[arnthorsnaer]

I start each day by aligning all of my today's tasks, placing each on a single hour, roughly carving out the needed time for my actions for the day.

I have my context view set to group by due and sort by due and each action due date is displayed, but what I'd really like to have in this view is "due timestamp", so I can see in an instant the time each action is set to without having to click each actions cal icon.

Current view:

Due today

• Mow the lawn | 7.5.2008
• Take out the trash | 7.5.2008
• Walk the dog | 7.5.2008

I'd like:

Due today

• Mow the lawn | 7.5.2008 10:00
• Take out the trash | 7.5.2008 12:00
• Walk the dog | 7.5.2008 14:00

even better would be a context sensitive timestamp:

Due today

• Mow the lawn | 10:00
• Take out the trash | 12:00
• Walk the dog | 14:00

Does anyone have an idea how to achive this?

[Toadling]

It seems to me that OmniFocus was not really designed for this type of granularity, breaking down a day into arbitrary time segments. I think a calendar application, like iCal or Entourage, might be better suited for such things.

In fact, it could be argued that your use of due dates in this way isn't even a GTD approach. GTD recommends using due dates and scheduling only for things that absolutely must be done at a particular time or they will fail (e.g. doctor appointment, call mother for Mother's Day, pack bags before Friday flight, etc.).

But there are lots of ways to organize and handle your tasks, GTD is only one of many. And not everyone agrees with David Allen. But OmniFocus was designed around GTD principles and works best with that philosophy. That's not to say GTD is the only way to use OmniFocus, but the closer you follow GTD methodologies, the more you'll get from the app.

So, I think your best bet for your plan is still to just create blocks of time, perhaps with alarms, in iCal. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

[colicoid]

There are several problems with your approach i.m.o arnthorsnaer.
First of all, its stressful. All it takes is an extra long toilet break and your daily planning is out of sync and has to be updated which creates a larger need to micro manage your tasks. It is very hard to estimate task durations.

The idea of GTD is that all your tasks are to be looked at as optional. You do the ones you feel like doing and you forget about the ones you can't do right now. The context mode is like a menu from a fancy restaurant from which you can pick and choose as you like. Thats how you reduce stress. The only exception to this are the hard dates. Hard dates, like toadling stated, has to be done.
As such, there is a huge difference between a starting date and an ending date. The starting date is liberating because it takes your tasks off your radar. The due date however creates a stressful commitment that you must adhere to. Think twice before you set due dates!

To further take stuff of your radar, and perhaps even concentrate on only what you intend to do today you can use reviewing and put projects on hold and possibly combine the two techniques.
You could for example mark everything you don't intend to do today as reviewed. That would leave you with a daily task list when you are in review mode. Some people also use flags for the daily stuff.