Where do I keep Next Actions that are held up by Waiting For?

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VanceZ

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I have a number of people I consult for that have to accomplish tasks and pass me information before I can work on my portion of the project. When I have Next Actions that can only begin after clearing a Waiting For item, how do you connect the receipt of the Waiting For item to the list of Next Actions that you can now execute? The receipt of the Waiting for should have some kind of trigger that says "I can start my subsequent Next Actions now". Thanks.
 
VanceZ said:
I have a number of people I consult for that have to accomplish tasks and pass me information before I can work on my portion of the project. When I have Next Actions that can only begin after clearing a Waiting For item, how do you connect the receipt of the Waiting For item to the list of Next Actions that you can now execute? The receipt of the Waiting for should have some kind of trigger that says "I can start my subsequent Next Actions now". Thanks.
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It depends on the tool you use for your lists. Omnifocus, for example, handles dependencies easily, but at the cost of a complex tool. A simple thing is to have a waiting-for like “WF Tom’s report [Decide vendor]” which reminds you what your next steps are. Try different ways of triggering and pick what works best for you.
 
Just include a description of the next action in the description of what you’re waiting for.

Example: waiting for Mom’s reply to my email so I can buy mom a birthday gift.

When she replies, delete the waiting for portion and move the rest to a context appropriate next actions list, (and append the appropriate gift description)
 
mcogilvie said:
It depends on the tool you use for your lists. Omnifocus, for example, handles dependencies easily, but at the cost of a complex tool. A simple thing is to have a waiting-for like “WF Tom’s report [Decide vendor]” which reminds you what your next steps are. Try different ways of triggering and pick what works best for you.
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Nirvana handles this beautifully.
 
mcogilvie said:
I don’t doubt it, but I can’t find any information in the program or the documentation. I see a Waiting For state as well as Later, but I don’t any mention of dependencies. Please explain how you handle this.
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As far as I understand "Nirvana handles this beautifully" means nice colors and button shapes... ;) @Longstreet
 
VanceZ said:
When I have Next Actions that can only begin after clearing a Waiting For item, how do you connect the receipt of the Waiting For item to the list of Next Actions that you can now execute?
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I use Omnifocus and my default for projects is sequential so that actions are automatically moved into next action position as soon as the preceding one is done. When I process my inbox into actions and projects it's simple to add actions to the appropriate context and place them in the project. Then all I have to to is execute them. They are presented to me in proper order.
 
mcogilvie said:
I don’t doubt it, but I can’t find any information in the program or the documentation. I see a Waiting For state as well as Later, but I don’t any mention of dependencies. Please explain how you handle this.
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Sorry -- I was in a hurry yesterday due to some major deadlines. I realize my statement was not helpful. o_O

In Nirvana, you can make a project either parallel or sequential, the latter being the default. If you have a waiting for in a sequential project and cannot proceed with next actions due to this dependence, you will not see any of your actions on your main list -- only the waiting for in the waiting for context. So you cannot choose to do any of the actions until that waiting for is resolved.
 
I think @mcogilvie hit the nail on the head: experiment and find the trigger that works best for you. I do it multiple ways.

Sometimes the next action triggered by the completion of something I've delegated is obvious. If I've sent a proposal to my boss for approval, upon receiving that approval I send it to the customer. I don't need a trigger; the next action is obvious.

Sometimes, like @mcogilvie suggests, I'll append it parenthetically to the waiting for item in my list.

Sometimes I include the information in project support. Once the thing I've delegated has been completed, it's natural for me to look there. In my case, I use software called Nirvana which allows me to add notes to a project.

As an aside, @Longstreet is correct that the default for projects in Nirvana is sequential. I would guess that works if most of your projects are sequential (i.e. only next action to be done at a time) and can be planned out in their entirety ahead of time. Most of my projects are not like this, so as is suggested in the GTD guide to Nirvana offered by the David Allen Company I've set the default for projects in Nirvana to parallel. That works best for me.

I'm not going to evangelize Nirvana -- it is only one of many good tools available -- but I do think it's a decent option and as @Longstreet points out it does offer some automation that can solve the issue brought up by the OP, at least for some people in certain circumstances.
 
bcmyers2112 said:
I think @mcogilvie hit the nail on the head: experiment and find the trigger that works best for you. I do it multiple ways.

Sometimes the next action triggered by the completion of something I've delegated is obvious. If I've sent a proposal to my boss for approval, upon receiving that approval I send it to the customer. I don't need a trigger; the next action is obvious.

Sometimes, like @mcogilvie suggests, I'll append it parenthetically to the waiting for item in my list.

Sometimes I include the information in project support. Once the thing I've delegated has been completed, it's natural for me to look there. In my case, I use software called Nirvana which allows me to add notes to a project.

As an aside, @Longstreet is correct that the default for projects in Nirvana is sequential. I would guess that works if most of your projects are sequential (i.e. only next action to be done at a time) and can be planned out in their entirety ahead of time. Most of my projects are not like this, so as is suggested in the GTD guide to Nirvana offered by the David Allen Company I've set the default for projects in Nirvana to parallel. That works best for me.

I'm not going to evangelize Nirvana -- it is only one of many good tools available -- but I do think it's a decent option and as @Longstreet points out it does offer some automation that can solve the issue brought up by the OP, at least for some people in certain circumstances.
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Actually, most of my projects are parallel too. And I am not necessarily promoting Nirvana. I am a user and I like it, but there many other great apps as well. Use whatever you like.
 
I qualify my remarks by stating that I have only just moved my GTD to Nirvana. And so I am not yet on top of all the features and functionality of Nirvana.

Yet regardless, I would think that the answer to this lies in applying GTD principles. It's that simple.

GTD is, among other things, about reviewing. As you mark things off you should be reviewing where you are. While Nirvana and any other system can help us to do so, it is still our responsibility to do the actual reviewing.

This is how I do do this:

I use focus stars ( it's a one-click toggle visual highlight but most apps would have something equivalent) to indicate an action as already available for actioning. (Urgency or other forms of focus can be indicated by tags instead. eg @Today, @Now, @Important etc.)

So, I have just ticked off a Next-Action of a project?

I then I look at the project's list of remaining tasks (hopefully entered in a logical sequence). Form that list I then elevate what action is now freed up to be done to NEXT-action status by starring it. If the completion of a Next-action opens up more than one Next-action to now complete, then I star all those actions.

Every Action that can be done now, no matter the urgency or otherwise, is starred.And anytime I need to see a complete or filtered list of actions that I can immediately work on, I just seek out the stars.
​
So, by using your reviews to mark things as NEXT actions, you keep those items that can't be done until some other action is done in the project to which they belong. Nowhere special.

Don't rely on Nirvana or ToDoist or Jello or whatever to do your reviews. That is YOUR job.
 
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