Viewing projects with missing next action
 

Anyone know a way to view projects that have no next action in OmniFocus?

Besides the cool script by Curt?

Does the "stalled" option in the project menu (first menu on left in view bar) do what you're looking for?

-Dennis

Almost... and I want it to work. However, it includes projects that have actions with a future date.

So what you really want is projects with no remaining actions?

If the only complaint with the current Stalled filter is that it includes projects where there is an action with a future start date, why not set the start date on those projects to be the start date of those actions? The Stalled filter won't show projects that are pending. You could keep the review interval short if you want to be sure that they still get some eyeball time while waiting for the start date to arrive.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;62003]So what you really want is projects with no remaining actions?[/QUOTE]

I see projects with no remaining actions and projects with no next action as the same thing.

Projects with an action that has a future start date, has a next action. It just hasn't started yet.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;62004]If the only complaint with the current Stalled filter is that it includes projects where there is an action with a future start date, why not set the start date on those projects to be the start date of those actions? The Stalled filter won't show projects that are pending. You could keep the review interval short if you want to be sure that they still get some eyeball time while waiting for the start date to arrive.[/QUOTE]

Interesting idea...

I have a lot of projects with waiting for actions with a future start date.

Every day I go through my waiting for context with the available actions filter on. For actions that I need to push into the future, I change the start date so that it disappears from my waiting for context.

Monitoring my projects to make sure the start date matches the actions start seems like more work to make the software work.

I could change how I work with waiting for items, and never have a start date for the waiting for items.

My approach to using OF with GTD is to not show actions that I can do nothing about and processing buckets until they are empty (inboxes, contexts)

Every day I go through my available waiting for list, and process that list until it is empty. If a waiting for item needs more time, I move the start date into the future.

[QUOTE=SpiralOcean;62006]
Projects with an action that has a future start date, has a next action. [/QUOTE]

Not as far as OmniFocus is concerned, it seems. Pull up a view that only shows next actions and have a look at a project where the first action has a future start date. See any next actions? :-)

[QUOTE=SpiralOcean;62008]Interesting idea...

I have a lot of projects with waiting for actions with a future start date.

Every day I go through my waiting for context with the available actions filter on. For actions that I need to push into the future, I change the start date so that it disappears from my waiting for context.

Monitoring my projects to make sure the start date matches the actions start seems like more work to make the software work.
[/quote]

The OF implementation of "stalled" seems to match what I see in the dictionary -- a project on which you cannot currently do anything to advance it toward completion. If you want to use different definitions than the designers had in mind, there might be some more friction involved. But you've got good scripting skills, and it seems like a script that fixed your project start dates to match the start date of the first action wouldn't be too much of a challenge, and would allow you to use the rest of the tools the way you want, no?

[quote]
I could change how I work with waiting for items, and never have a start date for the waiting for items.

My approach to using OF with GTD is to not show actions that I can do nothing about and processing buckets until they are empty (inboxes, contexts)

Every day I go through my available waiting for list, and process that list until it is empty. If a waiting for item needs more time, I move the start date into the future.[/QUOTE]

Instead of going with a script that scanned the entire database, like Curt's, perhaps the model to adapt would be something like the Defer script. See an action that needs to be postponed a bit, select it, fire your script and it takes care of adjusting the project start date for you while it does the same for the action.

Are you using the stalled filter in context mode or project mode? I only use it in project mode, when reviewing, and there it seems appropriate to show actions where I can do nothing. For actual execution of actions, it seems rather irrelevant!

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;62011]Not as far as OmniFocus is concerned, it seems. Pull up a view that only shows next actions and have a look at a project where the first action has a future start date. See any next actions? :-)[/QUOTE]

I've always assumed the next actions filter was for available next actions.