2025-07-23 - Using OmniFocus with Analog Tools, Featuring Mike Williams

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Productivity expert Mike Williams joined us from Southern California to share how OmniFocus can be used alongside pen & paper.

As digital tools become increasingly sophisticated, there is a tendency to overlook traditional analog tools. However, analog tools still play an essential role in modern times. When you write on paper, you’re activating different parts of your brain than you do when using digital devices. Additionally, the simplicity of pen and paper can provide a welcome relief from our always-on digital culture.

During this session, Mike Williams shared the benefits of a hybrid approach to life and work, combining both digital and analog methods. He guided us through practical exercises that draw upon his recently released product, The Clarity Collection.

Tim Stringer also shared how to reconcile projects and actions between OmniFocus and paper, as well as how OmniFocus tags and custom perspectives can help clarify what work has made its way into the analog world. He shared two automations to help make this process more convenient: a Keyboard Maestro macro called Toggle Favourite Suffix and an Omni Automation plug-in created using Josh Hughes’ Toggling Tags plug-in collection.

Have some paper and a pen handy as you watch the session. Better yet, print out the PDF shared in the session notes and follow along.

ABOUT MIKE WILLIAMS

Doing to Done - Productivity Made Simple - Mike Williams
Through his leadership roles with General Electric, The David Allen Company, and Zappos, Mike kept noticing that people were desperate for a better path to productivity to help them fight digital distractions, mind clutter, and wasteful uses of their time. But the only resources available involved complex approaches, reading thick self-help books, or participating in boring seminars.

He knew a better way existed – one rooted in simplicity and realism. In his pursuit, he spent two decades working with thousands of people across different industries – from rocket scientists to business leaders to students to nonprofit organizations.

Today, Mike assists clients using an effective coaching methodology that’s far from complicated. He also used what works to create Doing to Done—Productivity Made Simple, Illustrated for Busy People Like Us, a visually engaging book about quick wins with significant impacts. Bringing a bit of Southern California energy to his work, he firmly believes that managing stress through better productivity shouldn’t be so stressful.

00:00:00 - Welcome
00:00:32 - About Learn OmniFocus
00:06:34 - Welcome Back Mike Williams
00:10:07 - Mike's Productivity Journey
00:15:33 - Using Analog Tools in a Digital World
00:17:47 - Focus Beat & Reset Beat Cards
00:25:44 - Your Turn
00:29:07 - Behaviours and Prompts
00:38:05 - Case Study: Brian
00:40:32 - Case Study: Stephanie
00:41:32 - Archiving Your Cards
00:42:23 - Contacting Mike Williams
00:42:41 - Card Corners
00:43:26 - Bridging OmniFocus with Analog Tools
00:54:20 - Using Automation to Enhance Flow
00:56:27 - Leveraging the Pareto Chart
00:57:58 - Powerful Pauses
01:01:34 - Digital Tools with an Analog Focus
01:02:32 - Paper, Digital or Both?
01:10:09 - Dates and Planning
01:12:21 - Cultivating Empty Space
01:17:58 - Visits and Reflections
01:25:11 - Wrap-Up