Creating a "Today" perspective with project list

Hi. I am trying to make a custom Today perspective (or customize the existing Today perspective) that shows me tasks that are due today or overdue, AND displays the project list instead of the contexts list. Is this possible? Everytime i switch between Project and context list, i lose the ability to filter by “Due or Due soon”. Is that a bug?
This is similar to the issue described here": Project hierarchy vs Filtering in Perspectives

But the difference is I do NOT want to display tasks with no due date.

I believe you should use "Filter by status: Due and unflagged OR Due or flagged.
The Due part should pull in overdue as well. Group or sort by Due. You won’t be able to eliminate tasks without a due date, they will simply be put at the bottom depending on if you sort or group by Due. Hope that helped. Someone will chime in if I’m incorrect.

That’s the strange part. When in project view, I only have “Flagged” or “Unflagged” as my status filter options.

On the other hand, if I select “don’t use project hierarchy”, i have the ability to select “due or flagged”, but my project list is replaced with a context view.

I would use the context view (Don’t use project hierarchy), filter by status “Due or Flagged”, but then Group By: Project.

Would that work for you?

Cheers,

ScottyJ

I would prefer to use project view. I hate using Context view. Personal preference. I guess this isn’t possible?

I don’t think so, at least not in the way you describe.

I think the philosophy is that Projects are containers for tasks, but Contexts are the limiters on what tasks you can/can’t work on, which is why it’s set up this way.

The example I fall back on is: no matter how due “mow the lawn” may be, if you’re sitting on an airplane, you can’t do it. So while a project may help you plan, only contexts can help you do.

Granted, this is a very strictly GTD thought process/approach, so if GTD isn’t your bag, this would definitely look like a shortcoming.

Just my two cents (and it isn’t really helpful, sorry for that).

ScottyJ

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I’ve never found contexts to be that useful. Almost all of my work falls in the computer context, etc. instead I have contexts for work vs. personal and important vs day-to-day, and I have those automatically applied based on the project for the most part. This allows me to quickly focus on one of those areas within context view.

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@sprugman Yes, contexts in the traditional sense of limits on location or tool made much more sense in the early 2000s, before the internet was ubiquitous and mobile devices were awesome :)

I keep some location-based ones (kids’ school, work office, grocery/stores) for things I absolutely can’t do in my home office, then use energy contexts to limit my options for for work: high energy for problem solving, brainstorming, process design, etc., medium energy for research, documentation, reading, etc., and low energy for administration, filling out forms, refilling stapler, etc.

I have found it useful to use contexts to limit my available options for tasks presented to me as options, so that I don’t have to scroll through too many choices and can get down to things based on what things I am best positioned to accomplish. YMMV.

Anyway, I’m probably now way off course of the OP’s intent here and am therefore being even less helpful than before.

Yeah, I’ve read of many people using "energy " contexts. I haven’t tried it, but it never seemed that useful to me. My mood is fairly orthogonal to something’s urgency or importance. In fact I could easily imagine myself avoiding painful but important things because I wasn’t at the right energy level. Seems to work for a lot of people, though.

As might be obvious, I’m a fan of Eisenhower’s matrix. :-)

love this page but just wondering if some of the settings and field labels have changed slightly in OF2 since you wrote this. I think I’ve worked it out but it would be great if you had a few minutes to update it, if not for me but the next person to come along.

I had to look that up, and then facepalmed. I’m a big fan of it as well, but had never heard of it as attributed to Eisenhower before. I foolishly thought it was a Covey thing. Thanks for teaching me this!

ScottyJ

:) My pleasure. (I thought about the possible obscurity of that reference, but I was writing on my mobile, so…)

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Hi, I know this is an old thread, but your mention of Eisenhower’s 4-category system made me curious if you’ve set it up in Omnifocus. And if so, how?
Thanks and happy new year.
Amy

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