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Inbox lacks a sort order Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Hi

It seems as though tasks are added to the inbox in the order they are created. In other words, there can be tasks for the same day anywhere in the inbox.

Why cant the inbox tasks be sortable on
1. date order
2. task name alphabetical order

TIA/gary
 
You can sort the Inbox, manually. Bring up Inbox view, tap edit button, drag actions into desired order. While you're at it, processing those actions into projects would be thought a good idea by most...why use OmniFocus with both arms tied behind your back?
 
You can do manually do a sort. But the inbox is meant to be a temporary storage area for you to store up ideas. Ideally, you will review your inbox, process the tasks into projects and/or different folders.

Never work out of the inbox. You can save up single action tasks into a single-action list and then create projects with multiple tasks.

This is really a GTD rule where you process everything that goes into your inbox into a proper place (a calendar, reference file/folder, different projects, etc.).

You'll want to make sure your inbox is empty so that you know what still needs to be processed and placed into the proper part of your life.

Last edited by wilsonng; 2012-12-21 at 02:10 AM..
 
While I agree 100% that it isn't desirable to work out of the Inbox, I do find the nature of OmniFocus' ubiquitous capture to be such that the filling of the Inbox is much easier than the emptying :-)

At those times when it isn't going to be practical to completely empty it (and let's face it, not everything that goes into the Inbox is of equal importance or urgency) it is helpful to have the sorting tools available for getting as much processed as possible. For example, a sort by name will coalesce all of my reading tasks into one contiguous block of actions where they can either be dealt with en masse or be out of the way as I look for other, more pressing items to process. Similarly, sorting by start or due date allows me to screen for items where I had entered a date when capturing. When I'm done "shaking the box" I prefer to restore the original ordering (date added), especially now that the new Omni mail dropbox stuffs newly added actions in near the front of the Inbox to avoid a bug (can't take the time to actually fix the bug, the long-delayed OmniFocus 2.0 is suddenly too important). I do most of my OmniFocus activity on the iPad, but Inbox processing is largely a job for the Mac because of the richer toolset.
 
I started to use the inbox as a kind of "working place", though mostly on the Mac version. I still make sure to clean it at the end of the day (well, almost every day :) ).

I changed my config to clean up items from the inbox only when a project and a context is assigned. Typically it's for those very small tasks that I think of out of nowhere, or very late at night or early in the morning when my brain is not 100% working, or this rare yet typical scenario where I start to wonder if I should use the @Bob context, email context, etc.

Of course there are the ideas that get moved, turned into a project, filed, etc. by the end of the day as usual.

I am curious if anybody is using the inbox in a similar manner? For me it seems (after a few weeks of using it this way) to fill a role not covered by the start date / due date / flag triumvirate.
 
The general GTD rule for the inbox is "if you can accomplish this task in 2 minutes or less, just do it" instead of processing it into a proper place.

That's what I try to do when I process my inbox. If it takes longer than 2 minutes to do, I'll just put it into either file reference, calendar, or my OmniFocus project list. Some longer term stuff goes into my mindmap.
 
Hi

Tkx for your comments at posting thread #2, but I didn't understand "While you're at it, processing those actions into projects". Do you mean that is done by re-opening the item and filling in the project name?
 
Although postings have reminded me that this can be done using the edit button, what I was really suggesting was two buttons which could be pressed to activate 1. date order resort and 2. task name alphabetical order resort

Quote:
Originally Posted by garyo View Post
Hi

It seems as though tasks are added to the inbox in the order they are created. In other words, there can be tasks for the same day anywhere in the inbox.

Why cant the inbox tasks be sortable on
1. date order
2. task name alphabetical order

TIA/gary
 
 


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