Managing waiting for list

ivanjay205

Registered
Hi everyone,

I used to use FacileThings and switched to motion as I found it too time consuming. Motion is great as it is ai based so it helps me manage my schedule. I found it way better than contexts for me personally as with a phone and other tools I can accomplish 80% of my tasks at any time.

There is one big struggle though.... My waiting for list. Looking for advice or help with that. I am a COO so I need to delegate A LOT on top of my own work. Or I will often have something I can do but only after someone else does it.

Looking for some advice on best ways to manage that.... If I send an email to someone I drop it in a waiting for email box. But I cannot add notes or any context as to when I last followed up or what the story is with that item. So I find it hard to remember where I left off. The app I am using (motion) does not have any workflows for this.

other suggestions? I am very much into digital as I am frequently on the go so anything paper based wont work for me.

Thanks!
 

mcogilvie

Registered
Motion is an automated scheduler app that does not reflect GTD best practices. It also has a 2.7 out of 5 rating on the iPhone App Store. To me, this means it is probably a piece of junk. Sorted, which perhaps has similar functionality, has a rating of. 4.7 out of 5. It’s not GTD either, but at least it’s a decent app. It is not expensive, unlike motion. Tracking waiting for‘s is not hard, but usually requires a bit of effort or good automation skills no matter what app you use.
 

ivanjay205

Registered
Motion is an automated scheduler app that does not reflect GTD best practices. It also has a 2.7 out of 5 rating on the iPhone App Store. To me, this means it is probably a piece of junk. Sorted, which perhaps has similar functionality, has a rating of. 4.7 out of 5. It’s not GTD either, but at least it’s a decent app. It is not expensive, unlike motion. Tracking waiting for‘s is not hard, but usually requires a bit of effort or good automation skills no matter what app you use.
Thanks. I will check out sorted. I would describe what I am doing as ahybrid version of gtd for a lot of reasons. I know the reviews arent great but I can say I am very happy with motion. The biggest thing for me is that it understands when to mark my calendar busy vs free when placing tasks.

But that being said really just looking for advice on how to manage that waiting list. Any ways people who have a large waiting list organize it and keep tabs on it? Or where they keep it?
 

ivanjay205

Registered
Motion is an automated scheduler app that does not reflect GTD best practices. It also has a 2.7 out of 5 rating on the iPhone App Store. To me, this means it is probably a piece of junk. Sorted, which perhaps has similar functionality, has a rating of. 4.7 out of 5. It’s not GTD either, but at least it’s a decent app. It is not expensive, unlike motion. Tracking waiting for‘s is not hard, but usually requires a bit of effort or good automation skills no matter what app you use.
Also, unless I am missing something sorted doesnt import and export to office 365 which is a dealbreaker for me.
 

Sarahsuccess

Registered
Hi everyone,

I used to use FacileThings and switched to motion as I found it too time consuming. Motion is great as it is ai based so it helps me manage my schedule. I found it way better than contexts for me personally as with a phone and other tools I can accomplish 80% of my tasks at any time.

There is one big struggle though.... My waiting for list. Looking for advice or help with that. I am a COO so I need to delegate A LOT on top of my own work. Or I will often have something I can do but only after someone else does it.

Looking for some advice on best ways to manage that.... If I send an email to someone I drop it in a waiting for email box. But I cannot add notes or any context as to when I last followed up or what the story is with that item. So I find it hard to remember where I left off. The app I am using (motion) does not have any workflows for this.

other suggestions? I am very much into digital as I am frequently on the go so anything paper based wont work for me.

Thanks!

In Todoist and Ticktick you can turn emails into tasks. I have seen those apps mentioned several times on this forum, but I don’t use them. Hope that’s helpful
 

Mark Aitken

Registered
Stepping back a bit and sharing what worked for me, have you defined your areas of focus clearly enough, have you bumped up a level into goals and vision within the roles you perform?

I find that standing back and more clearly defining my articulation of roles helps. When I get into the situation you are in, I've usually blurred lines between roles.

I'm guessing (so please excuse my mistakes) there might be something on areas of focus for you like:
  • COO - Drive ideas for sustainability and growth opportunities
  • COO - Maintain control of delegated improvements
Two distinct roles, they interplay, but in the first one you are the creator, in the second one you are the manager

With this mindset, your waiting for list might reinvent itself.

On the first area, projects in there will have @Waiting items that you are actively day to day involved in. These are things I expect you will have on your mind.

One the second area, you aren't really waiting for anything because your outcome of a project isn't limited. I think this second area will have ongoing commitments to a standard you have defined for a function in your business. So in that case, you task items might reduce to a list of @Agenda items (how is project X doing, what are the numbers on our efficiency, what is customer churn at, how do we compare to the market). If that area of focus gets out of whack, a new project spins up for you in the first area, you drive it, reset the standard, delegate ownership, and move that new standard into your second area of focus.

Once you have clarity on the roles and areas of focus, you can organise any system you choose to efficiently separate those roles and track items in a meaningful way. My own technique, when I send an email, I CC myself, flag the email, tag it as @Waiting and drop it into a folder I've created for the specific area of focus (I have 6 areas of focus folders). I intentionally move between those roles during the week as I work through my actions in each.

Hope that helps.
 

ivanjay205

Registered
Stepping back a bit and sharing what worked for me, have you defined your areas of focus clearly enough, have you bumped up a level into goals and vision within the roles you perform?

I find that standing back and more clearly defining my articulation of roles helps. When I get into the situation you are in, I've usually blurred lines between roles.

I'm guessing (so please excuse my mistakes) there might be something on areas of focus for you like:
  • COO - Drive ideas for sustainability and growth opportunities
  • COO - Maintain control of delegated improvements
Two distinct roles, they interplay, but in the first one you are the creator, in the second one you are the manager

With this mindset, your waiting for list might reinvent itself.

On the first area, projects in there will have @Waiting items that you are actively day to day involved in. These are things I expect you will have on your mind.

One the second area, you aren't really waiting for anything because your outcome of a project isn't limited. I think this second area will have ongoing commitments to a standard you have defined for a function in your business. So in that case, you task items might reduce to a list of @Agenda items (how is project X doing, what are the numbers on our efficiency, what is customer churn at, how do we compare to the market). If that area of focus gets out of whack, a new project spins up for you in the first area, you drive it, reset the standard, delegate ownership, and move that new standard into your second area of focus.

Once you have clarity on the roles and areas of focus, you can organise any system you choose to efficiently separate those roles and track items in a meaningful way. My own technique, when I send an email, I CC myself, flag the email, tag it as @Waiting and drop it into a folder I've created for the specific area of focus (I have 6 areas of focus folders). I intentionally move between those roles during the week as I work through my actions in each.

Hope that helps.
This was really intriguing to me. Thanks for so much clarity in the response. In my role as President and COO I essentially oversee every aspect of the business.

So i had areas of focus including Business Finance, Business Development, HR, IT, and Procedural Development. I was trying to focus on one each day of the week to stay on focus. I found that impossible as I cannot really control my meeting schedule. So if my calendar is loaded on Tuesday and thats my client management day it might spill into Wed. The days ran out of time and boom week is a mess….

Back to the waiting for I currently have a waiting for box in my outlook. After sending an email delegating something I drop it in there. So lets say I email a colleague requesting a report…. I drop the email in the waiting to box. However I have recall to create my next actions once received which might me to review it. Might be to send somewhere etc. lets say my colleage has not gotten it done and i follow up. I want to record that somewhere to jog my memory. Ill often have 50+items in my waiting for
 
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