For the past few years, I have been centering all my different workflows around the Apple ecosystem. My writing tools, task managers, RSS readers, calendars, etc. Media consumption in general, in fact, almost any activity I do is mostly iOS/iPadOS/Mac centered. Now all my systems are, not broken but it looks like some need alterations or needs to be reassessed. With my new job I now spend at least 8 hours of my day in front of a PC, Windows OS (which I don’t love). Even though I do carry both my iPad Pro and my iPhone with me at all times, is not like I am using them to manage work (maybe I should?). Well, I do but is somewhat limited. I have a few examples.
Task Management
My Tasks management of choice for the past few years has been Omnifocus. As I have probably mentioned many times before it’s very underused but still effective for my needs. Sometimes when I am not using Omnifocus, I use Things 3, sometimes even Todoist but always end up back at Omni. My problem at the moment is managing my tasks on a PC, Things 3 doesn’t have either Windows app or a web app, OmniFocus, on the other hand, does have at least a Web app. Todoist has an iOS/iPadOS/Mac app(s), a web app and a Windows native app. Having the Windows app available makes it super convenient to quickly add tasks and manage them from my work computer without having to necessary use my phone or iPad. Here are my problems.
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Though OmniFocus would be my first choice, I am not a huge fan of the web app. I mean, it does help to have it there and it’s okay for entering tasks and review my forecast but for some reason, it doesn’t feel polished enough and it requires a subscription to use the web app.
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Things 3, I love Things 3' aesthetics, design and how less stressful is to use it is compared to Omnifocus. Love the upcoming tab, probably my most used tab and the one that looks the best to me. I like seeing all my tasks and calendar events there, so useful. But being and iOS only app (I say iOS only because I don’t bring my Mac with me) means that I will have to use either my phone or iPad for capturing and managing tasks. Which is a solution but, I don’t think is the most efficient.
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Todoist, so far it has been the best solution. Capturing and managing tasks it’s pretty straight forward. It is so easy to sometimes just copy a piece of text from an email and turn it into a task almost magically, like witchcraft. Sync it’s pretty much solid, I enter it in the Windows app and it shows up in all my other devices. I do like Todoist’s Next 7 Days view but no calendar events there like on Things or even Omnifocus. And Todoist would be another subscription. (Sidenote: I wonder if I could get the company to pay for that, hm?)
I think the bottom line is that I rather use what I already own and don’t have to pay a subscription for it if I can help it. I have way too many subscriptions in my life at the moment and if I can get away with using the tools I have already paid for then so be it. The reason why apps like Omnifocus and Things are the two options than I would rather pursue is, I own these apps on every platform I own, iOS. iPadOS and MAcOS.
Writing
Sometimes I get something in my mind while at work and need it to get it out before I forget. I do have some downtime here and there so I take the chance to put my thoughts down, just like with this post. My Text editor of choice is both Drafts 5 (where most of, if not all of, my text starts) and iA Writer. Drafts 5 is not on Windows so that’s a no go, I know iA Writer is but one, I would need to purchase it and two, I have I.T. restrictions and can not install anything that is not from the Windows store. So, so far my solution has been having a Chrome tab with the Grammarly website opened and type way in there, copy and paste it into Micro.blog web page. It’s just the formating part that kind of sucks. Or then again, I could just type on my iPhone or iPad but it’s more convenient this other way I guess.
Media
For browsing and posting on Micro.blog, that’s easy, I just access the website and I don’t mind it at all, actually, it is more convenient for certain things. RSS reading, for the longest time I have been using either Reeder or Unread for my RSS reading with Newsblur as the backend. I have recently been trying (and paying) for Feedbin. If I am using Reeder, I can use it in both iOS (iPadOS ) and Mac, Unread on iOS. With Reeder I can access my feed in iOS with both Reeder and Unread (and now even Feedbin’s app) but on windows, I have to use Feedbin’s website, which is fine and it syncs to all my other apps. For music and podcasts, well, that was an interesting one. I have always used my phone for consuming both my music and podcasts. I am an Apple Music subscriber and my Podcast app of choice is Overcast. Normally I would just use my Airpods for this but I found myself using a good pair of headsets I got for my computer. At first, I was just listening to podcast thru Overcast’s web app and one day I thought, “maybe I should just get a Spotify subscription” since it has a Windows app. That day was when Apple released the web version of Apple Music beta, so no Spotify subscription.
It seems like a lot of the way I do some things might need some adjustments or alternatives. Is not like I want to do every single thing on Windows, I hate Windows, but it’s the tool I have been given and where I spend most of the time with. I’m sure I can find a way to make everything to workout swimmingly but for now, I am just trying to figure stuff out. Maybe the idea of using my personal iPad to manage work-related tasks isn’t a bad idea, maybe I should explore that.
