The Omni Show

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Today, we’re joined by Randy J. Hunt. Randy’s served as head of Design at Grab, Head of Design at Artsy, VP of Design for Etsy, and the author of Product Design for the Web.  He’s currently the Chief Product Officer at Morning, a Coffee Tech Company. Randy shares his refreshing, thoughtfully disciplined approach to productivity.  Using restraint as an superpower, Randy attributes the accumulated benefit of his second-brain to “sticking with it" in OmniFocus for over a decade.  Randy and Andrew talk about “daisy-chaining” workflows, the power of complete capture in OmniFocus, and the benefit of restraint to avoid over-building your system. You can find Randy at RandyJHunt.com. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: RandyJHunt.com Product Design for the Web: Principles of Designing & Releasing Web Products Drink Morning Etsy Artsy OmniFocus Getting Things Done Obsidian Fantastical Zapier Agenda Wordpress PHP Basecamp

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Today, we talk with Frank Denneman.  Frank works for VMWare as the Chief Technologist in the CTO’s office of their Cloud Infrastructure Business Group. He's the author of multiple books, including “vSphere 6.5 Host Technical Deep Dive” and the “vSphere Clustering Technical Deep Dive” series. Andrew and Frank chat about using OmniGraffle to communicate visual ideas in their simplest forms.  Frank shares a few tools from his belt: Fibonacci sequences for layouts, how to wrangle visual clutter, the role of consistent color palettes in communicating ideas with clarity, and more. You can find @FrankDenneman on Twitter. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: Frank's Website Unexplored Territory Podcast vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Technical Deep Dive vSphere Clustering Deep Dive series OmniGraffle Fibonacci sequence Coolors Website

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Today, we’re spending time with Alec Johnson.  Alec is a public speaker, engineer, and online presenter living in Thailand for the last 14 years.  His passion for productivity and daily live-streaming can be viewed via his TakeOneTech YouTube channel.  From content creation to inspirational lists, OmniFocus helps him to manage it all. In this episode, Andrew and Alec deconstruct his productivity workflow.  Using OmniFocus, Streamdecks, nvALT, and more - Alec has been consistently creating one helpful YouTube video each day. You can find Alec @takeonetech_ on Twitter. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: Merlin Mann Alec’s OmniFocus YouTube Video Getting Things Done Alec’s YouTube Channel Alec’s Website nvALT from Brett Terpstra Keyboard Maestro Hazel Streamdeck Streamdeck Pedal ECam Live

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Thirty (yes, 30!!) years of OmniGroup.com, 100 Episodes of the Omni Show, AND the 5th anniversary of this podcast? We try to contain our excitement as we reminisce with Ken Case. Various guests from past Omni Show episodes also send their greetings. In this episode, Ken and Andrew time-travel to 1992...when it took all morning (and 35 floppy disks) to install an OS, Steve Jobs was at NeXT, and the internet was limited only by our imagination (and corresponding modem speeds). While many things have changed over the last 30 years, at least one thing's been constant: our love of creating great tools that make people more productive. Here's to you — our community — and here's to another 30 amazing years. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: Ken Case on Twitter NeXT "10 Real Breakthroughs" print ad Episode 61 with William Gallagher Episode 65 with Kourosh Dini Episode 77 with Thomas Vander Wal Episode 78 with Tim Stringer Episode 81 with Colter Reed Episode 84 with Jimmy Little

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Today, we’re talking with Leah Ferguson.  Leah’s a Canadian designer who creates experiences in the digital and built environment through way-finding and information architecture. In her spare time, she loves helping people navigate the world of personal knowledge management. In this episode, Leah and Andrew talk about the power of environmental cues, context, and forward-thinking in reaching peak productivity. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: Leahferguson.com OmniFocus David Sparks Obsidian Discord Johnny Decimal Zettelkasten Harvey Milk terminal at San Francisco International Airport Calgary International Airport Jewel at Changi Airport X-Callback Mandalorian @Leahthedesigner twitter Atomic Note

