Support for repeating actions

[mprewitt]

I am currently using a blend of iCal, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, and Sciral Consistency to manage my tasks. Currently OO does an OK job of handling the bulk of my "next actions." But one frustration is the constant need to rely on a separate calendar for repeating actions, and then to add those back in to OO if I want to see a comprehensive list of next actions that are due. I've been hoping that OmniFocus will solve this predicament.

So... I propose that Omni add a method of setting up recurring actions within OF.

I thought about an alternative -- subscribing to calendar data within OF, and perhaps that would make sense within the "gathering" stage if you are, for example, pulling appointments from someone else's or a group's calendar. But in general, I see a calendar appointment for oneself as the next step AFTER determining next actions, but something decided beforehand. And thus the calendar should be more of an "output" than an "input." For this reason I think recurring actions should be an option within OF itself, with no reliance on an outside calendaring application.

[yucca]

Since you are using OO, why not use KinklessGTD? It should meet your needs for recurring actions. I am sure OF will at least include similar capabilities when it ships, but I'll let someone from Omni comment on that.

[mprewitt]

I thought Kinkless required OOP? I do not have the pro version.

[michelle]

Yes, Kinkless requires OmniOutliner Pro because it takes advantage of named styles in Outliner Pro.

Thanks for the feature suggestion. We are particularly interested in supporting features already available in Kinkless, so you can expect to see support for repeating tasks.

Michelle
Omni Group

[Luhmann]

One important type of repeating task are periodic tasks. Repeating tasks reoccur at the same time each week or month. Periodic tasks, however, are tasks which need to happen at a set time from the completion of the last task. For instance, if you need to backup your computer every 7 days, it doesn't make sense to do it every saturday, since that might not always work for you. Instead, you want to be reminded to backup again 7 days after completing the last task. There are a million ways in which periodic tasks are useful, but I see very few programs supporting them. I find this surprising because it should be easy enough to have an option of scheduling a new, identical task, at a set interval when marking the first task complete.

[pheski]

One important type of repeating task are periodic tasks. Repeating tasks reoccur at the same time each week or month. Periodic tasks, however, are tasks which need to happen at a set time from the completion of the last task. For instance, if you need to backup your computer every 7 days, it doesn't make sense to do it every saturday, since that might not always work for you. Instead, you want to be reminded to backup again 7 days after completing the last task. There are a million ways in which periodic tasks are useful, but I see very few programs supporting them. I find this surprising because it should be easy enough to have an option of scheduling a new, identical task, at a set interval when marking the first task complete.

kinkless allows you to set a task as either repeating based on the calendar (every week) or task completion (1 week after you check it as complete).

Peter