An OmniFocus Post

A few weeks ago, Gabe Weatherhead invited me onto his Generational podcast to discuss task management and OmniFocus. The conversation covered a lot of interesting task management topics and covered some of the things that work (and don't work) with GTD.

I love kicking ideas around like this and it was interesting because it was clear that Gabe and I have dissimilar use cases even though we do a lot of similar things for a living. How you fit OmniFocus and GTD into your work and life can vary greatly and the key is finding out what works well for you and what you can leave out. The key is being experienced enough to not throw an essential baby out with the proverbial bathwater and that's where things get tricky.

The podcast was wide-ranging and covered a lot of the nuances of how we use GTD to actually get things done. Oh and stay tuned because there's a lot more great stuff coming up on Generational.

Thanks to Michael Schechter for listening as well as his comments both on his blog and Twitter. I thought he summed things up really well with this quote [1]:

In a recent episode of Gabe Weatherhead’s Generational podcast, he was talking to Jeff Hunsberger about the app. Jeff was sharing how flexible the app is, while Gabe commented that he occasionally finds himself frustrated by its rigidity. I think that the truth lives right between those two statements, that OmniFocus is flexible as to which rigidity you settle on. You have to choose a way to use the app, even if that means accepting a few trade-offs along the way, but when you take the time to find a way that works works for you, I doubt there’s another application that comes close.

  1. This is a classic post, by the way. ↩

The Podcast List

I have an hour long commute every day so having something besides music to listen to is sometimes welcome. I thought I'd run down some of the podcasts that help make the drive less tedious.

Technology

The Talk Show - this is a show presented by the ubiquitous Dan Benjamin (he runs 5by5.tv) and John Gruber of DaringFireball fame. Lots of good tech business news and interesting discussion about Stanley Kubrick, writing and Apple theorizing.

Back to Work - Dan Benjamin (again) and Merlin Mann swerve from Merlin's insane babble to intense discussion about work, life and how to ask the right questions.

Build and Analyze - Hosted by Marco Arment (and Dan Benjamin), this podcast is a top pick because of Marco's thoughts on development, Apple, technology and coffee.

Hypercritical - John Siracusa is a writer for Ars Technica, author of the legendary OS X reviews (his Lion review weighed in at 19 long pages). He goes pretty far down the developer rabbit hole sometimes but shows like the one he did on the Steve Jobs biography.

Mac Power Users - Hosted by Katie Floyd and David Sparks, this is a podcast that presents a ton of information that is pertinent to my interests. Their workflow posts are among the best podcasts I've ever listened to.

The Critical Path - Horace Dediu is one of the best writers in the business on matters related to the money that flows through the technology space. His views on intuition as it relates to tech prediction and his ideas on the privacy issues brought up with Google and Facebook are spot on.

Tested - Will Smith and Norman Chan (and often Gary Whitta) talk about technology (are you picking up on a theme?). They are funny and entertaining and talk way too fast. I'm also a supporter of the Whiskeymedia network and this podcast was one of the deciding factors in me becoming a member.

Entertainment

Roderick On The Line - How does one describe this podcast? You can say John Roderick from the Long Winters and Merlin Mann (aforementioned) talk on this podcast. You can also say that it is pretty incredible and interesting. I can't really say more than that.

Gaming

Bombcast - Gaming news at its very finest. I love the chemistry these guys have and I have been a fan for years. Plus they're connected industry geeks and have a lot to say about things like thermoses and imaginary games like LincolnForce.

~

So that's the list of podcasts in steady rotation. Note the preponderance of 5by5 podcasts -- Dan Benjamin is doing some amazing things over there. He has been collecting some of my favorite tech podcasts under one banner and has put together an impressive array of experts in their given fields. I can't wait to see what else he has in store.

Also, Instacast is a great iOS app to listen to your podcasts. The HD version is great too.