Need help on "Active & Available" perspective

OmniFocus
#1

Hello GTDers!
Just started getting serious with OF2 on Mac & iOS and need your help with custom perspectives.
What I am trying to accomplish is an Active & Available perspective.

The idea: Show me only tasks which are not deferred to later, and are actionable in my current context.

Example:
I have a work task which has the context office, is deferred to 10AM, and due at 5PM.
I also have a personal task, which has the context at home. This one is deferred to 3PM, and due at 9PM.

I don’t know at which time I will leave the office and go home… might be 2PM, might be 6PM…

Let’s imagine it is now 4PM, and I am still in the office.
My work task should be shown in my Active & Available perspective, as I am still in my office context.
My personal task is theoretically available (it is past its deferred date), but I am not in my at home context - as I am still in the office - so in fact, the personal task should not show up in my Active & Available perspective.

Is there any way to achieve this?

Thank you in advance!
Kalle

Help with Applescript - Filtering Results by Context
#2

As far as I know, switching contexts will only be possible with two different “hard-coded” perspectives (e.g. “Office A&A” and “Home A&A”) or with an Applescript or with a manual switch at the context pane itself.

–
JJW

#3

Thanks DrJJWMac,

can you elaborate what you mean by “switching contexts”?

Maybe there’s an alternative solution to my problem?
I basically want to hide those tasks (from my A&A perspective) whose context does not match my current location.

Or differently: If I’m not in the right context, my tasks should not be available.

#4

Could you not move all your office list/projects into a “work” folder and all the home ones into a “home folder”?

you then just create a perspective which focuses on that folder.

That also future proofs adding new lists projects.

#5

What I mean by switching contexts is exactly what you mean (I think). In one case, you want your A&A Perspective to show only tasks within the “Work” context. In the other case, you want the same A&A Perspective to show only tasks within the “Home” context.

To switch contexts while keeping the same Perspective, you will have to do this manually or via an AppleScript.

The alternative is to store two different Perspectives, i.e. one called “A&A Work” and one called “A&A Home”. Focus in each case only on the context that you want for the given Perspective.

FWIW, I handle this by an AppleScript. It switches certain contexts on/off depending on my choice. I run it from the AppleScript menu. Here’s the code in short …

(*
This script toggles contexts between work and play
	version 2.0 (jjw) - now asks where you are located
	version 1.0 (JJW)
*)

property pWorkContexts : {"lecture", "lab", "Work", "Students"}
property pPlayContexts : {"aprt", "house", "farm", "errands", "Personal", "bills"}

on run

-- set location

set theLocation to ¬
	(choose from list {"Work", "Play", "Both"} with title "Where are you?")

if theLocation is equal to {"Work"} then
	set patWork to true
	set patPlay to false
end if
if theLocation is equal to {"Play"} then
	set patWork to false
	set patPlay to true
end if
if theLocation is equal to {"Both"} then
	set patWork to true
	set patPlay to true
end if

-- toggle OF contexts and synchronize

tell application "OmniFocus"
	tell front document
		repeat with pContext in pWorkContexts
			set idtoToggleList to every item of (complete pContext as context)
			repeat with pLC in idtoToggleList
				set idtoToggle to id of pLC
				--set idContext to first item of (every flattened context where id contains idtoToggle)
				tell context id idtoToggle to set its allows next action to patWork
			end repeat
		end repeat
		repeat with pContext in pPlayContexts
			set idtoToggleList to every item of (complete pContext as context)
			repeat with pLC in idtoToggleList
				set idtoToggle to id of pLC
				--set idContext to first item of (every flattened context where id contains idtoToggle)
				tell context id idtoToggle to set its allows next action to patPlay
			end repeat
		end repeat
	end tell
	synchronize
end tell

-- send notice to center

set theNotice to "You are now at " & the text of theLocation
display notification theNotice with title "Applescript: Toggle OF Work<>Play" subtitle ((current date) as text)
delay 1
end run

–
JJW

#6

TheOldDesigner, yes of course this would work … But I want to have it in one perspective! That is really my goal here: Having one inbox which only displays the tasks that are actionable right now. This would also be the perspective that is shown in my iphone’s today screen.

DrJJWMac, thank you - this is a very interesting solution that I had not though of before. I use OF mostly on iOS - so Apple Script is not an option … But I really like your approach!

Thanks to both of you!

#7

Have you thought about assigning both home and work location-based context. In that case you could use nearby under a common perspective to see what you could work on.

