Deferred not showing in Forecast count

OmniFocus OmniFocus for iPhone
#1

Tasks that are deferred but do not have a due date do not show in Forecast count. And they disappear completely from the view the next day. As you can see below there are TWO tasks due, but only one shows up in the count. Even worse (far worse) if I ignore the task today it will not carry over to tomorrow in Forecast and will “disappear”.

Is my understanding correct?

Forecast screen.PNG1242×2208 125 KB

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Defer Date - how to use?
#2

I believe your understanding is correct, yes. The Forecast count is meant to represent how many items are due on a particular day – an item that is deferred to a particular day doesn’t necessarily need to be done that day, but instead becomes available to be done on that day. It could still be done the next day, next week, or at any future time (up to its due date).

While the item will leave the Forecast view tomorrow, now that it’s available, you should hopefully see it crop up in other places. For example, such an item might appear:

  • In Contexts, in the context that it’s assigned (if any) – where you can decide to work on it
  • In Forecast again on its due date (if it has one) – where you’ll know it has to be done by that day
  • In Projects, in its parent project – where you might check in to see what else needs to be done
  • In Review, in its parent project – where you can be reminded of that task on a regular basis
  • In a perspective showing its project or context

If these places don’t fit your workflow, and you’d like to see Forecast change somehow, we’d love to hear about it!

#3

Thank you, feature request e-mailed. I basically want an option to treat deferred items same way as due in the Forecast view, tis all :-)

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#4

yeah, there are pages and pages of posts on ye olde deferred problem and the lack of a “still working on” area… there are scripts available to circumvent this major flaw.

For me, it’s a motivator to do the daily review ;-), but I am using the script as well…

#5

Thank you for a very fast (and relevant!) response. Rather than depending on a script on a desktop I have created a custom perspective that shows all deferred items.

But it is a rather weak workaround. Given the volume of requests all in similar vein - why hasn’t OF implemented this feature yet? Seems (to my untrained eyes) like a very easy option to enable.

Is there a list of features being worked on for the next release? Maybe like a beta version feature list? Would LOVE to know what new items are being worked on…

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#6

I emailed as well.

#7

Big +1 from me- but Omni has learned to do better than posting future features that then for some reason don’t make it into reality…

As for the "still working on " feature: the competition,that means most of the big local task management apps, have this feature in some fashion: 2do, THL, GoodTask, things (show in today). OK, Todoist doesn’t do defering at all ;-)…

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