[nicholas_j]

Hi,

Is it possible to restrict the "clean up" function so that it will only hide completed tasks in the project you are examining and not disappear completed tasks across the whole database?

(I was hoping there would be a "clean current project" button, but no such luck.)

Thanks.

[Brian]

I believe that Clean Up affects the whole database - you'll want to email the support ninjas; they can make sure the request gets added to our development database. You can email them from the help menu or by clicking this link.

Thanks!

[whpalmer4]

Out of curiosity, what does your workflow look like that would make this useful? Is this for an end-of-day review of some sort?

[Ken Case]

The database itself always cleans up completed actions immediately (as you can see by opening a new window); OmniFocus just leaves them visible in open windows until you refresh their views (by cleaning up or switching views).

But please note that "cleaned up" doesn't mean deleted! You can always review all your completed actions, grouped by date completed, by project, by context, by date added, etc. (If you need help knowing how to do that, don't hesitate to ask!)

[nicholas_j]

In some, but not all projects - it's helpful for me to see actions in the context of what's complete already. Especially because I'm a visual thinker and so the nesting and layout of actions is part of how I structure my thinking about a project and the disappearance of completed actions can mess up a nice layout and ruin my mental map of the project.

In more involved projects I want to keep my completed actions for about a week (review to review) and but for mini-projects and inbox items I want to clear then hourly/daily. Omnifocus only provides a universal sweep - so I end up using taskpaper for projects that are most important to me. Which is really not what I'd like to be doing.

[Toadling]

Maybe it's not exactly what you're looking for, but why not create a perspective that shows items with any status? Then assign a keyboard shortcut to it and you've got a quick way of viewing all your actions (completed and uncompleted) in one place. It's also a good perspective for doing a search across your entire database.

-Dennis

[nicholas_j]

Yeah, not exactly. I don't want to see *every* completed action in a project - just recent ones. Nor can I filter them by how long ago they were completed because like I said above, the completed tasks I want to keep displayed have to do with where the project is in my review cycle and how I visually format my projects outlines.

[nicholas_j]

Just today I came up with another compelling reason I need the ability to limit clean up only to the focused project:

I have a list of things I need to assemble for an insurance claim, 4-5 items. I need to see the list and check off the items as I collect them in a folder. Once I have everything (will take a few days) - I need to mail off copies of all those items. If I check off any of those items and in the mean time use clean up to get rid of some minor tasks in my inbox, or any other project, my list of things to assemble for the insurance company is now half-gone and when I need to mail things I won't know if I'm missing anything!

This is becoming a make-or-break issue for me with omnifocus and I find myself supplementing it more and more with taskpaper for these kinds of lists.

[Toadling]

Originally Posted by nicholas_j

This is becoming a make-or-break issue for me with omnifocus and I find myself supplementing it more and more with taskpaper for these kinds of lists.

I would handle this by simply focusing on the project in planning mode and setting the view bar to display items with any status. If I needed to check the project frequently, I'd also make it a "disposable" perspective (i.e. one that I'd delete when the project was done).

Is there some reason this doesn't work for your situation?

-Dennis

[Brian]

Originally Posted by nicholas_j

I have a list of things I need to assemble for an insurance claim, 4-5 items. I need to see the list and check off the items as I collect them in a folder. Once I have everything (will take a few days) - I need to mail off copies of all those items. If I check off any of those items and in the mean time use clean up to get rid of some minor tasks in my inbox, or any other project, my list of things to assemble for the insurance company is now half-gone and when I need to mail things I won't know if I'm missing anything!

I deal with situations like this by making the 'collect this' folder, copy/pasting it, and then renaming the copy 'mail these'. I generally try to put different actions in their own row, even if they affect the same items.