Deferred items and forecast

I’m with everyone on this. I want to do all my planning on the forecast if possible. It’s so much easier to do when you can see how much room you have for the day. And I want incomplete tasks to simply roll over to today. In fact, I would love to have time estimates for each task count by representing tasks as blocks that you can move around in the calendar so that they don’t overlap.

The OF folks should seriously consider this idea of a new graphical way to day-plan that I’ve been wanting for years and still haven’t found implemented by anyone.

In the meantime, here’s an AppleScript I call rollover-past-deferred.scpt that will “rollover” past deferred tasks to today. Just put in your toolbar with it (may have to install in ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.omnigroup.OmniFocus2 and then right-click on the toolbar to customize); then you can click on it every day:

on run
	tell application "OmniFocus"
		set todayDate to current date
		set todayDate's hours to 0
		set todayDate's minutes to 0
		set todayDate's seconds to 0
		
		tell default document
			set todayTasks to (flattened tasks where (defer date < todayDate))
			repeat with t in todayTasks
				set t's defer date to todayDate
			end repeat
		end tell
	end tell
end run```

I came up with this by editing a script that automatically flags these tasks too, which might be useful to you: http://colterreed.com/how-to-automatically-flag-starting-tasks-in-omnifocus/

That page also shows you how to create a LaunchAgent to have it run automatically every day. 

Problem solved :)
4 Likes

Thank you! Your perspective is exactly what I was looking for to fix the deferred items problem.

I think of it this way, a defer date is not a hard date, but the beginning of a period of time. It, in and of itself, it not the end of the story. So the notion of part deferred it not really there in my mind.

For example, if I have a task that Is deferred until Oct 7 and is due on Oct 15, then it should be considered available Oct 8-14 if it has not been completed.

In the Forecast perspective today, it will show on Oct 7 as deferred and on Oct 15 as due, with no mention of it on the other days. I would have expected it to show from Oct 7-14 as deferred and on Oct 15 as due and as past due starting Oct 16, with it being removed from Forecast when completed.

Life saver. Thanks a lot!

Hi troydoux,

Thanks for your script, it works for me.

One little problem is that your script also modifies completed tasks.
We should add one more condition “completed is false”.

Following is the completed code:

on run
	tell application "OmniFocus"
		set todayDate to current date
		set todayDate's hours to 0
		set todayDate's minutes to 0
		set todayDate's seconds to 0

		tell default document
			set todayTasks to (flattened tasks where ((defer date < todayDate) and (completed is false)))
			repeat with t in todayTasks
				set t's defer date to todayDate
			end repeat
		end tell
	end tell
end run
3 Likes

Hey OltisTang, thanks for the fix!

Exactly what I thought as well.

1 Like

I’m in the process of giving Omnifocus another go and just created a script to move all my items over but I think this is the killer feature of Things that keeps me from coming back. I’m not in love with the things method but it sure works well if this issue is important to you.

Does the trick for me perfectly! Thanks for sharing!

+1 for wanting past due deferred tasks showing up in the Forecast view.

I like everything about Omnifocus but assume there was something I was overlooking. I specifically created a OF task to create a UN to this forum and/or contact support to see what I was missing. Within minutes, I see others have the same issue.

Omnifocus: please allow deferred items with a past date to show up in the Forecast view – just like other tasks. I periodically find myself wondering “where did [task] go”? I go to my custom perspective to see past due deferred tasks then move their deferred date to get it into the Forecast. Its a pain – my biggest pain in OF. Please fix it in future releases.

2 Likes

+1, and reminders for defer dates (start dates) also be good. Maybe I don’t fully understand conception, but now it looks for me like Alice in Wonderland.
Example with birthday pie:

Due is 30 Oct 18:00, we bring birthday pie, sing a song, and at 18:00 we see notification about making pie:
- Happy Birthday, This is you pie, sorry I need to go, I should make birthday pie.

Why notifications only for due? due is what I made (or not) in other words it’s view in the past, but defer date is what I planned and should do now on in near future, some actions that available for doing from now (view in the future). Should I make context for this? But anyway, even if I make context for this, dates not appears in forecasts and I don’t get any notifications.

I read manual and watched some videos, but maybe I missed something?

Love it - hooked it up to a keystroke workflow - fixed forever!