#8

Then possibly as has already been said use a “meta” context and nest everything under that.

#9

Thanks @denrael!
Yes, Nearby is quite nice for that … Only just discovered the “List” view in Nearby; I had previously only noticed the map view.

Still two issues with that, unfortunately:

  1. Tasks which have no context (or at least no location-specific context, e.g. a phone call) would not show up in the Nearby context
  2. The Nearby context cannot be used as the default context to be shown in the iOS today screen

Thus, Nearby is not fully addressing my desire of having one perspective that contains all tasks which are active & available.

I think what I am looking for is a place that shows all tasks which:

  • are active
  • are available (no defer data or defer date is in the past)
  • are not assigned to a location-context which is out of reach

Keep those suggestions coming though - all of them were very interesting and I am learning a lot!

#10

@TheOldDesigner - could you elaborate?
I think I do not (yet) understand how this could solve my problem.

Maybe you can help me with this practical scenario:

  1. Task 1: Active, due tomorrow, context: none / anywhere
  2. Task 2: Active, due tomorrow, context: at my house
  3. Task 3: Active, due tomorrow, context: at the office

Now, I would like to have one list, which:

  • Shows Task 1 and Task 2 while I am at my house
  • Shows Task 1 and Task 3 while I am at the office
  • Shows only Task 1 while I am nowhere near house or office
#11

No sorry what i suggested would not do that, I think at present you are asking the impossible of the programme,

#12

OK thanks!

I’m sure it’s technically possible and not that complex to implement. To me, personally, this requirement makes a lot of sense: One perspective, showing only the tasks I can take action on right now.

But, of course, I fully understand that this is seemingly a very unique request, without a lot of support :) … therefore the likelihood of it being developed is rather limited.

1 Like
#13

The problem with software development is that often with what seems “not complex” ends up breaking 10 other things with the potential that each one of the fixes for those 10 other things breaks 10 more…

I think for now its just two perspectives and some nifty finger work on the screen :)

#14

Hehe true.
I’m sure that if it had priority for the team, they could develop it… But again: I am not the single one most important user for Omni, so I don’t have the expectation that they’ll develop something just for me ;)

I raised a feature request via email, see below… Let’s see ;)

Dear Omnifocus Team,

My name is Kalle, a German dude, and avid user of OF2 on the Mac and iOS! LOVE IT!

In full spirit of GTD, I am desperately looking for a way to have one perspective that only shows me tasks on which I can take action right now. Let’s call this perspective “Actionable now”.

Let me give you a scenario. I have 3 tasks:

Task1: active, due soon, no location-based context (phone call, can be done anywhere)
Task2: active, due soon, location-based context: at my house (do the dishes)
Task3: active, due soon, location-based context: at the office (see my boss)

While I am physically at my house, I would like my “Actionable now” perspective to show Task1 and Task2, as both those tasks are actionable while I am at my house. I do not want to see Task3, as there is nothing I can do about it right now.

Likewise, while I am at the office, I would like my “Actionable now” perspective to show Task1 and Task3, as both those tasks are actionable while I am at the office. I do not want to see Task2, as there is nothing I can do about it right now.

While I am in neither of the two locations (neither at my house, nor at the office), I would like only Task1 to be displayed in my “Actionable now” perspective, as this is the only task I can action right now.

Why not use multiple perspectives: one for house, and one for office?
I don’t want to have to switch perspectives. OmniFocus already knows where I am, and whether my physical location matches any of my location-contexts. I want to have one task list, that is being displayed in my iOS today screen, and only contains those tasks which are actionable right now.

Why not use the “nearby” view?
Nearby is cool, but it does not include tasks which can be done anywhere (see Task1 in my example). Also, “nearby” cannot be displayed in the iOS today screen.

I hope I could explain my vision and would highly appreciate if you could consider implementing a filter in custom perspectives that hides any tasks whose location-context does not match my physical location.

With love from Germany!!

#15

One thing I’ve often wished for in OF is open/close times. It doesn’t fully address your desire, but it would get closer. An app I used to use called Life Balance had that for each context. I could set open/close times for everything from a Post Office to when I can make phone calls. So Phone:Personal might be M-F 5p-8p and S/S 8a-8p while Phone:Work might be M-F 8a-5p. That way only calls I can make NOW show up. Only errands I can run NOW show up. It makes it easier to get to a what can I do now perspective.

1 Like