How do you use @Waiting list?

[Borisoff]

This is the story: I'm thinking of going back to using @Waiting list as it makes life easier. At some point I deleted @Waiting from my system. Instead I started to put a Next Action to followup with a defered start date (I use Outlook so it's ease - just set a start date for the task and it appears in the future on the set date) into my action lists. I ended up with lots of spreaded followup calls through the week without solid understanding of who owns what.

I also use Projects-Delegated list to follow up weekly with my direct reports on the progress. I put a name of the subordinate and write in the notes section all her delegated projects (I have 3 direct reports now). Against each one I put a task (it could be a bunch of next actions) for the next week. Then we go weekly through that list to check what was done and what's not. Actually I could use @Waiting list for that instead even those are not MY projects but I help moving them along (for example, @Waiting Bob 11-08 Bank of NY Loan Agreed terms and conditions instead of @Projects-Delegated Bob Bank of New York Agreed terms and conditions).

I have two questions now:

1. How often do you check your @Waiting list?

2. Do you put follow up Next Actions into the system or follow up straight from @Waiting list when reviewing it?

3. How to make difference between @Waitng and Projects-Delegated lists approach, what's your idea about that?

Regards.

 

[rideon]

Projects - Delegated

Can you explain more about this list? Did you create the context or is it part of the add-in? I would love a better way to track delegated projects.

 

[Borisoff]

I use two lists:

- @Waiting list: to track delegated tasks

- Projects-Delegated list: to track delegated projects to direct reports

Does it answer your question?

 

[Brent]

Great list of questions!

1. How often do you check your @Waiting list?

At least weekly, during the Weekly Review. I also check during occasional, "odd" moments of down time, particularly while waiting for a meeting to start.

Then again, I don't track a lot of @Waiting For items. If I did, I'd check @Waiting For daily, probably at the start of the day.

2. Do you put follow up Next Actions into the system or follow up straight from @Waiting list when reviewing it?

Depends on the complexity of the follow-up. I usually do it immediately, as it's less than 2 minutes. Otherwise, it becomes a Next Action.

3. How to make difference between @Waitng and Projects-Delegated lists approach, what's your idea about that?

I don't, but I don't have a lot of delegated Projects. As I have a paper system, if I went in that direction I'd put a little mark (such as a circled "W") next to each Project for which I'm waiting for more information. In a digital system, I'd add, say, "DELEGATED" or "WAITING" to the beginning of the Project name in my system.

 

[Roger]

> without solid understanding of who owns what.

I think this is the root problem right here. But I don’t think it’s inherently related to GTD implementation details. We’re pointed in the right direction, but I think it might be worthwhile to wallow in the details a bit.

Let’s start with what GTD has to say about delegated tasks, waiting-for, and delegate projects:

Once you've decided on the next action, you have three options: […]
2: Delegate it. […] If the action will take longer than two minutes, ask yourself, Am I the right person to do this? If the answer is no, delegate it to the appropriate entity.
[…]If you do delegate an action to someone else, and if you care at all whether something happens as a result, you'll need to track it. […] You'll see that a significant category to manage is "Waiting For."​

Delegated Projects: If you're a senior manager or executive, you probably have several projects that you are directly responsible for but have handed off to people who report to you. While you could, of course, put them on your "Waiting For" list, it might make better sense to create a "Projects -- Delegated" list to track them: your task will be simply to review the list regularly enough to ensure that everything on it is moving along appropriately.​

And let’s consider what you’ve told us about your process:

> I put a name of the subordinate and write in the notes section all her delegated projects (I have 3 direct reports now). Against each one I put a task (it could be a bunch of next actions) for the next week.

This sort of behaviour -- “I delegate this project to you, and here’s your next actions for the week” -- is classic micromanagement and/or miscommunication. It shows up everywhere, so don’t feel too bad about it. It’s pretty much inevitable that this will result in that lack of a solid understanding of who owns what.

The good news is that it should be fairly straightforward to resolve. It just requires a couple of things:

1. A decision about who is going to generate next actions: you, or your subordinate? (Or jointly is also an option, but it can be tricky.)
2. Understanding and agreement with the above decision between everyone involved.

Either decision is fine. And it doesn’t need to be written in stone; after a period of time, you may feel like you can hand-off the details of next actions to your subordinate. But note that decision must also be clearly communicated and understood.

Once that’s all cleared up, the GTD implementation is easy. If you’re producing and delegating the next actions, they’re in Waiting For. If it’s up to the subordinate, it’s a Delegated Project.

After all that, I suppose I should also answer your specific questions:

> 1. How often do you check your @Waiting list?

I usually go through it two or three times a day. Once in the morning, to remind me of what’s around and what might come in during the day. Once after lunch, when there’s still time to bother people about specific things. And once at the end of work, to see if anything’s running late that I might need to deal with tomorrow.

2. Do you put follow up Next Actions into the system or follow up straight from @Waiting list when reviewing it?

Most of the time there’s either nothing to be done or it’s a less-than-two-minutes task to check in on it. Usually the only time there’s a Next Action generated is when I actually receive whatever it is I’ve been waiting for.

Cheers,
Roger