Waiting On isn’t your next action, but it’s still yours to track. There may be no work to perform right now, yet there’s a commitment to manage: follow up Friday, escalate next week, or change the plan if the client never answers.
Think about a client file sitting in someone else’s inbox. You handed it over because you need their signature, number, or approval. The file isn’t on your desk anymore, but the outcome still matters to you. If nobody watches it, the work quietly stalls.
How it shows up
A next action is the next move you can make yourself. Waiting On is different: you can’t complete the next step until someone else moves first. In client work it’s everywhere: the signed engagement letter, the vendor W-9, the client approval. External handoffs are the hardest kind, because once work leaves your team you can’t pretend it’s done just because you sent the message. Someone has to own the follow-up and the due date. With agents this matters more: an agent may stop for a human in the loop review, and if that state isn’t tracked the work looks finished in the chat but unfinished in the real business. This is also why an inbox matters, because it’s where unfinished things get captured before they fall out of your head.
Why you care
Waiting On is one of the easiest places for work to leak. Nobody feels responsible because everyone is technically waiting. The client thinks you have it, you think the client has it, and the project sits still. The habit is simple: name what you’re waiting for, name who has it, name when you’ll check again, and keep it visible.