OmniFocus 4.5 With so many great task managers available these days, people sometimes ask me why I’m still using OmniFocus after 15 years. Believe me, I’ve tried them all and OmniFocus remains the best solution for me.
One of the reasons is that The Omni Group never rests. The most recent update to OmniFocus, version 4.5, re-engineered all of the Shortcuts Actions. Because OmniFocus is built using Swift, they were able to add a bunch of new Shortcuts Actions in addition to keeping the old ones for legacy support. (I tried to get a screeenshot of all of available actions, but there were too many. They wouldn’t fit on my 6K monitor.)
Even after all these years, automation is only getting easier with OmniFocus.
I had the opportunity to talk about OmniFocus with Tim Stringer and the Learn OmniFocus community. It was a lot of fun and it allowed me to explain further what I like to think of as softer task management.
This week The Omni Group released version 4.3 of OmniFocus with several nice improvements:
New Focus Filters: This version introduces device Focus Filters to customize visible app data based on the current Focus mode.
Enhanced Automation: A new Favorite Perspective shortcut and automation options for perspective displays using Siri commands or your device focus.
Apple Watch Improvements: Faster, more reliable syncing with paired iPhones, and automatic sync error resolution.
However, the thing that stands out for me with this release is that it is shipping simultaneously on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. I know The Omni Group took heat for the delay in getting to version 4 and rebuilding the app in SwiftUI, but that’s exactly why they can ship new features to all platforms on the same day.
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The OmniFocus Field Guide is a video course that takes you, soup to nuts, through The Omni Group’s supremely bad-ass task manager. This course can turn an OmniFocus novice into a task-managing ninja.
OmniFocus and Me Go Way Back
I started using OmniFocus in its earliest beta releases over 15 years ago. With OmniFocus, The Omni Group built a task manager that can grow and adjust to your needs.
Over the years, I’ve used the application as a trial lawyer, a professional nerd, and a dad, all to great satisfaction and effect. In this extended Field Guide, I aim to drop all my OmniFocus wisdom on you so you can hit the ground running.
Plus Edition Content
In addition to the video content, with the Plus Edition, you get a 6-part Webinar Series. (All webinars are recorded and added to the course once edited.)
Webinar Topics
Modern Task Management Concepts
Even More Perspectives
Task Management Systems and Strategy
Going Deeper with Automation
Using OmniFocus with External Apps and Analog Tools
“As a long time user of Omnifocus, I was eagerly awaiting David’s OmniFocus 4 Field Guide. Boy, he didn’t disappoint. Not only does David do his usual high quality job of explaining how to use OmniFocus 4. He provides a wonderful overview of the systems you can implement to manage your daily tasks. Whether you are new to OmniFocus or a long-time user, David has you covered. Highly recommend. The OmniFocus Field Guide also complements other recent field guides of David’s the Productivity Field Guide and the Obsidian Field Guide. David is slowly but surely building out a suite of Field Guides to help us manage our digital lives.” – Brendan
“Sparky did it again. He took an app I barely understood and made me a power user.” – Grace L.
“An exceptionally well-thought-out course. It provides new insights for those already using OmniFocus, yet is simple enough for people who have not used it previously.” – Michael R.
“I was thrilled to find out that not only the MacSparky field guide’s website is accessible; the video guides are extremely well explained and voiced. All UI elements and paths were clear and understandable immediately. This field guide made me believe again into inclusive teaching via the web. I am happy to say that Omnifocus doesn’t feel intimidating anymore. :)” – Jakob
“I’m thrilled to have found the MacSparky Field Guides. David’s teaching style makes even complex software such as OmniFocus easy to understand and use. I’ve implemented many of the ideas I found in the OmniFocus Field Guide, and I’m already feeling more focused and productive as a result. I’m looking forward to learning more from MacSparky in the future.” – Cindy
“[The Field Guide’s] clarity and precision impressed me. I checked further and noticed David’s Field Guides. I played the Digital Paper Trial guide and straight away I knew this was the business.
Maybe it’s David’s background as a lawyer that gives his Field Guide Courses clarity and precision. No waffle, just one step leading superbly to the next. In our overcrowded world, it’s pure delight to get something in the digital world actually worth paying for.” – Keith
OmniFocus continues to evolve, and with the release of version 4.2 it brings a slew of enhancements that promise to improve your productivity whether you’re on a Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch (or even using the new Apple Vision Pro). A few features stand out:
Custom perspective rules are the big one for me. New filtering rules based on dates, repeating tasks, and project groupings allow for more granular organization and review of tasks. You can also set perspective views on relative dates (today, tomorrow, yesterday, and any variation thereof.)
It’s worth noting that this update went out to all versions of OmniFocus simultaneously; I consider that a benefit of SwiftUI.
Tim Stringer shared this thoughtful post about the 15-year anniversary of OmniFocus, and I felt like I had to weigh in. Like Tim, I had a long, complicated journey with task management on the Mac before OmniFocus showed up.
It’s easy to forget how lousy task management apps were on the Mac before OmniFocus. It was a wasteland. Indeed, it was so bad that most of us resorted to using OmniOutliner with Ethan Schoonover’s “Kinkless GTD” modifications.
We were all enthusiastic when word got out that the Omni Group was making a proper task manager. I started using it with the earliest public beta and still use it today. People ask why a guy like me, known for trying out every potential app on the market, keeps using the same task manager for all these years, and the answer is simple: There is nothing better.
I considered moving to an alternate task manager when I stopped practicing law. I spent time running my tasks out of the Reminders app, Obsidian, and several other popular task managers, both cloud-based and native apps. I even tried an all-paper system for a few months. None of them held up compared to OmniFocus. And the thing is that OmniFocus keeps extending its lead.
Most recently, with all of the work Sal Soghoian is doing, you can automate anything in OmniFocus and add your own features. Sal’s even figured out a way to allow you to control the entire application with your voice. (Here’s an interview I did with Sal in the MacSparky Labs on that topic.)
The software business is tricky. Keeping your app relevant and modern for 15 years is no easy task, so I tip my hat to all the hard-working folks at the Omni Group (past and present). OmniFocus has been a instrumental tool for me now for 15 years and I have them to thank.
Here’s a walkthrough of how I’m using my Stream Deck with OmniFocus. I also share some interesting OmniFocus Automation tools… This is a post for MacSparky Labs Level 3 (Early Access) and Level 2 (Backstage) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?
