Hello, I am new here but have been enjoying OmniFocus pro for several years but do not know how to accomplish creating a view which will display all tasks available until a given date (in this case, practically speaking, I’d likely want this date to be “tomorrow”). This view would ideally sort by priority (tag). I use a “planning” perspective and “today” perspective by selecting only tasks which are available (with an implied “available” date of today). I basically want a version of those perspectives where I can specify a date for “available” other than “today”, such as “Tomorrow”, so I can plan out tomorrow’s tasks.
Thanks for any advice or help doing this. Some basic research seems to suggest my best bet might be a modification/new-workflow involving the forecast view? I can’t stress enough how much I’d prefer to literally clone my “today” view and modify the name to “Tomorrow” and the filtering to “tasks available: TOMORROW” more or less.
I went outside the box. At the end of the day, I look at my Forecast perspective. I write down any overdue (not yet completed) and due today tasks into my schedule for tomorrow. I have a daily planner notebook with the day’s schedule from 6 am to 7 pm. Write down the overdue and due today tasks in the task section.
Then I might pick one or two tasks (no due date) that I would like to get done tomorrow. I add it to my task section.
Then I schedule a time block in the day schedule an overdue and due today task. I have to work on those first. Then I schedule a time block for any other tasks I chose.
Using OmniFocus together with a notebook has helped given me more focus. Yes, I know some users would like an all digital approach But I always think of OmniFocus as one tool in the toolbox. Having a paper notebook with OmniFocus has given me more clarity about what I should be doing tomorrow.
I appreciate the alternative approach, but I am still looking for a digital solution to this specific problem.
I do use pen and paper at work where I find it’s easier to keep track of things while I move around and come and go in meetings, so I definitely see some of the advantages as well.
You could use a perspective where you under Presentation have the following settings:
Group and sort: Individual actions
Group actions by: Defer date
Sort actions by: Tag
This perspective will give you what you ask for. There will be some effects that you might find as drawbacks, though. You will not only see the actions deferred to tomorrow, but also all others. Those in the future or without defer date will probably not be a problem, as they are positioned below the tasks available tomorrow, but the tasks available today or before will be positioned above the tasks deferred to tomorrow. You may of course fold those groups of tasks. You will also get the tasks without tags sorted before those with tags, but it will probably still help you having them sorted.
I have a perspective similar to the one you ask for. In my case, I am interested in tasks that have become available after having been deferred. These are tasks I would like to work on after those that are due. For tasks I choose not to work on now, I either delete the defer date or set a new one in the future, that way avoiding that tasks with old defer dates block the view.
To avoid spending too much time on replacing defer dates, I only use those for tasks that actually can’t be done before the defer date. Tasks that I simply would like to do tomorrow or in the future (but could do today) I assign tags instead: This week, This month, and so on. This works well, as it in Omnifocus 3 is possible in perspectives to reorder tasks by dragging, and the priorities for my unscheduled tasks will that way be prepared for every following day without any manual handling.
