[Ethan Schoonover]

Red numbers are the equivalent of DANGER: ROCKS FALLING AHEAD signs when you're driving. If you have overdue tasks, we want them to really stand out and hit you over the head. Like a rock, sort of. Hmm. I'm mixing my metaphors I think.

Anyhow, they are *highly* visible intentionally. I'd recommend triaging those projects. If they aren't really overdue, then it's time to fix their dates. If they are overdue but not really "in play" anymore, just set their status to "dropped". If they are none of the above... then they are really top, critical items (anything that has a hard landscape date associated with it is so) and should be addressed before anything else.

I'll bet dollars to donuts that once you've triaged like that, you'll find many of those red items will be gone, your projects will be in better state, and you'll have better focus on your work.

I'm guessing you don't want us to add the giant flashing light and klaxon? ;-)

[cyleigh]

Originally Posted by Ethan Schoonover

Red numbers are the equivalent of DANGER: ROCKS FALLING AHEAD signs when you're driving. If you have overdue tasks, we want them to really stand out and hit you over the head. Like a rock, sort of. Hmm. I'm mixing my metaphors I think.

Anyhow, they are *highly* visible intentionally. I'd recommend triaging those projects. If they aren't really overdue, then it's time to fix their dates. If they are overdue but not really "in play" anymore, just set their status to "dropped". If they are none of the above... then they are really top, critical items (anything that has a hard landscape date associated with it is so) and should be addressed before anything else.

I'll bet dollars to donuts that once you've triaged like that, you'll find many of those red items will be gone, your projects will be in better state, and you'll have better focus on your work.

I'm guessing you don't want us to add the giant flashing light and klaxon? ;-)

I see your point Ethan, as I said, I got a lot of little things done today that were 'overdue', I would keep the numbers if there was a preference.

However, I don't like the way they are displayed/counted; I think that they should only be displayed next to the project that the overdue items are in - and not all the parent folders as well. Eg/ I have a folder called 'Home', in it is a folder called 'Life Control' which has a project 'Change voting address'. This project has an overdue due date, so its three actions are overdue. Thus, because I have one overdue action I have three big marks saying that I have 3 things being overdue - at a quick glance I can't tell from the interface that it is the 'voting' project that is overdue; because of the nature of the list I first look at home, then 'life control' and then find which project is overdue.

Oh, and it would be great to be able to only repeat items on 'work' days - at the moment I have some daily repeating tasks that I get to just click off for the weekend but from now on they are going to Scream at me through great big numbers.

[dhm2006]

Originally Posted by Ethan Schoonover

Red numbers are the equivalent of DANGER: ROCKS FALLING AHEAD signs when you're driving. If you have overdue tasks, we want them to really stand out and hit you over the head. Like a rock, sort of. Hmm. I'm mixing my metaphors I think.

I like the numbers. The red was startling at first, and it clashes with the purple used for next actions, but it great information to have at a glance.

I wonder if the colors for the numbers will be user-definable. I suppose I could change the color for next actions instead. Hmmm...

[BwanaZulia]

Those numbers help me big time as one of my stuggles with OF was the right visability into what needed to be done NOW and perspectives were not cutting it.

BZ

[Helo]

Just downloaded the latest build and saw the numbers! Love them. A very helpful way of bringing my deadlines into SHARP focus. Please keep this feature, even if you have to make it as a preference for some.

I don't know if this is canonical GTD, but it certainly is very helpful.

[brooce]

Now, if you could just block the launching of browsers and games until we clear the red items, we'd be in great shape...

[Tim Wood]

The number rendering is a little more refined as of this morning (not sure when the build will go out, but it should be soon). There are still definitely some visual glitches, so mail in bug reports if you see anything.

Stuff we already know about:

- the numbers get clipped if you have a scroller in the sidebar
- expanded contexts don't show any number even if they have a locally assigned overdue task (getting rid of the number on expanded rows was an experiment from this morning to lower the number of numbers displayed).

[ksrhee]

I too like having the numbers displayed. If you don't like to see the red #'s displayed in the sidebar, then get the stuff done on time. Then you will never see those numbers in red. Sorry to be blunt. I also like I can assign # of days for the warning bells to go off as far as displaying #'s are concerned.

[tastiger]

Originally Posted by ksrhee

I too like having the numbers displayed. If you don't like to see the red #'s displayed in the sidebar, then get the stuff done on time. Then you will never see those numbers in red. Sorry to be blunt. I also like I can assign # of days for the warning bells to go off as far as displaying #'s are concerned.

I like them too. Just today it has helped me tackle and complete about a dozen overlooked items. I also like the sense of satisfaction in trying to get them down to zero.

I like that I can focus on overdue items and then take action.

[Chris]

Does anyone else see weirdness with the vertical scroll bar in the sidebar since the numbers have appeared? If I make the vertical height of my OF window just barely smaller than the height of my list of projects, then I can make the scroll bar appear and disappear by scrolling with the middle button of my mighty mouse. OF seems unsure of whether a scrollbar is necessary and alternatively puts it in and takes it out, reflowing the contents of the window as it does so.