Waiting for
Why do you guys treat "Waiting for" as a task? I don't see why its showing up under Today and Next, when its really its own thing?
Please make it a different color to show it is not a task.
Thanks
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2 Posted by Adria on 09 Dec, 2009 10:45 AM
I think it will be usefull to have a Hide/Show waiting for button, so you can always see what are you waiting for if you need to.
3 Posted by senthil196 on 09 Dec, 2009 11:08 AM
I entirely agree with Adria...if you could make it a 'Tag' feature, something which you have already implemented.
Support Staff 4 Posted by Christiane Magee on 09 Dec, 2009 03:46 PM
Hello...
We are treating any tasks marked as Waiting For as it is an actionable item that could have a due date.
For example... PROJECT X is due March 13th you have 2 tasks that are required to complete the project. One task you have delegated to Joe and you are now Waiting For him. The second task is your responsibility and can't be done until Joe gets back to you with his completed task. You have determined that it'll take you one day to complete your task and have given Joe a deadline of March 11th to return back with his completed task.
I'd want to know that for Joe's task that (a) I am waiting for him (b) the absolute end deadline is March 11th. So I'd want to make sure that task pops into my TODAY on that day, or even better, a day or 2 before. This way my action on that task is to poke or follow-up on him to make sure he is taking care of his task - I can then mark it as complete once it is done.
So waiting for is not only a context (i.e. to see all Waiting For tasks look in the WAITING FOR view or focus from the left navi) but it is an actionable item; "You need to follow-up".
Does this make sense?
~Christiane
5 Posted by senthil196 on 10 Dec, 2009 01:24 AM
I see. My main concern is that I can't distinguish between actions and waiting for. They pretty much look the same. It would make sense to change their color or some how make them stand out from regular To-Dos
6 Posted by josvandervoort on 10 Dec, 2009 12:40 PM
Not just a different shade of color but maybe too clustered and separated by some white space from the other actions.
Nevertheless I find this still confusing. If I am waiting for it it should dissappear from sight until I need to deal with it. It should pop up on a due date only.
Or only show when clicking a link in the screen. It certainly does not belong in the Today or Next view unless called for.
Vitalist has a neat way of letting you know that you have overdue items: it puts an exclamation mark next to the link in the left hand manu so you can see that there are overdue actions in there.
7 Posted by Elurven on 17 Dec, 2009 12:20 PM
I agree with Adria. I would like to be able to push a button in the next list, saying "hide/show Waiting For" or something similar. If it has a high priority, it makes sense to see the "Waiting For" items it in the "Next" list, but on the other hand, since "Waiting For" is delegated, I would like to be able not to see them in the next list, since they are not part of the actions that I can take next.
I like the aproach taken by Nirvana (and Things for that matter) to only show me information when I need to see it. Since GTD is also know as the art of stress free productivity, not having a cluttered system is vital to reducing the stress.
8 Posted by Chuck Rifici on 17 Dec, 2009 01:50 PM
I'd like to see this as a setting option, whereby one can choose to have Waiting For tasks only show up in the Waiting For list or as default currently.
9 Posted by josvandervoort on 17 Dec, 2009 01:59 PM
Check the screenshots for Tracks see elsewhere here. They have a really neat solution for this issue!
Support Staff 10 Posted by Christiane Magee on 18 Dec, 2009 03:25 PM
Thanks everyone for contributing to this thread. These comments will be very helpful for the dev team. Keep them coming!
11 Posted by Jorge on 22 Feb, 2010 08:22 PM
I agree with previous comments here.
Nice simple option would be that to <> (toggle button as Adria/Leif said)
Another great setting (as checkbox somewhere?) could be to <>, because THEN you have to take action on them.
When the first option is set to "hide", this second setting shouldn't do anything.
12 Posted by Jorge on 22 Feb, 2010 08:25 PM
(Sorry, some parts of my previous comment got hidden due to format issues, you can delete it)
I agree with previous comments here.
Nice simple option would be that to [ show / hide "waiting for" tasks in "next" ] (toggle button as Adria/Leif said)
Another great setting (as checkbox somewhere?) could be to [ only show "waiting for" tasks as "next" when close to due date ], because THEN you have to take action on them.
When the first option is set to "hide", this second setting shouldn't do anything.
13 Posted by Proximo on 24 Feb, 2010 04:52 PM
I was confused by this as well.
Although i do see the point Christiane is making on Projects.
Here is a thought.
When you add a task that belongs to a Project to the Waiting for list. The task stays in the Project as a visual reminder on what's holding it up while showing in the Waiting for list as a filtered view of all Waiting for task.
Single Task or Actions should only show up on the Waiting for list to keep them out of my Next list since it's not something I can do.
I think this simple tweak will solve the issues here.
The suggestions here are great but one thing I DON'T want Nirvana to do is add too many buttons and functions to the UI and mess up the clean look and feel that we enjoy today.
Separating single task in the Waiting for list from the Next list while still having them show up if they belong to a Project would be a nice way to accomplish what we want, without adding more stuff to the UI.
Just a thought.
14 Posted by Jorge on 24 Feb, 2010 11:40 PM
I see your point, Proximo: keeping things simple is quite a Nirvana-style approach and should work good enough without having to add more options. I vote for that.
