Adam Cox on ducks:

Once again, ducks found themselves victimized due to their own poor organizing ability. The world will never be conquered by ducks.

Sure, it's mostly about a dog. But the bit about ducks? Top notch.

Stuff like this is why I use Feedbin.

To use this feature, go to the settings page and find your secret Feedbin email address. Use this email address whenever you sign up for an email newsletter. Anything sent to it will show up as a feed in Feedbin, grouped by sender.

Email newsletters can be great, but I much prefer to go through everything in one place first. And that place is RSS.

Ben Brooks on reviews:

Apps, bags, knives, devices — none of those need more than a thousand or two thousand words at most. Anything more than that is poor writing, and even poorer reviewing.

Write less. Write better.

This is a quick guide on switching from OmniFocus to 2Do. I assume that you have access to a Mac, some free time, and a bit of patience.

Moving your tasks

There is no magic script that will move all your tasks and projects from OmniFocus to 2Do. There are some scripts that can help, but you shouldn't go searching for the perfect script. It doesn't exist. None of them will do the job perfectly if you have even a moderately complex OmniFocus database. That's fine, and it actually make sense — there are fundamental differences in the way OmniFocus and 2Do are structured. I did not use any scripts to help me switch.

For a long time, my OmniFocus database had been growing unruly. Switching was a chance to start, if not fresh, then fresher. You should use switching as a chance to review all of your projects and tasks. Just trust me that you'll be happier if you do. Pour your drink of choice and settle in for a fun night or two.

I downloaded the trial of 2Do¹ for OS X, and began the tedious process of copying all the tasks from each OmniFocus project, and pasting them into 2Do, one project at a time. Then I had to configure start dates, due dates, and repeating schedule, if appropriate. I won't lie - this part sucks. I have a ton of projects, and a ton of tasks.

I took the time each project, each task. Quite a few didn't make the transition - they were no longer relevant. I wouldn't have killed them if not for the big switch. At the end, I was left with a more relevant database of tasks & projects.

2Do Hierarchy

In OmniFocus, there's a complex hierarchy. There are folders, subfolders inside those folders, projects inside those subfolders, subprojects inside those projects, subsubprojects inside those subprojects, etc. I'm not sure if there's a limit to how deep you can go. This sounds great in theory, but gets gross pretty quickly. It's especially troublesome if you accidentally mark the wrong project, or subproject, as sequential, and then set repeat on the wrong one. It's easy to get lost in the complexity, and lose tasks.

2Do has a less complex, more clear, still powerful hierarchy.

Group
    List
        Project
            Task
        Checklist
            Task

That's it. That's the entire hierarchy. It is even entirely possibly to use 2Do with a single Group and without checklists, if you prefer. In fact, I encourage you to do just that. Don't use Checklists until you find a need. Until then, feel free to pretend they don't exist.

Groups are basically OmniFocus folders. They group projects together by a main theme. I have three - Work, Home, and Smart Lists².

Projects are OmniFocus projects. There is no Sequential Project concept in 2Do - all projects are parallel.

Checklists are a special kind of project where individual tasks cannot have separate start or due dates. Only the checklist itself can have a start or due date.

Tasks are the same as OmniFocus tasks. They can have start dates & times, due dates & times. They can repeat, or not. If you want, you can star a task though I never do.

A new item is always created with the Plus sign in the bottom right. By default it's a Task, though it's just a single tap to change it to a Project to Checklist.

Set up Sync

Use Dropbox. Seriously, just use Dropbox. There are other options, and none of them matter because you should use Dropbox.

Perspectives

Don't forget to take some time to set up your Today Perspective. Just kidding; 2Do already did that for you. It's called Today, and it lives just below All in the sidebar. It works exactly as a reasonable person would expect it to work.

Set up your Start and Due time shortcuts

Settings -> Advanced -> Default Due Time
Settings -> Advanced -> Default Start Time

You're welcome.

Use OmniFocus and 2Do in tandem

I may not have loved OmniFocus, but I trusted it. I knew how OmniFocus worked. I knew it's strengths and weaknesses. I knew it's flaws. I knew that it would do what I told it to do. Even after carefully importing all my tasks & projects, I did not yet trust 2Do. So for the first two or three days, I used both task management systems in tandem. Not once did 2Do fail to do what I expected it to do. It earned my trust very quickly, and I went all-in. I disabled all OmniFocus notifications on my devices and moved the apps into a folder.

Links³ and a final note

Buy 2Do for iOS. At the time of publishing, it's on sale for $7.99. That's ridiculous. The regular price of $15.99 is ridiculous. This app is awesome.

Buy 2Do for OS X. At the time of publishing, it's on sale for $24.99. The regular price of $49.99. If you spend much time on a Mac at all, it's a steal. It's a very good app. I just don't sit at my Mac much these days. Plus, the iOS app is just so good.

I'm sure some have switched to 2Do using only iOS. I could have done this, but it was, in my case, much easier to use a Mac for the switch. I have many dozens of projects, and hundreds of tasks.

As usual, someone makes a better point about a topic than I do. This time it's Ben Brooks on 2Do:

And the best part is that I can recommend it to anyone and everyone. Whereas with OmniFocus I would be hesitant trying to get most people using it, with 2Do I feel like you can give it to anyone. They might not get why you like it so much at first, but it will only be a matter of time before it clicks with them. And they likely won’t experience any overwhelming feelings as most people do when they start with OmniFocus.

