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Feature Request: task prioritization! Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
LOL... true.... Everybody who submits a work request thinks that they should be bumped up to the top of the queue. That's why I just give up and just do the first one that came in first and tell everyone to just wait their turn. But if it was the boss then I'd immediately bump it up to the top.
 
Well, as David Allen said "It's all important right, otherwise, why would you spend time doing it?"

People prioritising _your_ work has a name: severity. I determine the priority.

My approach to prioritisation is to use a piece of paper (split into four quadrants "Do", "Waiting For", "Best Effort", "Doodle"). I start off with writing down all the due tasks I want to get done today in the DO quadrant, plus one or two best effort tasks, dig through my mail, add stuff in quadrant BestEffort, and then start cracking. At the end of the day everything that is left over is added to my action lists. During the day I glance at my "Flagged" todo lists once or twice.

That way I don't get lost in the sheer volume of stuff on my todo lists. Every week I review the whole list and flag the most important stuff for this week. To be honest, flagging it as important does not get the work done, and by the end of the week, half the prio 1 stuff, still is not done.

I'd still like to have multi-colour flags to be able to better prepare my week: flag for a week day, flag for private telephone calls I'd like to do during work time, low energy tasks, etc. just so I can pick out tasks more easily.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whpalmer4 View Post
Depending on the situation, a task which is already overdue may not be quite as important as preventing a task which isn't yet overdue from becoming so. Running after the bus you've already missed may be less productive than making sure you don't miss the next one :-)

As for priorities, I rather enjoyed the natural tendency of everyone dumping their problems in my lap to label their work as the utmost priority. When everyone did it, I could work on whatever I wanted because it was all important :-)

OK, so I found a system that appears to be working like I had wanted: a way to prioritize Today or This Week's tasks.

I set up Contexts as follows:

Contexts
NOW
Groceries
WAITING FOR
SOON
SOME DAY/ON HOLD
Meetings
Recreation
goals
Rituals
Repeating
Home

I then added the following detail (see below), to expand only when I am looking at task scheduling for the next week/or today. At that point I would prioritize with the detail of specific contexts (email; phone etc).

No Context
Contexts
NOW:
...Phone
......#1 Prority
......#2 priority
...Email
......#1 priority
......#2 priority
...Desk
......#1 priority
......#2 priority
...Mac
......#1 priority
......#2 priority
...Errands
......#1 priority
......#2 priority
...Groceries
WAITING FOR
SOON
SOME DAY/ON HOLD
Meetings
Recreation
goals
Rituals
Repeating
Home

I make up a new task schedule everyday, for which I use the flags - but at least now I can see my current (this weeks') priorities. If I want to move tasks up or down the list, I can by shuffling them through the different priorities in contexts.

Hope this makes sense. I am really excited that finally I have figured out a way to prioritize! Still would love to be able to shuffle tasks by the "drag and drop" method - but until then, this is working!!

Last edited by clarejulian; 2013-03-02 at 03:17 PM..
 
I think a "pro" feature that would warrant double the "standard" price would be a user defined field (or fields). I would probably use it for prioritization or for a time estimation. Why not give the user some ability to customize their database?
 
OmniFocus Standard (and Pro) have an existing field for estimated duration, but metadata support is something we plan to add to OmniFocus eventually.

(One of the design goals for the v2.0 release of OmniFocus for Mac is no changes that would require customers to upgrade their iOS apps. That means no new database fields in that release, but perhaps a bit further down the line.)

Adding this post to the metadata feature request we have open. Thanks!
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian View Post
(One of the design goals for the v2.0 release of OmniFocus for Mac is no changes that would require customers to upgrade their iOS apps. That means no new database fields in that release, but perhaps a bit further down the line.)
I don't understand. If you can't update a database format for a X.0 release, when will you ever be able to update it?

d
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by reesd View Post
I don't understand. If you can't update a database format for a X.0 release, when will you ever be able to update it?

d
This was exactly my thinking and the reason for my disappointment with OF2.

It's Laudable to ensure that Customers do not have to buy lots of new software.

I realise that OG do not have the resource to release 3 new versions on OF at the same time, and OF2 for Mac without workable versions for iPad and iPhone would be a problems for lots of customers.

OF2 is a massive re-skinning which does both lower the bar to entry and makes some things easier, it doesn't push the data model on.

OF2 isn't a step change though and seems to be a missed opportunity.
 
Almost everything happens in incremental steps. Even Mac OS X has slowly evolved over time.

OF 2.0 will try to preserve the database structure so that we can transition into the future.

If Omni revised the database structure in OF2, that would break syncing with OmniFocus for iPad and OmniFocus for iPhone. There are some of us who have computers that are not Mountain Lion capable. Some of us are stuck on Lion or prior. So we can still use OF1 on these pre-Mountain Lion computers and also use OF2 on our Mountain Lion computers.

This will help with transition. yeah, I know you might just say "just get with the times and just buy a new computer." But I guess you might forget that sometimes logic does not always apply to reality when you may have a department that has a mix of computers and buying everyone a new computer isn't feasible and needs to be done in stages.

Brian did say "further on down the line." So at least there is an opening in the future.

If Omni were to update the database structure, they would have to delay the release of OF2 because they would also have to dedicate resources to not only OF2 for Mac but also update OF for iPad and OF for iPhone.

So far, we've had OF1 for Mac. Then OF1 for iPhone was introduced. Then OF1 for iPad was brought into being. Now we're going back to the Mac for OF2. Then eventually we might have version 2.5 that will possibly introduce database structure changes.

All hell would probably erupt if OF2 introduced database changes and it broke syncing with OF1, OF for iPhone, and OF for iPad. I can only imagine the flame wars that would appear on this forum if that were to happen.


OF2 is not a missed opportunity. It is a step towards the future. I remembered the slow and painful evolutionary stages that Mac OS X and iOS has gone through.


If you want to talk about a mega-change, take a look at Final Cut Pro X. That software pissed off tons of experienced users who flocked over to Adobe Premiere and have vowed never to come back. Heck, the first version of FCPX couldn't even import old Final Cut 7 projects.

So would you rather have OF2 completely break everything or would you like to see an evolutionary approach?
 
No one is talking about "breaking everything". We are talking about adding one more column/field. The reality is Omni has multiple products and they need to come up with a more flexible database approach like most other cross-platform products have. They should be able to enhance a product in a version release and the older versions just can't use those new features until the user has upgraded.

And the logic of why not to do it for OF2 just doesn't make sense over time. The same logic could be applied to every release (OF3, OF4, etc) so there never be any database changes.
 
See the duration field which is not available on iOS.

Oh, and the argument that OF2 will resolve that? The alpha I've tested did not include any new fields either. If a database change is such a big deal, it should already have been in there.
 
 


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