Full disclosure: I am an affiliate for OmniFocus Premium Posts but — as with all of the other products I align myself with – I would not endorse a product I did not benefit from in ways other than financial ones (let alone write a post dedicated to it).
OmniFocus can be overwhelming the first time you look at it. It seems so vast and expansive (and it is), but I’ve mentioned before that it scales very well. That is, it can be as simple as you want it to be when you first start using it and can be as powerful as you need it to be further down the line. It’s one of those products that grows with you. That’s a quality that is rare in a task management application — especially one that is so well put together.
Still, I’ve spoken to many people online and in person who purchased OmniFocus and then abandoned it because they felt it was either “too much” or “too hard to use”. That’s where Asian Efficiency’s OmniFocus Premium Posts can really help. It makes OmniFocus more accessible — and it does so in a number of ways.
OmniFocus Premium Posts is designed in a way that allows readers with different levels of proficiency to navigate to where they want to go very easily. I didn’t really need to spend any time in the beginning stages of the book (although I did give myself a refresher on Perspectives, something I haven’t really used before), so I skipped ahead to some of the more pertinent parts. From the section on “Getting Started” to the “Power User Modules,” there’s something for every OmniFocus user here…and that’s incredibly valuable.
I spent quite a bit of time reviewing each of the setups that Thanh Pham and Aaron Lynn (the guys behind Asian Efficiency) use. They break down how they organize their OmniFocus setups in a way that allows the reader to simply copy it and get going. I was able to take some elements of each of their workflows and incorporate it into my own setup, which is something that even the most seasoned of OmniFocus user can do with relative ease.
One of the more overlooked aspect of the text was the “Related Posts” section, where they dive a bit deeper into other areas where OmniFocus can help you shine. Integrating Dropbox and Hazel with OmniFocus was one post that I read over a few times to help rid myself of old OmniFocus databases — and save drive space on my MacBook Air.
There’s a lot of value packed into OmniFocus Premium Posts, but the price tag does raise eyebrows. It’s $67 — which may seem like a lot more money to lay down after you’ve spent a considerable amount on the entire OmniFocus suite (Mac, iPad, and iPhone) — but it’s worth it. You get a 250 page ebook, a 9 page bonus ebook, screencasts, video training, one year of personal email coaching from Asian Efficiency, and even a guide that will show fan of Agile Results how to integrate that methodology with OmniFocus. And the Asian Efficiency team will be offering free updates to the collection as well (which is ideal since OmniFocus 2 is in the works, and the iPhone version has a very different look to it in iOS 7).
OmniFocus is a top-notch task management solution, and Asian Efficiency’s OmniFocus Premium Posts is a top-notch resource for OmniFocus users — whether they are new to the application or are a power user. If you’ve purchased OmniFocus and it’s just collecting dust in your Mac’s Applications folder, then this product will help you dust it off and make it work for you both efficiently and effectively.
There are a lot of OmniFocus resources out there, but Asian Efficiency’s OmniFocus Premium Posts is the perfect balance of simplicity and comprehensiveness. Highly recommended.
