Hi folks
Been using OF since version 1 so very confused. If I create an item in my inbox, then edit the Project (while creating it or while it’s in inbox), it does not appear in the Project list. It’s that simple. I’m pretty sure this used to work;) Am I missing something that changed?
In case it’s not clear, I have a Project called Shopping. I added ‘bananas’ to the inbox then added the Project info (which was recognised) called Shopping. If I navigate to Shopping in Project view, it’s not there.
The Getting Started shows this working so before I file a bug report, I wanted to check;)
Hi,
I assume you are talking about OmniFocus 4, right? Most likely on Mac. You using any tags, sequential projects, view option = first available?
Although I just use iPad, iPhone and Web versions I have not seen something like this. Without a Mac it could of course be a bug, but there could be at least one scenario for this.
A: Sequential project, Bananas is not the first action in the project. View options set to Available.
B: Parallel project. Bananas is not the first action in the project. View options set to First Available.
…
Were you able to find the Bananas using search? (I hope you didn’t tape them to a wall. ;-)
Yes, it happened on my iPad as well. And it is version 4 (standard, on Mac). View options are set to ‘everything’ and I’ve tried toggling sequential/parallel/single.
Even stranger, looking more closely (and running with my imaginary fruit-based scenario lol), if I am IN Shopping and create a new item like Apples, it lists it there. I now have:
looking at Shopping: I see one item, Apples
looking at inbox: I see bananas, with Project Shopping showing just underneath. In the info sidebar, I see ‘Bananas’ is in Project Shopping and can click through to the Project but when I get there…no bananas.
It’s difficult to post images as there is confidential info (eg emails) in the inbox and I’d have to do a lot of exporting/hiding it. But I will if that isn’t clear.
I wonder if my database is somehow corrupted, since it’s cross platform for me. And you seem to have confirmed it’s not the expected behaviour…(thanks)
PS after posting I tried the contextual menu on ‘bananas’. It offers ‘Show in Projects’, which takes me to Shopping, but again I only see Apples…(this is gonig to be some really obvious setting, isn’t it…)
PPS This is something to do with the setting for cleaning up inbox, I’ve worked out. It was set to tidy up when things had a project and a tag. I have set it to tidy up when there is a project or a tag, and hurray, the bananas are in the right place. But I’d still expect it to be more straightforward!
Shot in the dark was spot on;)
I am now merely perplexed by some logical but absurd behaviour (invisibly belonging to a project), and need to see if this needs to be done on all devices. It does sound like what I am seeing is not happening to others, though? (cue bug report)
An action can’t exist in the inbox and a project simultaneously; it’s one or the other.
If the Clean Up Inbox Items setting is “Both a project and a tag,” the action will remain in the inbox if the project and/or tag fields are empty. For example, if you specify the project for an inbox item but don’t specify the tag, the action will remain in the inbox. The action won’t be move to the project until at least one tag is added.
I like to think of the OmniFocus inbox as my grocery shopping bag. It’s just a temporary place to hold my groceries when I’m at the market.
When I finally arrive home, I take out the groceries from my reusable shopping box (an inbox) and move each item to the appropriate place (project):
Kitchen pantry
Refrigerator
Freezer
A Tupperware container
Nothing remains in my shopping bag. I’m not gonna keep the eggs and milk in the shopping bag. That goes straight to the refrigerator. Canned goods go in the pantry. Ziplock bags and trash bags go to a particular cabinet to hold household items.
I use the OmniFocus inbox as a temporary shopping bag. Then I’ll move a task out of the inbox by assigning a project. I hit Command-K to do a clean up. Any tasks that have a project will get cleared out of the inbox.
You’re missing my point. I’m referring to having something that Omnifocus considers to be linked to a Project (and shows that link, to go to the Project), then it being invisible there. So, visually, it’s not there. There is no way to have it show. That’s a bit absurd.
But it ‘is’ there technically, and there are reasons it persists in the inbox. That’s logical.
Hmmm. That’s strange. I assigned a a project to an inbox item on my iPhone. Then swiped down to clean up. It disappeared from my inbox. I went to the projects perspective to find that task. Found it in the correct project without a tag.
Did you try to visit the project in the project perspective or did you go to a custom perspective with view settings that might have hidden that task from view?
If you use the option Both a Project and a Tag in settings. Then assign the inbox item a project and then clean up. The inbox item remains in the inbox still displaying the project in inspector.
This behavior goes back to the principles behind David Allen’s Getting Things Done workflow (set out here in a handy chart):
Your Inbox is where stuff goes before you process it. When you process it, you decide whether it is actionable. If not, you (1) toss it, (2) file it in a someday/maybe file or tickler file, or (3) file it in reference. If it is actionable, you (1) do it if it can be done quickly, (2) delegate it to someone else, or (3) defer it until a later date and move on to the next item.
In Allen’s original system, which could be used with paper lists or simple text files, if you do the task while processing your inbox, it never makes it onto a project or context/tag list at all. If you delegate, it goes onto a Waiting For list. If you defer, you either make it a new project or add it to an existing project list, and you assign it a context (now called tags in OF) that indicates where or what tool you need to do it. When your project list and context/tag lists were literally separate pieces of paper, or separate text files, it was essential to do both of those steps.
OF allows users to replicate that requirement with the preference to leave items in the Inbox until they have both a project and a tag. That ensures that people who work primarily from a list of tags won’t miss a task because it was never tagged, as long as they process their Inbox regularly.
If you choose that preference, assigning an Inbox item to a project is not putting the item on the project list now; it is saying that once it also has at least one tag, it will be placed on the project list.
I prefer that behavior, and I don’t find it absurd, because for my workflow, something in the Inbox is, ipso facto, not yet truly part of a project, because I haven’t fully processed it. If I’m doing planning within a project, I ensure that I tag any items I add directly to the project.
Fortunately, OF lets you change that preference, as has been noted, so that people like you who do find that behavior absurd can change it. That’s one reason OF is relatively complex.
