Confusion with Due Dates
 

Loving OmniFocus so far! However, I have a question about using due dates. I've looked at multiple old threads on the topic and I'm still confused. Here's what I'd like to do. An Example:

- My dogs heart medicine is given to him around the 1st of every month. It's okay if I'm off by a day or two, but I'd like to give it to him as close as I can to the 1st.

- If I don't give it to him on the 1st, I can't give it to him the next month on the first. I need to wait 30 days. So if I don't get around to it until the 5th, the due date for the next month would be the 5th.

So I set up a due date for next month for the 1st. I set up a due soon warning 3 days in advance so I can make sure I have the medicine. And I set it up to recur one month after marked completed.

One, is that the best way to do what I'm shooting for? I tried using start dates, but I then don't get a warning, and I also want the task to show up in "flagged or due soon". That's very important to me.

And two, I can not for the life of me wrap my head around what time of the day I want the default due time to be. I don't really want a particular time. I just want the task to show up as due on the date it's due at midnight (or the turn of the next day). So should I put 12:01 Am? Or 12:00 Am?

Any help is greatly appreciated :) Thanks!

[QUOTE=jessica;80600]

And two, I can not for the life of me wrap my head around what time of the day I want the default due time to be. I don't really want a particular time. I just want the task to show up as due on the date it's due at midnight (or the turn of the next day). So should I put 12:01 Am? Or 12:00 Am?

[/QUOTE]

I'm not at my Mac so can't verify that repeating options, though what you're doing sounds right to me. As far as the due time, you want 11:59pm. That's the last minute of the day, meaning that the task is due that day, but not overdue until the next day.

[QUOTE=jessica;80600]And two, I can not for the life of me wrap my head around what time of the day I want the default due time to be. I don't really want a particular time. I just want the task to show up as due on the date it's due at midnight (or the turn of the next day). So should I put 12:01 Am? Or 12:00 Am?
[/QUOTE]
I set my default due time to be 5 PM. I certainly don't stop doing things at 5, but for anything that might involve other people, that's a reasonable default, because after 5 many businesses won't be answering the phone, I'll have missed the last mail pickup, etc. For things not involving other people, the exact time at which I get it done is less likely to matter. It's just a default, though, and if August 4, 8:37 PM is the right value for the action I'm creating, typing "8/4 8:37p" isn't much more trouble than typing "8/4".

As a handy shortcut, in due date fields, OmniFocus interprets "today" as, well, today, at your default due time, and "tonight" as today, at 11 PM. For start dates, today is at 12:00 AM, tonight is 11 PM.

[QUOTE=jessica;80600]If I don't give it to him on the 1st, I can't give it to him the next month on the first. I need to wait 30 days. So if I don't get around to it until the 5th, the due date for the next month would be the 5th.

So I set up a due date for next month for the 1st. I set up a due soon warning 3 days in advance so I can make sure I have the medicine. And I set it up to recur one month after marked completed.
[/QUOTE]

This is a real edge case, but I like dogs, so I'm just going to throw it out there. Might be worth changing the repetition to "30 days". "1 month" currently, the app does what you want. However, if we changed what 1 month meant for any reason in the future, February might throw the schedule off.

While the chances of that happening are really small, the chances of us changing 30 days to mean something other than 30 days are even smaller. :-)

Thanks brian. I'll change that.

[QUOTE=Brian;80689]This is a real edge case, but I like dogs, so I'm just going to throw it out there. Might be worth changing the repetition to "30 days". "1 month" currently, the app does what you want. However, if we changed what 1 month meant for any reason in the future, February might throw the schedule off.[/QUOTE]

I think I should point out that the scenario Brian was concerned about is already true in OmniFocus: "1 month" means 1 calendar month, not 30 days. So if your monthly repetition starts on the 5th of January, it will repeat on the 5th of February, March, etc.—unlike "30 days", which would repeat on the 4th of February, then the 6th of March (assuming it's not a leap year), etc.

Default Due Times for projects
 

I think this might be hinted at here, but it would be great if we could set a default time for due dates within each project itself.

I know I have a home folder, and I'd love for all the tasks in the home folder to have a midnight deadline. Projects within the work folder should have a due time of five, by default. I cannot, however, seem to set this currently and would love to have that ability down the road.

I realize that this is a two part request, the first being setting default due times for projects, the other being able to set defaults for a folder, and not just projects.

That's a great idea.

Note that you need to use Help → Send Feedback to submit feature suggestions to get them entered in the development database. (See [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=3734"]this sticky thread[/URL] at the top of the forum for details.)

So one month means the first of every month, which could be in 29, 30, or 31 days? So in order to guarantee every 30 days I need to specify '30 days'?

I hope I got it right :)

[QUOTE=jessica;81239]So one month means the first of every month, which could be in 29, 30, or 31 days? [/quote]

Yes, if the original due date was set for the first day of the month. One month means from a particular date of the month to the same date the following month. The 15th of July will repeat again the 15th of August. The only deviation from this is if the next month does not have that particular date. If that's the case, then the next repeat will happen on the last day of the month. As example, a task created as due on January 31 will be due again February 28, again March 31, and again April 30...

[quote]So in order to guarantee every 30 days I need to specify '30 days'?[/quote]

That is correct.