Medical School = Change

As I sit here on this beautiful Monday morning I realized that what do here is going to have to change.  I have really enjoyed sharing many of my thoughts on personal productivity as a student, and I hope that I have given some of you out there some interesting concepts and tools to toy with.

However, I was recently accepted into medical school meaning my entire game is about to change.  My four years at the undergraduate level at the University of Kansas were spent studying business administration, entrepreneurship as well as the inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, biology and physics necessary to take the MCAT (medical college admission test) and to be eligible to apply to medical schools.  On top of that, I maintained three part time jobs, and honed my productivity skills.

These skills are still relevant, of course, but like I said, my game is about to change big time.  Medical school means I get to take 110% of the energy I have put into work and school and focus them all on one target.  I am excited for what that means for me, and I am excited for what that means for this site.  I look forward to continuing to share some of my insights on personal productivity and focus tactics and tools for students, but I also realize that my time has just become a lot more scarce, or at least it will be in July when I start classes and KU Med.

I also realize that my focus is about to narrow tremendously.  With that, I feel like I have been given a great opportunity to share with up and coming pre-medical students, and in the future medical students, residents, and my fellow physicians when that time finally arrives.  So, while I love the work I have done here, I expect the broader analysis will subside somewhat to make room for my new life in the medical world.  I have already begun work and new project entitled “Med School Chronicles” where I hope to add value to the afore mentioned parties very, very soon.

Filed under: TheMacStudent

Why I Switched to Things from OmniFocus

The very first post here at The Mac Student was about todo managers.  I personally hold that a good todo manager that fits your brains style of organization is the most important part of an optimized workflow.  In that post I didn’t really commit to using any one task manager over the other.  The point was to share 2-3 of my favorites of the time and let the audience decide which was right for them.

However, shortly after using that article I did finally commit to OmniFocus, which I used up until 2 weeks ago.  Maybe it was simply me getting bored with software and looking for a change, or maybe there was something else there.  I switched to Things, coincidentally the first task manager I used on the Mac right before reQall and OmniFocus.  Yes, I went back to my first and I have to say, it feels go to be home.

OmniFocus is such a great task manager, and I still wonder why it is that I felt compelled to leave the confines of the OmniSphere, and take my tasks elsewhere when things were really working just fine for me there.  One big reason, and perhaps the least relevant as far as function is concerned, is the user interface.  By and large, OmniFocus is ugly.  It is cluttered and complicated.  Now, like I said earlier, it works great and it does its job well, however, there is something to be said for the clean lines and sleek design of Things.  It is just a program that I want to spend more time in, plain and simple.

I eluded to the complexity of OmniFocus earlier.  It is a power user app for the power user.  While a regular Joe might be able to get the right kind of functions out of it, the price tag isn’t worth it for that person.  What you really pay for is the complexity which is great if you know how and or want to go there.  For me, someone who mentors to other students and needs to find the best happy medium between functionality, price and usability, OmniFocus had developed into the red headed step child that really didn’t fit in with the rest of the tools in my arsenal.

So what do you loose when you switch to Things?  Quite a bit actually.  There are many layers of complexity in OmniGroups app to discover, and many layers I probable never took full advantage of.  However, these losses haven’t really bothered me.  There were some features in OmniFocus that I used in order to standardize my entries that I am doing just fine without.  Using Things is different.  After about 20 minutes with the app you have pretty much seen it all, and as such, it is very easy to wrap your head around it and get to work.  I feel like a task manager should really get out of the way and let you get to your tasks.  Isn’t that the point?  Sometime OmniFocus was a task in and of itself.

The HUGE missing feature in Things that is almost a deal breaker is the lack of over-the-air sync.  You have to be on the same local network when you launch the app to get your updated tasks.  This is such a problem, and has almost had me switching back to OmniFocus in the few short weeks I have been using Things.  If I have added 5 tasks for the day on my Mac, I don’t want to have to remember to pull the iPhone out and sync things before I leave the house.  I should not have to do that.  OmniFocus can sync via WebDAV and MobileMe so you can make changes on the iPhone or Mac and they are automatically synced from anywhere.  Cultured Code developers have said that they are working on this, but it has been far too long in my opinion.  I think they should roll out some kind of awesome Things web service and provide over-the-air sync and web access to tasks through that for free just for all the trouble.

So there you have it, I switched from the more robust OmniFocus to the simpler and more elegant Things.  While Things does have some issues, I feel that it is a better fit for more people, and so far I have been very happy with the move.

Filed under: GTD, iPhone, Mac, Organization