Waiting For Date

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Stephen Brown

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Hi,
The GTD methodology suggests putting a date at the end of a ‘Waiting for’ so you know how long you have been waiting and when to follow up. After following up on something, would you adjust the date to reflect the follow up so you know how long it’s been since your last follow up?
 
Stephen Brown said:
Hi,
The GTD methodology suggests putting a date at the end of a ‘Waiting for’ so you know how long you have been waiting and when to follow up. After following up on something, would you adjust the date to reflect the follow up so you know how long it’s been since your last follow up?
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I like to know if I've had to follow up on a Waiting For, so I update the date to the most recent that I followed up, and I also add a note about when the original Waiting For began.
 
Stephen Brown said:
Hi,
The GTD methodology suggests putting a date at the end of a ‘Waiting for’ so you know how long you have been waiting and when to follow up. After following up on something, would you adjust the date to reflect the follow up so you know how long it’s been since your last follow up?
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It depends, but probably not. Who is involved: a trusted associate (likely no issues), FedEx (well-documented), or the sleazy guy who wants to sell me some black-market vaccine. Am I still waiting for the same thing, or has that shifted? If so, am I ok with how things are going? If I think things are not going well, do I want to document everything?
 
I log the followup action I've just done, with date in the project notes section, and set a new date to review the item
 
Stephen Brown said:
Hi,
The GTD methodology suggests putting a date at the end of a ‘Waiting for’ so you know how long you have been waiting and when to follow up. After following up on something, would you adjust the date to reflect the follow up so you know how long it’s been since your last follow up?.
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Stephen, this is an excellent question! My answer is my opinion and not necessarily GTD. The difference between "following up" and "waiting for" is intent. When I put in an order with Amazon for items they fulfill, I have confidence my order will arrive on or before the date they say. Thus, I set a "waiting for" three days after their guaranteed date. (In my platform, Outlook, this is an Outlook task, in the @Waiting_For context, with a time allocation of 0 hours. As my expectation is the Amazon will meet their guaranteed date, my intent is that all I have to is wait - a passive activity.

In contrast, if my expectation is that I will have to engage in some active follow-up, I treat it as work to be scheduled. If I am wrong, I am pleasantly surprised. By work I mean putting it through the GTD process.

Once I complete my follow-up, I recorded it with my next follow-up so I can act accordingly. For example, if my first email did not getting the results, my second attempt might be a telephone call.
 
John Ismyname said:
Stephen, this is an excellent question! My answer is my opinion and not necessarily GTD. The difference between "following up" and "waiting for" is intent. When I put in an order with Amazon for items they fulfill, I have confidence my order will arrive on or before the date they say. Thus, I set a "waiting for" three days after their guaranteed date. (In my platform, Outlook, this is an Outlook task, in the @Waiting_For context, with a time allocation of 0 hours. As my expectation is the Amazon will meet their guaranteed date, my intent is that all I have to is wait - a passive activity.

In contrast, if my expectation is that I will have to engage in some active follow-up, I treat it as work to be scheduled. If I am wrong, I am pleasantly surprised. By work I mean putting it through the GTD process.

Once I complete my follow-up, I recorded it with my next follow-up so I can act accordingly. For example, if my first email did not getting the results, my second attempt might be a telephone call.
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Hi, thanks for the reply. When you say you treat it as work to be scheduled, do you create a task with a start date (or due date, depending on preference) set to the day you will follow up? If that’s the case, do you not bother putting it on your waiting for list at all or do you do both?
 
Mr. Brown, As a follow-up . . . LOL. On this end, I simply cut to to the chase by having all "Follow Up(s)" mean simply something that needs to be deferred as a Next Action in an appropriate "@List." If I want to add a "entry date" and/or "before/by date" I do so ---- in order to eliminate any potential fatiguing from requiring any deliberating(s)/wondering(s) energy consumption regarding the "Follow Up(s)"---- just NOT in 'the much more intense output Calendar commitment scenario' [sorry for the mouthful] unless it REALLY, REALLY has to be done ON that particular date/day, which, thank goodness, is seldom the case. Hope you find this expression GTD worthy. Thank you.
 
