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On Hold vs. Waiting? Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
I've been using OF for a while and my workflow is pretty set and I'm, for the most part, happy with it. However, one thing still bugs me and I was hoping someone might be able to shine some light on my confusion.

How are On Hold and Waiting different? Under what circumstance should each be used? Every time I have a situation where I find the need to use one I have to try and figure out which to use, and I end up guessing.

Making it even worse is the seeming arbitrary choice to allow tasks to be set to Waiting, while Only projects can be set to On Hold. That's never made any sense to me, but now I'm thinking that maybe there is a reason for this distinction (so not arbitrary) that's going over my head but which would explain the difference between the two statuses.

Anyone?
 
Is "Waiting" a context for you? I seem to be missing that???? If so, then Waiting might mean anything from "active and waiting for someone else to complete" to "active and waiting for me to reconsider" to ... whatever you would want "waiting" to mean. In my use, I have a "Waiting For" context that defines tasks other people are to be doing for me.

Otherwise, On Hold for me mostly means, the project is put aside because something external to it limits my ability to work on anything in it at all for an as yet unforeseeable time period. In certain perspectives, that turns off seeing any of its groups or tasks as actionable items.

--
JJW
 
I'm guessing "waiting" might be "has a future start date"...

OmniFocus 2.0 is supposed to extend the data model so that individual actions can be put on hold.
 
I put a (future) start date on something if there is a date before which I cannot work on it, or a date before which I don't want to be bothered with it. Something that I just want out of the way (maybe I don't know when or even if I'll ever come back to it) I put on hold. But if I have an idea of when it should become active, I prefer to use a start date so that OmniFocus will handle the chore of remembering to make it active.
 
Is "Waiting" a context for you? I seem to be missing that????

Ahh, you're right. I added Waiting as a context. Now that I think about it, I added Waiting because I can't set an individual task On Hold as I can a project.

Something that I just want out of the way (maybe I don't know when or even if I'll ever come back to it) I put on hold.

Thanks whpalmer4. That makes sense.

OmniFocus 2.0 is supposed to extend the data model so that individual actions can be put on hold.

That's what I thought, and logically, I can't think of a reason why you can't set both a project or task On Hold. However, a friend emailed OF support asking if tasks in the future could be put On Hold, and was told there was no definite plan, though they could make the feature request.

I'm really hoping that's just a case of following a policy of not wanting to promise something before shipping.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by matt1 View Post
OmniFocus 2.0 is supposed to extend the data model so that individual actions can be put on hold.

That's what I thought, and logically, I can't think of a reason why you can't set both a project or task On Hold. However, a friend emailed OF support asking if tasks in the future could be put On Hold, and was told there was no definite plan, though they could make the feature request.
Straight from the big cheese's mouth:

http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost...41&postcount=7

Perhaps the support ninja meant there is no definite plan for exactly when it will ship...and though it pains me to say so, there have been instances when a support ninja was mistaken :-)
 
I work pretty much exclusively on the ipad.

I don't have On-Hold or waiting Contexts, instead putting projects on hold in OF as appropriate, and waiting is allocated to the person it's waiting for.

For me, waiting means that the ball is in someone else's court, I can't do anything with it until that thing is passed back to me, I allocate it to the person who I'm waiting for.

On hold is something I consciously choose to do with a project, if I have too much on the go, or it's a someday, the project goes on hold.

Projects with future start dates don't show up as I have my view set to Available, the only thing they're constrained by is the start date.
 
Straight from the big cheese's mouth

Thanks! My mind is now set at ease :)

For me, waiting means that the ball is in someone else's court, I can't do anything with it until that thing is passed back to me, I allocate it to the person who I'm waiting for.

On hold is something I consciously choose to do with a project, if I have too much on the go, or it's a someday, the project goes on hold.


Thanks. I think that's similar to how I'll tackle this from now on. Waiting being used when I'm waiting on someone to get back to me, or a letter to arrive. Basically I'm waiting on an outside stimulus. I'll use On Hold more as a personal decision to back off a project/task for right now.

Basically my whole problem was the inability of a task to be set to On Hold. But with both tasks and folders able to be set to On Hold in the future, that problem goes away.

Thanks everyone :)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by matt1 View Post

Basically my whole problem was the inability of a task to be set to On Hold.
Just put a start date on it that is years away. If you use a common date (2050 seems unlikely to be reached) you can use Where in OF to find them with a saved search, such as:

tasks where start date ≥ "1/1/2050"

Last edited by whpalmer4; 2012-07-17 at 09:25 AM..
 
 


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