[ksrhee]

Originally Posted by jasong

In Mail when I see 32 unread messages, it means I have actions to take care of. In OmniFocus when I see 32 unprocessed items, it means nothing. It's useless information for me, and does nothing but raise my stress level.

These badges make me feel like I'm supposed to be doing something about them RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE and thats just bull.

I understand that we all have our preferences, but what you said above doesn't make any sense to me at all. Of course, if you got stuff that are overdue, you should be doing them right now! Why are you letting those things sit on your OF. Otherwise, how are you going to GTD. If I got 32 items showing up in red, then I would want someone to hit me over my head and say, "either you change your expectation or better get things done."

[jasong]

Originally Posted by ksrhee

I understand that we all have our preferences, but what you said above doesn't make any sense to me at all. Of course, if you got stuff that are overdue, you should be doing them right now! Why are you letting those things sit on your OF. Otherwise, how are you going to GTD. If I got 32 items showing up in red, then I would want someone to hit me over my head and say, "either you change your expectation or better get things done."

Yeah, that seems to be the feeling of just about everyone in this thread but me.

Six months of using this tool, and now this new feature. It's verging on the edge of being a deal-breaker.

* I have to scroll through my list of projects, contexts and actions to even see these numbers/find the actions.

* I see them for "all" actions, even if I'm just looking at my "available" actions

* They show up on contexts that don't have soon/overdue items

* The Inbox, which I process on my own time, mocks me with unprocessed items.

I see the value of knowing you have overdue items; this isn't the way I would suggest. A filter, a perspective, a smart mailbox that can be configured... that's what I would suggest.

[ksrhee]

Originally Posted by jasong

Yeah, that seems to be the feeling of just about everyone in this thread but me.

Six months of using this tool, and now this new feature. It's verging on the edge of being a deal-breaker.

* I have to scroll through my list of projects, contexts and actions to even see these numbers/find the actions.

* I see them for "all" actions, even if I'm just looking at my "available" actions

* They show up on contexts that don't have soon/overdue items

* The Inbox, which I process on my own time, mocks me with unprocessed items.

I see the value of knowing you have overdue items; this isn't the way I would suggest. A filter, a perspective, a smart mailbox that can be configured... that's what I would suggest.

This is not what I am seeing in my OF. Items that don't have due dates that are overdue do not show up at all in the counter. When I expand the projects, I can easily see the overdue items and/or current due items given their styles.

[curt.clifton]

jasong,

The "summing up" of overdue items changed after the initial addition of the badges, perhaps that will address some of your concerns. I also removed a bunch of artificial due dates that I had set on items, which dramatically reduced the amount of noise in the interface for me (and made me feel better too).

I share your concern about the item count for the Inbox. The inbox is where I throw things during the day so I can keep my "mind like water". I empty my OF inbox (and paper and email inboxes as well) at least once a day. Again, this emptying is also necessary so that I can trust my system. However, seeing that item count on the inbox is a temptation for me to procrastinate from doing and spend time processing.

Another issue, submitted as formal feedback: I have items with start and due dates set to the same day, like "Do Weekly Review". These items are showing up in my "Soon" counts, even though I should not have started them yet. I would prefer that items with future start times not be included in the badge counts.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

I share your concern about the item count for the Inbox. The inbox is where I throw things during the day so I can keep my "mind like water". I empty my OF inbox (and paper and email inboxes as well) at least once a day. Again, this emptying is also necessary so that I can trust my system. However, seeing that item count on the inbox is a temptation for me to procrastinate from doing and spend time processing.

One could argue, I suppose, that your "doing" should occur in Context Mode (where there's no inbox) rather than in Planning Mode anyway...

Another issue, submitted as formal feedback: I have items with start and due dates set to the same day, like "Do Weekly Review". These items are showing up in my "Soon" counts, even though I should not have started them yet. I would prefer that items with future start times not be included in the badge counts.

I second that suggestion!

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by Craig

One could argue, I suppose, that your "doing" should occur in Context Mode (where there's no inbox) rather than in Planning Mode anyway...

That's partly true, though I often use Planning mode when I'm chugging through actions in a single project. I suppose I could be focusing on the project to do that. My typical use is to select an action from Context Mode, hit Cmd-Opt-R to switch to Planning Mode, then work on actions within the project there. I don't bother reaching for the mouse to focus the project.

Hmm, that brings up a feature request. Focus on Selected Project should work on the current project when an action is selected, much as it does for Mark Reviewed.

[Tim Wood]

Originally Posted by jasong

I'm not usually that blunt on this forum, but between Ethan's and ksrhee's comments, and the apparent lack of a preference to stop this behavior, I'm extremely frustrated. One of the reasons GTD, and OF, worked for me is because I didn't feel like I was getting hit over the head with "priorities" and "due dates" and "unprocessed counts".

In Mail when I see 32 unread messages, it means I have actions to take care of. In OmniFocus when I see 32 unprocessed items, it means nothing. It's useless information for me, and does nothing but raise my stress level.

These badges make me feel like I'm supposed to be doing something about them RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE and thats just bull.

Breathe in. Breathe out. It'll be OK!

The interface mockups we have right now do include a checkbox for turning this off in the sidebar.

The first step here was to get them implemented at all. A preference with no implemented feature to control wouldn't be useful.

For now, I've added a hidden default you can toggle to turn them off. In Terminal:

defaults write com.omnigroup.OmniFocus ShowSidebarCounters -bool NO

This will show up in builds 94399 or higher. Enjoy!

[SpiralOcean]

Love the numbers!

It lets me know what items:
need to be completed
or
due date needs to be changed

However... there seems to be a bug with the counting?

I have a context called
Process collection boxes
items in there are set to repeat every day.
Things like...
process email inbox to empty
process OF inbox to empty
process physical inbox to empty.

I use the Due Date grouping so I am only focused on those items due today.

I have two items due today, and 11 due tomorrow... but the counter is showing 13 items?

[eronel]

Could it be counting the enclosing item? I have noticed that if I group items and assign a due date to the group, then the counter includes the group in the count, even though it's not a task per se.

[SpiralOcean]

In thinking about this more... I think you just changed my life!

For the first time I may get things done before they are due!
And for the first time, I may start using the start date!
Suweet!

There is still a bug in this.
I changed all my due dates to three days in advance.
I change my start dates to today...
And there is still a number 11 in my Process Collection Buckets?

I can't find where that number is coming from?