Stephen Brown said:
Hi, thanks for the reply. When you say you treat it as work to be scheduled, do you create a task with a start date (or due date, depending on preference) set to the day you will follow up? If that’s the case, do you not bother putting it on your waiting for list at all or do you do both?
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Hello Stephen; Again, this is me and not GTD. It depends on the best way to execute the follow-up. They way I do tasks, in Outlook, they are "out of site, out of mind" until their start date comes up. This can be as simple email or call the person. The email task is a simple task, I can write that follow-up email anytime when the start date comes due - even if its 5 am. WIth a phone call I would not want to call most people at 5am. To me there is no shame, in converting a task like a phone call ito a calendar item on the day of execution. I make an appointmet in my calendar to do so, I set the alarm, done.
 
Mr. John, I totally appreciate your "out of site, out of mind" concept. Thus, if I may, would you please clarify . . . does Outlook actually have the capability of keeping a Task(s) out of sight in the Task List site and perhaps Calendar site until the entered Start Date is triggered as entered? If so, that would be very nice . . . perhaps even a game changer! Thank you.
 
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gtdstudente said:
Mr. John, I totally appreciate your "out of site, out of mind" concept. Thus, if I may, would you please clarify . . . does Outlook actually have the capability of keeping a Task(s) out of sight in the Task List site and perhaps Calendar site until the entered Start Date is triggered as entered? If so, that would be very nice . . . perhaps even a game changer! Thank you.
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In MS-Outlook, one can set a separate start date and due date for each task. This is important for two reasons;
1. In my main operational Outlook task view, I do not see a task until its start date comes up. The rest of the time it is in my "trusted system".
2. This keeps my calendar clearer than many other GTD platforms.

In Outlook, appointments you put on your calendar are not hidden. This is a good thing as you want to see what's on your calendar!
 
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John Ismyname said:
In MS-Outlook, one can set a separate start date and due date for each task. This is important for two reasons;
1. In my main operational Outlook task view, I do not see a task until its start date comes up. The rest of the time it is in my "trusted system".
2. This keeps my calendar clearer than many other GTD platforms.

In Outlook appointments you put n your calendar are not hidden. This is a good thing as you want to see what's on your calendar!
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Great. Please let me get clear. When you enter a Task into the Task List with the seemingly all important Start Date, the Task List and Calendar is not populated until being triggered by the "Start Date" Is that correct? Thank you
 
gtdstudente said:
Great. Please let me get clear. When you enter a Task into the Task List with the seemingly all important Start Date, the Task List and Calendar is not populated until being triggered by the "Start Date" Is that correct? Thank you
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In Outlook, calendar appointments and tasks are two completely separate things. Data in the "start date" field doesn't trigger anything. What you can do in Outlook is to set-up multiple view to best understand your tasks. For example, I have a view set-up called "Today". Part of this view is I set the filter so that only tasks with a "start date" on or before today is displayed. The rest of the tasks are invisible until their start date.
 
Mr. John, Thank you for your "GTD professionalism." Outlook seems to have more capability than other available platforms . . . thank you. Ps. Unsuccessfully, tried to make it work with Google Calendar. Thank you. Might have to change . . . yikes!
 
gtdstudente said:
Mr. John, Thank you for your "GTD professionalism." Outlook seems to have more capability than other available platforms . . . thank you. Ps. Unsuccessfully, tried to make it work with Google Calendar. Thank you. Might have to change . . . yikes!
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Thanks for your kind words :)
I am just a GTD "hack" trying to make it work with my life and my tools! I would suggest we close this discussion as it has drifted from the GTD methodology into GTD tools and there is a separate forum to discuss that
https://forum.gettingthingsdone.com/forums/public-discuss-tools-software-for-gtd/

Also, you, and all forum members, are welcome to PM me any specific Outlook concerns.

What I will say in this forum is that the best GTD platform is .... the one that works best for you!
As much as Outlook is ideal for me, there is no contest - A big strength of GTD is that it is platform independent!


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