Nine years ago today, Learn OmniFocus opened its virtual doors.
When I first launched Learn OmniFocus in June 2014, I wasn’t certain if there would be enough interest to support a site that centres around a specific productivity app.
I’m pleased to report that people from over 90 countries have joined Learn OmniFocus over the past nine years, and our online community is stronger than ever. While our community spans a wide range of cultures and professions, we all have one thing in common: we all use OmniFocus.
Beyond OmniFocus
While our focus continues to be on OmniFocus, our content and services have expanded to include a variety of productivity methodologies, wide-ranging use cases, apps that complement OmniFocus and engaging virtual sessions.
Our offerings draw wisdom from David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology and my Holistic Productivity approach. Mike Williams also joined us recently and shared an overview of his Doing to Done approach and how it can be applied using OmniFocus.
Our Growing Course Library
Through our in-depth courses (25 and counting), we’ve explored many practical topics, including procrastination, navigating unexpected circumstances, cultivating ideas, managing large projects, travelling and more. There are more courses in the works that I look forward to unveiling later this year.
We’ve also featured many complementary apps over the years, taking deep dives into using OmniFocus with Asana, Daylite, Drafts and MindNode, and expanding our OmniFocus App Directory. More deep dives are planned, including in-depth courses featuring Craft and Notion.
Learn OmniFocus LIVE
Workflow guests have also provided us with an in-depth look at how they use OmniFocus with their favourite apps (e.g. OmniFocus + Notion Workflows with Andy Bliss and OmniFocus + Obsidian Workflows with Leah Ferguson). Keeping the tradition going, later this month (June 21, 2023) is OmniFocus + Obsidian Workflows with Andrea Soro.
We continue to offer our small-group (maximum ten people) Office Hours sessions. More recently, we introduced Virtual Coworking sessions, 90-minute sessions that allow you to make significant strides on important tasks while honing your ability to focus. We’re looking at adding new interactive sessions in the coming months to support you in making productive use of OmniFocus and complementary apps.
An Update on OmniFocus 4
The Omni Group is hard at work on OmniFocus 4, a significant update to OmniFocus that’s due out later this year. OmniFocus 4 brings a modern, new design to OmniFocus for iPhone and iPad, introducing features that were previously only available on the Mac (e.g. Quick Open and Focus).
OmniFocus 4 has been rebuilt using Apple’s SwiftUI technology. Omni has spent countless hours moving OmniFocus to this new technology. It’s allowed them to bring near feature parity across iPhone, iPad, and Mac and will make it easier to implement new, cross-platform features moving forward.
We’re hard at work on OmniFocus 4 content. We plan to have some new and updated content available soon after OmniFocus 4 is officially released (TBA). There will be something for everyone, whether you’re just starting to use OmniFocus or looking for guidance as you move from OmniFocus 3 to OmniFocus 4.
The good news is that your investments in your OmniFocus 3 setup and workflows will carry over to OmniFocus 4. When you transition to this new release, you’ll have more ways to fine-tune your OmniFocus setup to complement the way you work. You’ll also have features that add convenience and efficiency to your workflows.
Many Thanks
Thanks to everyone who’s supported our efforts by joining Learn OmniFocus (we’re almost entirely funded by membership income) and to the many guests who have graced our virtual stage and generously shared their setup and workflows.
I’m also deeply grateful to the talented folks at The Omni Group and their commitment to providing top-quality productivity apps. As a former software engineer, I know that developing world-class apps takes time and patience. It’s also a very enriching experience.