Thats so easy and simple. What a great idea. I never thought of doing this.

Lazarus

You could simply setup 2 different signatures, that differ ever so slightly, then use the "waiting" signature when needed and key off that with one of your rules. I think this looks better than a random [w].

ncboxer

lol Taco.

I don't think I could talk to that guy without giggling when I say his name.

Seriously though. I just add a followup flag to emails I send out that need followup. The system is already in Outlook. I just renamed the "Follow up" filter to "To Do".

Frank

It is cool. I'm thinking of making it something that is a bit more unique that I can add to my signature and have it look innocuous, so I can have a second rule that does something for any replies to one of the [w] messages.

Cornflower

Comment on Filter Email to a "Waiting For" Folder Automatically I use ... (dot dot dot) at the end of the subject. Was using a macro to set the category (to @WaitingFor). I even created a custom button to run the macro, but macros are now blocked for my Outlook so I resorted to the ... solution.

ElroyNanobutt

And yes, ticking the preview box seems to alleviate the problem straight away!

FizzyPopMan

@Lazarus:
You're not alone. I've had problems posting today too.

FizzyPopMan

Is it me or are comments not posting unless you click the Preview comment check box?

Lazarus

What if the [w] is buried deep down in a thread you created and don't want it to go waiting folders.

I use categories and have assigned ctrl+F3 for that categories and it shows up in the search folder

gumnaam

I do something similar with Gmail. I have created a label called @@WTF so it will always be at the top of the list. When I first send off an email that I am waiting for a reply on, I bcc the email to myself using the + function where I type in email+wtf@gmail.

I find this also handy because any subsequent emails that I send to the person will still have that label if they too require replies. Plus it is easy to remove the @@WTF label once the person has replied.

razzlebathbone

This seems like overkill. Why not just add the label (if you're using Gmail)? On my mac, I use MailTags in Mail.app - "control + w" moves it to the "@waiting" folder, which corresponds to my @waiting label in Gmail.

Rev. Vike

Looks like I goofed and forgot to include my email address in the from field when setting up the filter. Problem solved.

nka

@razzlebathbone:

So does @@WTF mean "Waiting For" or something else?

Brimstone

@Brimstone: I think @@WTF is short for "follow up for clarification, cause obviously the person Im mailing this to is clueless"

Lazarus

Conceptually, I like it. I can see the "WaitingFor-Email" folder getting pretty unwieldy without some daily manual intervention, and I don't see that as particularly timesaving, honestly.

I just use Outlook's follow-up flag for incoming emails. And the task list, with its editable message body, is made of win.

adventurat

I tried to do this in Thunderbird by making a saved search that looked in the Sent IMAP folder for [w] in the body but I never got anything working. I then made a search for a new Tag I called "Waiting for" and that worked but you have to go into the message you just sent and tag it because you cannot tag an outgoing message while you are writing it, as far as I can see at least

Kilter

Good idea! I have lots of loose ends I'm waiting to hear back about, and I call my Gmail filter "ONGOING". It's a nice way to make sure loops you want to close are followed up on, or in some cases, you won't forget about important stuff that drifted away.

I also have sort of a companion to this in Firefox: a bookmark folder called "Waiting For Answers" where I drop in links to forum threads and such where I needed help. I check it maybe twice a week. Some of those are on Lifehacker.

Good followup rocks!

Torley

Brilliant to see this tip posted!

I have done something similar for years.

I cheat by starting all my e-mail requests with "REQUEST:" instead of hiding a tag.

I do the same with questions and notices.

Boter

In Thunderbird you can just right click on the email in the sent folder and from the menu choose copy to which is quicker than typing in [w]. Or right click on the email and quickly Tag them with a colour and name of your own choosing.

Richardo

I used to do this in Outlook 2003 but with 2007 version, it's no longer needed since you can use the wonderful "Flag for me" follow up and even setup a date to be alerted. Much more efficient. You can even use the "Flag for me" on messages you receive. If you don't want to keep it in your mailbox, you can move it to a folder configured to accept alerts.

orkgandalf

In Outlook 07, I can actually choose to 'flag' an outgoing e-mail. This places it in my task list automatically (as well as new tasks and incoming e-mails.)

Then, the magic here is in the task list, I change the status of the task to 'waiting for someone else'. This gets formatted to italics and placed at the bottom of today's tasks, as it's not an actionable item by me.

tommertron

The major benefit of including some text in your mail (personally I use [w] - [waiting-for.com]) seems to be that other people realize you are serious when you ask for something.

Of course, in some situations setting an invisible flag (like using a category) may be the diplomatic thing to do. I myself use the text "Thanks in advance." for that.

I use Fingertips to expand the abbreviation "wm" to the full sentence I mentioned above, so this takes me no time to use in an e-mail.

Once a week (during my Weekly Review), I process the whole list. The rest of the week I do not look at it at all. If there is something that needs to be checked on earlier than next Friday, I add it to my Calendar instead.

I sort the list based on the "To" field for quick processing.

TacoOosterkamp

@TacoOosterkamp: Like a few others, I just use the followup flag. If I really want to be annoying, I set the flag before I send the email.

IAmMarchHare

Comment on Filter Email to a "Waiting For" Folder Automatically This is a great idea; I recommend adding the following modification to making it super easy! I use the GTD folder naming convention with the @ symbol so they sort the top of my folder view so the Waiting For folder is: @Waiting For. I then create a custom signature with the line at the very end: [@Waiting For] that way I can right click on my signature before I hit send to 'tag' the message as a @Waiting For. I use the same process for Follow-Ups as well. Bill

MiltonAkon

I also use a GMail label called @WAITINGON. I use the GMail Macros Greasemonkey script so it's just a matter of typing l@ with that conversation open.

I think using a specifically-worded "Thanks in advance for your response" is very clever. If you go that route, use TextExpander so you can really type @WTF and it will replace that with your carefully-worded verbiage.

Marina @ Sufficient Thrust

Using gmail I bcc to myemail+waiting@gmail.com and have a filter that assigns label "S/Waiting On" to all emails from myemail+waiting@gmail.com

martinruiz

OK - Sounds great, but who wants a [w] or any other "inconspicuous" symbols at the bottom of their emails?

serialportme

This is a great idea. I ended up writing a macro for Outlook 2007 that copies the email not only to my @Waiting For task category, but also creates an @[Sent To name] category as well. That way I have a mini-agenda when following up with the person. Here's the link to the macro.

gHatton

Ok, pretty good idea -- I'd call it "Flawed... with moments." Personally, not to be a schmuck, but I've read the "Getting things done" book twice, have followed the suggestions as much as physically possible (including the HUGE-"Inbox"-that-used-to-be-my-office concept), and my life has never been more of a mess. Not hating on the author, just didn't work for me.

For this particular rule -- if lots of people start doing this (and LifeHacker *IS* pretty darn pop-u-ler...lar...) I'm going to get a lot of copies of stuff that OTHER people are waiting on any time I reply (even if its NOT the 'final' reply they were waiting on...)

I like the categories Idea, but this could be better written in script to actually work to not only keep YOUR waiting emails but alert you when someone else has flagged the email as "waiting" too.

[thehumanmadeproject.typepad.com]

Robosf