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Hi,

I just bought OmniFocus iPad yesterday and bump into the questions below. Can someone please help me?

1) Sorting actions in Context by Start/Due Date. Currently it is very disorganized ie: when i'm at Home, i want to work on actions base on its due dates. I can't use Forecast because I want to mug on actions when i'm related to a specific context like Home.

2) Sorting actions in Project by Start/Due date. I understand we can manually rearrange the actions but ie: i have a big list in Miscellaneous project and its so dynamic that it will waste time to do sorting manually.

3) Setting priorities on actions. i.e.: i have 10 tasks today on Forecast, but would like to work on them base on its priority. I could flag them but it doesn't rank them if i have >2 flagged item. I can't rearrange the tasks in Forecast view and they are sorted its based on due dates (or time).

4) An easy way to view actions without Start/Due date in Context/Project/Forecast.
i.e.: i'm free a particular day and would like to mug on some actions without start/due dates.

5) Action status. Is there a way to mark Action in different status as I work on it: ie: In-progress, deferred, delegated?

Thanks

Last edited by aurora; 2012-05-06 at 08:09 PM..
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aurora View Post
Hi,

I just bought OmniFocus iPad yesterday and bump into the questions below. Can someone can help me?

1) Sorting actions in Context by Start/Due Date. Currently it is very disorganized ie: when i'm at Home, i want to work on actions base on its due dates. I can't use Forecast because I want to mug on actions when i'm related to a specific context like Home.


Thanks
I,m running into this problem too. Hopefully there a settings I need to change to fix this problem
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tado View Post
I,m running into this problem too. Hopefully there a settings I need to change to fix this problem
I found a workaround for this (although not very satisfied with it).

1) Enable Perspectives on ipad by going to iPad's Safari and open this link:
http://people.omnigroup.com/kc/Debug...spectives.html

2) Download and install the Trial copy of OmniFocus for Mac:
http://www.omnigroup.com/download/latest/omnifocus

3) Open OmniFocus on Mac, go to Perspectives and create a perspective that:
- Group by Context
- Sort by Due date

4) Save in Mac and Sync to Omni Sync Server. Refresh in your iPad and the new perspective view will appear.

One bad thing is that it doesn't count the number of items in each Context in the perspective view, unlike Context view counts the number of items.

idk why do we need to go through all the troubles just to get a temporary workaround (without count), when a simple sorting function can be added by default?

not trying to nitpick but it is very disorganized without sorting in Context, and it is not making GTD easier for me.
 
Context view on the iPad sorts the actions by the order of their containing project. OmniFocus uses project order as the last sort method, so if you have two actions with the same context and the same due date, the action from the project listed first in the sidebar project list will be the first one. This allows you to prioritize by ordering your projects.

Your proposed perspective can be optimized a bit for this usage if you set it to include only Due Soon actions, and only show Available actions. It sounds like you might be a fan of putting a due date on everything (not really a recommended practice, but the GTD police aren't going to come for you, either), and this will cut down the number of actions shown. It will be easier to scroll through the list if it isn't also showing items due next year. Also, use the little triangles at the upper right of each grouping to collapse or expand sections. Press and hold to bring up a Collapse All or Expand All popup, or tap to collapse or expand that section only.

You should use the Contact Omni option in the gear menu to send in your requests for the ability to have a different default sort, build perspectives directly on the iPad, etc. Forum posts aren't guaranteed to get into the development database, but email from Contact Omni is.
 
Hi thanks for the reply. I'll try group by Due Soon.

Actually I don't like putting any dates on tasks unnecessarily. However if I don't put a date, the tasks will be missing from my Forecast. I am afraid to have missed out tasks without dates.

All I want is one view with all tasks due today, and all tasks without dates, hopefully sorted by priority, filtered by context. Then I can concentrate mugging on those tasks - I think that's my objective in using this app.

But it seems I have to go Forecast view now, then to Project view to check any tasks with no dates (and they are unsorted), then maybe to Context view to check any tasks with no dates (and they are sorted by Projects).

I mean I'll be going back and forth just to make sure tasks with no dates are worked on when I have free time.

That's why I had been adding a due date to almost every task and it's daunting and not a good GTD practice.

Will write an email to Omnifocus regarding the sorting in default view thanks!
 
Sorry how do you include only Due Soon actions and only show Available actions in Perspective?

 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aurora View Post
Sorry how do you include only Due Soon actions and only show Available actions in Perspective?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aurora View Post
Actually I don't like putting any dates on tasks unnecessarily. However if I don't put a date, the tasks will be missing from my Forecast. I am afraid to have missed out tasks without dates.

All I want is one view with all tasks due today, and all tasks without dates, hopefully sorted by priority, filtered by context. Then I can concentrate mugging on those tasks - I think that's my objective in using this app.

But it seems I have to go Forecast view now, then to Project view to check any tasks with no dates (and they are unsorted), then maybe to Context view to check any tasks with no dates (and they are sorted by Projects).
It's natural to want a view that shows everything, rather than have to look at more than one view. Unfortunately, it turns out to be hard to do well. Better to have a couple of views that do a good job on their respective areas and cover everything as a group, IMO.

My approach is to use Forecast view to tackle the tasks due today, doing as many as possible before moving to anything else. Then I'll look at the tasks starting today, and tasks which I have flagged. If I enter a new context, I'll take a look at all the tasks available in that context, just to see if there's something I might want to do now even if it isn't currently urgent — the idea here is that some contexts I can't enter at my convenience, so if I've got a chance to knock off some tasks which aren't yet urgent, that might be better than picking something else which isn't urgent from a context I regularly visit. Flagged tasks I populate while doing my reviews, and they represent what I think I should be working on in the near term, but don't necessarily have dates attached. I'll take a periodic look at the Forecast view throughout the day to see if something has become available.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
Context view on the iPad sorts the actions by the order of their containing project. OmniFocus uses project order as the last sort method, so if you have two actions with the same context and the same due date, the action from the project listed first in the sidebar project list will be the first one. This allows you to prioritize by ordering your projects.
How do I rearrange the order of projects on an ipad?

EDIT: Sorry for disturbing! Found out that landscape mode helped :) Perfect!

Last edited by Liffer; 2012-05-09 at 10:10 AM.. Reason: Found it! :)
 
Thanks.

Can I summarize the personal approach and task management rules?

Repeat daily...
1) Forecast - tackle as many due Today as possible
2) Forecast - review tasks start today
3) Flagged - tackle flagged tasks
4) Context - tackle (non-urgent) tasks without due dates
5) Project - tackle (non-urgent) tasks without due dates


Task management rules
1) Enter tasks in Inbox as and when I encounter
2) Review Inbox item periodically (every end of day) to:
- classify Context and Project
- set Start/Due Date (only if required!)
- flag task if you want to do it before Due date
3) Go Review weekly to review all projects


I will try to adapt to this approach if that's correct.

I am still quite uncertain about setting the Start/Due date, do we only set it when required?

I've emailed OF to request for Sorting function in Projects and Context, so hope it gets implemented soon.
 
 


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