I've thought something similar since switching to 2Do. With OmniFocus, I would only rarely recommend it to someone. And when I did, I did it with a lot of caveats. 2Do is nearly as easy to use as Things, while being about 100x more powerful.

This is not a review of 2Do. Go read Federico's review if that's what you're looking for.

I switched to OmniFocus in 2011. I used Things¹ before that. OmniFocus was significantly more powerful than Things. And it was significantly more complex. It was a worthy trade off, and it worked well for a while.

Eventually, the complexity started to grate on me. I started to hate the complexity, even though I needed it.

I experimented with TaskPaper. A lot. I love the idea of TaskPaper. And maybe if I used a Mac full time, it would work for me. But I live in a Windows / iOS world at work, and I just couldn't make TaskPaper work for me. It was too free form. I need more structure.

Enter 2Do. Lots of smart people, like Federico, Tim, Julia, Justin, and Ben, had been talking about how great it was. In early December, I was accepted to the 2Do beta. It did not start well.

See, I don't like change. That's the biggest reason that I stuck with OmniFocus for 4 years. It worked for me, mostly, and kept me sane, mostly. And I knew how to use it.

2Do thinks a bit differently than OmniFocus. It assumes some different things. It has a slightly different philosophy. None of that is bad, but it is different. Having spent 4 years deep in the OmniFocus world, it was a struggle to wrap my head around things at first.

Fortunately, some of the smart people I mentioned earlier kept me on track. Stick with it, they said. It will click,they said.

Boy, did it.

In early January, I had finished moving my massive OmniFocus task system to 2Do. I had to re-think a lot of my conventions, since 2Do works differently. Moving was not fun. But once the move was complete, it only took a few days of using 2Do full time to know that it was a clear winner. I disabled OmniFocus notifications on all my devices, and moved the apps into folders. At some point, I will delete the apps.

Why I like 2Do

I am not going to write a love letter to Smart Lists. They might be amazing, but I haven't even set one up yet. Instead, I want to touch on just four things.

1. Start dates work the right way. In 2Do, if I set today's date as the start date for a task, then that task shows up on the Today list. This sounds so obvious. Of course it should work this way. OmniFocus does not work that way. You have to set up a custom perspective. I hate setting up custom perspectives.

2. Tags are second class citizens, as they should be. In OmniFocus, contexts are front and center. You can use OmniFocus without using contexts, but damnit you're going to look at the context box every time you add a task.

It's right under the Project box on iOS - clearly, OmniFocus thinks Contexts are very important. In 2Do, the Tag box is below the Notes box. Maybe that doesn't seem like a big difference, but I think it is. Tags feel entirely optional in 2Do. So far, I use one tag - Waiting, which is paused.

1. Actions are brilliant. Actions are my favorite thing about 2Do. Maybe. I don't know, but they're great. I attach URL actions to my tasks all the time. Sometimes I attach message links. If I called people, I'm sure I would use the call action.

2. Email to 2Do matches and exceeds OmniFocus Mail Drop. Mail Drop came first, but it never got smarter. It hasn't changed since it was released, as far as I can tell. Email to 2Do doesn't have quite as good of a name, but it works just as reliably, and does more. Don't believe me; read the developer's instructions.

OmniFocus

OmniFocus is a great app. It's really powerful. If it works for you, use it. If you're thinking about a new task management app, try it out. But also try out 2Do. The developer has really done an incredible job, and continues to do so with frequent updates.

Carl is on fire this month.

Your job is a place where you trade time for money.

It's important, and don't be foolish enough to think it's not. Without that money, life gets awfully hard. But it isn't the only thing in life, and you shouldn't treat it that way.

Just a few years ago, you could have an opinion on a controversial topic. You could write your thoughts and have a reasonable debate. You might even succeed in peacefully agreeing to disagree with folks of differing opinions. It was great.

That time has passed.

Today, you can still have an opinion on a controversial topic. It's just very, very important that you choose the right opinion. Choosing the wrong opinion will turn you into a monster in the eyes of the public. You will be ridiculed and slapped with one of many unsavory labels.

Never choose the wrong opinion. If you think you might have the wrong opinion on anything, tell no one. Never speak on this topic. This topic is completely off-limits to you.

You might be wondering if I have any wrong opinions. You can go ahead and keep wondering. Even if I was crazy enough to have any wrong opinions, I wouldn't be the type of person to admit that publicly. So as far as you lovely folks know, I always have the right opinion.

Karan Varindani has been rocking two iPads for a month. And it's not crazy if you think about it.

I bought the iPad mini to be a couch computer, but it’s been so much more. When I’m walking around the house, I carry it with me. When I’m working out, I take it with me. And, of course, when I’m on the couch (or in bed) I have it with me. Unless I’m leaving the house or doing any real work, the iPad mini is the only device I use. I find that pretty incredible because on paper I’m still trying to justify buying it in the first place.

I have been using two iPads since Christmas. My iPad Pro sees the most usage by far - it's a workhorse. It's my portable computer. But my trusty iPad Air 2 sees plenty of use too. It's much more portable, and better at casual use. It's really nice to use around the house. And damnit, sometimes I use them both at once.

An iPad mini would be a better companion to the Pro, to be sure. But the Air 2 isn't half bad, either. If you wrap your head around the iPad Pro as a legit computer, which it is, then the two iPad life starts to sound pretty sane.