Tickler Date
 

I'm just thinking outloud here and would love to hear feedback.

I am currently using start dates for tasks I'm not ready to get to yet. For example, if I want to buy a book but don't want to get it just yet because I'm in the middle of two other books, I will set the start date for two weeks from today. Two weeks later I get reminded that I wanted to buy that book.

I was wondering what thoughts would be on an option for a tickler date. My vision is to set the tickler date between the start and due dates, and have the task pop up as active, but with a different badge to indicate it's just a reminder of the tasks availability. You can then set the task to be active, or deferred for a set amount of time.

For example, I set the task "buy GTD by David Allen" to start today, tickle in 7 days, and due by the end of Dec. At this point, the task is shown as active in the proper project and context. Using the inspector, or a switch like the flag switch, will allow me to defer it to the determined tickle time. At this point the task is active but somehow distinguished as deferred. View options can hide deferred tasks, or list only deferred tasks.

7 Days later the deferred task will change color to call your attention to the fact that a decision has to be made, to either activate the task or defer it once again.

What do you think?

Are you using review dates on projects? They do what I think you're asking for.

Actually I'm not. I have to look into that. Thanks

Update: I've been using OF since it's first beta and have never realize how powerful the review mode is. I am going to implement this into my workflow and revisit this thread in a week or two. Thanks again.

I love the review date feature. I used OF without it for about 2 months of the original beta, but would be lost without review dates now.

Planning mode, grouped by review date, is how I do my daily reviews. I also use On-hold Projects, grouped by review date in my weekly reviews.

A couple of old but useful threads on reviews are [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=4641&highlight=using+reviews"]here[/URL] and [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=5042&highlight=using+reviews"]here[/URL].

I think Omni does new users a disservice by not putting the Mark Reviewed stamp in the set of default toolbar buttons.

Mark Reviewed is in the contextual menu when you right-click on a reviewed item. If you really want it in the toolbar, write an Applescript for it.

There is a provided toolbar button for Mark Reviewed. No script is needed, you just have to customize the toolbar and drag the button to it. I think Will's point was just that the Review system would be more "discoverable" if the button were in the default set.

Yep, Curt hit the nail squarely on the head. Perhaps it is seen as too closely linked to GTD, but it seems to me that some sort of review system is essential to any organizational scheme to make sure your system is effective.