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.
This is insane that it has still not been implemented. Say you have an errand to do after work due today so you defer it to 5pm. That task is visible all day as you try to work through the tasks you have do for your work. When you have multiple, it makes the forecast view useless as they cause friction and make what you need to do hard to see. A custom perspective is likely the answer, but it shouldn’t be. The forecast view should be useful, not just some cheap thrill to dumbly show you what has a due date today, it ought to be something you can work from. After all, what is the purpose of have things due today laid out in a list if you’re not actually going to do them?
This is the one I use for all actions due today or in the past, which are Available. The ⭐️ tag is the same I use in Forecast view.
Please keep in mind a Perspective using these rules will not show unavailable items, no matter the reason they’re unavailable (sequential projects, paused projects). The Forecast view does show actions due today, no matter their availability (I believe). To make this work, you must be in control of your actions , or you’ll have overdue items that were never visible in this perspective.
It sounds like it might be helpful if I give a little background about the design of Forecast, so it’s more obvious why it behaves the way it does!
Forecast is designed to operate like a weather forecast: it’s a perspective which looks ahead to show you things that are coming up. It’s not just about showing you what’s available right now. It’s the only place in the app which looks ahead in this way, and it means that when you’re looking at a day in Forecast—including today—you’re looking at items for that entire day, whether or not all those items are currently available.
OmniFocus has lots of other ways to view things which are available right now. If you only want to see the tasks that are available right now, you can open the Tags perspective and configure it to show Available tasks. (You can also sort that list by Due and Flagged if you want to prioritize it a bit.) Or you can open the Projects perspective and show Available tasks there.
Or if you only want to look at items with dates (somewhat like Forecast), you can build a custom perspective using the rules introduced last year to find items based on dates assigned within specific target ranges, and filter those to show only those items which are currently available. There’s a great example of that in the post just above this one.
But Forecast is the place in the app that is specifically designed to help you look ahead, so you can see what’s coming in advance! That’s why deferred items show up in Forecast though they might not yet be available.
Thank you for the response! This was very helpful and makes it clear how I should approach this. I’ve created custom perspectives to display my tasks like you suggested and it works brilliantly!
