[mike808]

New to GTD and OmniFocus, but without realizing it, I had developed my own system over the last 20 years that had many similarities -- first with Palm / Datebk3,4,5, and the last few years with different Mac, Web & iOS tools.

A friend recently introduced me to GTD and OmniFocus, and it has definitely helped me to hone my system and be more focused, but I'm having trouble incorporating one aspect of the way I work...

I have always used Start dates & Due dates to filter my work, but I am a little perplexed by how OmniFocus uses Start dates.

After a start date has passed, I consider the task "active", the due date which may range from the same day to (in some rare cases) weeks later, is my "drop-dead -- has to be done by" date.

Now the Status Filter "Due" (and/or the Due Perspective & the Forecast screen on the iPad), is GREAT. I love being able to see what HAS TO BE DONE in the next few days!!

But I am trying to create an "Active" perspective made up of tasks that have been "started". I tried sorting by start date, but that doesn't filter out all my "flexible" items that contain no start date. Plus I would rather sort by Due Date.

I have tried grouping by start date, sorting by due date. That does put all my flexible items in one group, but that jumbles all my contexts & projects together.

I would like an "Active" perspective -- filtered by "started" (or started & flagged) that I can sort by due date and group by context or project. Maybe I'm unusual, but in my system / my logic, I would think this would be a useful list for a lot of people.

Am I missing something -- is it possible to accomplish what I want, but it's under a different area?

I have been working my way through GTD & OmniFocus for a few weeks now, and have wrestled with a few issues (like multiple contexts/tags) where I was forced to rethink my implementation/system. While I may have personally disagreed with the issue at hand, I understood the logic/principle/rationale involved with how GTD was implemented.

Am I missing a GTD "principle" that says there is a better way than this and/or I should be looking at this a different way?

Any help would be appreciated.