Where to park WAISU, in-process Actions?
 

David Allen says that for work that pops up and you can finish it in 2 minutes or less, to just do the work (the 2 minute rule). Longer 'work as it shows up' (WAISUP) (or other self-created spontaneous) actions that get started and will completed the same day, and assuming you stay with an Action through completion, also don't require tracking in a trusted system for many folks. But for those who do need/want to track that kind of work, I'm curious about any novel approaches people have.

A traditional OF work flow is to create an Action and assign it to a Project or SAL, and also to a context. But then it sort of gets buried (filed), and then you need to search or browse for it in order to mark it complete and update the time spent on it (again, only for those who need/want that data). Sometimes I'll get involved with several WAISU issues in a short period of time. I've found that if I leave them in the Inbox (either by not cleaning up, or by not assigning to a Project/SAL and/or Context (my prefs are set to require both for cleanup to take place), that seems to be one way to keep them handy (but remembering to not clean up, or to not assign, is not very systematic.

I just realized I could set up a Perspective, Context mode, grouped and sorted by when 'Added', and filtering on 'Remaining'. That seems like a good approach that I'm going to try. Just checking for ideas ...

Bob

I generally use the "park it in the inbox" method for stuff I want to get done in a short timeframe. I've got mine set up to not file actions that don't have both a project and a context; that lets me clean up without moving these items out of the inbox.

For stuff I don't want to lose track of but don't plan to do soon, I have a small number of special purpose single action lists. ("Books I should read", for example.) I also have one catch-all "Miscellaneous" project.

If your goal is to capture things that take more than 2 minutes but less than, say, 15 minutes, you can set the estimated time field and then set up a perspective that sorts on that basis.

You may also find some useful ideas if you search the forums for threads with "Tickler" in the title. I *think* [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/search.php?searchid=383442"]this link[/URL] will do that for you. :-)

I dig what you're laying down, man. Very helpful. The link didn't work, but I'm pretty sure I have that famous post bookmarked. And my Perspective: Context mode, grouped and sorted by when 'Added', and filtering on 'Remaining', is also working out well.

You OG folks should let out early, it's a beautiful day.

Bob