15 Posted by jonsimmons on 21 Apr, 2010 11:01 AM
This is how I feel it should work as well. Next means Next - I should be able to look at this list and only see those actions that are actually do-able at that point. Having WF as a separate list allows you to pick up this stuff in the Weekly Review.
16 Posted by Jody on 29 Apr, 2010 10:43 PM
Count me in on this. I thought I worked out all of my "testing" to feel satisfied to move from TD but then the "waiting for" thing came up. I'm really ok with assigning a contact because I just set one up called, for example, "waiting", when I didn't much care to assign it to someone.
But, I have a real issue with it staying in "today" when I assign it to waiting. Realistically, I have about 75-100 open, active tasks at any given time. To not be able to get the "waiting for"'s out of my way is a real problem. I couldn't even figure out a work-around to get it out of "today". Does anyone know one?
There is a waiting for list and a next list and neither of them work in a manageable way. We still end up with everything in "today" to be able to work with them (or because they get stuck there with "waiting for").
Please recreate the lists so that most tasks only show up in one of the three files - today, next, or waiting. (Of course, they would also be in their project if they were part of a project). The only exception I could ever imagine is if a waiting for had a due date. But that would be the only case.
17 Posted by Proximo on 29 Apr, 2010 11:06 PM
I agree with you but I have no issues with waiting for task on my
Today list. I have several waiting for task that only show up in the
Next list and waiting for list but not the today list.
What happens if you use the menu on the right side of the task and
select to remove from today? It should remove it from the today list
and keep it in your waiting for list.
Let me know.
18 Posted by Jody on 29 Apr, 2010 11:14 PM
@Proximo - Thanks for the tip on the "remove from today"... not my favorite thing to have to do two steps to get it out of there but an acceptable solution for the time being. Hey, look at that... it even popped back in there when I put a due date on it.
SWEET!
Thanks.
19 Posted by Proximo on 30 Apr, 2010 02:38 PM
Waiting for behavior is something that will be tweaked. I am very vocal about how it should work based on GTD but I understand that having the flexibility of not showing them or showing them in other list is something to consider.
From a GTD perspective it simply does not make sense to me why it should be in the Next list at all, but that's me and I am weird. :-)
20 Posted by Terminado on 30 Apr, 2010 06:34 PM
Okay, so I'm weird, too.
Waiting for should be in the waiting for "folder" only. It's not anything we can do. However, following-up with the person we're waiting for is, so I would like to see an option where we can create a Next or Today task to follow up on a Waiting task that is linked to it, and do so from the waiting for task itself.
This would seem to give everyone what they want and be consistent with GTD.
21 Posted by Elurven on 03 May, 2010 12:47 PM
The only reason I opted for "Waiting For" items to be able to show up on the "Next" list, is because that seemed to be a feature that many users wanted. But I completely agree with Proximo that "Waiting For" and "Next" should be completely separate and I will never want to see those two lists mixed. I do feel, however, that "Waiting For" may show up in the "Today" list, since that is more of an agenda of the day in which I keep track of things that are relevant during the day. As far as I know, the "Today" list is not strictly GTD either, but I feel that it is needed, since I would have to write that list somewhere else if it was not present in Nirvana.
22 Posted by Proximo on 03 May, 2010 04:33 PM
The Today list is simply the Focus for the day and it's one of the best things I love.
I could not stand looking at the entire Next List and try to work on the task for the day in that view. Too much distraction and clutter.
Having the Today list gives me a simple view of what I need to focus on and get done.
23 Posted by Maarten on 04 May, 2010 11:29 AM
I just wanted to offer my support to Proximo's suggestion here.
Please remove "Wating for" items from my next action list - since it is not actionable.
Seems like this issue has been around for quite some time now? Anyone that knows when we can expect this to be solved?
Support Staff 24 Posted by Christiane Magee on 24 Jun, 2010 02:15 PM
Hi Maarten... this will be part of the next release. We were hoping to have had this pushed out last week, we are working our darnedest to get it out as soon as possible.
25 Posted by Bernard on 20 Sep, 2010 04:23 PM
A Couple comments on the "Waiting For" list:
1) It seems that I cannot wait for a response from multiple people. I can understand that it may be bad GTD to do this (each person will probably need to be followed up with separately) but it would be a nice option to have. Perhaps if I assign a task to multiple people then it would automatically make duplicates of the task for each assignment (e.g. that I'm waiting for)
2) I like to be able to keep an archive of my tasks completed, but when I've completed a task like "Send background file for comments" and then assign it to those I'm waiting for comments from, the task gets "converted" rather than "copied" to my "waiting for" list.
Thanks,
Bernard
26 Posted by Proximo on 20 Sep, 2010 10:53 PM
@Bernard,
I don't think that having a task assigned to multiple people goes against GTD in any way. There may be more than one stake holder on a task that needs to be done for you to carry on with your part.
I have some task that require the approval of several people before it can move to the next step. In this case, I am waiting for several people to take action on the same task. I am sure others can come up with many other examples regarding this.
I know some others have requested this and I don't see why it would not be implemented down the road.
David McLaughlin closed this discussion on 10 Feb, 2011 02:20 AM.