How do you handle expected call backs?
 

(I'm pretty much GTD)

So, I call someone and leave a message asking that he or she call me back. The action started out with the context "phone" and a project assigned to it.

Best thing I can figure to do is change its context to "Waiting," which is OK, but means I'm going to have scan that context pretty often-- maybe a few times a day.

Anyone have a better way to handle?

TIA

I create a child action called waiting for call from name about subject
I assign this child action a waiting for context
Give it a start date a couple days out

Every day I review my waiting for context using the available filter
The available filter will not show me any actions with a future start date

I process the waiting for list to 0
Processing means:
I'm no longer waiting for the item so I check it off
I'm still waiting for the item but don't want to take action so I assign a start date in the future.
I need to ping the person I'm waiting on ( leave another voicemail to send a follow up email)

If an item on the waiting for list hasn't been resolved but I want to keep it in the list, I give it a future start date.

[QUOTE=trocklin;91189](I'm pretty much GTD)

So, I call someone and leave a message asking that he or she call me back. The action started out with the context "phone" and a project assigned to it.

Best thing I can figure to do is change its context to "Waiting," which is OK, but means I'm going to have scan that context pretty often-- maybe a few times a day.

Anyone have a better way to handle?

TIA[/QUOTE]
@Troklin, If you use GTD traditional contexts way, I agree. I did it like this for years.

But for years I had problems with contexts about doing things. Since, I discovered another way : autofocus from Mark Forster and it's incredible last method AF4R and SAF. Now I changed my way of making and doing context and created mine which are :
CALL > All my calls to do. I love seeing them disappearing.
MAC > everything I must do if i have my imac
AF LIST > This is the traditional autofocus list AF1
UNFINISHED > This is a list wich contains all unfinished tasks. When a AF task is done but still needs to be followed or continued it goes here.
DISSMISS. > See Dissmiss from Mark FORSTER
ERRANDS
RECURRING Tasks > Not very use
SOMEDAY ? > If I dont really know if I want to do it or no= I may...
NOTES. > When I need notes about tasks or projects to be followed.
PERSONAL > =Home = a list t do when I have time and not on the rush of my work.

So, a waiting for call goes on my unfinished task and it's much better. I just write at the beginning of the task WAIT X to call me back - 5/12/10. (French date).

Since I use these new contexts and Autofocus process I don't loose time in organization. It made GTD less complicated and I work fast and things seems less complicated.

Trocklin, I generally leave topics like this in whatever context they would otherwise be in, then use the Start Date field to move them off my active list until I want them to reactivate. Does that help?

(In my workflow, they get assigned to a person's context, generally in the form of a question. That way I don't need to edit the name from "call X about Y" to "check back with X about Y" or what have you. They just go into that person's context as "What about Y?" and stay that way.)

I create a "follow up with <whoever> about <whatever>" action, give it a start date a couple of days in the future, and if I really don't want to forget, give it a Due Date a day or so after that. When the action resurfaces, I either ping the person or shift the dates again. (I realize that using a Due Date for this is an abuse of the Due Date field, but I'm engaging in larger abuses of that field that I need to correct first. :))

Gardener

I would do one of two things:

1) put an action on your calendar to chase that person if you've not heard back
2) put an action in Omnifocus to chase the person on a given date or at a certain time.

for me the context isn't important, but I suppose if you're going to chase by phone it should go on your calls list.

In a situation like that, I might just set the start time for the event a few hours in the future, and it'll be there the next time I look at my available or next-actions list after the start time.

I use [url]http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~clifton/software.html#Await[/url]
to facilitate the simple scheme of putting the task into the Waiting For context, but it is modified slightly which is enough.