This seems like a basic question, but I haven’t been able to find an answer in the forums, thanks for bearing with me if it is just that my search-fu is bad.
I have a sequential project with a bunch of tasks and I would like to do one of them each day and I would like to have the first task from the project show up in my Forecast/Today view (as this is my primary method of seeing what I am going to do for the day). I tend to set due dates on all my tasks in order to get them to show up in Forecast (I gather this is not what most people do from scanning the forums, so maybe my problem starts there), so what I’d really like is a way to set the due date for each task in this sequential project to one day after the previous one was completed.
My work around right now is having a daily repeating task that just says "Do next item from " but it would be nice to eliminate the extra step. Any insight or advice for me?
You can have a task that has a link to the project in the Notes field. This is accomplished by control-clicking on a task or project and select “Copy as Link.” Paste the link in the Notes section. When you want to work on a project, click on the link and OmniFocus will jump to that project.
I tend to be lazier. I just make a checklist in a spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel, Apple Pages, or your favorite spreadsheet app).
I print this checklist out and then put it on my desk. It’s often easier to see my work on paper. If I lag behind, I might check off two boxes to try to catch up with my backlog. But sometimes I don’t worry if I fall behind. Life happens and my focus is placed in many areas/projects.
I would not say that setting due dates is wrong or causing your problem but they might preclude an direct solution. I started using GTD a long time ago. It was a big change for me, including the tools that I used at the time. I soon found OF and life got a lot better. It took a few years before I really understood GTD and OF and, moreover, how to use them for my own life. My OF projects, contexts, and views went through a lot of changes during those early years but eventually everything settled into a very nice pattern.
I suggest setting up a sequential project without any due dates, as it seems that you only use that feature in order to see them in the Forecast view. That is, these actions don’t have real, hard deadlines. I use that view, too, but I use the Next Item view more. The next sequential task appears in the context and when I complete it, the next one appears. I only have to deal with one action at a time, in sequence. It might take me three days to complete one task and at other times I might complete two actions in the same day, I don’t have to mess with due dates, though. So try using other views, not as replacements for the Forecast view, but as complimentary views.
This approach might seem simplistic but simple is good and it serves me well.
