I was working through my Inbox this morning and had a few mails I had to delegate to someone else. Short questions, little assignments. But I need an answer from the receiving party to move the project forward. Not now, but whenever possible. I was thinking and in doubt. I use the GTD Outlook plugin so I have the possibility to put a request in my Waiting-For list with one click. But then I thought to myself, “I think she is going to answer pretty quick, since it’s such a simple question. Why should I put in my WF-list? When I put it in, perhaps an hour later I can throw it out! Maybe I should just email and not put a reminder on my list.” But I was in doubt because what if she doesn’t respond in an hour? What if she gets flooded with mail and doesn’t find the time? Anyway, the whole process of doubt and thinking took me more than 2 minutes so I decided to put it in my WF-list anyway and see how it works out the coming days/weeks. If, during my Weekly Review, I find a lot of already answered mail, perhaps I should find another way. Maybe another context? @ShortAnswer? Any thoughts on little rules of thumb on these issues? How do you deal with it?
Rule of thumb to put something in a list?
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Short, little assignments that need to move a project forward “…not now, but whenever possible” are PERFECT for the Waiting For list. What I’ll rarely spend any bandwidth on is checking my Waiting For list as soon as an item I’m tracking comes in. Is that where you get the feeling that tracking the thing may not be worth it? I clean up the lists when energy is low or during the weekly review. It is not unual for me to have 8-12 waiting for’s that need to be checked off because they were done sometime last week. That’s a good feeling.
I do the same as Greg. There is no better start of my weekend than to spend the hour of my week checking off finished tasks!
@Greg & Jeroen: Thanks for the tips. I think I might try that! Jeroen, I checked your site and saw you live in Lleida. I’ve actually been there some 13 years ago while “Interrailing” Europe. Nice little town!
I’d vote for the “put it on the w/f list even if it’s a short-term thing.” You can always cross it off, and get the satisfaction of accomplishing something.
matt