Yeah. @kcase has mentioned these changes a few times in a few different places. Hopefully he will respond in this thread as well. Not so much the “today” list I was requesting but the file system/database format changes along with multiple contexts and manual ordering.
You misunderstand me. I don’t ‘tear down’ T3 or it’s users. I simply state the facts. When I say T3 fails every standard in task management, that is my opinion.
It has it good attributes. But if fails on so many levels/features that make life sweet I’d need a full page to detail it. I was fair in my treatment and experimentation with T3. I used my OF2 database and it was quite simply useless to me. My opinion. Not yours I accept. Surely I can give my opinion or is it only if you agree with it?
I decided after careful and 3 months of testing that my life was not enhanced with T3 or indeed any of OF2 ‘rivals’ at ay time. I also stand by the comment that there are at least 3 other apps that leave T3 miles behind in terms of useful features and abilities.
This isn’t personal or intended to upset anyone. Just my opinion. I thought these pages allowed for personal opinion.
Strangely, you fails to answer my actual gripes with T3 instead of explaining where I am wrong. Or is it the case I am right?
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I agree, and as I stated I believe the OG are very smart operators. With Drag n Drop in testing the possibilities are exciting. Keep the faith and before long the ‘Today’ feature people seem to crave will be along in a jiffy.
He doesn’t have to - he doesn’t have the gripes with T3 that you do and nor do many other people. It doesn’t work for you and it does work for him. There isn’t anything else.
That suggests that there’s some objective standard by which task management apps are measured: there isn’t. For people (and there seem to be many of them) for whom T3 works well, there are no other apps that leave it behind.
I don’t find that at all surprising - I would not expect to be able to dump my OF data into another app and have that app handle it as well as OF does. As various people have pointed out in various threads down the years, switching task managers is a major exercise, requiring a serious investment of time and thought.
I was just getting ready to reply but I actually couldn’t have said it better. I’m not here to pit OF against Things. I think both apps are fantastic and I love them both in different ways. I’m simply requesting a feature.
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Wholeheartedly agree. In my view, a great way to implement this would be to introduce the notion of “Do Date” (distinct from “Due Date”). Actions could be given a Do Date when they are created, and/or during weekly and daily review sessions.
All items marked with a “Do Date” that matches today’s date would appear in a “Today” perspective.
Alternatively, the Flag feature could be enhanced to provide this functionality (thereby making the Flagged Perspective a defacto “Today” perspective). To accomplish this, a date field would be added to the Flag status, such that an action can “flag itself” on a particular date in the future.
So, for example, I might choose to add an item that I want to complete next Wednesday. I set it to “Flag” (verb) itself on that date. In the interim, it is not flagged but is Available. When next Wednesday arrives, the item becomes Flagged.
On that Wednesday, other items to Flag will be surfaced during my morning review. Having some actions automatically Flag themselves is a benefit as my earlier intentions are already evident (and can be modified, as desired).
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This sounds like a solid idea. I have never thought of it in this way but I really like it. I like the concept of “Do” vs “Due” as they are very different. Do you have any ideas of how a user could select maybe two or three tasks from his/her “Do” list and just focus on them for the next 30-60 minutes? For example I may have 17 tasks I want to accomplish today. Some are finance related, some around the house and some errands. I would love to be able to single out the financial tasks as they most likely would all take place on my mac. Right now in Things 3 I can add a tag called “Focus” which really helps me drill down on the next 2-3 tasks at hand. Maybe the best way would be to just do this in OF when they release their tags feature.
In my view, the ideal thing is for OmniGroup to implement my idea of “Do Date” and we would use Flag to mean “Focus”.
Failing that, I don’t have a suggestion. Your Focus list is necessarily an additional data point (whether as a Flag or a tag), so one or more new features is required.
Part of why I like the concept of Do Date (in addition to keeping the natural meaning of such things as Due, Defer, etc.) is that this date could have some useful behaviors (perhaps optional). An item with Do Date = today that is not completed would automatically be set to the next day.
To my way of thinking, OmniFocus provides a nearly complete solution. Any system that includes other (additional) task management tools creates duplicate data-entry effort or risks action items “falling thru the cracks”.
