Category Archives: Tasks

Essential software for academic work on Mac: 2021 update

Posted on June 12, 2021 by Aleh Cherp

It’s been seven years since I listed 25 apps essential for academic work on Mac. This list has proven to be very popular and relatively stable, but over the years I dropped or significantly reduced using 13 of these applications and … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Bibliographies, Collaboration, Files, Graphics, Notes, Presentations, Projects, Tasks, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Setting up Notion for Academic collaboration

Posted on April 19, 2021 by Jessica Jewell

We’ve recently introduced Notion for collaboration within our research group. Notion is knowledge management system where you can develop and store content in pages, organized in a series of relational databases. To leverage Notion’s full capacity, it’s crucial to set … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Projects, Tasks, Workflows | Tagged | 6 Comments

TaskPaper 3

Posted on May 23, 2016 by Aleh Cherp

I have recently completed a large grant proposal and several research manuscripts. Such sticky projects involve hundreds of details that need to be remembered: “reformat table 3”, “find the page number in reference 76”, “ask someone to rework figure 5”, “read an article … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, Tasks, Workflows | Tagged | 13 Comments

Three more tips on using TextExpander

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Aleh Cherp

Over five years of using TextExpander I’ve saved myself typing whooping 400,000 characters (a medium-size PhD dissertation). Yet, there are always new ways to use this amazing software. Here are three recent examples I’ve introduced into my workflows: 1. Names with accented characters … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Tasks | Tagged , | 6 Comments

What software do I really need for academic work on Mac?

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Aleh Cherp

A reader has just challenged me to re-think the software I use for academic work on Mac. Well, there are over 250 items in my Applications folder, but how many do I need to remain productive? So imagine that I have a completely new Mac with no … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Bibliographies, Email, Files, Graphics, Notes, Presentations, Projects, Tasks, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , , | 97 Comments

Three things I would like to see in OmniFocus 2

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Aleh Cherp

I have recently started trying OmniFocus 2, the new version of my favorite task management software from OmniGroup, scheduled to be released in June. While all in all I like the changes in the new version, I think three important features … Continue reading →

Posted in Tasks | Tagged | 8 Comments

Daily planning with TaskPaper and TextExpander

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Aleh Cherp

Have you ever tried to take your days one by one when they kept coming to you all at once? I have many times. To keep my days under control I use simple daily plans generated by a combination of … Continue reading →

Posted in Automation, Tasks | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Responding to reviewer’s comments with Ulysses and TaskPaper

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Aleh Cherp

There is plenty of serious and humorous advice on how to deal with reviewers’ comments to your manuscripts submitted to peer review journals. This post is about two apps: Ulysses and TaskPaper that make this job less tedious and frustrating … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Tasks, Workflows, Writing | Tagged , | 4 Comments

OmniFocus 2 and OmniOutliner 4 on their way … at last!

Posted on December 22, 2012 by Aleh Cherp

The OmniGroup announced its plans to release OmniFocus 2 and OmniOutliner 4 in the first quarter of 2013. Both are very welcome and some would say long overdue. In the last couple of years the group focused on developing the … Continue reading →

Posted in Presentations, Tasks | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Overcoming OmniFocus’ myopia: OmniOutliner and the yet-to-be-discovered academic planning software

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Aleh Cherp

One of the five things that should be kept out of OmniFocus are project plans. There are several good reasons for that. OmniFocus is designed to provide an unambiguous list of concrete things that both should and can be done … Continue reading →

Posted in Collaboration, Projects, Tasks, Time | Tagged , | 26 Comments