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Task hierarchy not showing in Context mode Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I have many tasks that I need to keep putting off... I move them to next Monday for example. Its because they are lower priority than immediate projects, and can be put off if I dont complete the important stuff in time.

Anyway, I am a bit sick of selecting each one individually all the time and changing the date in the Inspect pop up window.

So I created a Task called To Do later. I put all these tasks under that main task, and removed their individual dates. Put a date on the main To Do Later. So I can just change that one date and all the sub-tasks are moved too.

BUT my main view for work is a Context, because I want to Group by Due date so I get the Due Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday groupings. But in Context mode it does not display the hierarchy of sub-tasks under the project, and just lists them all in the top level.

e.g. In projects its like this:-

----
NEXT ACTIONS
---
To Do Later
- Task 3
- Task 1
- Task 4
- Task 2

In my Contexts view its like this:
----
DUE TOMORROW
---
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
To Do Later


So this is no good... it should be able to show me the sub-tasks under a main task in Context mode surely. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Thanks a lot
 
I don't like using start dates on projects or tasks unless it is something I really intend to start on it on a particular date.

For individual tasks, I have two single action lists (SAL): The first is called "Miscellaneous" and the second is called "Miscellaneous-Someday/Maybe".

The Miscellaneous-Active SAL contains all the individual actions that don't really belong in a project but it is something I'll be doing this week. The status is set to "Active" which means that I'll be able to see these tasks in a context perspective that shows all available tasks.

The Miscellaneous-Someday/Maybe SAL's status is set to "On Hold". Tasks placed in this SAL will not be viewed in a context perspective that shows all available tasks.

I would put all of these individual tasks into the Miscellaneous-Someday/Maybe SAL first.

The Miscellaneous-Active holds all the tasks that I want to do in the next 7 days. Nothing else.

Most of my individual tasks will start in Miscellaneous-Someday/Maybe. I know I'd like to do them but probably not in the next 7 days.

By default, OmniFocus' default review interval is set to 1 week. I double check the inspector window to make sure that review interval is set to 1 week. When I do my weekly review, I can see these two SALs. I'll look at my Miscellaneous-Active SAL and see if there are any tasks that I can just put back to "On Hold" status. I decided that I'm not going to do it this week. I'll probably postpone it and do it someday/maybe.

Then I look at the Miscellaneous-Someday/Maybe SAL and move a task to Miscellaneous-Active.

I try my best to keep the Miscellaneous-Active list to just a small handful - probably anywhere from three to six tasks at any given time. If I complete one task, I'll just keep knocking the rest down. Sometimes I'll just take a peek at Miscellaneous-Someday/Maybe and just move a task over to Miscellaneous-Active.

I also do the same with projects. I set almost every project to "On Hold" status. Then I'll active anywhere from three to five projects to "Active". These are the projects that I am focusing on. I don't want to be distracted by all the other projects.

This has helped me move away from setting start dates. Put everything "On Hold" except for the single actions and projects that I want to do this week.

I realize I'm not Superman. So I don't set an unrealistic number of projects/task to "Active". But I know that I put the parking brake on all the other Someday/Maybe single actions and projects and I can review them during the weekly review.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply. I will have to think on it longer it may mean a change of workflow to use this, but my workflow works really well to be honest. the Due Date is critical for me to plan what I am doing on what day. I allocate a set number of tasks to certain days and work through them, and it helps schedule in new work, I can put it on the end (e.g. next week) and inform the customer it wont be until then. It also give me a lot of satisfaction knowing I completed most or all my tasks for that day by the end of the day, which is important. Due dates work really well for me, I have only today open too, so I am not reviewing tasks I scheduled for the future, just forget them until the time comes.

Some tasks are just not important to do on a particular day. Not many are actually, some are just more important than others, so the day scheduling just allows me to break down my many tasks in manageable chunks per day. So the not so important ones can be moved back due to new important tasks coming in everyday, or tasks taking longer than I thought.

So its these tasks I just want to change date once and have them all moved. Dont want to change all tasks it takes time.

