You must have definitely heard of the GTD philosophy (Getting Things Done) from David Allen. This changed the way people looked at ToDo lists, earlier it would be a simple list that had a list of things that needed to be done, but now the same list is a bit complicated with contexts, associations, projects and so on
There are several offerings that take on the humble ToDo list and pump it up with steroids to manage them better. Omni Group has one such attempt with Omni Focus for the Mac and the iPad, It also fits well with the theme of Mobile Game Development.
Omni group has been known for their superior and slick software for Macs in the business and productivity category. So after being a user of Omni Outliner which used to be bundled with the earlier versions of Mac Laptops, the humble TODO list was good enough for use. It could allow to add columns and hierarchies and supported collapsing and expanding groups.
Omni Focus is not for the faint hearted, it is a bit complicated and involving. It requires a slightly more structured approach at working with the tasks.
It splits up the whole process into sections, so everything that is a task is a quick note in the inbox. Every note has three components, the text, a Project and a context. By default when a new note is created, there is no associated project and context. Associating these is as simple as clicking and selecting from the drop down list. The moment it is associated, it is moved from the Inbox to the Library.
The library holds the Projects and each project holds notes which have a context associated and the file attachments (if any).
The toolbar allows for managing the Projects, and the context, view the tasks by Due dates and Flagged status, add actions and a very interesting feature, Focus, which hides the rest of the tasks allowing you to Focus on the project at hand. The View allows for filtering and Inspect brings up a detailed inspector that allows for setting the due dates and if the actions are single actions, parallel or dependent actions.
We were also provide with a copy of Omni Focus for the iPad which should not be thought of as a scaled down version of the Mac software. It is in itself a fully functional software, in fact we found that the iPad version was much better in terms of workflow and UI. It is plesant and not complicated as the Mac version can seem for the first few hours.
There are some more added functionality in the iPad version. Where the context can be a geo-location on the map. Analytics is integrated into the software with a forecast feature that displays what heeds to be done (a kind of Dashboard).
This has been a rather difficult review for us, it is complicated trying to explain a software that on the face of things is a ToDo organiser. It maybe super souped to deliver extra functionality but it is still a ToDo list organiser where there are other contenders that are either free or minimally charged and manage the task with lesser complications.
Once you get used to Omni Focus's way of working, it is difficult to revert back to the normal ToDo lists, so to put it in other words, you will never know what you are missing unless you use it, and if you do not use it, there is not much that you will miss.
So if you are managing your game projects, this could be a great tool which can help you also visualise your partners and/or locations, providing a complete visual overview. It is rather difficult to impress the fact of how useful this software really is. Unfortunately there is no demo version or a lite version to trial it on the iOS.
The Mac version of OmniFocus is available on both the Mac App store and the Omni Group Website and the iOS versions are available as two offerings for the iPhone and the iPad.
If you are an iPad owner and a power ToDo organiser and live by it, then we would suggest that you consider the iPad version, which is by far the best version amongst the three offerings.
Summary
Software : Omni Focus (Mac Version)
Version : 1.8.2
Publisher : Omni Group
Website : http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/
Platform : Mac OS X (10.6.x or higher)
Demo : 14 days
Price : $79.95
Mac App Store : http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnifocus-for-mac/id402835630?mt=12&ls=1
Omni Store : https://store.omnigroup.com/
Software : Omni Focus (iPad Version)
Version : 1.2.2
Publisher : Omni Group
Website : http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/
Platform : iPad with iOS 3.2 or later
Price : $39.99
iTunes Store : http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=383804552&mt=8
Software : Omni Focus (iPhone Version)
Version : 1.8.2
Publisher : Omni Group
Website : http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/
Platform : iPhone with iOS 3.1 or later
Price : $19.99
iTunes Store : http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284885288&mt=8
We are unsure if Omni Group is offering a free copy to giveaway, however we are trying to get in touch with them to confirm the same. If you want to win a copy of Omni Focus, please let us know, follow @whatsin4me and RT the message about us and the giveaway.
Some images of Omni Focus for the iPad
Forecasting
Context with Geo-Location
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