A lot of the tasks I do involve delegating or asking for input, usually by email. So I’ll have a task in an @work context that says “Ask Brian for update on the TPS report.” Then, I’ll send an email to Brian, and now I want to: change the current task to @Waiting (on hold) “Ask Brian for update on TPS report” - is there an easy way to do this?
I looked and I did find a reference to an apple script, but I don’t have PRO yet - also, I am doing this on iOS (iPad and iPhone).
Thanks!
There is a script but you need ‘pro’ my friend only on OSX
I’d say that even on iOS, it’s really not too difficult to change the context, but if you want to avoid that, a slightly cumbersome method could be to have two actions. First, ‘send email to Brian’ and a second that’s ‘waiting for Brian’s update’. Depending on how stringently you practise GTD, this turns into a project, which becomes even more cumbersome (on iOS).
To alleviate some of the difficulty, you could do some work with Workflow and the OmniFocus actions it provides. This, fortunately does not require pro!
An alternative to Workflow might be jotting the actions and project down in the TaskPaper format and pasting it into OmniFocus.
I do this by structuring how I name tasks and context flipping. In this case, I might write my task as:
Brian - details on TPS report with a context of @people (if I want to talk to him live). After I’ve discussed with him, I realize I have to follow up, so I change the context to @email. After I write the email, I change the context to @waiting.
Because I structure tasks involving others with this format, the task in its original writing almost always makes sense when context is changed. For bonus marks, it’s also a standard that then makes it easy for me to see all tasks relevant to a person (by search).
Just a suggestion!
ScottyJ
