What I got out of reading “Getting Things Done” and trying out OmniFocus

I’m a pretty big fan of non-fiction self help books. Especially the audiobook versions read to me at double-speed to the point I probably missed half of what went on. About a third of my audiobooks fit that category.

And after a lot of time spent listening to CGPGrey talk about the book "Getting Things Done" on both of his podcasts, I gave it a listen. To be honest it's a little hard to get through. And trying to read a book like that via audiobook is not a good idea. But I lack the patience to actually sit down and read non-fiction. But I still consider a book a success if I can glean merely a few nuggets of valuable insight and ideas.

The best idea I got from reading GTD was that our minds are sacred space. Anything in my mind that is bothering me, like a stray idea about a blog post/story/video, needs to be written down in a place that’s not in my mind. And until everything is taken out of my head and into a place that I know I will reread it, I will keep thinking about the same things over and over again.

The purpose of the system is to get to an empty mind. Every single goal, desire, or thing to create needs to put onto paper in order to see what all I really want to do and to make sure I have nothing left. Only after every idea is written down can my mind be clear and I know I’m not missing anything. At that point it’s easier for my mind to think of new things if I’ve put all the old stuff in a place that I know I’ll access it again.

Something written down is far more trustworthy than a forgetful spot like a mind. My brain actually knows how easy it is for me to forget things so it will constantly remind me over and over again of various things I need to do. Even small things like “do dishes” will have a special small spot in my brain that will poke at me all day unless I’ve finished that task. It’s hard to tell myself: “Yeah, I know that, please stop reminding me.” I feel like on a subconscious level I’m terrified of forgetting something important and so my brain will remind me of various things whether I want it to or not.

The Getting Things Done system is all about allowing myself to stop thinking about those things by writing them down and promising myself I will read over it later so my subconscious can stop pelting me with reminders.

I’m already pretty good about writing things down. I’ve been carrying little notebooks to draw and write in wherever I go for the last three years. But I’ve never tried to stop and write down everything before. This takes the idea of “a goal not written is merely a wish” and expands it to encompass far more than I ever imagined.

The other thing I found interesting was how much the author didn’t like calendars and normal to-do lists. I’ve been trying to keep myself tied down to a calendar and putting things to do in chunks of time. The problem is that I’m never quite sure how long something is going to take and it’s a little frustrating to find myself off schedule.

Instead of calendars, the GTD system is all about putting things in terms of “actions.” Every single task needs to be asked the question: “Is it actionable?” or “What is the next action required to continue this task?” or “This is the thing I want to have happen, what should I do next so that it will happen eventually?” Everything needs to be actionable or else there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s a little refreshing to realize that I can’t do what I can’t do and I have complete permission to stop thinking about it at that point.

I really like these ideas, and while I probably missed a few good nuggets of wisdom in my haste to rush through the book at doublespeed, it gave me a lot to think about. Your mileage may vary though, "Getting Things Done" is full of advice for office workers and managers and suggestions on what filing cabinets to buy and things like that. And there's some good complaints against the book. Go to 66:38 or 70:14 for some funny rebuttals.

But it did offer me a level of relief to some anxieties I didn't realize I was having. Some of the books I've read on dealing with anxiety were not as effective at dealing with worries as well as this book. And for that, it was a very good read.

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Of course as much as I love paper, we live in a digital age and this is a pretty old book, surely someone already made an app that implements all of this book’s ideas?

And they did! It's called Omnifocus.

But it’s Mac and iOS only.

And it’s $80.

The barriers to entry for this software are so absurdly high I know of very few people who fit under the spectrum of:
1. Apple Users for both their computers and smartphones. (Or just iPad owners)
2. Willing to pay that much for software. (40$ for basic Mac version, 40$ for basic iOS version)
3. Willing to watch lots of YouTube tutorials on how to use complicated software

That gets rid of 95% of people probably reading this right now, including myself (I have an Android phone).

So it's probably not worth reviewing software like this.

Except for the fact that trying it out is a great way to see how a "Getting Things Done" system might look like. And all of this can theoretically be done on paper or with apps like Evernote or others. But still, I don't understand what kind of business would exclusively make software like this only for Mac. Their main clients would most likely be businesspeople, and corporations the world over exclusively use Windows.

Well anyway, after downloading the free trial on my MacBook I started a long, well-produced tutorial series on YouTube about how to use the software.

My initial and current impression of Omnifocus is: "A to-do list on steroids."

Folders can hold Projects which can be subdivided into subprojects and then further subdivided into lists of tasks. It's like someone read The Checklist Manifesto and decided to run with it.

Each of those tasks can be assigned dates to complete OR dates to defer until. That "defer" feature is actually really useful. It fits the problem of: "I want to remind this coworker to work on this aspect of the project but I should probably wait at least a week to remind them."

Each task can be assigned a "estimated time" to give how long a task might take. And there's a "notes" section that can hold images. As well as a "context" (location) the task can be done at. The idea of "contexts" being that if multiple tasks all occur at the same location than they should be done at the same time. It's a feature that probably works better with the iPhone app. Apparently it allows your phone to buzz when the app notices you're in a grocery store and it would be a good time to buy ketchup or something. Contexts can be all sorts of things besides locations though. For example, a "low-energy" context could be added for tasks that require little creativity but still need to get done.

Even though I don't have a iPhone, I can still email myself a task using an OmniGroup email account and it will go directly to my inbox folder in OmniFocus to be categorized. It's useful for when I can't fall asleep at night and I can just shoot myself a bunch of emails of my worries/ideas to either categorize or delete in the morning.

I think the most useful aspects of this is the "Review" subfolder. A lot of tasks I want to do fit under a "Someday/Maybe" category. I'm giving my subconscious permission not to think about things because I know I will review it at a later date. The default is to review "weekly" but for some far flung desires, like learn piano, I can set up to only remind me to review it every month instead of every week.

At the end of the two week trial (and after finding out they had a student discount that dropped the price down (Someday I'll graduate, I swear!)), I ended up buying a copy of Omnifocus for Mac. I do not recommend it for everyone though, the barriers to entry are way too high. But it was a good enough experience for me that I want to keep using it and hopefully get better at getting things done.