I’ve been traveling a good deal the past few months, so didn’t have the ability to try the OmniFocus 4.7 Test Flight with the new Planned Date.
I just upgraded today and already I am getting a glimpse of how the new planned date field will change how I am using OmniFocus.
Previously I either used flags or a forecast tag to indicate items that I wanted to do next or wanted to appear in the Forecast perspective.
I’ve been using flags for ‘actions without a hard due date that I want to focus on next’. And have been using forecast tags for routine items with no hard due date that should be done periodically.
I found that between the two I ended up with a giant list of items with no good way to schedule them over a period of time. It was just a big list.
I’ve already started moving these items to use planned dates instead, which does exactly as its name indicates. I can plan when I intend to get these items done - and of course adjust the dates and the plan as needed.
I am still thinking through how I might continue to use flags and the forecast tag, but for now I am mainly in the process of moving those items to use planned dates.
Thank you to the OmniFocus team for this very useful new feature!
I believe you need to migrate your database to take advantage of some new OF 4.7 features such as planned dates.
The “Migrating Your Database” section of the “Managing Your Database” chapter in the OmniFocus docs explains it all more fully than I can in a forum post.
OmniFocus 4.7 will eventually prompt you to upgrade after you’ve upgraded all your devices to 4.7, but it doesn’t prompt immediately. (In OmniFocus task planning terms, you could say that the migration prompt becomes available once you’ve upgraded all your devices, but it isn’t due or planned for that moment.)
Here’s a support article specifically about migration (supplementing the documentation in the reference manual linked above):
I opened up my OF this morning, and thought, “Why have I never seen this ‘Planned Date’ feature?”
Absolute. Game. Changer.
I used to toggle between “Defer date”, “Due date”, and a “NEXT” tag as the queue for tasks that didn’t have an absolute due date but needed to be addressed in a scheduled format. (I’ll admit, my system is convoluted and ends up looking like a large bookmark reading list that eventually I dread chipping away at.) Somehow, the planned date helps me move around these ‘floating’ tasks.
TBH, I live in planned dates, so making it an actual column/field in OF feels like it was built just for me. :D
Yes, I agree. This is a game changer and has brought me back to OmniFocus. I have always loved it but just could not get past the fact I was forced to implement workarounds (tags) to bend the Forecast logic to my needs. I hated that OF dictated to me that dates needed to be based on rigid GTD principles rather than how we use dates to plan when we are working on tasks.
This 4.7 update finally sets us free and can now truly claim the crown as the most powerful and flexible task manager available. By far. Well done on getting to this guys. I am very happy now.
I think expanding the forecast would help me here. I like the current list view. But there are times I wished I had other calendar views such as weekly where I can elect to show the next 2 weeks or a monthly calendar view. That would be my preferred method. Time to branch out from the standard forecast list view to a traditional weekly or calendar view in the forecast perspective.
@kcase I think you should pay attention to this person.
Having several shapes (or buttons) in Forecast to see the Forecast calendar (current week, next week, full month) would be very good and I don’t think it has a lot of work.
Again, thanks for of 4.7 it is the best application of the Apple ecosystem without a doubt !!! (L)
+1 here. With so many potential date fields to make use of I bang my head against a wall that it’s 2025 and I still can’t meaningfully see my OF data on a calendar without some seriously hacky solutions. I’m back to pen and paper at the moment!
I don’t quite understand the introduction of the planned date. For me, this date has the character of “well, maybe I’ll do this on this date…”. When I plan a larger project, I set the due date of the project task “Plan Project X” to a date on which I actually execute the planning. Why do I need a planned date then? To identify the task of planning a project, I can assign a day “@Planning.” So why do I need another date type?
On my Mac, in the Forecast perspective, I can select the dates I want to see in the sidebar, and then the perspective shows me only those dates. I’m not sure how your request differs from that. By default, if no date is indicated, the sidebar shows only the current month, but the actual perspective outline shows everything (my current Forecast perspective, without any selection, shows the tasks to replace my smoke detectors in 2029 and to renew my driver license in 2030).
I don’t use my iOS devices to do long-term planning, so apologies if they don’t offer the same flexibility.
