Hi all!
Here’s a cool trick for ya!
I track most things I’m waiting for in my to-do list. Stuff like answers to questions I hope to get on Slack, emails I’m expecting, packages I am waiting for, tasks others need to complete and get back to me, and so on. Very universal, really.
Tracking such things in a to-do list has some unexpected upsides I’ll describe below.
I started doing it years ago now. Had no idea it would be this useful. It helps me every day.
The technique can look like this:
- ask a question on Slack,
- copy the link to my question,
- create a to-do list task “Winnie to respond why the honey is gone”,
- and add the Slack link to this new task.
By also tagging the task with “waiting” and adding it to the relevant project I’m all set.
Now I can get back to whatever I was doing. I’ll see the answer when it comes. If it doesn’t I’ll remember to ask again when I find the task as I next focus on that to-do list project. Otherwise, I’ll find the task in the cross-project “waiting” tag (which I check every Monday).
An unexpected upside is I don’t have to record or save the link to answers as they come because I can find them when I need them later by following the link to the question in my task. This frees me to just read the answer quickly, politely say thanks, and promptly forget about it. No need to “mark as unread” to remember or anything else like that either.
Another unexpected upside is how easy it becomes to ask proactively about stuff I’ll need in a week or so. Just ask, create the task with the link, and forget about it. Any answer I get is unlikely to distract me (unless I need to clarify my question). Asking “prematurely” like this was previously a chore because I’d be distracted by the answers since I’d have to record them or worse act on them to not forget (remember I don’t need them yet in this case and am working on something else).
In summary, this technique helps keep a list of all my outstanding requests, helps me find answers when I need them, and makes it easy to ask proactively.
And with a global computer-wide add-a-task hotkey + smart built-in to-do list syntax, all I have to do is press ctrl-alt-A to open the add-a-task window and then type “@waiting Winnie to respond why the honey is gone #HoneyCake”, paste the Slack link and BOOM - I have a task tagged “waiting” in the “HoneyCake” project that links back to my question. (I use Todoist as my to-do list app to get these hotkeys and syntax.)
so easy
very effective
such productive
wow
🐕
What tricks have you got up your sleeves?