On my iPad I was surprised to notice that tasks with a future due date of 2018 are showing in the Contexts view even though it is set to Available despite the description of Available saying ‘items not blocked, future or on-hold’, what am I missing?
I’ve did fine some posts that say to use a defer date but this feels counter intuitive. The task is not due until 2018, I will notice this in my weekly review so will not forget it and I’ve my Due Date reminder set to three days so will get prompted anyway.
To put this example into context, I have some theatre vouchers that expire at the end of July 2018 so have a due date. Each week during my weekly review I’m reminded they will eventually expire and at some point I will do something about it and set a separate task to find and book something to watch.
If you set the defer date, the task will be “blocked” and unavailable. It will become available or unblocked on the day of the defer date. Setting a defer date should hide your 2018 task.
I do this for many projects or tasks. I have my “file 1040 taxes” project with a defer date of January 1, 2018. I won’t see it in perspectives that show available tasks until January 1, 2918.
What’s wrong with deferring the task if you see it in ‘review’ every day anyway?
You could also create a small project in order to group this task along with the respective decision you make to see a show.
You could even make a deadline task as an extra precaution.
I personally maintain due only dates in a custom perspective to prevent anything falling through the cracks, in conjunction with careful use of flags.
I am trying to better understand the logic applied by the filter, I guess that even though they are not due until July 2018 they are Available as there is nothing to stop me progressing them unless I set a Defer date.
So the next question is whether I can set the Defer Date to repeat without pushing back the Due Date or will I have to push the Defer Date back manually, which is not difficult
It becomes ‘second nature’ to set a sensible ‘defer date’ and, or possibly not, a ‘due date’ at the time of inputting any given task.
I leave all my really really crucial appointments/tasks on ‘due date’ only with flags and I have an appropriate perspective to show them all. In all these years I can honestly say I have never missed or been unorganised for any of these appointments/tasks.
I remember back to ‘Filofax’ days with horror!
I also use a custom made (to my own design) OF2 theme. Reason for this is I use colour in the task fonts for due and due soon so they stand out and I have greyed out the unavailable tasks more than the standard theme.
