Ethan J. A. Schoonover at the Kinkless blog has just finished penning a series titled Five Steps to a Kinkless Desktop. Some of you might know Mr. Schoonover and Kinkless from the AppleScript mod he provides for The OmniGroup's OmniOutliner Pro, which can turn an OO Pro document into a powerful, though somewhat clunky, GTD utility (soon to be replaced by a full-blown product called OmniFocus).

Getting back to Ethan's five step process, however: it's more of an exploration of what's wrong with both some of today's software (i.e. - the fact that most browsers default to dumping all your downloaded files to the desktop) as well as our own habits. He begins the series with step 1: The "No Mercy Cleanup, with instructions on how to get started with a broad-sweeping gesture to get things started, and rolls on through the rest of the series offering tips and tricks for not only keeping your desktop clean, but more importantly: developing good habits for getting your work done.

For those who aren't interested in hopping on the GTD bandwagon, fear not: while some of his methods and ideals are inspired by the GTD paradigm, a crash course in Getting Thing Done just to learn how to get things done is nowhere to be found. This is simply good clean tips and tricks - sometimes involving Mac OS X-specific software, mind you - for tidying up your desktop, and then keeping it that way.

The OmniGroup is setting out to beta release its "Mysterious New Product" OmniPlan software tomorrow, July 26. The product is a project management based application that lets users come under budget and on time. Not much information has been released about the product.

There is a private beta of the application that has been going on, with some outstanding reviews for ease of use, and capabilities. This is sure a welcome addition to the project management scene, especially if it really aids in coming in under budget, and on time! Omni currently produces application for Mac OS X only, so chances are, PC users are out of luck.