Why is a action with a december 15 due date showing up as due toda?
 

I have an action with december 15 due date, any reasons as to why it is showing as due today?

See attached.

Seeing more of the window might help, but I would guess that it is the project that is grouped under "due today" because it has an action that is due today. You might want to look in the context view instead of the project view. You might want to look at "Using the view bar to filter and arrange items" in the OF help.

Does "Orders and Purchases" have a due date set? It looks like it might, and an action inherits a due date from the project (or action group/nested action) if it is more restrictive. If you have a project called "File Taxes" with a due date of April 15, and put in an action "Mail return" with a due date of May 1, "Mail return" shows up as due on April 15.

[QUOTE=Lucas;89551]Seeing more of the window might help, but I would guess that it is the project that is grouped under "due today" because it has an action that is due today. You might want to look in the context view instead of the project view. You might want to look at "Using the view bar to filter and arrange items" in the OF help.[/QUOTE]
Edit: Lucas or anyone,
yup "it shows up because it has something due today"

My add on query to that is

I've uploaded two screenshots,
one with the availability filter as "next actions" and one with the availability filter as "remaining"

Under "remaining" all next actions are visible. But, even though it is sorted by due date, it doesn't show the one with the due date on the top of the list?

Further, when I make the availability filter as "next actions", the first action in the list shows, not the one with the due date..I suppose that's a limitation of "next actions" - as to how they are placed in the order even though the project is in parallel sequence?

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;89554]Does "Orders and Purchases" have a due date set? It looks like it might, and an action inherits a due date from the project (or action group/nested action) if it is more restrictive. If you have a project called "File Taxes" with a due date of April 15, and put in an action "Mail return" with a due date of May 1, "Mail return" shows up as due on April 15.[/QUOTE]

"Orders or purchases" does not have a due date. I think it would have shown in the first screenshot, that's why i included the orders or purchases heading.


I follow your logic of an action showing due on the project date. However, in this case, it isn't appearing sorted as due even though the 'sorting filter' picks 'due'.

[QUOTE=leo;89559]Edit: Lucas or anyone,
yup "it shows up because it has something due today"

My add on query to that is

I've uploaded two screenshots,
one with the availability filter as "next actions" and one with the availability filter as "remaining"

Under "remaining" all next actions are visible. But, even though it is sorted by due date, it doesn't show the one with the due date on the top of the list?

Further, when I make the availability filter as "next actions", the first action in the list shows, not the one with the due date..I suppose that's a limitation of "next actions" - as to how they are placed in the order even though the project is in parallel sequence?[/QUOTE]

You're looking at things in project mode. Project mode groups and sorts by projects, not by actions. So, your Orders or Purchases project gets grouped in the Due Today group because it has an action ("Return <blob>") which is due today. The earliest group with an action is used, so if you don't make that call today, tomorrow it will show up in the Due Yesterday group.

As for the ordering of the actions, they are shown in the order they appear in the project when viewed in Project mode. A Next Action is the first one in the list, not the one with the earliest due date! Project mode is better suited to looking at projects as organized sets of tasks rather than arbitrary collections. If you have an arbitrary collection and want to impose your own ordering so that the item you consider most important appears at the head of the list of next actions, just drag them into that order by clicking and dragging on the dot to the left of the checkbox. You'll probably only want to do that on a parallel project or single action list, however. Otherwise, Context mode is usually better for considering which action from a collection of projects to do next. There the sorting and grouping is done on a per-action basis, and it is straight-forward to have OmniFocus show you all of the actions you need to do before quitting time today without worrying about which projects contain them.

You might also give consideration to making your Orders and Purchases project a single action list instead of a parallel project. There isn't a huge distinction in functionality between the two except for the way Next Actions are treated. In a parallel project, the first available action is treated as the Next Action. In a single action list, all available actions are treated as Next Actions, and styled slightly differently by default. If you had a project where you could take several different steps as the next action, but all lead to the same goal, it makes sense to show only one of them as THE next action. A catch-all collection of odd tasks (such as your purchases and orders list) where there isn't really any interrelationship between the tasks has all available tasks offered up as next actions because it is more like a collection of very small projects where doing one doesn't make it likely that you'll need to move on to doing another, as they are not successive steps to a common goal.

Also, from a philosophical standpoint, single action lists make good containers for activities that don't have a final outcome but rather are ongoing. "Paint the house" is a project with a completion. "Maintain the lawn" is an ongoing responsibility. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from having a project called "Keep yard trimmed and weed-free, 2010" if that serves your workflow best!