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-   -   Soon, Someday/Maybe, Books, Movies, etc.... context or project? (http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=23748)

tlester 2012-03-20 12:46 PM

Soon, Someday/Maybe, Books, Movies, etc.... context or project?
 
Hi all -

I have a couple of questions. I know this has probably been discussed in the past, but I'm having a hard time searching and finding a complete answer to my question(s).

As most of probably do, I have a handful of wait time "groupings" for things like Books to Read, Movies to Watch, Someday/Maybe, Soon, etc. Are these type of things better handled as groups or contexts? I had always assumed contexts, but then I realized that I can't put a context on a group, so therefore, I can't put a partially flushed out project into a "soon" context. So, is it better to create a "soon" folder and mark the project as being on-hold?

How do you guys handle this kind of thing? I'm trying to get better at hiding the actions I'm not ready or willing to work on. I'm really big on documenting my ideas on Omnifocus, but I need to be able to appropriately hide them when they are still just ideas.

Thanks in advance!

whpalmer4 2012-03-20 01:03 PM

Can't put a context on a group? Why not? Maybe I don't understand why you're trying to do...

Have you considered using folders that are marked as dropped? You can throw projects or single action lists in such folders and they will be visible when you want them to be in the project view, but will not ever appear in the working context views. No need to actually put the project on hold or a future start date; it is sufficient to just put it in the dropped folder. Just drag it out when you want it to be active. You still get the review tools as well.

Stargazer 2012-03-20 01:24 PM

Not sure if this is what you're asking, but I have a three-tired system:

A. Active Projects - self-evident
B. On Hold Projects - these are stored in the same folder system as the Active Projects, but put on Hold status. I use this for projects that I know I want to do, but can't get to yet.
C. Someday/Maybe -- these are stored in a separate Someday/Maybe folder (with a few subfolders inside), also on Hold status. These are for ideas that are still unformed.

So for books to read, for example, I have a sub-folder in my Someday/Maybe list for books I'd like to read someday.

tlester 2012-03-20 01:38 PM

Stargazer - Do you have any perspectives set up for looking at your on-hold projects? If so, how did you set that up?

I see how I put a project in a context, but it doesn't seem to be working. Check this out. I put my "Replace Shocks on Jeep" project in the "Soon" context. See this screen grab. You'll see in the inspector that the project is in the context "Soon"

[IMG]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7269/7001137837_dd25b8af9d_c.jpg[/IMG]

And here's a grab of the "Soon" context:

[IMG]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6855020586_7d34e13a9b_z.jpg[/IMG]

So... I'm assigning the context, but it's not actually showing up in the context.

whpalmer4 2012-03-20 01:52 PM

A project (or action group) is only treated as Available if it has no actions left to be completed. Your project still has uncompleted actions, so it is not available (though it would show up in a remaining actions view). The screen shot showing that context is cut off before we can see if you are showing available or remaining actions. Even if you are showing remaining actions, the project still would not show up if you do not have the box labeled "In Context mode: [] Show Projects and Action Groups" in the Data section of the OmniFocus preferences.

tlester 2012-03-20 01:58 PM

Ok... so it sounds to me that my "some day/maybe" type projects need to be projects OR folders in the project/planning view. And use on-hold(waiting) type contexts for actions that are waiting for a person or other dependency for me to continue to the next item.

Does that sound correct?


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