[rmathes]

not sure if there’s a way I can make the app do what I'd like here, but thought I'd ask.

I’ve got my perspective setup to show me what I need to be working on today. I have a task to call Joe and get some information from him. I call and leave a message with his assistant who will check with him and get back to me. I change the context to ‘waiting for’ because I've now done the action item I needed to do.

I’d prefer to not see this task remain in my actionable list. I’d like to see it drop off the main ‘to do today’ perspective and be accessible in a ‘what am I waiting on’ perspective. But without a smart folder paradigm that allows me to select which contexts to include, that ain’t gonna happen.

Is there some other attribute I could change on this task that would get it off my main view but still keep it as an outstanding item elsewhere?

[Richard Flynn]

You can set up a 'Waiting For' context, and then just put that action into the new Context. You can also use the Context inspector on your new context to uncheck 'Allows next actions'—that then means that any action in that context is never 'available' to be done by you. However, you can easily set up a perspective to look at your Waiting For context for a plain list of everything you're (er) waiting for.

[rmathes]

thanks Richard.

tried that approach and it doesn't work for me because of a constraint artificially imposed to try to drive to a 'what's due only today' view discussed on another thread.

in the filter bar i have to use that selection for 'coming due', then set coming due to the shortest duration to not see all the other date categories (like next month, next week, etc....). the minute i use that functionality for that purpose (which i believe is not the natural and intended use of the 'coming due' feature), i now cannot select 'next actions' to eliminate the waiting for tasks.

but i think i found a way to handle it on the project side, which i don't like at all. i can create a 'waiting for' project and put its status 'on hold'. the task then stops appearing in my 'to do today' context perspective and i can create a new 'on hold projects' perspective to see what's in that project. but that means i have to take it out of its natural project, which doesn't make any sense.

this is one more reason why i do not like "well could you adapt such and such functionality to make it work" approaches. they always bite you somewhere else. not trying to cross topics on this thread, but we need the organic and natural ability to create a focused view in the context world that just shows us what's due today and prior without having to appropriate things like 'coming due' to make it happen.

give us context-based FOCUS functionality, OmniGroup!

[ksrhee]

This is something I do, and you might find it too cumbersome, but it works for me.

I created a new context called "Waiting For" and make it inactive. So, anything I assigned to it won't show up when I'm in the Active context mode.

If I need to move a task into this new context, I simply bring up the all context filter, and drag and drop it to the waiting for.

When I later get something I was waiting for, I just need to check this context, and I can review it periodically follow up.

I don't think this will interfere with your coming due filter as long as you are in the active context mode.

[iNik]

A couple ideas:

Set a "start date" and/or "Due Date" on your waiting task. That should keep it out of your perspective until such a time as you want to be reminded to review it.

To "focus" on multiple contexts, can't you just select those contexts and create a perspective displaying them? If you group by context, it's even easier, because you have, say, "Office" tasks as well as "Waiting" tasks all in one view, but with the Waiters below Office, and therefore visually de-prioritized.

[stmpjmpr]

Originally Posted by iNik

A couple ideas:

Set a "start date" and/or "Due Date" on your waiting task. That should keep it out of your perspective until such a time as you want to be reminded to review it.

To "focus" on multiple contexts, can't you just select those contexts and create a perspective displaying them? If you group by context, it's even easier, because you have, say, "Office" tasks as well as "Waiting" tasks all in one view, but with the Waiters below Office, and therefore visually de-prioritized.

This is what I do in your situation. Add the Start Date column to your view so that you can quickly add a new start date with something like "tomorrow" and it'll disappear from your list until tomorrow.

[al_f]

Alternatively, if you have an action like "email bob about project" in @computer, make the next action in the (sequential) project "Bob - response re: project" in @waiting for. That way once you complete the email action the waiting action will be automatically activated and added to your waiting list. If you don't include that list in your "stuff to do today" perspective the actions won't show up in your list.

[VicDiesel]

Originally Posted by rmathes

this is one more reason why i do not like "well could you adapt such and such functionality to make it work" approaches.

I agree. That's why I gave up on Life Balance: that product hasn't been updated in forever, and any time you ask on their forums "how do I" you get an answer "you could adapt so and so".

Anyway.

Let's say you have a task "read the 2007 report draft", and you realize that you haven't got it from Joe's secretary yet so you call him to get it. Now click on the "read" task, hit the Switch button (or whatever keybd shortcut) to get to planning view. Hit Shift-Return to insert a task bofore it; enter "wait for report", and give it a due date 2 months from now.

It will then disappear from your "coming due" perspective, and it will prevent the "read" task from being available. If you have another perspective that does show the long range tasks, you'll find the blocking task there; check it off and the "read" task becomes available again.

I don't like changing the context of tasks, because my contexts are bound to physical locations.

Victor.

[matt_c]

Looks like 6 months ago, the consensus on how to create a "Waiting for" context was that should use the inspector to uncheck the "Allows next actions" box. I see no such box in my inspector. Presumably this feature has been removed. So how do we create "Waiting for" contexts now?

[whpalmer4]

Well, that's because it is just a graphic now. If you select a context and open the inspector, you should see a row of three buttons, one with an "@", one with a "||", and one with a red "x". The "||" is the hold button, and that's the one you want to select to put that context on hold.