[omnibob]

A pretty interesting thread I must say. I probably should have spent more time on this, but here goes a few thoughts:

Regarding priorities, my recollection from GTD and Making It All Work (David Allen's books), is that priorities shift so quickly, you should be nimble and constantly evaluate. However like many, I am lured toward the prioritization mechanism. I do use flags and ad-hoc tags in notes fields: "#focus" (and filtering on that term), at times, but when I do very regular reviews, and when needed, refer to my (GTD™) horizons of focus, I find can manage less with those kinds of things. Just sharing my experience. Quoting from several in this thread (without attribution):

"I frankly HATE context mode in OmniFocus, because you can't see groupings"

This is related to one of my few OF complaints; the "Due" filter being removed from Planning Mode. It can be quite useful to view actions by due/overdue in Context mode, however I've found it problematic to see and modify the due date of a project, SAL, or action group, in Context mode. I.e., I see a bunch of Due dates for actions, but they're inherited. I can switch to Planning mode, but that is slow, and an extra step.

"You really HAVE to use contexts to use OmniFocus effectively."

"Again I'd like to never use it but the unfortunate reality is that OmniFocus forces it on you, because many of the view options ONLY WORK in context model"

Perhaps (but I'm not quite sure on the former, for me, anyway), but I get along very well for the most part working in Planning mode in OS X. When I'm out and about (iOS OF), I use my "remote" context and its various subcontexts (plus the map) to good effect. If I'm in a hardware/home supply store, I check that for stuff to buy I'd otherwise forget. (Also: book store, gas station, electronics store, etc.)

At MacWorld 2011, Merlin Mann said basically or exactly this, regarding associating a location with multiple (sub)contexts, like: grocery store > drug store

'Because anything you can buy in a drug store, you can also buy in a grocery store.'

Genius!

I realize that isn't the same as having multiple parallel contexts, but I thought I'd mention that example.

Bob