Ask HN: How to track inputs from other people If you're working on something that requires inputs from other people, how do you keep track of their input. If I'm waiting for something for longer than a day, I'm prone to just forgetting about it. It seems strange putting it on my todo list if it's something I don't actually need to do. |
- WFR (waiting for response/reply (from)) {person} re {subject}
- FUO (follow up on) {subject}
Or, if I first have to do a task, then get a response, I surround the task in parentheses instead of crossing it out to indicate that I did it but I'm waiting for something else to happen (usually for someone to call back or something). For example, if my task is "call helloworlddd", and I do, but you're not home and I leave a voicemail, then
- call helloworlddd
becomes
- (call helloworlddd)
and when you finally call back I cross the task off.
If I’m waiting for input from someone, I immediately create a future to-do that’s of the form of either “do stuff with input received from X” or “follow up with X if I haven’t received their input on Y”.
Their actual input can be either attached to the to-do on receipt, searched up in email/slack/meeting notes/etc as needed, or entered in a notetaking app on receipt — depending on what my current getting stuff done stack looks like.
In a professional context, tell your boss that you can't and won't work without the required information. Or improvise with fake/mock data.