I need advice on how best to use due dates in a sequential project. I’m undertaking some home improvement and have set up a number of sequential projects to manage different aspects of the work.
My issue is that if I give the project a due date every action is given the same due date which is not what I want. Alternatively if I give the first action of a project a due date, when it’s completed the project is no longer visible in Forecast or my Due perspective because the subsequent actions don’t have due dates and so aren’t visible unless I look in the actual project in the Sidebar.
I could give every action a different due date but that would be poor planning as I’d just be guessing when I’d have the time to complete them.
I don’t know if I’m just missing something or Omnifocus 2 doesn’t do what I want. Any advice appreciate. Thanks.
Let me ask first, why do you use due dates here? Are you using them to define when you desire to complete a task? Or are you using them to define when the task must be completed (or dropped / rescheduled dramatically) due to constraints outside of your control?
By example: Do you want to paint the exterior of your house by Nov 1 because you think this is a reasonable deadline to set for yourself or because you know for sure that cold weather due to arrive after that date absolutely will prohibit you from doing anything further on painting the house until Spring (6 months from now)?
OK. I am even more confused as to why you use due dates at all when everything is free to be done whenever you want. In any case, let me answer this way. Given this …
Everything up to and including task 3 due tomorrow is also due tomorrow. You can do tasks 1 - 3 whenever you want, but if you do them after tomorrow, you are doing them late.
