[Eric Schoenfeld]

Thanks, I do appreciate your posting, but that doesn't work for me. Obviously, I'm not anywhere near a doctrinaire gtd person.....but I could sure make fine use of omnifocus if it included priorities....

[whpalmer4]

Describe your workflow a bit more. If you are prioritizing, do you not do all of your top priority items first? Is the problem with my suggestion that you need finer granularity (only some actions in a project are high priority)? You could address that by flagging individual actions, and limiting the view to flagged items after focusing on the top-priority projects.

Admittedly, I'm proposing a one-dimensional priority scheme, and I gather that isn't what everyone desires as their ideal priority setup. But if you're drowning because you don't have any priority support, a scheme that allows you to prioritize some of your work would seem like a net improvement...

[Eric Schoenfeld]

I find this hard to discuss. I'm not sure anyone can easily discuss his/her organizational set-up with any sort of great ease or clarity, unless they've bought into a full-fledged system like GTD. The choice to do so is a decision people think they make rationally, but really it's more emotional. They buy in because the system somehow speaks to them and intuitively fits their bill.

IGTD somewhat fits my bill, but I can't buy the entire program, because it just doesn't completely speak to me. Part of that is that my intuition of what I need is the ability to dynamically rank priorities and always have quick access to several levels of higher-priority to-do items for any context or project I can see myself involved in at any given time.

If I were "in" GTD, I could speak out to someone like me with clear language and principles. But the thing is, it's a lot harder to speak "in" to someone in GTD explaining my needs and workflow, because natural intuitive workflows can't be summarized with clear language.

Does that make any sense?

Apologies if this has already been suggested, but there is a simple method of implementing priorities in OF. I want priorities, but I do not need estimated time for actions. So I type a number from 1 to 5 into the estimated time field for each action. I can sort this field so that every 1 (high priority) comes to the top, while every 5 (low priority sinks to the bottom).

One advantage of this system is that, unlike iGTD, you don't have to apply a priority to every action. Any action without a priority drops to the bottom of the sorted list, where it can be reviewed and given a priority at the appropriate time.

It is irritating that OF automatically appends 'm' or 'minutes' after the number, but I can live with that.

In my experience, no action list software is perfect. That's because we all have different ways of working. I have tried iGTD, but the less-than-elegant interface and lack of recent upgrades made me move on. I was using Things for a short while, but missed being able to see a complete list of actions on one screen, and found the repeat option confusing. So I am back with OF and finding ways to make it do what I want, rather than the other way round.

[watchit]

From what I have read on this forum, Omni's reason for not including Priorities is that they will be introducing Tags which could be used for that purpose. The only problem with this approach for Priorities is that it will not sync with the Priorities field in iCal. I would like to see EVERY field in iCal have a corresponding field in OmniFocus. Why? Because even if you do not work out of iCal, it is Apple's link via Sync Services to be able to get OmniFocus to sync data with any other application that uses Sync Services... such as all the PIMs like Contactizer or SOHO or Nighthawk (if Now ever release their long-awaited successor to Now Up To Date / Contact)

[Weasel]

Originally Posted by Ken Case

As I recently mentioned in the Tags thread, our plan all along has been to allow people to create their own columns of metadata, which they can use however they want: with generic tags, or with specific columns for priority, people, etc. (We have this capability in OmniPlan, OmniOutliner, and OmniGraffle.) We just didn't have time to do it for 1.0, and we won't for 1.1 (which has to focus on synchronization so it can be ready to synchronize with the iPhone).

Hopefully in 1.2.

Question:

I'm just testing 1.5 and I can't see any metadata.

Is this not yet implemented?
If so when is it going to come?

Thanks!

[Toadling]

The post you referenced is pretty old. OmniFocus 1.1 was actually released as OmniFocus 1.5 (there never was an actual 1.1 release). I have no inside information, but I suspect any features originally planned for a 1.2 release have been retargeted for a 1.6 or 2.0 release.

-Dennis

All of our company uses iGTD. I have been looking to migrate them to OF (or Things) but the lack of the good old 1 to 5 prioritisation that we have become accustomed to in calendars, CRM software and even peoples note pad lists is the only reason we are waiting.

When the developers add in a sortable Priority column (with optional display set in the preferences) we will buy a licence for everyone in the company and migrate them from iGTD.

I don't see the problem, technically it is not difficult, it is not unconventional, it needn't be either seen or compulsory for those that don't want it and we'll pay for the feature - everyone wins.

Just posting so that I can keep informed on when this will be implemented seeing that so many others have requested it too.

[Brian]

Every time this thread starts back up, I'm just going to post another link to Ken's post.

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by surferking

All of our company uses iGTD. I have been looking to migrate them to OF (or Things) but the lack of the good old 1 to 5 prioritisation that we have become accustomed to in calendars, CRM software and even peoples note pad lists is the only reason we are waiting.

When the developers add in a sortable Priority column (with optional display set in the preferences) we will buy a licence for everyone in the company and migrate them from iGTD.

Go get your credit card, because you can do it right now. It's labeled "Duration" or "Estimate" depending on where you look (or even a little alarm clock icon), but you can put 1-5 in there and even sort by the number. This assumes you don't use it as originally intended, but dollars to donuts someone who is champing at the bit for a priority field wants that more than a place to stash a time estimate.