Our weekly and daily review process and day-to-day focus would both be enhanced with such an additional feature. For example, I thought thru my upcoming week during a review, and plan to accomplish a particular task next Thursday. OmniFocus doesn’t need to show it to me again until then, but it SHOULD be Available - such that it appears in correct Context and can be marked complete if I happen to find it expedient to do it early.
I’ve always thought this, without requiring a change to those who like OF as is, would round-out OF functionality so it brings more power to the more pro-active among us (those who plan when they will be in certain Contexts, rather than simply look for Action items based on current Context).
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This is a great idea. I would love to see something like his implemented.
Your positive response gives me hope.
I’ve suggested it in the (distant) past (maybe a previous incarnation of this forum).
I can only recall negative feedback, but task management solutions are such personal things we all see different priorities for improvement.
Yeah I agree. It’s not that we are tearing the product down in its current state. It’s only requesting that additional features be added to continue to serve a wider variety or users and workflows. OmniFocus is an incredible piece of software. It’s just that some people would prefer tweaks here and there.
As I don’t need Contexts for other purposes, I have set the contexts Today, This Week, This Month, Stages (for tasks I repeatedly need to work on), and For Scheduling (to avoid planning too many tasks in the near future, instead considering moving them up in a weekly review). Then I have a perspective grouped by Contexts and sorted by Flags (as I have chosen not to use Flags either for other purposes). This works well for me.
(As an alternative, to get more focus, flags could be used for picking tasks from a perspective like the one above to a certain ”Today – Flagged” perspective.)
Manual sorting will of course be a bit more convenient when it arrives (and will free flags for other purposes), and multiple tags will free contexts for other purposes.
I also have a perspective for deferred tasks, grouped and sorted by Defer Date. That perspective is for tasks that I either can’t start working on earlier or for certain reasons intend to start working on at specific dates. I avoid using ”Do Dates” more generally, as I earlier have over-used Defer Dates and found myself spending way too much time on repeatedly setting new defer dates on tasks I hadn’t find time to finish. It only made me losing the big picture. My solution with Today, This Week, This Month doesn’t force me to set new dates all the time. If I am occupied with other tasks for a period, I could then just continue where I was. No need to set new dates, and no new tasks that are interfering with the old ones.
We have focus in OmniFocus.
I just wish focus comes to iOS.
The focus feature is project based, though. You can’t use it to focus on a context or on a selection of tasks.
Yeah we need it for individual tasks and on iOS.
I’ve only glanced through this full thread, so if I’m repeating something that someone else as suggested (and/or someone has rejected) my apologies…
I’m not a big fan of keeping metadata in the notes field but I’m even less fond of changing contexts or projects to mark today (I do sometimes use flags).
Anyway, maybe this will work for you:
- add “today” or some other tag or identifier to the notes field of the task you are marking
- create a perspective with whatever your tag is in the “find text” box (under filtering)
Oh, the shortcut to get in and out of the notes field is command-’
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What’s in TestFlight right now adds drag-and-drop reordering to projects on iOS 11. Since this is a capability we’ve always had on Mac, it’s not really a major change to the fundamental design—it’s just a very nice improvement to the interface on touch devices.
What’s coming in Q4, though, is a major design change: tasks within a context will be able to be reordered independently from any other sort ordering. (Right now, unless you apply some sorting criteria to your perspective/view settings, the task order within a context list is based on their relative order of those tasks in your projects.) You’ll also be able to assign multiple contexts (now called tags) to a task at once.
This means that you’ll be able to create a Today list and add tasks to it without removing those tasks from other lists. And within that list, you’ll be able to reorder those tasks however you like (without affecting their order in other lists).
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😊 you have no idea how happy that makes me Mr Case!
Thanks Ken. Is this done simply through adding tags to tasks to create this today list or is this a special new type of list?
Personally I use flags for my today view but have used defer dates before. You can set the forecast view to show defered dates. What I didn’t like with that method is that if I did not get to a task, it doesn’t jump to the next day. With flags I know they’ll be there tomorrow of I don’t get to them. I still use defer dates along with flags. If I want to work on a task tomorrow, Friday, next week, I’ll set a defer date and flag it. When that day comes it’s already on my flag (today) list. This method has stuck for me. Works great and has very little friction.
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