OmniOutliner

OmniOutliner Logo
OmniOutliner is a natural complement to OmniFocus. Among other things, it can be used to plan projects and as a repository for project support material.

App Description

Incubating Your Ideas with OmniOutliner

OmniOutliner can be very helpful if you have a great idea, but lack clarity on specific outcomes that you want to achieve and actions that will take you there. You can use OmniOutliner to capture and structure your ideas. As you go through this planning process you’ll likely find that your desired outcomes naturally emerge. Drawing on this clarity, OmniFocus projects and actions can be created to bring your great idea to fruition.

Project Support

OmniFocus is well suited to managing projects and actions but doesn’t tend to be the best place to house project support information. This is where OmniOutliner comes in. OmniOutliner documents can be used to store details that are helpful as you move projects towards fruition.

For example, if you were preparing to lead a course, an OmniOutliner document may contain details of what you’re sharing and how much time you’ll be spending on each section. An OmniFocus project along the lines of “Prepare to Lead Course” would prompt you to take whatever actions are needed to prepare to lead the course. This might include reviewing and updating your course outline, writing a summary of the course, and opening the course for registration.

Taking Note

OmniOutliner is also a popular app for taking notes. As you take notes, you can use OmniOutliner outlining prowess to logically group related items together. When you review these notes in the future you might further enhance the information you captured. For example, adding checkboxes to keep track of what you’ve reviewed.

Life Before OmniFocus

Before OmniFocus existed, some people used OmniOutliner as their personal task manager. Of particular note is Kinkless GTD (kGTD), an approach for using OmniOutliner as a task manager that was developed by Ethan Schoonover. This popularity of this approach helped inspire the creation of OmniFocus.

Learn OmniFocus Resources