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Today, we’re joined by Professor Inger Mewborn (Director of Researcher Development at Australian National University) and Jason Downs (Deputy Director, Quality and Standards at La Trobe University). Collectively, they host a great productivity podcast called “On the Reg.” In this episode, they talk about using tags to stay sane, teaching others how to stay productive, and implementing a magical combination of both OmniFocus and the Bullet Journal. Professor Inger, also known around the interwebs as “Thesiswhisperer," may even school Andrew on a few Australianisms along the way (Milk Bar?  Who knew?). Some other people, places, and things mentioned: OmniFocus Bullet Journal Australian National University Thesis Whisperer On the Reg Podcast Mac Power Users Podcasts Latrobe University David Sparks Things Omni Automation Microsoft Teams Getting Things Done @JasonDowns @ThesisWhisperer Notion

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Ken Case, CEO, joins the show to break down his post-WWDC 2022 Roadmap. What’s the latest? What’s amazingly cool? And — the annual question — just how much work will we be doing this summer? With continual OmniFocus 4 progress, OmniFocus for the Web updates, single sign-on (SSO) authentication for enterprise customers, and more - there’s plenty of exciting stuff to talk about. (And thankfully, nothing announced at WWDC 2022 derails the current OmniFocus 4 milestones already accomplished.) Andrew & Ken also speculate on what just-announced features might be useful in Omni software down the road.  Listen in for all the latest details. You can find Ken Case on Twitter @kcase. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: Test Version of OmniFocus for the Web OmniFocus OmniGraffle WWDC Site

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com It's probably no surprise that writing software is a somewhat difficult task. There's an unfathomable amount of iteration and detective work that goes into creating a product that feels intuitive for the new user, yet familiar to the ardent fan. Surprisingly, the art of crafting effective software documentation demands some of the exact same iteration and detective skills. Inserting helpful guidance at just the right point in the user conversation (without over-explaining) can be a tricky dance. Luckily, Dave Lonning, documentation wrangler, is up to the challenge. He returns to the Omni show (Episode 10, for you longtime listeners!) to talk about how his role has shifted over the last few years. Andrew and Dave discuss how he's approached the fresh challenges emerging in the software documentation process. You can find Dave @davelonning on Twitter. Some other people, places, and things mentioned: Apple Help format Apple Help Viewer WebView EPUB iBooks PDF OmniGraffle OmniFocus OmniOutliner OmniPlan Omni Slack Channel Omni-Automation.com Documentation at support.omnigroup.com

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com Today, we’re spending time with Sam Newman. He’s a London-based technologist, independent consultant, speaker, and author of "Building Microservices" and "Monolith To Microservices." In this episode, Sam shares how his passion for visual communication led to the creation of hundreds of OmniGraffle designs, many of which powered the illustrations in his popular "Building Microservices” book from O’Reilly. Some other people, places, and things mentioned in this episode: Microservices AWS Azure OmniGraffle Information Dashboard Design O’Reilly - Building Microservices Book Thoughtworks Continuous Delivery Martin Fowler Sam Newman’s website UML Grady Booch Simon Brown C4 Model

Full transcript and show notes at theomnishow.omnigroup.com On today’s show, we talk with Kaitlin Salzke. Kaitlin’s a tax accountant, mother, plus a computer science student, who just happens to be moving two hours away (all while coding OmniFocus plug-ins in her spare time!) In this episode, Kaitlin details the mindset and practice behind her ability to keep multiple complex projects moving at once. She’s given her OmniFocus setup superpowers by taking maximum advantage of Omni Automation & plug-ins. You’ll love how easily she balances the theory of automation and plug-in coding with honest, real-world task execution. Some other people, places, and things mentioned in this episode: OmniFocus Remember the Milk Omni Automation Kaitlin’s plug-ins Kaitlin’s Session at Learn OmniFocus Getting Things Done Creating Flow OmniFocus Slack Discourse Channel Curt Clifton’s Template Plugin The organized Mom