This is a request for a change or adjustment in the OF language for the due dates. I also wanted to see what others think about it, too.
I like using the Due within perspective in order to get a sense of upcoming deadlines. It is mentally important to me to know what I have due this week, and by ‘this week’ I mean Monday-Sunday, which is April 25-May 1. However, OF uses the language differently, and it throws me off. It seems that 'due within next week" is actually ‘the remainder of this week and the next several days from next week’.
Today, Wednesday April 27, I need to work on a presentation which is due next Wednesday, May 4. OF currently displays it in ‘due within the next month.’ Deadlines past ‘tomorrow’ are in the category ‘next week’. This is mentally not very helpful.
The language ‘next month’ at the moment makes sense because I have many deadlines for May, and we are still in April, but next week, starting Sunday, May 1, I wonder under which category the deadlines will appear.
So I would prefer a feature for ‘this week’ = Monday-Sunday of the current week, ‘next week’= following week, ‘by the end of this month’, ‘next month’.
I agree the terminology isn’t helpful and the placement of tasks can be a little challenging. It could be better. We recently saw the ‘Today’ setting correctly updated to reflect exactly what is with the remaining hours of the day instead of taking into account the full 24 hours relative to any given time of that day.
If it could be carried over into the other times it could be really great.
I don’t agree: for you, “next week” is the following M-Su. Others might say Su-Sa, as most North American calendars would put it. I would want the current definition of “next seven days”, as on Tuesday morning I don’t want to see a list of things due 6-13 days in the future.
Are there not three timespans which are relevant here:
1 - this week: from today until the end of the current week, be it - most likely - a Friday, Saturday or Sunday regardless of what today is
2 - next week: from the start day (probably Sunday or Monday) of the week that comes after this one (regardless of what today is) until the day (probably Saturday or Sunday) on which it ends (again regardless of what today is)
3 - next n days: from today until the end of the nth day from now, where ideally n is settable and its default is 7
I guess I’m happy with the current setting with Due soon meaning 1 week. My personal viewpoint stems from the idea that I’m not so much bothered by “end of the week”. I prefer to see the next 7 days because I see life as a conveyer belt. The tasks will keep rolling in and doesn’t pay attention to what the end of the week is. Even if the end of the week is Friday, I am already worried about what is coming up next Monday or in the next 7 days. If I get the chance, I’ll already be getting ahead of myself and tackling next week’s issues. If I wait until the due date, I fear that I’m already behind the 8-ball and just trying to keep ahead of the raging bull that is on my heels.
I’ve worked in an agricultural college and in retail. There is no such thing as end of the week. Life keeps moving on. In agriculture, plant experiments didn’t observe “holidays.” The work still had to be done. There have been many a holiday where I’ve been called in to put out a work emergency/fire. Nowadays, some of us are called in to work on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It is true that we do not have weekends anymore. For me, weekend = I can work more on the projects due next week. That is why knowing that a weekend is coming up gives me a sense of relief.
Like you I would not want to see past tasks, from Monday, let say, since today is Tuesday. But because I have more time constraints because of teaching and committee obligations during the week, it is important for me to know how to find that time before Friday. If something is due on Monday, I can catch up the weekend.
Alternatively, my mindset (thinking in terms this week and next week) is also stressing me out because if I shift my mindset as yours (which I have been trying to do), I might be better at planning. Starting the project due next Tuesday during the weekend is too late, as I tend to find out.
