The waiting zone is for things that eventually need to be done, but which cannot be done yet because you’re waiting on something.
Boomerang is the best tool I’ve come across for “waiting.” Suppose I email Nancy, and I want to email her again if she doesn’t respond in a week- when I send the email, I can check the “return to inbox in a week if Nancy doesn’t respond” box. Rather than having lots of things in Waiting and having to constantly check to see if anything’s become critical, the items you want to be reminded of remind you exactly when you want to be reminded.
It also has “Send Later” options, so you can email yourself notes that will show up in your inbox at a particular time (or email other people things at particular times).
Boomerang seems like a good tool that I might want to implement. One thing that I see Boomerang and similar apps struggle with, however, is the idea of waiting for a period that is not defined by a particular day (i.e. when Bob responds, forward response to Nancy). This isn’t a reason not to try Boomerang, but it is a reason to look for something else as well. This problem comes up a lot for me and I’m wondering if you have any advice.
Those sorts of triggers seem difficult to automate efficiently, since they’ll often be content-dependent (you probably don’t want the next email from Bob to go to Nancy without reading it first, even if by the subject you can tell it’s in that email chain). I’m not aware of an existing solution.
The only one I know is having a waiting list. Workflowy tags make it somewhat easier to search. Otherwise, I tend to skim it in the daily review and read it thoroughly in the weekly review.
Boomerang is the best tool I’ve come across for “waiting.” Suppose I email Nancy, and I want to email her again if she doesn’t respond in a week- when I send the email, I can check the “return to inbox in a week if Nancy doesn’t respond” box. Rather than having lots of things in Waiting and having to constantly check to see if anything’s become critical, the items you want to be reminded of remind you exactly when you want to be reminded.
It also has “Send Later” options, so you can email yourself notes that will show up in your inbox at a particular time (or email other people things at particular times).
Boomerang seems like a good tool that I might want to implement. One thing that I see Boomerang and similar apps struggle with, however, is the idea of waiting for a period that is not defined by a particular day (i.e. when Bob responds, forward response to Nancy). This isn’t a reason not to try Boomerang, but it is a reason to look for something else as well. This problem comes up a lot for me and I’m wondering if you have any advice.
Those sorts of triggers seem difficult to automate efficiently, since they’ll often be content-dependent (you probably don’t want the next email from Bob to go to Nancy without reading it first, even if by the subject you can tell it’s in that email chain). I’m not aware of an existing solution.
The only one I know is having a waiting list. Workflowy tags make it somewhat easier to search. Otherwise, I tend to skim it in the daily review and read it thoroughly in the weekly review.