What to do with trigger actions?

[Defibaugh]

I'm sure many here have seen this situation before:

I've ordered a new phone and its in the mail. I found a few cool pieces of software I want on the phone after it is all set up so I have a pending action "download app X". Its not actionable until after I get the phone (which is currently a waiting for item and a "set up phone" project). The "set up phone" project folder has a bit more info in it which is all reference material.

I don't want to store the "download app X" action in the project reference because it will not get looked at until I review the entire file. Currently I'm stuffing the action in my waiting for.

I have a pattern for this kind of thing: "when event E happens, do action A". I'm looking for a more elegant way to store and track them.

What are your thoughts about these actions? They cannot be acted on until something else happens but they are small, concrete things that really don't belong in a big project reference file. I usually want to act on them right away, too.

 

[ellobogrande]

A pending actions/intermediate outcomes list in your project support material is a good place to park a reminder of something like this. In addition to that, if you really want to act on that action when event is triggered, you might put a reminder to check whether or not the event has been triggered in your tickler file and forward it daily until it is triggered.

 

[Oogiem]

Dependent actions in my list

I'd set it up by creating a project Get new phone and then the actions are set to dependent, so I won't see the next action until I clear the one before it. So the waiting for phone to arrive is the next action and it's set to a context of waiting. Under that I'd have the various apps to install.

I'm doing exactly that right now with a new iPod Touch and here is my project. I know I will keep adding stuff to the list as I think of it but here it is now.

Attached files

 

[RuthMcT]

I keep mine in "waiting for", and this is one of the sections I do actually manage to review weekly. I put the name of the action I'm waiting for, and the next action that I will do when the waiting is over

e.g.

ask estate agent for details of property A (done 10/9/10) -> ring to book viewing appointment.

You can tell I'm trying to move house at the moment!

Ruth

 

[njones4213]

I'd set it up by creating a project Get new phone and then the actions are set to dependent, so I won't see the next action until I clear the one before it. So the waiting for phone to arrive is the next action and it's set to a context of waiting. Under that I'd have the various apps to install.

I'm doing exactly that right now with a new iPod Touch and here is my project. I know I will keep adding stuff to the list as I think of it but here it is now.

I LOVE Omnifocus. I can't stress enough how amazing I find that product. The ability to set sequential projects and sub-projects is by itself enough to justify the price even if it did nothing else right.