It is time to Get Things Done!
I’ve spent a long time trying to pick and set up a perfect system for my task management. Ever since I read the GTD book by David Allen, I’ve been switching from one tool to another, trying to make everything just perfect.
For a long time, I’ve been the kind of guy who tries to get the most features out of everything. I always installed all the available plugins, had every single extension there was in the browser and just tried to whore up as many features as I could into my workflow.
But as many of you already know, this is not the best way to productivity; actually quite the opposite. While having a ton of features can seem useful at first, it causes distractions. Not only it adds distractions, but it also adds to the frustration.
Ever since I started using Mac, I started to appreciate simple, clean and beautiful design, that just allows to get things done, without much interference around.
I switched from complex IDEs to simple text editors, I stopped using complex note taking systems in favor of paper, I stopped writing in Word or ugly online WYSIWYG and use WriteRoom/OmmWriter instead, and in general I just started to give preference to less features with more polish.
And that’s why I decided to buy Things over OmniFocus. It took me almost a year to make this decision, but when I think about it, it’s not really that hard to make. OmniFocus is more robust with more features and more customizable interface.
To someone that is an advantage but to me, it just screams clutter!. Having an infinitely flexible interface just allows for more procrastination. Constraints are liberating in that way, that they allow you to just focus on the thing you’re doing, without features staying in the way.
That being said, from now on, I’m a Things user. No more Wunderlist, Todoist, Toodledo, Sticky Notes, Google Tasks, Catch Notes and many more I can’t remember right now. I’m going to use one simple system to catch ‘em all.
Well not only one, I also use TaskPaper, which is amazing at taking fast notes and just organizing thoughts about a current project. But I don’t use it for task management, it’s more of a mind-map thing (no pun intended).
