[blewis]

Originally Posted by dconjar

It's my understanding that the ordering reflects the sequence, not the priority. If a task is higher than another task within a project, it will be completed before the next task begins. It is not necessarily more or less important than the next task.

But if the actions are really sequential, it doesn't matter if you've encoded that Action 1 has less priority than Action 2 - you still have to do Action 1 first. The sequence is a description of how a projects "gets done".

Obviously it's very important that I "Deliver Budget for next Meeting". But to do that, isn't it even more important that I collect the data first to make that budget - regardless of how I hand code the priority in my lists? Should I adjust the priorities of my Actions based on what is currently in my list of Actions for that Project?

Are you suggesting it's important to be able to set priorities on a Project level? Are you suggesting it's important to set priorities on parallel Actions?

I supposed I'm saying when I put Actions in a sequential order, I'm both reflecting the sequence and the priority. I'm saying "I can't do B until I finish A. In terms of completing this Project, A must be a higher priority to me than B because I have to finish A to get to B."

If that dependency doesn't exist, I usually use Parallel Actions and set the Next Action (or most important Action) at the top of the list.

So, when I do my weekly reviews, I am making priority calls and those priority calls are reflected in the ordering of my lists.

In my life, and I'm speaking for me, there are too many fires to fight to hardcode a priority on a given Project.

[wambli]

I would like to see by due date when I click library. eg. I created a phone list to call. I entered a few items with different start/due date. When I view it with group it does not sort by due date. under due today it shows items that are not due today. 5 of them have a start date of tomorrow but are listed in today. There is no tomorrow just next week, and no due date. In the view tabs:

due
Unsorted
any status
any duration
any flag state

[brianogilvie]

Wambli: are you in Planning mode or Context mode? In Planning mode, projects sort as a whole, by the earliest due date in the project. So if your phone list (which I assume is a project) has one call due today and five calls due in three weeks, it will be sorted (in Planning mode) as due tomorrow.

If you want to see the individual actions sorted when they are due, switch to Context mode and make the appropriate view bar settings.

On a deeper level, are these calls all related to the same project or goal? If not, I would be tempted to put them in separate projects, related to the bigger goal for which you are making each call. For example, "call appliance store to see whether they have LG WM0642HW front-loading washing machine in stock" is an action within my project "buy new washing machine" because it is a step toward achieving that outcome.

[mbnelson]

I don't know why there is so much debate about this. I too would love to have priorities. It is obvious a lot of people want them. It seems there should be a way to implement this as an optional feature.

Why do I want them? I am constantly moving across "projects" (the different classes I teach and the research projects I work on) each day. And it is rare that any project requires a specific sequential order. What I like to do the night before is highlight my top, medium, and low priorities for the following day.

Maybe my mind is disorganized, but those priorities constantly change. Something tagged a "top" priority today may not even be a priority the next day, even though it remains uncompleted.

Anyway, my main point is this:

People want priorities. Why not implement them as an optional feature?

[brianogilvie]

Since Lizard hasn't done so yet, here is a link to Ken's post about Omni's plans to introduce arbitrary metadata columns into a future release of OmniFocus, so that those who want priorities (and notes about delegation, and whatever else) can have them.

[a11en]

Thank GOD for that one. I've made my own script solutions to this very problem, but right now they break attachments in the notes section. [Why are attachments linked in notes anyway? Metadata should be separate from text notes in applescript land.]

For those of you who are hard-core GTD, I can point you again to D. Allen's prioritization discussions. It's right there in the "Bible"....

User Metadata is a very very good thing. It will make this program much more flexible.

Of course, along with this type of thing also comes the need to sort both forwards and backwards, and likely within both Projects and Contexts!!

[Eric Schoenfeld]

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.

We're now up to 1.5, and it seems there's still no metadata...so still no prioritization. Will we need to wait for 2.0?

[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by Eric Schoenfeld

We're now up to 1.5, and it seems there's still no metadata...so still no prioritization. Will we need to wait for 2.0?

1.5 is really 1.1, renamed. So far the only way in which they have departed from what they said they would do regarding the contents of upcoming releases is in the numbering of the latest release, and it's still a 1.x release so no one has had to fork over any extra cash. Planning for what will be in 1.6 seems to be under way.

[Eric Schoenfeld]

Thanks for the reply. Ok, will try to be patient. Hopefully, either this will be added to omnifocus so I can buy it, or else igtd will get another version out, before I drown in my poorly organized to-do list!

[whpalmer4]

No need to drown in the absence of the metadata column. Pick your top 5 (for whatever value of 5 makes sense) most important projects. Select them in the sidebar and control-click to bring up the popup menu. Select focus. Now you've got a window that for all intents and purposes acts as if those projects are the only ones in the database. If you flip over to context mode, you'll only see the actions from those projects. Knock off those projects. When you're done, control-click in the sidebar and select Show All Projects. Repeat as needed until the metadata column hits the streets :-)