Projects without Next Actions?
 

First let me say this: I have been searching for YEARS for a truly effective, easy-to-use program to organize my life, and everything I've tried before OmniFocus has fallen short of what I needed. OmniFocus is the program I kept wishing someone would write, and I can't say enough good things about it. Fantastic job, folks!

Now, my question.

Is there an easy way to quickly see any projects I might have that don't have a Next Action assigned?

I realize that, according to strict GTD, I ought to catch these in my weekly review anyway. But since I have many projects that may be planned out only to one or two actions, I often find myself working through all of a project's listed actions without realizing it, with the result that the project is effectively frozen until I happen to catch it in my next review, which may not be for another week.

I'd really like to be able to set up a perspective (or something) that would quickly show me all the projects without Next Actions so that I can assign actions to them and then get back to my workflow.

Is there an easy way to do this right now? I did some surfing of the forums and found some old references to one member's AppleScripts, but I wasn't clear on how they worked exactly and I'd prefer a solution from within the program if possible.

Thanks again for such an awesome product!

In planning mode, set the view bar to show "Stalled" projects (the first menu on the left, the one above the sidebar). This will filter out everything except projects with no next action.

[QUOTE=Toadling;37635]In planning mode, set the view bar to show "Stalled" projects (the first menu on the left, the one above the sidebar). This will filter out everything except projects with no next action.[/QUOTE]

Just an addendum (to state what is obvious to long-term users but might not be to new users): in OmniFocus terms, an action must be available to be a next action, so the Stalled project filter will show projects that have unavailable actions too (e.g., actions with a start date in the future, and actions in a context that is On Hold).

I think this makes sense, but others disagree.

Thanks for the advice!

Using the "Stalled Projects" filter is helpful (and I appreciate the tip!) but I'd really like something a bit more specific as well.

I'd like a way to see only projects that are "stalled" [I]because of having no Next Actions defined[/I].

In my business, I collaborate with dozens of people from around the world, and so at any given time I may have many projects where the next action is "on hold" while I'm waiting on someone else. The current "stalled" filter is a great way to see those.

But sometimes I just want to see if there are any projects that are waiting on [i]me[/i] to define actions for them, and I don't want to have to try to wade through all the other "stalled" projects to find them.

In other words, if I've just marked off a bunch of actions, I'd like to be able to click a button and see that I've now got two important projects without Next Actions defined, so that I can define them and get back to work. If I use the "stalled" filter for that, I might not see them in the midst of the 24 other projects I have that are currently waiting for someone else, not me.

I think that "stalled" should work just as it does, but that there should be an additional filter for projects without any actions defined. Does this make sense? Am I the only one who thinks this could be helpful?

Again, I love OmniFocus!

[QUOTE=YakkoW;37650]I think that "stalled" should work just as it does, but that there should be an additional filter for projects without any actions defined. Does this make sense? Am I the only one who thinks this could be helpful?[/QUOTE]

I see what you mean. Personally, I don't have much need for that capability as I don't have very many stalled projects, but I can see its value in your situation. I'd be curious to hear Omni's take on this. Maybe there's something I'm missing.

Anyway, if you feel strongly about it, you should send an official feature request via Help -> Send Feedback in the OmniFocus menu bar.

You know how stalled projects are italicized in the main pane? I kind of wish the same thing would happen in the lefthand pane, too. Anybody with me?

[QUOTE=Craig;37654]You know how stalled projects are italicized in the main pane?[/QUOTE]

Mine aren't italicized. They just appear grayed-out, which seems standard for anything that's "unavailable".

Maybe you have some custom styles applied?

-Dennis

[QUOTE=Toadling;37656]Mine aren't italicized. They just appear grayed-out, which seems standard for anything that's "unavailable".

Maybe you have some custom styles applied?[/QUOTE]

That may very well be. But at any rate, I wish the formatting alteration that happens to the project names in the main pane also happened to them in the tree pane.

[QUOTE=YakkoW;37650]
I'd like a way to see only projects that are "stalled" [I]because of having no Next Actions defined[/I].

...

I think that "stalled" should work just as it does, but that there should be an additional filter for projects without any actions defined. Does this make sense? Am I the only one who thinks this could be helpful?
[/QUOTE]

I'm with you. I wrote a script that checks for projects and action groups without next actions. It's available [URL="http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html#VerifyNA"]here[/URL].

The script adds the text "Missing NA" to the end of each project without a next action. You can then use the OmniFocus search field to filter down to those projects. It's not as graceful as built-in filtering, but does the trick for me.

Thanks, Curt. I did in fact find and download your script, and I agree that it's helpful as a temporary workaround. Thanks for making that available!

Of course, as you say, it's not as graceful as built-in filtering, and does require a few extra steps (adding the text, searching for the text, then removing the text). It's far better than nothing and I'm very glad you wrote it, but I'm really hoping that in the future, OmniFocus will include a built-in filter for this so that we don't have to create workarounds.