I recently switched to Things and now back to Omnifocus (will write a summary why at some other point) and one of the things I miss the most is the ability to decide how many tasks of a project are visible in “Next”.
On sequential projects this is no problem but for single action and parallel projects - especially with really big projects - it’s better to only see the first n tasks (where n = 1~3).
I submitted a FR to omnigroup but was wondering if someone has a “hack” to get this functionality inside the mac app
There is the view option of First Available, which shows the first available tasks in parallel projects or all tasks in single action projects. That might help?
I use a combination of defer dates and putting projects on hold to keep my Next perspective to around 30 or so choices.
That indeed helps! I must have missed that.
But I’m looking for a solution (maybe with applescript?) that does this for more than 1 task. Like the first 3, including on single action lists
Yes mine was only a quick workaround suggestion. :) Certainly someone much smarter than me with the AppleScript can come up with something that is a more robust approach to the requirements.
I suggest as @deturbulence to make use of the First Available and other view options to limit the length of the next action list.
I also suggest to make use of contexts in a way that sub-divides the list to your best use. For example, in my case, I order my “action” contexts from top to bottom equivalently as: close, deliver, tidy up, do, propose, and brainstorm. My next list is long, but any of the individual context groups are “self-contained” and smaller. Also, I see immediately where the next action “close” is on top to complete a project, whereas the next action “brainstorm” to start a project is at the bottom of the list.
This is a bit harder to do (if not impossible to impractical). I make use of an AppleScript that cycles the view state of the front window thru First Available, Next, and All. It does not limit the list to just I have the script embedded to an icon on the OF toolbar. At the moment, I am not where I can pull a reference to the script itself. Perhaps I can post it later (or someone may beat me to it).
