[jdh]

I have two general types of things I'm usually waiting for, and therefore take different approaches.

The first are those items on projects that I'm primarily responsible for or things that have deadlines, self-imposed or otherwise. These tasks normally get a future start date based on when the response is expected and stay in the appropriate context to following up (ie, "office" if I'm expecting a piece of paper to appear on my desk, "e-mail" if I'm expecting an e-mail response, and so forth). If I haven't received the necessary response/information by the time the start date passes, I re-evaluate at that point, either following up or pushing ahead again as necessary.

The second type of "waiting-for" items are for those projects that are being driven by others, where nothing really happens until the other person gets back to me. In other words, the ball is entirely in someone else's court. These are essentially lower priority tasks and get dropped into a "waiting-for" context. I rarely scan my waiting for context except when something shows up that I know I've been waiting for, although of course all of these items come up in planning mode during my normal weekly review.

With regards to the second question of putting items on hold, most of my "on-hold" items simply get future start dates so that I'm reminded to deal with them. I only put items on indefinite hold for one reason: those items that are thoughts that need a bit more fleshing out to become actions or projects. For this I use a context called "Simmering Pot" which I switch over to whenever I'm in a brainstorming or thinking mode.

The Simmering Pot method works for me as I've discovered that when I feel the need to put something on an indefinite hold it's usually because I haven't thought or planned it through and the task therefore seems intimidating. If it's a simple next-action for something that's doable, then there are plenty of other places it should go rather than sitting in limbo.

Note that my "Simmering Pot" differs from my "Someday/Maybe" project. Someday/Maybe is for longer-term goals like "Learn Piano" or "Plan a trip to Bora Bora." Simmering Pot is used for actions that simply need more brainstorming.