Product: OmniFocus-1.x
Tag:
Date: 2010-04-28 13:11:22 -0700
Builder: omnibuild
Host: tb106i.private.omnigroup.com
Revision: 131410

Selecting a context to delete and then clicking on the minus button at the bottom of the Context Sidebar causes the sidebar to expand to the right, click 2-3x more it continues to expand, until it disappears.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;76509]P.S. — You can put your Inbox "on hold" now by using this [URL="http://people.omnigroup.com/kc/DebugOmniFocus/DeactivateInbox.html"]Deactivate Inbox[/URL] page. This should work in the OmniFocus 1.8 sneaky peeks as well as the iPhone app—though I should note that it's not yet supported and doesn't have a lot of testing.[/QUOTE]

After a couple of days of use, this is working well for me. Thanks, Ken!

I still think a more general solution might be helpful to avoid confounding the context of a parent with the default context for children. I don't use the default context field, so this doesn't affect my personal workflow. As such, I'll let others make the argument for that.

Being able to add a child in the context list.

When I find an action that ends up spawning child smaller actions, I flip back over to projects and add children, then back to the context.

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;76388]Ken,

I tend to use context mode mostly for 'doing', so I'm only viewing available actions anyway. Besides that, I never have the No Context bin selected: I don't want to see the inbox items, since I haven't committed to them; and tasks don't escape my inbox without a context.

This gets at why the current implementation doesn't actually do what I hoped it would for my workflow. I expected that having parents show up in context mode would let me retire my [URL="http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html"]Verify Next Actions Exist[/URL] script. However, in day-to-day use I don't see any parents popping up in context mode, because I'm not viewing the No Context bin and none of my parents have a default context. (I don't use default contexts, because then tasks might automatically and accidentally get the wrong context.)

So, projects and groups still stall until my evening review when I run the script. If the script identifies a parent without an incomplete child, then I [I]am[/I] using the No Context bin to navigate to the item.
[/QUOTE]

Same for me.

[QUOTE=curt.clifton;76615]I don't use the default context field, so this doesn't affect my personal workflow. As such, I'll let others make the argument for that.[/QUOTE]

It appears that I am one of those who need to make this argument, then! :-)

Setting the Inbox "on hold" feels very awkward in my hands. It still gives the impression of a "hack" and does not give me the peace of mind that one expects of a GTD solution.

I fathom that adding a genuine "context" field for projects/groups in addition to the existing "default context" field involves quite a bit of work on the part of the terrific OF developers. But you guys have spoiled us [users] and I think that a very respectable number of us expects nothing less of you than a real, intuitive, "healthy" solution: Please add that extra field. Or, at least, add an option "hard wiring" the placement of projects/groups in a dedicated bin.

A comment from the developers on this suggestion (which has been voiced by a great number of users here) would be very much appreciated.

I like the idea of a project having a default context of it's actions. Maybe even it's last completed action... unless a project has a default context assigned.

This would mean, whenever completing the last action of a project or action group, the project would be in the same context that the action is in.

A person can either complete the project / action group, or add children to it.


Another thought is to move the project / action group into the stalled project filter once the project / action group doesn't have any children.

Either one of these would free me from curt's next action script.

Big changes today. I'm now seeing both Projects (with no tasks, in bold) as well as future tasks (in gray) in my Next Actions list. I saw this in the release notes "Since projects are now actionable, they're now eligible to become their own next actions" but was surprised to see future actions are now appearing along with Next Actions.

I'm not too happy with all my taskless Projects suddenly becoming Next Actions but you all think about this more than I do so I'll probably figure out how this is supposed to work (be sure all of my Projects have some actions and auto-complete, or are on hold) and it will be for the best.

But why future actions? They are neither actionable nor requiring attention so why are they now appearing?

Problem with Next Actions Perspective in Omnifocus build v77.48 r131891
 

In build v77.48 r131891, I have a perspective to view only next actions; However, I am seeing actions that shouldn't be shown. For example, I am seeing actions that are not supposed to start until later in the future even though they are the next action(s) for their respective projects. The perspective settings I have are
context filter: active
grouping: context
sorting: due
availability filter: next action
status filter: any status
estimated time filter: any duration
I don't remember seeing this problem in the previous alpha builds

The behavior appears to start with r131859...

[QUOTE=pjb;76852]I'm now seeing both Projects (with no tasks, in bold) as well as future tasks (in gray) in my Next Actions list.

…

But why future actions? They are neither actionable nor requiring attention so why are they now appearing?[/QUOTE]

Woops, sorry, that was a bug—thanks for reporting it!

It's been fixed for the next sneaky peek.