In almost every single view, deferring an item clears it from the list. I have a list of repeating items and I have them have a due date with a time later in the day, but I also defer them to a specific time because I can’t complete them at a certain time.
So in the list you see that the 3 options I can complete are in black, but there are also deferred items… this is noisy, and they’re not due yet, but they’re deferred (aka I can’t complete them) so I don’t get why they should still show.
There is an option in VIEW to “show deferred items” but I have it unchecked… this basically displays all the options close to being due (but again… STILL DEFERRED)… if I check “show deferred” it shows like 2 days worth of repeating tasks.
Any thoughts? I can’t get those grayed out items to hide, I can’t do anything in view options… and if you’re going to say that the due date overrides the deferred… I think that’s a bit silly. Deferred should always override the due date because I can’t complete it yet.
Hi @lucid_thought, the Forecast perspective does not have the ability to filter items for availability; it shows all remaining items that are due. We have a feature request on file for the ability to exclude unavailable items. I’ll add you to that so the team will know you’d like that ability.
Sorry for the confusion on this. The option to show deferred items in Forecast does not affect whether unavailable items are displayed or not; it’s intended to allow you to show items on their defer date—items that also have a due will then reappear in Forecast on the due date. Unfortunately actions whose defer and due dates are on the same day end up being shown twice on the same day in Forecast, which is admittedly undesirable. We have this issue on record and are investigating how we can improve this behavior. I’ll add you to that as well.
In short, it’s not possible to do what you’re wanting to do in Forecast. I’m sorry to disappoint! If you have the professional edition you could create a custom perspective that groups and sorts by due date, and filters for availability.
I’m wanting to do the same thing and emailed them about it. From what I understand is that Forecast isn’t really a forecast the way we think it is. The only forecast you actually get is items that are due on a certain day alongside your calendar. It is best to forget things like time and deferred items (even though you can show deferred items; this btw, also causes problems when you have items with the same date for due and defer).
Example: you have an item you can only do after work time and needs to be done before the end of the day. That means you have to set the same date for defer and due but both defer and due will have a different time. Since Forecast revolves around due items this causes the item to always display. You’d expect it to be hidden until the defer time passes. This cuts down on the stress from seeing the (long) list of things that need to be done that day the entire day (“I must not forget to do…”).
Maybe the focus function in Forecast could be adjusted so we can zoom in on a particular time frame (say work hours and off work hours) and/or context (it currently only focuses on projects) or Forecast could do this automatically like switching between dark and light theme in OmniFocus for iOS (i.o.w. it would respect the defer and due time instead of only the defer/due date and only show the deferred item if the time has passed).
I am very disappointed this isn’t a feature, after all these years, but focusing on specific projects, like a work folder, and having personal stuff later in the day, will seem to solve this for me.
I can have each focus view in a diff tab and is nice for time blocking. It does create a lot more effort into organizing my OF, instead of just tagging things next, but making sure they are in the right projects / folders.
