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November 08, 2007
Action versus Waiting For
A key distinction with your pending work is what you can take action on versus what you are waiting on. Those are two very different buckets. When you can take action, it's an Action item. When you are waiting, on someone or something, it's a Waiting For item.
For those of you in the habit of using your email Inbox as the catch all To Do list for both things you need to do and track other people are doing, try this: create two email folders called @Action and @Waiting For and move your emails into either of those two folders. When you're looking for something to do, all of your actionable emails are already in the @Action folder. When you need to look for what you're waiting on, pop over to the @Waiting For folder. Easy! If you're feeling particularly inspired, take time and move out all of the trash, reference and backlog from your Inbox too. Yes, it's OK to have an empty Inbox. In fact, you just might find yourself bouncing off the walls with excitement and freed up mental energy not having to recycle over your choices when it's sitting as an amorphous blob in the Inbox.
One of my favorite tips & tricks to share with people is to create an email rule to copy emails you send, where you need to track a response, and have them automatically go to the Waiting For email folder. I've written out instructions on how to do that for some of the key programs I work with:
Posted by Kelly at November 8, 2007 12:39 PM
Comments
We use Lotus Notes at work. Is that the same as Outlook for this tip?
Great idea!
Posted by: teacherninja at November 10, 2007 10:26 AM
In Lotus Notes, you've got it even easier. Simply create a "-Waiting For" email folder (the dash works to sort this folder to the top of your folder structure, not the @ as in other email programs.) Then use the Send and File button when you send an email and select the -Waiting For folder. So easy! No need to even create an email filter.
Posted by: Kelly at November 10, 2007 10:50 AM
I hate to use different types of reminders such as Outlook, notepads etc. It's not convenient for me to synchronize them all the way and handle wherever you go.
Currently I use notepad + mobile phone' to do lists and reminders. But it seems to me neither convenient though it's easy. But I think it's the best approach for me.
Posted by: Andy at November 17, 2007 01:58 AM
