a foolish consistency
Task Manager Follow-up
I’m back to square one with task managers. Well, maybe not square one. Square three or four?
I really enjoyed OmniFocus and I’d grown to appreciate how a more robust task manager might help me clarify and keep track of what I need to do today, tomorrow, next month.
But.
Because of Apple’s irritating policy that In-app Purchases do not qualify for Family Sharing, we’d have to buy the iOS app twice in order for my wife to use it. We’re a couple of self-employed consultants on the hustle; we simply don’t have the budget for that sort of thing now. And I’m not sure whether we’d ever want to buy software that doesn’t allow for household sharing.
I just couldn’t justify spending so much on software that only I would be able to use. The Omni Group was very gracious, and processed the refunds swiftly. I will continue to recommend them to anyone who asks. But unless and until Apple changes its family sharing policy, I won’t be able go forward with their software. I was sorry to go, but why should the customer feel the pain for Apple’s foolishness? I will, as I promised them, lodge a complaint with Apple, referring to the RADAR cited here.
My wife & I had several morning-long sessions at the dining table. We analyzed our current systems; how they’ve worked in the past, how they’ve been failing us recently. I demonstrated how I had begun to integrate OmniFocus into my own workflow. Post-it notes, sharpies, shared calendars open on our iPads, and printouts of Excel tables exhaustively listing every to-do either of us have for the next few months. (Yes, we’re such process-nerds.)
Consequently, I’m seriously reconsidering Things. I had found it very impressive, but its prescriptiveness worried me. However, as I’ve continued to explore it in its post-trial read-only state, I’m beginning to see how my wife might actually be able to put Things to use in a way that doesn’t completely piss her off. Critically, because Things is a straight purchase via the App Stores, it allows for Family Sharing.
Anyway, I’ll report back after I’ve decided what to do next. Probably early in the new year.