# Learn OmniFocus Founder Tim Stringer Returns  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Omni Show]] - Full Title: Learn OmniFocus Founder Tim Stringer Returns - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/559762ad-d068-4dad-a9f2-16f27dbfbdae ## Highlights - Episode AI notes 1. Efficiency is achieved through focused content creation in OmniFocus rather than using it for planning large-scale projects with multiple components and team members. 2. Effective organization with OmniFocus should lead to a feeling of relief and ease, simplifying life and managing unexpected chaos. 3. Regularly updating and maintaining OmniFocus is crucial to ensure its usefulness in times of need, similar to keeping a tidy kitchen for unexpected guests. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/307dda46-7306-45d7-af8d-243b6f8c90a8)) - Efficiency through Omni Focus and Project Management Summary: The speaker's significant project over the past three years has been creating new content for Omni Focus 4. Despite the complexity of the task, they made progress by focusing on the content creation instead of planning it out in Omni Focus. They caution against using Omni Focus as a planning tool for large-scale projects with numerous components and multiple team members involved. Transcript: Speaker 2 As you look back over the last 36 months, the last three years, Tim, what do you see that was your largest project that you had to work on and that Omni Focus helped in? But personal or professional project I took on in the space, Omni Focus helped me see it through? Speaker 1 Yeah, sure. Well, it's kind of meta because my biggest project is by far creating new Omni Focus 4 content and updating existing content. And I've made some great progress on there. I've got four courses specific to Omni Focus 4 and there's definitely a lot more to come, but that was pretty daunting to have to kind of recreate the content, especially with all the Added features of the iPhone and the iPad. There's just a lot more to talk about. And the approach I took with that is not to even try to plan it all out to Omni Focus. I also see people, maybe another pitfall to add to the list. I see people trying to use Omni Focus as a planning tool. And I think for a very simple project that can work well, but for anything that has a large scale, a lot of moving pieces and maybe other people involved, that's where it kind of falls flat. ([Time 0:12:32](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4b8fd531-2da0-4b6e-b1ec-670ba920501e)) - Efficient Organization Leads to Ease under Pressure Summary: The essential measure of effective organization is to feel a sense of relief rather than stress when using a tool like OmniFocus, indicating that life is well managed. In times of unexpected chaos, relying on OmniFocus for support demonstrates its value in simplifying life. It is crucial to regularly update and maintain the tool to ensure its usefulness in times of need, similar to keeping a kitchen tidy to easily cater to unexpected guests. Transcript: Speaker 1 Sure. Well, that's kind of the basic litmus test is when you go to OmniFocus, do you feel sort of stress or relief? There could be some stress even if it's well organized because maybe you've got a lot going on right now. But generally speaking, the idea is to be feeling some relief because thank goodness I don't need to keep track of all these things. I don't need a reminder to contact Andrew three weeks from now or something like that. It's just all kind of taking care. And then the ultimate test is when life goes sideways and I've had several experiences in the past, in the past year or so where something very unexpected has come along like a death or Family member going to the hospital or something like that. And I've noticed that I lean on OmniFocus. It's something that it's kind of where I go to when things are starting to feel a little bit out of control. And the fact that I do that means OmniFocus is there to be leaned on as there to certain means actually making my life easier. If OmniFocus were really out of dates and I hadn't processed my inbox in two weeks and had a today list with like 300 items, then I would have avoided it because it would have just added Complications. So it's really about keeping things up to date, keeping things relevant, useful. This is another sort of argument for not putting extraneous ideas and someday maybe less than things in OmniFocus. One analogy is if you keep on top of your kitchen and after every meal you're putting things in the dishwasher and clearing the counters and making sure that the fridge is stocked and Things like that. If somebody comes and visits you unexpectedly, you can say, oh great to see you. I'm going to make you a nice meal. What would you like? Versus if somebody shows up unexpectedly and you can't even see your kitchen counter and it's a real mess and you need to wash a fry pan before you can even make anything. Even that person showing up is going to feel more like a stress even if you're ultimately really happy to see them. ([Time 0:16:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3a11c993-c437-4726-a11a-fb70747520e2))