Fairly new Omnifocus user and the defer elements in OF2 are confusing for me. I tried to find an answer for my ? and didn’t so here’s hoping someone may assist me.
after an item is late, I went into the right side bar properties of the item and added “defer another” (under Repeat) thinking it would make my item in the center menu change date and give me another week to work on the item. But nothing happened. So then I saw that next to the original date on the item line (again in the center menu while in Today, for example) I saw “defer until”, so I’m thinking perhaps that’s where I should have made the new date in order to give me more time and have the item be removed from Today (or in red wherever I see it in OF2.
I’m going to try it, but even if it does what I’d like, what’s the difference between the two?
Hi,
So others will correct if I’m wrong, Repeat Defer will create a new task so many days after it was completed, as opposed to Repeat Due will make it Due of the specified day regardless of when it was completed.
For example,
Repeat Defer.
I need to water the plants every 3 Days, Its due on Monday, i water them on Monday, the next task will be schedule for Thursday, if i miss it on Thursday and water them on Saturday, the next due date will be Tuesday.
Repeat Due.
I have a report due every Tuesday , once i completed it on Monday, it will make the next due date next Tuesday, if i dont complete my report till Friday, when i mark it complete on Friday, OF will still set the next due date on Tuesday, even if its less than 7 days.
This two are important as the first one ensures that if i miss it for 2 weeks i dont over water the plant when i resume again. while the second ensures that if i miss my reports for 4 weeks, OF will set the due dates for each week that i missed until im back on pace.
Now if you missed your target date, Force touch the task the pop up at the bottom gives you the option to push it for tomorrow, other wise in the forecast window drag the task to the future box on the top right corner, it will get extra days automatically.
That’s right. In addition to the method @elchatoloco mentioned, on the Mac, type in the time and date you want to defer it to, or use the + 1 day/week/month buttons.
If it’s in red, it’s overdue, so change the due date instead.
I’ve reread your comments and don’t quite understand, mostly because i’m a visually learner and also because I’m new to OF2 thinking process concerning the terms you explain. Tell me if I understood correctly.
I’m confused because you discuss Repeat Defer & Repeat Due, when I asked about Defer until & Defer another, can you show me the equivalencies? (See image)
As for your discussion of Repeat Defer vs. Repeat Due (though I don’t understand where to choose them), I think I understand that the difference is that Defer simply repeats the period of time set you set for a task whenever you eventually do it and Due has the task reoccur on the given date or day you set (or previously set) again, whenever you eventually do it.
Thanks for your help understanding this! I think in the end, in order to do what I what which is simply to keep my task visible (say on my Today view, which is actually more like a Current items view to me), but not be red, I need to Defer Until (if I want a specific date to defer it to) and if I want to do something similar to the two cases you brought up, then I need to go int o the Repeat section and select the appropriate one.
The first of my options allow me to move the task without going into the right properties window for the task and the later option causes me to have to go in to that window.
Got it! After reading both of your comments, I think I better understand the differences. I hope (like I’ve read) that OF3 clears up the repeat/defer issue better. ;)
OH well, I Deferred until for my projects tasks and they show back up in the Today via (which is what I wanted), but they are still red (which I understand now reminds me that I’m late, which I guess is a good thing or not depending on your view point). It accurate, as in I’m late getting the tasks done and I want to know that, but it’s not motivating. :(
so the original defer or first one available, is the date until you want to see it, for example, i need to make an end of month report that is due by the 10 of each month, but i dont want to see that task all month long, nor do i want to see on the 1st of the month, if i defer it till the 6th of the month, then omnifocus will only show it to me as an available task to work on till the 6th.
now a better option, at least for me, is to tag items i want to work on daily but that are not necessarily due now, is to tag them “Today”, in the forecast view on IOS, you can set it to display at the bottom a TAG besides your schedule.
this shows me all the items that i marked i can work with today.
so i dedicate a few hours to do my important “DUE” tasks, and them i pick a few from Today to keep me going.
Oh la la! I’m lost. Sorry, I’m too new to OF2 to understand your explanations well, but thanks so much for answering! First, I only use OF on a Macbook Air, never my iPad nor do I have an iPhone (hoping to get one when the dual sim comes out), so I don’t know if the iOS version is similar to the desktop version. I don’t use the Forecast window much, mostly the Today and Projects for now. So in my case, the tasks that I didn’t complete when I thought I would (and are now overdue) I’ve deferred until a new date.
But I think I understand your method, that when I’m planning tasks for a project that are do a ways out, I can use tags to see them before OF will have them show up in my Today or Forecast windows (at least that’s what I think I’m understanding). (Only for the desktop version tags won’t be available until OF3, this fall :( . )
