[rmathes]

Hi Ken, thanks for joining the fun.

No, that does nothing to help.

I just selected it and my display didn’t change at all.

I hope you are getting the fact that I'm a fan, I'm not here to throw stones at OmniFocus. I love you guys and I really like the look and feel of this product and would like to see it work to the point I could consider switching to it.

I hope you also get that OmniFocus does not allow me to focus at all on what I want to focus on. Not even close. Ironic, huh?

The question for you guys should then be, is the way I want to focus on my tasks reasonable or unreasonable? Am I trying to use the product in a way that is reasonable, or am I trying to take the product somewhere it shouldn’t go? If the former, you need to fix this. If the latter, you need to politely tell me it ain’t happening and to have a nice day.

I would assert that if I can assign due or start dates, and if I can supposedly filter my tasks based on these values, then that filtering should actually mean something and instead of just sorting everything by these dates, which is essentially what happens, I should have a way to FOCUS in and see only what I need to do TODAY, and nothing else. Isn’t that the idea of ‘focusing’ as presented in this app?

[Ken Case]

Originally Posted by rmathes

I just selected it and my display didn’t change at all.

Wait, it sure does for me: when I select "Coming Due" from the action filter popup, I only see items that are colored orange or red, i.e. items that are coming due soon (where "soon" is defined in preferences) or are overdue. Is that not what you're seeing?

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

In the latest build (94868), you can select "Coming Due" from Context Mode's action filter (as an alternative to "Next," "Available," etc.). Does that help?

Nice! I like it. An instant replacement for one of my often-used but very-fiddly perspectives.

[rmathes]

Ken.....ok, I see how it works. Nothing changed because of the combo of tasks I had entered, their dates, and the preference setting. If I change ‘coming soon’ to the shortest setting, 24 hours, then it does eliminate a lot of what I was seeing but I still see what I’m scheduled to do tomorrow in addition to the other stuff.

Closer, but still not letting me focus in on what I need to do today and only what I need to do today.

again, once I get in execution mode, I don’t want to see what I'm scheduled to do tomorrow, or any other time other than right now.

Nice addition to the feature set, though.

[Ken Case]

Originally Posted by rmathes

Closer, but still not letting me focus in on what I need to do today and only what I need to do today.

Would it help if we added an option for defining "soon" as "today"? (Before midnight, I presume?)

[cyleigh]

When I select the Coming Due filter, I see things that are not yet available (haven't reached their start date yet). Is this the desired functionality?

[jdh]

I'm seeing that in my "Coming Due" filter, but only when the actual "Due Date" fits within the "Due Soon" window in Preferences.

There's probably some debate as to whether or not that's desirable behavior.... However, technically I would think that a "Coming Due" filter should by definition show things that are going to be due in that timeframe, regardless of the start date.

[Melan]

Sounds like a conflict between wanting to see "things I have to do now" and "things I have to do today". There's no way of telling what each person would prefer to see...

[Cottser]

I have some tasks that repeat daily, so seeing those in Coming Due (grayed out, mind you) is a bit distracting. Just my two cents.

edit: as much as I hate to say it, it almost seems like we could use another dropdown in the View bar. Looking at the columns in the main outline, we have Focus for the project column, the Duration filter in the View bar for that column, and Flagged filter as well, but nothing for Start and Due dates. Thoughts?

[Chris]

Originally Posted by rmathes

What I want is pretty straightforward. I want ONE list that shows me ALL the tasks that are due today or prior, and I don’t want to see ANY lists for ANY future tasks, whether they be for tomorrow, next month or next year. I want to absolutely focus in on what needs to be done TODAY.

Well, you can't get one list for everything, but you certainly can get only those things due today or early (in separate lists), without future tasks showing. Just set the start date to be the same as the due date and filter on available rather than remaining.