Thank you for your explanation
I would like to pick up on some points that are relevant to me:-
1) suggestion: the behaviour of "due" dates will be awkward in the planning mode ("the grouping will happen by the start or due date of the project, not by the actions contained therein")
Reply: This is NOT the behaviour that I see on my screen. When I switch to the planning mode with "due date" filtering, then I get a list that does sort by due actions rather than projects.
So I don't have the Issue that you have.
The explanation to this maybe that:- I do not use "start" or "due dates" on any project. I just use a blank start date (none) and this acts as if a project has started (i discovered this by accident during the first few minutes of using the program). So although i never apply a "due date" to the whole projects, I do still use "due dates" for some actions within projects.
Having said that, although your first point is not relevant to me, it does throw up another related issue (see point 3).
2) suggestion: Single-action lists will get grouped by the start or due date of the single-action list, which is not very useful for my "miscellaneous" list! Doesn't matter if there are any actions in the project that are actually available to work on at the moment, if the project start date was last week, the project will show up in the Started last week group.
reply: once again this is NOT the behaviour that I see on my screen (as I don't use start dates).
3) In response to "first thing", "second thing" "almost last thing" "last thing list".
Reply: I agree totally with what your saying. This is unfortunately a behavioural weakness within OF planning view. Surely when I select "due" and "next action" filtering then the "due" should overide everything. Unfortunately It doesn't.
ON A MISSION
I have been on a campaign (sort of) to try and "fight for the rights" of people who want to work in the planning mode. It's a plea really to make peope aware of what It feels like to be a new user of the application.
My personal journey (step-by-step mission) to master Omnifocus is as follows :-
1) master the planning mode in it's basic (barebones form)
2) master the context mode (barebones form)
3) look at "blending" of the "planning view" and the "context view"
4) start using advanced tools
However, I cannot rest until i'm happy with the functionality of the planning mode. Many things either don't make sense or are illogical.
Whenever I make a posting pointing out some difficulties in the planning view then I normally get "told off" and told that i'm using the program wrongly and to work in the "context mode".
Whereas in truth, the mission that I seem to be involved with is to try to get a "planning view" that functions logically, intuitively and instinctively
The background to this is that when I started using omnifocus I tried to use all the tools (including due dates, filtering and context mode). But I got lost (badly) as the omnifocus experience for me was not a very intuitive or instinctive.
In hindsight I think it's much to do with the shortcomings of the panning mode (some of which are mentioned here). In the end I wasn't getting anywhere (I remained unproductive). So I decided that I needed to master 1 thing at a time.
I decided to master the project mode first (there was so much to learn there) as my projects list swelled (transferring paper notes to electronic notes)
If you want to read more of my journey then here's 2 other posts
Beginners guide - using omnifocus to find a personal strategy of how to use omnifocus
http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=10305
Why I find "Next action" misleading!
http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=10678