[Chris]

I do what you describe in your original post; I just move due dates around to suit myself (assuming they're self-assigned due dates). I rarely use start dates, so resetting those is not a problem. I spend most of my time in context mode, sorted and grouped by due, so if a bunch of stuff comes due today that I want to push back, I just reset it by a few days, a week, etc. If I postpone something a few times I'll reassess and eliminate the due date all together, or put it on hold, or whatever. It works for me.

As for intermediate checkpoints and hard due dates, if I wanted to do that I would just make a final action for a project (e.g. "Finish router installation") and then use an intermediate task as in your example.

The use of flags and focusing (two features I never use right now) as described by Toadling are just too much fiddling for me.