Would anyone else like to exclude which contexts and/or projects appear in the Forecast perspective on iOS? You can do this on the Mac, albeit manually each time. On iOS, which is where I do 90% of my OmniFocusing, Forecast is an unusable mess of everything including grocery list items and all sorts of things aside from the contents of my next actions lists.
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It would be good if IOS version of OF2 had a āfocusā button the same as the mac version.
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Since the point of the Forecast perspective is to show you what you have identified as due soon (or today, or overdue), I think thereās a bigger question: why are your grocery list items and other things showing up in Forecast? It sounds like you may be using OmniFocus as a Swiss army knife app. I prefer to use it for my projects and actions, and to use other apps for other purposes. So if grocery shopping is something with a hard deadline (as in, I wonāt be able to eat unless I shop by a certain date), Iāll make āGrocery shoppingā an entry on one of my single action lists, but my actual grocery list will be in Simplenote.
I see the point of Forecast as a way to see what I have identified as things that HAVE to get done in the near future, or, if I canāt do them, then things that I have to renegotiate with whoever I promised them to. Excluding things from that list seems like a bad idea.
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That sounds exactly like how Iād like to use Forecast, and why itād be helpful to be selective about what appears there. Lots of us use OF for grocery lists. I have recurring items on my grocery list, for things that I get almost every week. The only way to have the recur is to set another defer date, and thatās why they appear in Forecast.
I donāt really care about the āDueā section of Forecast, since I would rather look at a custom perspective of all available tasks sorted by due date. What I would really find useful is to use Forecast to see things that are deferred to later dates, excluding certain things like grocery items.
Why on Earth wouldnāt you want to use OF for grocery lists if you are already using it?
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I agree. Everything but everything goes into OF2, or else whatās the point of it? I discovered years ago having separate lists on other apps was a hassle. I need less friction-not more.
I donāt have a hard due date on my groceries list-it is a deferred list (showing up in forecastās defer section only). I have a geo-location set on it so when I pass my local superstore anything required-milk, eggs etc āpingsā onto my wrist via watch and I go home with said items from grocery store.
I have it set up with a dedicated perspective and with careful setting I have it on my wrist.
This is my point with the so called rivals to OF2 who cannot match this feature: learn to use defer dates properly with defer again repeats and you can have a tailor made grocery list remind you in time to replenish your crispies before they run out!
Psā¦I tried the same in other rival apps and they couldnāt handle it.
remember you can compact the data lines in forecast perspective - I do this to flatten the large daily lists, but I have the other perspectives set to āfluidā mode. This can help reduce the appearance of āclutterā.
Iāve been trying to figure out what you meant by this ability, because it seems like something Iād be interested in. Then I found an older reference to this being a Mac version feature - is it true that itās not available on the iOS versions? I donāt use a Mac, so I have no way of looking at it on that platform to see what it doesā¦
Thanks,
Mark
This is a higher-level meta discussion. I fundamentally disagree with the underlying assertion ā¦ An app designed for a given class of tasks should be used to do everything in that class. But, that does not address the request of the OP and goes off topic.
Should we be allowed to tweak a built-in Perspective? I would say, if so, we are heading down the road of ātweak it today for this, then tomorrow for that, then next week for something elseā. IOW, when would it end, slippery slope, and so on. So, rather than ask for a minor change, why not ask that we be allowed to remove it entirely on iOS? We can re-arrange our home-brewed Perspectives. Why not also allow this for Forecast?
Sounds a bit subjective, this term āLots of us ā¦ā. Iād challenge that this approach as an appeal to the masses has no objective merit as a call to implement a feature. I might as well say ā¦ āLots of us would like to move the Forecast view out of the iOS listā and trump your request with no other rationale but some seat-of-the-pants feeling.
But let me be helpful here. I suggest a few options for grocery-list types of actions ā¦
- Use a dedicated app. This is my highest recommendation.
- Use OF and, to deal with the headaches of an abundance of due items cluttering the Forecast view, create ONE task āget grocery itemsā and
- put the grocery items in the note of this task
- put the grocery items in a separate single-action project that has no due date and cross-link using the notes field to the main task
Otherwise, I suspect the Forecast view will remain mostly user-immutable on OF for a foreseeable time frame.
ā
JJW
Sorry @Mc1z this is only available on osx not iOS. Apologies.
What a shame you donāt use the Mac version. It is a superb Mac app.
Fair point @DrJJWMac.
My issue with your point is that one can easily start to fill up the iPhone with apps for this list and that list, with one app having a bespoke advantage over the other for whatever dedicated role it has been designed for.
Quit constantly searching for task app Nirvana. Pick one and stick with it. Iāve tried all the major apps and some less major ones. They all have benefits and one can go task app crazy.
Pick one. Learn it. Use it.
I have no problems using OF2 on everything from Business, Ministry, Personal Life, Shopping lists, Birthdays and so on and on. For me OF2 has to accomplish everything and it does extremely well. I couldnāt cope with another app just for shopping, or one for developing task habits, or another for such and suchā¦
Having said all that, whatever works for you or anyone else then thats fine. I have been down that road and didnāt like it for the reasons already stated.
Iād not be hiring a cabinet maker who only uses one grit of sandpaper to do it all. Iād also not be hiring a cabinet maker who keeps running out to change to a different brand of the same grit of sandpaper every hour.
Somewhere in those two statements is a productive path forward. You are closer to the first pole. I am closer to the second. As long as we realize that clear point where no one can truly force 80grit sandpaper to do well at a 120grit level, we will both be fine.
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JJW
ā¦but which task management app are you going to use to remind yourself to hire this cabinet maker? š
The one that is not my grocery list app. Iād not be asking that developer to make his/her grocery list management app to be better suited as a task management app too.
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JJW
Glad that works for you. This is my point. Stick with what works. For me that is one app. For othersā¦several apps.
This thread is ultimately about being able to do something on iOS that you can already do on the Mac, and having that preference persist across viewings of the Forecast perspective. Despite the personal examples given, itās a fairly straightforward request for parity.
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