[curt.clifton]

Suppose I was waiting on TPS Reports from Alice. Further suppose that I thought that I should give her 5 days to get back to me before hassling her with a reminder.

In that case, I'd put an action, "From Alice, TPS reports," in my "Awaiting" context with a due date 5 days hence. If that action came due and Alice still hadn't come through—I'd notice this in the morning when scanning my tasks due today—then I'd add a new task to email Alice. (Or call her, or discuss the issue in our regular meeting, or fling a rock with a note through her window, etc.)

A quick way to add that new task is to double click the handle next to the "From Alice, TPS reports" action. That would open the project containing that action in a new window, with the action selected. Shift-Return would create a new action above the original action. I'd create my new action and remove the due date from the old action.

A search on the forums will yield a bunch of other approaches to this. Mine works for me, because it's lightweight and gives people the benefit of the doubt. I don't need to establish complicated protocols to make sure the follow-up happens. Most people come through with what is expected. If not, I stop relying on them.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Curt