3 Programs to Get Things Done on Your Mac

I’m not sure when organizing my workflow more efficiently turned from an ambition to an obsession, but I have a feeling it was around the time I read ‘Getting Things Done’ by David Allen. The Getting Things Done personal management system (or ‘GTD’ as its known affectionately online) has proved hugely popular with businesses all over the world, particularly amongst freelancers and technologists who appreciate the simplicity and logic of its methodology.

GTD feeds every job or project through one system that captures all of your tasks for the week and breaks them down into smaller five-minute actionable tasks. In doing so, it somehow miraculously stops you putting off jobs, because they are too big. David Allen has become something of a productivity guru in the years since the book was launched and regularly tutors CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies – check him out on You Tube and watch the talk he gave at Google headquarters to get an idea of his appeal.

There are endless websites dedicated to his system and for productivity and technology geeks like myself, there are also numerous software versions of the GTD system, ready-made to get you up and running. Here we’re going to look at three of the best systems for the Mac, Firetask, Things, &Omnifocus.

Firetask

Firetask is the easiest of the three systems to jump into immediately on opening. The interface is clean and simple, with an inbox for entering all to-do items (an easy way of de-cluttering your head before you organize individual projects) and categories on the left of the window for organizing those projects.

The ‘Today’ section is particularly useful for reminding you what is due immediately and what your next action needs to be. When it comes to projects, Firetask will let you see either the full project with all tasks on view, or it can also show the project with only the next task necessary to complete.

The simplicity of Firetask means it does lack some of the depth of the other two systems when it comes to digging deeper into projects, but when it comes to the essential features everything works well. It will sync competently with other Macs or an iOS device, although at present it only syncs via your Wi-fi network and not through cloud syncing. There are plans to introduce cloud syncing shortly, however. Firetask offers a fifteen-day trial version and the full version will cost you $49.

Things

Things features a similar interface to Firetask and is also easy to get to grips with quickly. The Inbox is used to collect ‘To Do’ items which you have not yet allocated a project to and which you may want to enter quickly while you think of them (and then organize them later into projects).

Where Things excels is its tagging system which is useful for putting jobs into context.  It both functions well and looks wonderful, and also in its options for showing tasks which might be due a few days ahead in the ‘Today’ box, thus ensuring you don’t leave anything till the last minute.

Unfortunately, like Firetask, it does sometimes seem a little light on features and will also currently only offer syncing over Wi-fi. In addition, there is only limited support on the website in comparison with Omnifocus. However, if you don’t want to spend too much time setting up your system then ‘Things’ might be the suite for you. Things comes with a fifteen day trial and you can buy the full version for $49 on the Apple App store.

Omnifocus

Omnifocus is slightly more expensive than the other two systems, but the extra few dollars are well worth it. Spend a little bit of time learning your way around Omnifocus, and you will be rewarded with a rich and enjoyable productivity system. As with all GTD systems, you can quickly enter all the tasks and jobs in your head into the ‘Inbox’ and then move them around into projects and categories later.

Where Omnifocus really earns its money is in its flexibility. Tasks are categorized in terms of due date, what project they belong to and what context that project will be done in. Thus, if you started a garage project, you would break it down into tasks, such as ‘buy floor cleaner’. The task, ‘buy floor cleaner’ would go under the ‘garage project’ and would be due by Sunday. It would also be given a context, such as ‘Errands.’

Simultaneously, you might have a project, ‘back up company files’ and the first task on that might be to ‘buy blank DVD’s’, which would also be given the context of ‘Errands.’ When you’re next shopping, you can quickly look under the ‘Errands’ section of your GTD iphone app and see all the things you should do while you’re out to move various projects to the next step.

Tasks can also be flagged for importance and given an estimation of how long they should take. You can set up recurring projects, and you can also designate whether the tasks in a project should run in parallel or linear style (meaning you have to complete them in order).

Lastly, Omnifocus syncs more seamlessly than any product I’ve yet used on the Mac or iphone, including Apple’s own Mobile Me service. Enter a task on your computer and within minutes it will have updated on your phone. Likewise, check off those errands on your phone or ipad while you’re out and about and by the time you get home your computer will be updated too. Omnifocus has a 30 day trial, or you can buy the full version for $80.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a simple introduction to the GTD system and productivity software without having to spend too much time setting up that system, then Things and Firetask both offer good value for money and a way of organizing your time well.

However, Omnifocus offers a level of sophistication not present in the other two, perhaps comparable to the difference between Microsoft Word and some of the free Word Processing Suites. If you’re willing to put in a few hours of reading and tweaking the system, then Omnifocus will truly help you to get things done.

Image by juhansonin

(By) Alex is a freelance writer and journalist. He likes to write about cricket, jazz and all things Mac, but these days is constantly writing about search engine optimisation.