[Baarogue]

I use OF for my nightly tasks at work (gy shift) and used the way OF smart-sorted tasks with a due-time to the top of the list to cause my important tasks to be prioritized, regardless of project they're in.

For instance, I have several projects named TA1, TA2, TA3, T2, T2-2, and Misc Work, in that order, all with context: Office. I would give important tasks a due-time to cause them to be sorted to the top of the list by due-time in context view, regardless of which project they were in. So for instance, while most of the tasks in Misc Work wouldn't be sorted above any tasks from the other projects, the two important tasks in that project that had due-times would be.

NOW that OF has stupid-sort, stubbornly adhering to the task order w/i the project, and the project order w/i the context, it's practically useless to me.

I'm talking about over 200 tasks here on a nightly basis, that I now have to scroll up and down through to find the ones of importance as they come up - a tedious method that was the very reason I purchased OF for in the first place. I might as well return to a paper checklist and egg timer.

The only solution I can think of would be to put all my important tasks into one project and somehow marking them with a note which REAL project they're from. That's still over 100 tasks I have to edit in order to make it work again when it was NOT broken before.

Thanks Obama!

[Christian]

I understand you want to use this as a tool for hour nightly shifts. Consequently I take it your tasks that you assigned due dates to are due on various times the very night you want to use OF to display them.

If that is the case, did you try the "due" perspective? It will list all due tasks, hence those which you prioritised. It will still sort by project but since it's only the important ones that should be no problem.

Alternatively, do you have access to a mac?

[Baarogue]

Originally Posted by Christian

I understand you want to use this as a tool for hour nightly shifts. Consequently I take it your tasks that you assigned due dates to are due on various times the very night you want to use OF to display them.

If that is the case, did you try the "due" perspective? It will list all due tasks, hence those which you prioritised. It will still sort by project but since it's only the important ones that should be no problem.

Alternatively, do you have access to a mac?

I don't see any such "due" perspective. In view options there's "Next Action", "Available" (selected), "Remaining", and "All."

There used to be "due soon" and "overdue" categories but those were removed a few updates ago and replaced with "Forecast" - and I did miss them when they vanished. Forecast does not do what I need.

No, I don't have a Mac.

[Christian]

If you go to you OF home screen there should be a section called "perspectives" (all the way down the list). Press it. Select "due". See of that does what you need.

[Baarogue]

Originally Posted by Christian

If you go to you OF home screen there should be a section called "perspectives" (all the way down the list). Press it. Select "due". See of that does what you need.

OF home screen has, in order, Inbox, Projects, Contexts, Map, Forecast, Flagged, and Search. Along the bottom are the buttons Home, Sort, Sync, Inbox, and Settings.

I appreciate you trying to help, but before you go further how about we check we're on the same page. I'm using OmniFocus for iPhone, 1.13 -- Nov. 10, 2011

[Christian]

Im on 1.12.1 (iPhone 4). Now that I looked for it I found the settings for perspectives are actually gone. Didn't notice them disappearing as I still have the original perspectives themselves. Maybe that has been done when forecast was introduced. In a way forecast does what the "due" perspective used to do: show you which tasks are due today. Why does that not work for your specific needs?

[bertilak]

While I love the Siri integration included in the most recent update, I detest the new sorting for contexts.

I used to be able to sort my library and actions by due date in OF on my Mac, sync, and then on my iPhone view a neat and concise list of next actions sorted context and then due date (i.e., by tapping the Contexts option on my iPhone). Now that contexts are sorted by project, I need to scroll through each context list to determine which actions to work on. Additionally, since I have so many projects, there doesn't appear to be an easy way to view my most "urgent" next actions sorted by context. In my view this is a mess.

Is there a simple perspective I can create that will enable me see next actions sorted by context and then due date? I created separate ones for each context on my Mac, but it's not nearly as elegant as the default functionality prior to the upgrade. Hopefully this all makes sense.

[jdh]

Wow, just noticed that myself. I'm sort of wondering what the logic for that was, since context lists don't otherwise provide any meaningful view of project information -- it's not like there are project headings and groupings to go by.

I would normally expect that when working in context view the most urgent actions should normally filter to the top -- that would be flagged actions and those with due dates, and I would especially expect this when the view is set to "Next Actions," since the most important next actions are those with dates attached to them.

Perhaps I'm missing something obvious that isn't part of my own workflow, but I'm not even understanding in what ways the new sort order would even be useful. My project sorting and organization in OF is somewhat arbitrary and certainly not based on any kind of priority model.

[SFF]

I agree--this change threw me for a loop. I totally understand why someone would want their actions within a context sorted by project--in fact, I had already created a perspective to do just that. However, that's why I was a little annoyed at the change. The new default context view essentially duplicates a perspective that I already created, and "overwrote" what I was using Context view for--which was to view all my tasks within a context automatically sorted by due date.

Assuming you have OmniFocus for Mac, the solution is simple--just create a new perspective in Context view and sort your actions by "Due". Save the new perspective and sync, then sync the iPhone and you should be good to go.

[jdh]

I'm not sure a new perspective really solves it appropriately, however... Unlike on the Mac, perspectives on the iPhone are single-level lists with no hierarchy to use for "drill-down" filtering. So to make this work with the same way with perspectives I would need to create an individual perspective for each context that I want to have sorted differently (which for me would amount to at least a dozen new perspectives).

I guess everyone's workflow is different, but I'm personally still not seeing what advantage there is to sorting by project in the context view. Context view is for doing things, and I would think that those tasks that have a higher priority due to due dates or flags should naturally be prioritized at the top so that one doesn't risk missing them.

With this change, it feels like the context view has just become another "planning" view.