I similarly worked on an Applescript for solving this exact problem. The script is based on work by Curt Clifton.

It also ignores any projects that are on hold, and provides a summary count of tasks that had their deferred date brought forward.

Information about the script, source code and instructions for use are available.

My intention was to find a perspective shows all “ongoing” items, for me it should include all:
un-complete tasks, starts today/should have started before but missed, plus overdues
nothing else. These should ordered by defer date/due date.
Before, I was using a workaround very similar to @Rowatt 's but it’s not a perfect solution.
Thx to @troydoux and @OItisTang , script solves it better.
Now only one problem left for me: I’m not a “everyday-Mac-carrier”, sometimes I use my phone to manage stuffs, so no scripts available for those period of time, guess feature suggestion is the ultimate direction here?

Your use of Defer is equivalent to saying it is the date you want to start something. The other meaning to Defer is, the task (or sub-group or project) cannot start until the selected date because of an external limit. The latter meaning is the one that OF uses in practice. In this regard, to have the deferred task subsequently appear in a way that you then remember that you should do for all dates after the deferred date, you might consider to flag the task. It will then appear in your Flagged list, but only starting on the Defer date.

In this regard, your feature request is a good way to provide the option for folks who want Defer to mean “the date when I may want to start this (of my own choice)” versus “the earliest date when I can start this (because something external to it is limiting when it can start)”.


JJW

1 Like

The original post and other comments describe the situation perfectly. I just emailed omnigroup to vote. Things implements this behavior just the way I like it and is one of the areas I find myself preferring it over OmniFocus. If only OmniFocus could implement it…

2 Likes

I wanted to add my voice here.

It is a problem just like the example mentioned by @dmullins

I think it depends on the definition of Available. I look at Defer as something that needs to be done on that date, not Due, I can skip it and have a look at it tomorrow and reschedule it. While OmniFocus looks at Defer as (literary available) meaning that it will be shown to you after that Defer Date, which makes me understand the way OF is behaving, but I don’t agree with it, because it forces you to either use Due date on all tasks not to miss something that passed its Defer date, or basically figure a way to manage your deferred items the way other folks have done above (scripts, perspective…etc).

I believe OmniFocus need to look at the definition of Deferring, and Availability again. It is clearing confusing for many users.

2 Likes

If you expect to see everything in your Forecast view, you are correct, but I don’t think the Forecast view was ever meant that way. To me it’s a “calendar extension” with a focus on items that are due.

I strongly disagree with that. If you want the Forecast view to show a different set of tasks, no problem. But the way deferred is defined is crucial to how I (and I guess many others) are using Omnifocus along GTD principles. I hope the issues people have with the Forecast view doesn’t make Omni break that.

@khaberz I agree with your point of view. To me, it matters that a task is available, not when it became available. Having a regular list of all available actions that I look at all the time is paramount - not just because it keeps me aware of what I have to do, but it also forces me to, if I see something on that list that I don’t think should be there, defer it or delete it. I don’t think that is the point of Forecast.

In those few cases, though, where there is something I want to think about on a particular day, but it isn’t due, I will flag it and defer it, so that it gets my attention on the day it becomes available.

Just my thoughts.

ScottyJ

1 Like

I am new to OmniFocus, and bought it for the express purpose to help me with the GTD process, so I may use GTD terminology that is unfamiliar to those that have not read Getting Things Done by David Allen. I apologize for that and suggest reading it. It has changed my life. With that said, I have been frustrated by how OmniFocus treats deferred actions in the Forecast perspective as well. I am curious what is OmniFocus’ stance on this? I can’t tell if they contribute to this forum or even monitor it as evident by the disclaimer there is no guarantee comments left here reach the development database. For me, and in order to adhere to GTD practice, due dates should only be used for those actions that are actually due on a date, like a report to your boss. Flagged items are not specifically covered in the GTD process, but being careful not to overwhelm your lists is cautioned against due to the numbing effect from too many choices. Therefore, I try to limit the items I flag to those things I’d like to get done next, but aren’t necessarily due. Some recommend anywhere from 1 - 5 items max. I had hoped the deferred date option would be a way to add actions to be done to my forecast without having to review my whole list every day and flag them. Additionally, it is confusion to me when I am looking at my forecast perspective and click on the view button and see that I have the show deferred items button selected. Any help here would be appreciated.