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Originally Posted by malisa
Thanks. As I've said, I'm more inclined to think I'm misunderstanding than I am to think it's a bug. I'll definitely report!
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I'm of the camp that you should report odd things even if it eventually turns out that it was a misunderstanding on your part. After all, in doing so you're providing feedback about the design, and if many others have the same misunderstanding, that's an indication that the design and/or the documentation needs revisiting. When in doubt, report it!
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I'm trying to move away from using start dates. I found that as I was using start dates to hide things until I thought I might be ready to do them, more often than not, they'd show up and I wouldn't be ready for them. It was a continual parade of things showing up when their start date hit and then getting a new future start date. I'm not working on much that has true due dates, just trying to get a bunch of stuff done that I want to get done. Therefore I've had less of a sense of urgency than I'd like.
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One of the things that Merlin Mann said in his talk at the Omni booth at Macworld this year was that he only puts things in OmniFocus if he intends to do them in the next two weeks or so. To me, that begs the question of what do I do for a trusted storage system for all the things that I hope to do outside of that window, and my answer has been to put it in OmniFocus, just like the stuff I hope to get done sooner. I'm not Merlin, Merlin's not me, we're both happier this way, I'm sure :-)
Despite your misgivings about start dates, I think using them in conjunction with the hold facility might be the right track for you. Every week or so do a pass through all of your projects, and be merciless about putting them on hold or setting a future start date. Put just about everything you aren't planning to actively work in the next week or two on some sort of hold, and don't add anything more until you finish something off. Treat projects just like you would physical stuff in a major decluttering project -- I'm not going to buy that new book/CD/jacket/pot/pet/gadget until I have a place for it in my life, and making that place means something else has to go. You only have so much attention to spread across your projects, so make sure the active ones get enough to make a difference. Then go back to that list of projects you put on hold and promote a few more to the big leagues. You can use start dates to dribble in the calendar-based ones at the right time.