What I have done in the short term is create a new project called Someday, and put them in there. I add the date to the project and not the tasks. I can go into the Project view and change the date. Its still not ideal. Ideally the project or "parent task" should be seen in the context view with all its sub-tasks underneath. I can see now researching this more it is a common request and has been stated it is on the roadmap ages ago, so hopefully they will do it. I dont understand why its not there to be honest.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by amityweb View Post
Anyway, I am a bit sick of selecting each one individually all the time and changing the date in the Inspect pop up window.
So don't do that. Select them all at once, bring up the inspector, change the dates for the whole selection simultaneously. Of course, if each one is supposed to have a different date, this isn't helpful. If you wanted to adjust each date by the same amount, you might use Dan Byler's Defer script, which can be downloaded from http://bylr.net/3/2008/02/omnifocus-defer-script/. Installation and use tips for OmniFocus scripts can be found at FAQ: Installing & running an OF applescript

Quote:
Ideally the project or "parent task" should be seen in the context view with all its sub-tasks underneath. I can see now researching this more it is a common request and has been stated it is on the roadmap ages ago, so hopefully they will do it. I dont understand why its not there to be honest.
For most configurations of context view, it wouldn't make sense. About the only grouping for which is does make sense is grouping by project, and if you group and sort by project, you get what you are requesting, except that the project follows its children instead of preceding them. The reason for that behavior is so that as you work the project, you check things off one at a time, finally marking it complete by checking off the parent, which becomes available only after all of the children are complete. In my opinion, they haven't done anything here because there's nothing that needs to be done :-)

If you are looking at context view, and you see something you would like to see in project view where everything is in the hierarchical structure you expect, click on the row handle (the dot to the left of the name) to select the row, then either option-double-click or right-click and select Focus in New Window. You'll get an additional new window focused on the project(s) containing the selected item(s). You can switch that window into context view if you like, and it will only show you the actions from the subset of your database. It's a rather powerful feature, especially if you want to work "head down" on a select list of projects today, but wish to keep all of the OmniFocus tools at your disposal. At the start of your work session, select the projects, do the Focus in New Window, and have at it. When you've done as much as you can, you can close the window and go back to your usual practice. If you've selected a group of work-related projects, for instance, you won't see any of the tasks relating to your garage remodeling project.
 
Quote:
Select them all at once, bring up the inspector, change the dates for the whole selection simultaneously.
Yes thats what I am doing. I meant I have to click on each one individually to select them, there are many, and they may be mixed in with other tasks I dont want to select, so I cant just drag to select, have to click each one individually.

The rest of the comments is too much trouble, its supposed to be a productivity tool, so I just am trying to see if I can get it to work to my work flow, not adjust my workflow to the software. I use OF because its more customisable to meet my workflow than others I use, except for this one issue, being able to view sub-tasks of a task/project in context view. Totally makes sense to me. I dont want to switch screens. Just need to group sub-tasks together in a project or parent task, that is due on a certain day.

Would be even better if each sub task had different dates then these show in different Due dates, under the parent project/task (which may not have a date) so you see that parent several times on the different due dates of each sub-task.

Either way, grouping sub-tasks under a parent is the important factor to separate them all out from unrelated tasks in the flat list.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by amityweb View Post
Thanks for the detailed reply. I will have to think on it longer it may mean a change of workflow to use this, but my workflow works really well to be honest. the Due Date is critical for me to plan what I am doing on what day. I allocate a set number of tasks to certain days and work through them, and it helps schedule in new work, I can put it on the end (e.g. next week) and inform the customer it wont be until then. It also give me a lot of satisfaction knowing I completed most or all my tasks for that day by the end of the day, which is important. Due dates work really well for me, I have only today open too, so I am not reviewing tasks I scheduled for the future, just forget them until the time comes.

Some tasks are just not important to do on a particular day. Not many are actually, some are just more important than others, so the day scheduling just allows me to break down my many tasks in manageable chunks per day. So the not so important ones can be moved back due to new important tasks coming in everyday, or tasks taking longer than I thought.

So its these tasks I just want to change date once and have them all moved. Dont want to change all tasks it takes time.

What I have done in the short term is create a new project called Someday, and put them in there. I add the date to the project and not the tasks. I can go into the Project view and change the date. Its still not ideal. Ideally the project or "parent task" should be seen in the context view with all its sub-tasks underneath. I can see now researching this more it is a common request and has been stated it is on the roadmap ages ago, so hopefully they will do it. I dont understand why its not there to be honest.

I understand that changing workflows is not easy. But this was the only way for me to deal with the madness of having to reset the start date to tasks and projects all the time.

Putting things "on hold" was the best choice for me instead of just resetting the start date.

If you are worried about due dates, I'd look at the Due perspective first and try to accomplish anything overdue or due soon first before I even look at the other perspectives.
 
 


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