[bayard]

I don't know how so many people can have failed to read DA's GTD carefully, and/or form the misimpression that priorities aren't "canonical" (BTW, the theological tone of much of these discussions seems silly & off-putting).

Priority IS 1 of the 4 criteria DA lists as determinants of whether to perform a particular task (p. 49 in my edition):
1. Context
2. Time available
3. Energy available
4. Priority.

IMO, or at least for my business, DA has these criteria in the wrong order.
Priority usually trumps the other criteria, at least to a degree (if it's important enough, I'll work on it even if tired, or put in extra time, etc.). And his order fundamentally misconstrues the context/priority relationship (again, at least for me). Theocratic GTDers treat context as the INdependent variable, when in fact it's usually a DEpendendent one. I.e., a context is a place I go to in order to execute an important task. I'm much more likely to change contexts bec. of priorities than the reverse. Also, in this highly wired age, context has lost much of its discriminating/resolving power in distinguishing tasks. My work's global; there's little I can't do from a hotel in Singapore nearly as well as from my office in Virginia.

Conversely, something DA quite rightly and helpfully warns against but that also seems widely overlooked is using artificial deadlines for what are really ASAP tasks, just to to try to push their accomplishment. My business abounds in fuzzy deadlines, so this admonition is right on target. I suspect, though, that many use the very thing he warns against to compensate for omission of priorities.

BTW flags (which are merely dichotomous) just don't cut it for capturing the range of priorities.

In terms of UI, OF could accommodate priorities just like other selectable columns under the View menu. One of OF's more useful features for me--though I suspect it's probably used by few--is "Estimated time"; I can't grasp why OG includes that, but not priority in the same way.

For me, the lack of priorities is a killer issue. After trying valiantly to use OF, including some of the tortured workarounds suggested for the illogical omission, I've given up on it, although I keep my copy up to date, living in hope that they'll see the light on this fundamental & essentially simple issue.

This is a real shame because of OF good features. At the moment, I'm using ThinkingRock, but haven't decided whether that's really a long-term solution. I wish they'd fix OF. That single change would make a critical difference for me.