, will it even make the OF4 update.. Just moved back from Things 3.0 to OF3. Killer features of OF for me Defer dates Review function Ability to add photos/doc scans into a task
I would like to point out, in contrary what Peter is saying, Omni does not consider OF4 in it’s current state a beta. They are introducing new features, ideas, designs, to hear feedback about them. Some decisions they will keep, others may be replaced. Right now they are focusing more on the features (to reach a feature freeze milestone soon), rather than on the design and usability which are scheduled later. Concerning the inspector, Ken Case has mentioned on the slack channel that they have toyed with the idea of getting rid of it all together, but decided to keep it in the end. But the goal is that every detail of a task should be able to be edited in the inline inspector without having to open the inspector. Finally, I would like to point out that this testflight keeps compatibility with of3 on the mac and the iphone, and no new features will be added, that could affect the database and this backwards compatibility. As OF4 is written in swiftui, once the ipad version is released, the mac version well follow quickly i guess and then they can add features that require an update of the database.
It is obvious that they are on a mission to make OF4 a copy of macOS V4, maybe with the plan to allow the iOS version to run natively on M1 Macs. So far the basic design of OF4 for iOS has not changed from each beta version so they do not appear to be taking very much feedback about the design in board at all.
Peter, I think you bring up a good point re: the interface in OF4 not approaching the cleanliness or usability of Things 3, designed back in 2017. That does bring up another point however which is this: what is going on with CC’s development of Things 4? In my opinion, Things 4 itself has now fallen behind the feature set of Apple’s own Reminders app in iOS 15 and iOS 16 (especially in iOS 16). What are your thoughts on this?
Hey Scott. I wouldn’t say Reminders is more capable than Things, but I agree that the Things design itself is getting long in the tooth. I have zero clue what’s going on with Things 4-if they’re even working on Things 4! Cultured Code have said that they are working on a few specific features, but whether those will come in a Things 3.x update or Things 4 is anyone’s guess.
I have been using Omnifocus for over 10 years now. I don’t love it anymore and I agree with you on many points. The design is way too cluttered. Not enough space between projects, too many buttons, the inspector is not the best choice either. I miss the “scheduled for” date as well, I use a workaround with tags. What I like: The review (coffee) mode, the perspectives. And one idea: why not integrate the focus view with the OS focus mode? When set on “personal” just show personal projects. Would be awesome
You and I are on the same page regarding Omnifocus. I started using Omnifocus since the first version, but I also haven't touched it in a long time because of Things and its beautiful interface. I love the power of Omnifocus, but it just doesn't feel good to use day to day. I constantly make the choice to forgo that additional power for the pleasant flow of Things. Like you, I *want* to go back to Omnifocus and wish they would learn some lessons around the UX. Such a crazy thing that they don't seem to see what many people do. Looking at this beta, it's just not enough to bring me back. I was hoping they would just throw everything out UI/UX-wise and start fresh so they could come with some brand new paradigms, but that's not happening. Maybe what this is really about is that it's just never escaped it's OmniOutliner cage. If that's the case, it never will and it's time to stop looking back.
Omnifocus 3 was released in sep 2018. Things 3 was released in may 18, 2017, and still running strong... that tells a lot about a great design. Don't own an Watch? 😯 Peter, when you get one, your life will feel "improve" in a huge way! It would be kind of when you change from Omni to Things 😉 (by the way, Using Things 3 there is also a delightful experience 💙)
Great video Peter! OmniFocus 3 and 4 looks very much as legacy software in 2022 (when compared to Things or Todoist). Users would spend more time getting the tasks into the system than doing them.
Thank you for a lovely insight. The Omnifocus 4 beta - is very buggy. Crashes a few times a day The aesthetics remains weak It is kind of disgrace - 3 years later they have not made changes, the design is weak ! What were the developers actually doing?
It’s like a DEVONthink for tasks. It’s gotten slightly better but it’s still convoluted. I’ve bought every upgrade from v1 hoping it’ll start to really click for me, but I think I’m done. Good video though.
Have to agree with the general consensus here. I’ve spent the last couple of day trying out OF and several other alternatives, but I ended up staying with Things. I *WANT* to like OF but in general, it’s just way too fiddly. Using it feels like I’m killing flies with a cannon. I end up spending too much time trying to figure out how to use it. Speaking only for myself, I’m depending more and more on my Apple Watch. Small screen indeed, but it’s so convenient to have the watch nag me for things due and just be able to check them off on my wrist instead of opening up my phone or ipad when I’m out and about.
100% agree with you about intent dates and a “Today” perspective. Omnifocus feels like it’s clinging to a strict GTD methodology where those concepts don’t exist, and the world has moved on.
I would like to better understand the Intent date concept. Defer and Due dates seem to work just fine for me in OF3. I'm not sure what I'm missing, but I'd like to know what gap you think the Intent date would fill. Maybe I am faking it with a looser or different Due date protocol (e.g., I'll add an intermediate task to complete a first draft with a more flexible due date a few days before the project completion date - I do want to keep the ultimate Due date for the project as sacrosanct). Also, Peter is right about the Today perspective in OF3. It took a while, but I built a Today perspective that suits my needs perfectly. New users might find this effort too daunting.
@@DeekinBlooz I want to schedule my week. I want to document my plan/intent to do the task on that date. If I am doing my task that might need a couple of hours each day to complete I can plan for it. It lets me know that I am booked doing the important things that I have planned to do.
Deferred: “It does not make sense to do this task until [date]”. Scheduled for: “I plan to do this task exactly on [date]”. Just because you can start your tax return on (say) January 1, doesn’t mean you’ll actually do it January 1.
@@PeterAkkies Not trying to be rude, but why not then defer the task to the date you plan on doing it? Why bother deferring it to a date you plan on doing nothing about it?
OF3 on iOS and iPadOS are downgrades from OF2 because of the wasted screen space and the destruction of Forecast. I use OF3 on Mac, but still use OF2 on iDevices.
