Projects, waiting, and someday

What a project looks like

Open Projects, Work section, and you might see:

Tax return filed

Notes:

Submitted and the acknowledgement saved in the tax folder.

Later: pay anything owed. Download the PDF receipt.

Subtasks:

  • Gather the interest statements #anywhere
  • Call the accountant with the questions list #call

The parent has no tag and no job except to hold the outcome. The two subtasks are both current: gathering statements does not depend on the call. “Pay anything owed” is written in the notes because it cannot start yet. When the statements are in, you tick that subtask and, if paying is now possible, you add it as a new subtask.

Put the project in the section that matches the area of your life. Move it by dragging, or by editing the reminder if you prefer. The section is how the weekly review walks through your commitments without opening every smart list.

On iPhone and iPad you can show sections as columns: in Projects, tap the more button, then View as Columns. It is a planning view. Day to day, the context smart lists are quicker.

How many current subtasks

Prefer one. Add another when a second action is truly available now and does not depend on the first. If you dump the whole plan in as subtasks, every context list fills up with work you cannot do yet, and the smart lists stop being trustworthy.

The plan can still be written down. The notes field is the plan. Subtasks are the live edge of it.

A checklist you will finish in one sitting is different. “Pack for Thursday” can be an anywhere or home action whose own subtasks are socks, charger, and passport. Those inner items are packing list entries. They do not each need a context tag. Keep that pattern for checklists, and keep tagged subtasks for actions you might do at different times in different places.

Waiting

Waiting is still part of the project. You are committed to the outcome, and the current step is “this person, this thing”.

  1. Rewrite the subtask so the person comes first: “Priya: photos of the damp patch”.
  2. Replace the context tag with waiting.
  3. Turn on When Messaging if a conversation with them is likely before the review.
  4. Add a date if you want Today to remind you to nudge them. The Waiting list will also show the item before that date, which is what you want when you are looking for loose ends.

The Waiting smart list is the cross-project view. The project still shows the same subtask when you open Projects, so the story of the work stays in one place.

When what you were waiting for arrives:

  • Complete the waiting subtask if the arrival finishes the step, and add the real next action with a context tag.
  • Or change waiting back to a context tag if the same reminder is now something you can do.

Someday

Someday is for outcomes and ideas you are not committed to. Move a whole project there when you want it off your plate: edit the project reminder and change its list to Someday. Subtasks move with the parent. Because the context smart lists only read Projects and Next, those subtasks disappear from Anywhere, Home, Out, and Calls until you bring the project back.

Loose ideas can live as plain reminders in Someday, with no tags.

Review Someday weekly, in a single pass:

  • Delete what you no longer mean.
  • Leave what is still “maybe”.
  • If you are now committed, move it back to Projects, put it in an area, and give it a current tagged subtask.

Someday is allowed to be long. It is a parking place, not a second daily list.

One-step work

“Pay the parking fine” does not need a project. It goes in Next, tagged anywhere or out or whatever the constraint is. It shows up on that smart list beside project subtasks.

If a Next item grows a second step, promote it. Create the project with an outcome title, add the current action as a subtask, and complete or delete the Next reminder so you do not do the work twice.

Finished projects

Tick the parent when the outcome is true. Completed reminders can be shown from the more button if you want a moment of proof, then hidden again. You do not need a separate archive list. Recently Deleted keeps accidents for 30 days if you remove something you still needed.

Horizons above projects

Areas are the sections on Projects. Above that - goals for the year, a picture of how you want life to feel, purpose - keep one note in the Notes app titled something you will recognise, such as “Horizons”. The weekly review asks you to open it. Pull new projects down from it when something on that page becomes a commitment. Leave the note itself out of Reminders so it is not forever overdue.