NEW to OmniFocus?
Are you NEW to OmniFocus? You’ve come to the right place! We’re here to help you take your first steps and support you in creating a solid foundation to build on for years to come.
OmniFocus is a powerful and highly customizable personal task manager. And it can be a little daunting to get started. That’s where we come in.
We have content to help guide you as you take your first steps toward integrating this powerful tool into your life and work. You don’t need to take this journey alone. Our Learn OmniFocus LIVE sessions give you the opportunity to connect with other OmniFocus users as you learn best practices for making productive use of OmniFocus’ features and get into the habit of using OmniFocus to guide your time and attention.
Where to Begin?
There are a few key elements to consider as you begin your OmniFocus journey:
- Why OmniFocus? — OmniFocus has a unique combination of features (Free) that makes it one of the best personal productivity systems available on any platform. At the same time, if it’s unclear what OmniFocus is designed for (and conversely, what things it’s less suited to manage), it’s easy to fall into one or more of a few common pitfalls (Free). It’s worth taking some time to understand what motivates you to invest in this remarkable app and learn about its strengths and limitations.
- Learn the Essential Features — While OmniFocus can be highly customized and used in many advanced ways, we recommend starting simple. Get to know OmniFocus’ key features and keep your setup and workflows as clean and simple as possible. Our Start Smart with OmniFocus 4 course (Members) will introduce you to basic features and best practices and guide you through setting up and using OmniFocus on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and the Web.
- Configure OmniFocus — OmniFocus is specifically designed to be a personal task manager. Since you will be the only one using your system, you can design it however you like. When deciding how to structure OmniFocus, a good place to start is to create a mind map of your responsibilities (Free). The insights from this mind map are helpful as you create structure in OmniFocus. We have an article (Members) and an in-depth course (Members) that covers this design process in detail.
- Get Into the Habit of Using OmniFocus — Perhaps it’s stating the obvious, but for OmniFocus to deliver on its promise, you need to get into the habit of using it regularly. Our Navigating Your Day with OmniFocus course (Members) offers practical guidance for using OmniFocus as you go through your day.
Start Smart with OmniFocus
One of our signature courses is Start Smart with OmniFocus 4 (Members).
As the name implies, it gives you everything you need to know to start your OmniFocus setup on solid footing. This includes highlighting some key elements from the Getting Things Done (GTD) approach upon which OmniFocus is based, taking you on a tour of OmniFocus on all the platforms it supports (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and the Web), teaching you how to use the most important features, and providing you with practical guidance for integrating OmniFocus into your day-to-day life and work.
Once you’ve completed this course, you’ll have the basic knowledge to use OmniFocus effectively.
Beyond the Basics
Once you have a good handle on the basics, the OmniFocus 4: Beyond the Basics course (Members) is the next step on your learning journey.
This course builds on what was covered in Start Smart with OmniFocus, delving into more advanced features (e.g., custom perspectives) and providing practical ways to use OmniFocus alongside the other apps you use on your Mac, iPhone and iPad.
After going through the Start Smart with OmniFocus and OmniFocus 4: Beyond the Basics courses, you’ll know pretty much everything there is to know about OmniFocus’ feature sets and will have a good handle on best practices.
Other Resources
We have a growing library of resources to support your OmniFocus journey. To get full use of OmniFocus, we encourage you to read (or re-read) David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done,” and check out our Getting Things Done (GTD) resources (Free). The Omni Group (the company that develops, sells and supports OmniFocus) also has some excellent resources, including Inside OmniFocus.
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