[SpiralOcean]

Waiting for items are a different beast than other action items.
The way I process waiting for items, are slow and cumbersome.

My goal is to be able to go to a context,
and process through the context, before moving on to the next context.

With waiting for items, I would like to be able to process each waiting for item that is due today.

But what happens is I am constantly flipping back and forth between projects and contexts to modify waiting for items.

Here is a flow chart of how waiting for items are processed.
How would you create this in OmniFocus?

http://scotaganda.com/omni/index.php...flow_chart.pdf

[curt.clifton]

Based on your flowchart, rather than put a due date on WF actions, I'd put a start date on them. Then they will only show up as available if they really are something you need to follow up on. For follow up actions, I'd use Cmd-Opt-R (or the new Switch toolbar button) to go to the action in Planning View. Once there, use Shift-Return to create a new Follow Up action above the current action. Assuming the project is sequential, that will will block the WF item until you've followed up. When you do follow up, the WF will appear again, and you can set its new start date. You may want to annotate your follow-up actions so you can switch to Planning mode and set WF start dates immediately upon completing the follow up.

That's still a bit complex, but isn't too bad.

I wonder if it would be helpful to have a pair of scripts to convert WF actions into Follow Up actions, and vice versa. I'll have to think about that. I would welcome ideas along those lines.

[SpiralOcean]

Originally Posted by curt.clifton

Based on your flowchart, rather than put a due date on WF actions, I'd put a start date on them. Then they will only show up as available if they really are something you need to follow up on. For follow up actions, I'd use Cmd-Opt-R (or the new Switch toolbar button) to go to the action in Planning View. Once there, use Shift-Return to create a new Follow Up action above the current action. Assuming the project is sequential, that will will block the WF item until you've followed up. When you do follow up, the WF will appear again, and you can set its new start date. You may want to annotate your follow-up actions so you can switch to Planning mode and set WF start dates immediately upon completing the follow up.

That's still a bit complex, but isn't too bad.

I wonder if it would be helpful to have a pair of scripts to convert WF actions into Follow Up actions, and vice versa. I'll have to think about that. I would welcome ideas along those lines.

Again... always a pleasure Curt, thank you.

I've been using due date for waiting for items.
Because I use the start date for projects only.

This allows me to focus on projects that I have started on, and frees up the due date from any constraints I would have if the project had a due date.

I also use the back and forth, going from project to task often.

I am trying to get to the point where I don't have to do that.
I'm trying to figure out a way where I can stay in my contexts to work, and not constantly checking projects to make sure I didn't forget anything.

Waiting for is a big challenge for a user to stay in the contexts to process items.

This is what I am attempting to solve.

I have also thought about writing some scripts for this... it's on my list. ;-)

However, having a parent with completed children be hidden makes tracking waiting for items extremely difficult. Even with scripting.

I posted something about waiting for items way back before the alpha was even available, and how they are different. I wish Omni would take a look at the waiting for dilemma. I wonder who at Omni is using OF? And how they deal with waiting for items.

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by SpiralOcean

I wonder who at Omni is using OF? And how they deal with waiting for items.

I know Ken is using it, as is Ethan. I suspect others are. I think Ken has posted about Waiting For items previously. Have you searched the forums for that?

[SpiralOcean]

I just tried searching in the advanced field for
waiting for
with posts from
ken case

and got the error message...

The search term you specified (for) is under the minimum word length (4) and therefore will not be found. Please make this term longer.

So I tried to search for
waiting
with Ken Case

And got no results.

I attempted to search for all posts by Ken Case,
and got no results.

I'd like to see what they were posting about.

I'll put this in as a bug for the forums.

[SpiralOcean]

Interesting... I cannot find any posts by Ken.
And when I search for my own posts, I can only find the last two.
hmm...