I absolutely love OF, but wanted to share why I decided to not use the newer Planned Dates feature, in case it is interesting for anyone to discuss.
Simply put, I find that using it crosses a line of product complexity for me.
For me, the conceptual “cleanliness” of decoupling availability from planning isn’t worth the mental decision making I need to do when processing tasks.
In addition to deciding which date type to use, it also affects my UI (adds another column to show, or row on mobile), perspectives (a little extra complexity to my rules), and processing speed to choose between 2 different keyboard shortcuts.
I like the simplicity of simply using Defer Dates for everything - whether it’s an availability constraint, or planning. I do not find that conflating these creates an active problem.
So if anyone is confused about using them, my point is that you don’t absolutely need to use them just because they’re there and are technically idiomatic use of OF.
I would be very interested in any discussion around this, or responses to this view from happy Planned Date users =)
In the end, whatever works for each person is fantastic.
Leaning back on GTD (which it my base for planning) the point at which I would add a planned date to a task is when I commit to completing a specific action at a specific time.
I only reserve time to complete larger pieces of work, things I need focus on. So I add planned dates to actions either:
when I process them from my inbox and due to priority, I decide at that point when to work on them; or
When I’m in a planning session for the next week or next day (in a few cases)
Admin tasks / shallow work don’t get planned dates.
OF allows the user to use none, one, two, or all three of the date fields for actions. Whatever works for them.
Using the Defer Date for Planned activities muddies the water between what is available be worked on, and what I’ve planned to work on.
Because I use the Defer date to let me know when I can start to work on an action or a project. I use the Due date where there is a committed date by which I must complete an action or a project. These dates can be weeks apart and with the number of actions I have available to me in my OF database it could lead to decision paralysis over what to work on.
I use the planned date when I do my reviews and decide what to work on and plan out to complete an action at a certain time or date.
I could change the Defer date when I plan, I could also use the Forecast tag or Flag, but now we have the Planned Date, I use that instead as it’s far more precise
This allows me to use 2 Perspectives (amongst a few others) while I’m planning:
showing only tasks with a planned date - To ensure what I’ve got planned is still the best use of my time
Available actions which do not have a planned date - to ensure that I can quickly see what is unplanned, but available to choose what to plan in.
Just because something’s Available to be worked, doesn’t mean I should be doing it.
Oh, man. As a person with ADHD, I need planned dates. I prefer working on my Big Rock projects over admin tasks.
Admin tasks are routine actions that I find boring. It’s a grind to work on them. Yes, they are necessary but when my ADHD fixates on a Big Rock, I needed planned dates. I use Planned Dates on boring work and try to get them out of the way earlier in the day so I can finally get to the exciting stuff.
So, yes, we are all different and use one, two, or all three of the date fields.
It’s important to me that “planned” means something real about the task, like due and deferred have come to. As I’ve settled on what planned means, I’ve been able to use planned date where I used to flag the task. That in turn lets flags have more specific meaning.
I have scheduled time blocks in fantastical to do admin hour.
I am currently trying an experiment to see if I can rely less on my calendar app and see how much I can do in OmniFocus Forecast perspective.
I set the planned time for 3-4 tasks at 9 am. Then I’ll also have 3-4 tasks with a planned time of 1:30 pm to check for any midday emails or business social media DMs and any other tasks I need to work on. Finally, I have some tasks scheduled for 5:30 pm for my Evening tasks. This was my attempt of replicating the Things app with their Morning and Evening groups in the Today view.
I’m trying to use the Forecast perspective more often. It’s a work in progress as I am trying to establish this new habit.
Working in a company which is very customer focused, I have to share my calendar with others so if I didn’t block out time for Deep Work and Shallow/Admin work, I’d never get anything done.
I am a GTDer and I LOVE planned dates. They bridge a missing gap for me in GTD. I use defer dates for things I cannot take action on yet but do not have a due date. I have a due date for things that have a real hard committment. Like it really needs to get done.
I use planned dates for that in between of it really should be done on this date but doesnt absolutely have to. And I use it very sparingly for that reason.
For example I have to pay my businesses bills. That doesnt HAVE to happen today. But it cannot wait a week. So planned dates gives me that nudge in between to raise it up n the priority list.
One of the few times I do is for outdoor/garden tasks which require particular conditions (usually weather) and are a bit tricky to schedule, so as part of my review I’ll see if there’s a possible window for coming up and then add a target date.
For example there’s a task I need to do before the end of April which needs to be done before 36 hours of no rain, and I need to be home (I travel for work, so not a given) to do the next action 4-5 days later ideally also on a dry day. When I can see a spot that would work I will set the planned dates on both tasks, if it doesn’t work out it’s ok, but I appreciate the bring up :)
(Wish me luck for a dry weekend 7-8 March, that’s my next possibility!)
I see Planned Date as an “intention to do” on that day. Due Day I see as a “must be done today”. The flag I use to show what is important, but must not necessarily be done that exact day. I define “important” as “bringing value.” To me, value is measured by revenue, new skills, personal growth, and improved health. I use my own “Brainworker” method, which categorizes every to-do into A, B, or C categories. A: being activities that directly drive you toward your goals/values. B, being activities that support your A activities. C, being any non-important activities that don’t bring any specific value and could be delegated or deleted. You will find articles on my LinkedIn profiles descibing this method in details.
Didn’t think I was going to like planned dates (yet another layer of complexity) but gave them a try and developed the following which seems to work for me.
Planned dates are for tasks I am going to do on a certain day providing all goes to plan, a lot are repeating routine tasks
Every morning I check what’s planned, what’s available and what’s in progress. The available and in progress tasks that I want or need to do today are flagged and my On Deck perspective shows what’s flagged or planned for today.
This seems to work for me, I am careful NOT to flag repeating tasks, they may not be so important next time round.
This coupled with a “Kanban” style tagging system has removed so much friction for me and OF is just a pleasure to use now.
I originally shared the OP’s position that defer dates made more sense. I’d been using them that way for a decade in OF. But, once I played with them, they have become a game changer for me.
I have perspectives that show me available but unplanned tasks. I also have perspectives that show tasks planned in the next week that haven’t been estimated yet. I ensure everything planned in the next week has an estimated duration & now I can spread them out day by day & see how much workload. I created a simple script to calculate the hours of work for all planned or due tasks each day for the next week. I can then move things around based on priorities.
Since I know I’m not over-committing day over day & I can see any meetings along with the tasks, I can adjust the available time each day to be achievable. Because these tasks are the ones I feel are most important rather than simply anything available, I’m finding I make much more progress on the priority projects with this approach.
I didn’t think there was a point to planned dates when they were announced or even initially released, but now I would find it hard to live without them.
I’ve added some new meaning to planned dates with a “do or drop” tag. I have a recurring automation that drops any task that has a past planned date and that tag. So, e.g., “check the butcher for weekly deals” can be recurring weekly, deferred until Saturday and planned for Sunday. If I don’t do it, no problem, it’ll be dropped for that week and show up again.
I wouldn’t do this to tasks based on due dates or defer dates, but planned dates can fairly mean, “I intend to do this but don’t have to do it.” And, I only do it if I know the task can be droppable after that. Most planned tasks that are undone will be updated or dropped next time I review.
