(Note: While that doesnвЂ™t sound like a very big deal it actually involved a fair bit of commitment on their part, since Omni is located in Seattle while Merlin is in San Francisco and Ethan is in Hong Kong!) When we realized we wanted to make a new productivity application, we also invited Merlin to join the conversation, and before long we all were meeting around a whiteboard at Omni and sketching out user interfaces. As we explored the idea, it quickly became clear that the best direction for Kinkless would be to turn it into a full-fledged application of its own rather than leaving it as a set of scripts. I guess this all started with a conversation I had with Ethan about the possibility of closer collaboration on Kinkless. We all share a common goal of helping people to be more productive, and I was thrilled when they both agreed to help us plan OmniFocus.

We really enjoy collaborating with Ethan and Merlin. ItвЂ™s inspired by the Ethan SchoonoverвЂ™s Kinkless scripts for OmniOutliner Pro, which were in turn inspired by David AllenвЂ™s work-life management system called Getting Things DoneВ® or GTDВ® (see What was it like working with GTD experts Merlin Mann and Kinkless creator, Ethan JA Schoonover? How did this come about? OmniFocus is a tool which helps busy people capture their thoughts and organize them into projects and contexts, so that they can plan their tasks in projects while acting on those same tasks in contexts.

Tell us a bit about your future release, Omnifocus: (ItвЂ™s also the time of day when itвЂ™s easiest for our massage therapist to schedule massagesвЂ¦)Дinner is usually served around 5:30pm some of the early risers will pack up their dinners to take home, but a fair number of people stick around to eat together-and after dinner, some return to their work, some go home, and others stick around to play games. There are some impromptu hall conversations here and there, of course, and sometimes a few people will get together to hash out a UI decision or to continue the interrupted meeting reviewing plans for an upcoming release or to figure out the best way to answer a support question or the best way to write some code-but in general, this is the best time of the day to work on projects. After lunch, we generally focus our attention on our various projects until dinner is served.

Our chef serves lunch around 12:30pm, and about half of us eat our lunches at one big table while those who canвЂ™t stand to hear another word about World of Warcraft tend to eat lunch in smaller (less World-of-Warcraft-vulnerable) groups. (Two of those meetings are focused on one product or another each product team meets every other week.) These meetings are typically pretty short (maybe 15 minutes), but when we have a lot to think about (like what features should go into a release) they can run for quite a while. We have a few 11am meetings during the week, but most people only attend one or two of those meetings. The snack room is just outside my office, so at this point I hardly notice the constant sound of the espresso machine running during those hours. (Can any day at Omni really be called typical?) Some early risers show up before 9am, but most of the office shows up between 10am and 11am.

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