Recommendations, please, for setting an On Hold Status

OmniFocus
1

OmniFocus 4.8.6 (v185.4.0) Pro on Tahoe, 26.1.

Is there any advantage or disadvantage to specifically marking individual Items with an ‘ON HOLD’ tag - as opposed to simply leaving the three (Defer, Planned, Due) dates blank and then creating the necessary/custom Perspective accordingly, please?

Simply to leave all three dates blank is quicker, of course.

But somehow it seems more thorough and precise actually to tag an item which I do and/or will want to get to at an unknown date in the future with ‘ON HOLD’.

Am I deceiving myself?

Or should I be using tasks’ Available property?

Thanks in advance for any insights which users have… :-) .

2

If this helps …

  1. I cannot see the logical equivalence

ON HOLD = ((NOT Deferred) & (NOT Planned) & (NOT Due))

I can see the logical equivalence

AVAILABLE ANY TIME = ((NOT Deferred) & (NOT Planned) & (NOT Due))

  1. Filtering for tasks that have a specific ON HOLD tag is cleaner logic than filtering for tasks that are missing three specific settings.

FWIW, I consider ON HOLD to mean those tasks that cannot move forward due to external limits. By example, the task “plant flower bed” is ON HOLD until mid April because the ground is not ready until about then, but the task “clean up basement” is not ON HOLD even though I do not know when I will actually start it.

–
JJW

2 Likes
3

Thank you, Jeffrey!

Yes, it helps :-)

I take your point about ‘cleaner logic’. Although my aim was (is?) to use (only) those attributes built in to OF by its designers :-) I have added the ‘ON HOLD’ tag myself. If there is a way to do it with what OF comes with out of the box, I’d somehow prefer to do that.

In my case ON HOLD has no reference to preconditions; just a task I have thought of, and one which I know that I will have to do at some point; but to which I don’t want to assign a date of any kind - precisely because I know it’d be a spurious date, for the sake of it - such as December 31 2099!

So how would you identify your:

in OF 4 Pro, please?

4

The wonderful thing about OF is that you can combine what is built in to create your own approach.

If I am doing this strictly at the task level, I would have a tag On Hold that is set with its status as On Hold. I would apply that tag (in addition to whatever other tags are on the task).

Even though OF only allows users to set projects (not tasks) directly on hold, OF allows users to set a tag (context) as On Hold so that they can apply that context at the task level.

All of this is out of the box.

I never put individual tasks on hold. I only put projects on hold. And only for the reason that something external limits being able to continue on the project. So, I would have this …

Surroundings (folder)

  • Spring YardWork (single action project, ON HOLD)
    – plant flower bed
    – clean outside window sills
    – …
  • General House Work (single action project, ACTIVE)
    – clean up basement
    – clean inside window sills (flagged as currently in progress)
    – …
  • Kitchen Cleanup (sequential project, ACTIVE)
    – …

The clean up basement task appears in a perspective as being Available. As desired, I choose to flag it to be in progress.

If I read your approach correctly, I sense that you prefer to hide a task (put it on hold) for some (arbitrary) time period based on how you feel at that moment. When the task pops up later (as not on hold), you will decide (again) whether you feel like doing it. I prefer to see a list of everything that is available (i.e. not limited by external conditions meaning not on hold). Based on how I feel at that moment, I choose what task from that list to do next (I flag the task).

–
JJW

1 Like
5

Thanks, Jeffrey!

Again, I follow what you say. Very helpful. I think I can see ways forward now :-)

Much appreciated…