Curious, are you using Backpack’s reminders by any chance to send you reminders?

I still use the Waiting On category, and I set the task to be due on the day that I need some kind of action on it. Then it shows up on the “Due Today” view when it becomes relevant again (this is on a Palm, not sure how it works in Entourage).

What I like about keeping them off of the regular next actions lists is that there isn’t a next action yet. I don’t want to see things cluttering up my @Home list that I can’t actually do.

I wholeheartedly agree with your “simplify” push though.

That’s a great point, Sean.

I just sometimes start to feel sort of disconnected from the “waiting on” items, and a weekly review doesn’t feel frequent enough. OTOH, you’re right on about the next actions bit.

I use my calendar as my tickler and schedule myself a time to call the contact to push on items I’m waiting for. As a Project Manager, I can’t let clients drag out a project by not completing their actions; I must manage them as well. By giving myself a next action to prod them, I keep the project on track and keep myself on track.

Also, if I have a scheduled weekly conference call with a client, I will put Waiting On items on the Agenda for that call.

Of course, items that are truly “waiting”, and I can’t do anything to impact them, still go on the waiting list. “Get tickets for Star Wars Ep. III” for instance.

I wrote an article a while ago about a change I’d made - moving all the context lists into a single list… http://pigpog.com/wiki/index.php/GTD-SingleActionsList …I found it worked quite nicely in Outlook and in Pocket Informant on the PocketPC, but probably wouldn’t have been as usable on the Palm.

I’m currently playing with doing everything in OneNote on the tablet PC. It’s no wonder I never get anything done - I spend all my time playing with my GTD system ;)

I start everything I am waiting on with ZZZ, i.e. zzzCheck proofs when ready. That way it is at the bottom of the list, so it doesn’t interfere with current to-dos, but it also is there for when I go over the whole list.

I use my tickler for this. Depending on the urgency of what I’m waiting for, I write something like “Call Greg re: map” on an index card and drop it in the file for, say, a week hence. On the appropriate morning, it just shows up and I can send ‘Greg’ a quick ping. I don’t actually use “call” literally, it’s just the quickest word that comes to mind to remind me to contact someone.

Additionally, in each context I have an @WAIT queue (thanks to the DIY Planner) where it all gets noted, and if I start to feel like a project is slowing down, I look to see if there’s anything relevant there that I can push on somebody to get things moving again.

I do something similar— I have a bunch of text files, and every night a dumb little php script runs through them and emails me any lines in them that have today’s date on them.

When I create a waiting item, I tag it with a snooze date, which shows up in my daily email when I need to be reminded to follow up. Kind of like the Outlook GTD add-in…

Next up is a version that will automatically create backpack reminders for things with a date and time…

For email “waiting for” items—

I thumb my nose at David Allen and use my InBox as an Action Items list. I used to have a separate WAITING FOR folder but that quickly became a FORGET ABOUT folder.

Two things that keep messages out of the memory hole—I BCC myself on all outgoing messages. When an incoming self-BCC requires action from someone else, I mark it with a red flag. When someone answers my message I see the red flag at the top of my “unread” list.

My Apple Mail InBox shows me at a glance:

1) Unread messages (blue dot)

2) Unread replies to WAITING FOR messages (blue dot + red flag)

3) Action items (no blue dot)

4) WAITING FOR items (no blue dot but a red flag)

I put any messages that don’t require action in the Trash or into a Reference folder. To help me be more rutheless about tossing mail of uncertain value I keep messages in the Trash 30 days before auto-deleting.

FWIW I use Mail because it lets me search attachments. Entourage does not. Maybe Spotlight will change this?

I’ve been using a hipster setup with the portrait-orientation lined index cards (as seen on the 43folders Wiki).

Since the cards are fairly small, and I sometimes have a lot of “waiting fors”, I’ve found it very helpful to have 2 separate lists. One is on a Waiting list for stuff I am expecting to get in the next few hours and will need to take a next action on: (i.e. replies to urgent voicemail). The other list is for longer-term stuff that can safely sit for days or weeks. It sits in a “Waiting for” folder tucked into the tickler file for weekly review.

I’ve only been doing this for about two weeks, but it seems to work very nicely. I have yet to find any waiting fors that don’t cleanly fit into one category or the other.