In iOS, when selecting a Defer Until date, there is a button called “Later” with a graphic of dice, suggesting that OF will pick a random date in the future as a Defer Until date. Every time I see it I wonder, “Does anyone ever use this button?”
99% of the time, when I’m going to defer something, I’m going to defer it until “Tomorrow.” I have never used “Later.”
Usually the steps to defer an item until tomorrow are as follows: Clear out the current Defer Until date. Choose the default date (which is today). Then hit the “+1 Day” button. Three steps.
Open question: Does anyone here use the “Later” button and, if so, how often? Would a “Tomorrow” button be much more practical?
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding, and I’m certainly interested to hear whether others are using the dice button, but Clear should set the defer date to Today so it should just be another tap to get Tomorrow (two steps rather than three).
Not sure if I get the meaning of your post, but to answer your question, yes I use the “Later” button regularly. In contrast, I think I rather rarely defer something to tomorrow. If I do, pressing “clear” and “+1 day” does the job pretty well for me, so I don’t think I’d need another button simplifying that process. The later button on the other hand is “extra functionality”.
I use the “Later” button on projects that are open and nebulous that dont require a set “To do” time but are projects none the less. The first time I used it the date patterns where out there which for me was just fine.
I have mixed feelings about the ‘Later’ button. I do use it occasionally with certain imprecise tasks. Most of the time I don’t use it. Would I miss it if it were gone? Probably not. Perhaps a user definable option would be better in it’s place?
We do have the option of one finger slide defer until tomorrow (I have iPhone 6 so no pressing on the screen option), or slide reschedule. I use that more for quickness than the 3 move scenario described in these posts.
I just created a task called “I beg to differ” with a defer date set today. I swiped with my thumb pressed ‘more’ and deferred said task until tomorrow. Therefore I beg to differ.
I just went through a list of items. This is really weird. Sometimes “Defer Until Tomorrow” appears and sometimes it doesn’t. I can’t find a pattern as to why it appears or doesn’t.
@BriMercer
It is a prescribed behaviour depending on what task you are attempting to shift. Certain rules logically apply.
I think you were trying to shift a scheduled (in future task). I sympathise with you. I was confused with this feature at first. I thought it was because I didn’t have a fancy force touch screen iPhone.
from the Omnifocus website;
Peek and Pop in OmniFocus for iPhone
First and foremost in this release is, of course, the addition of 3D Touch support to devices that support it. (iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus) In addition to already supporting Quick Actions—which enabled one-press access to several perspectives and Quick Entry from the home screen of your iPhone—you’ll be able to Peek and Pop each row for common tasks.
On an action, that amounts to details about the action itself, like notes if there are any, the project, context, or dates, and swiping up will bring up additional actions to quickly flag or due today (or tomorrow, depending). Delete or complete actions, and even mark projects as Reviewed, too.
There are plenty of unimportant but good to keep tasks where the ‘later’ button comes into it’s own. I do think a user-definable choice might be better for some.
