How it works
Write down what you're owed when you ask for it: who owes it, and when it's fair to check in. The list is a timeline with a line for today. Everything you're waiting on sits below the line at its chase date; on that day it crosses the line into "Chase today", and stays there until you chase it, get it, or decide to stop waiting. Nothing is ever marked overdue.
Chasing drafts a short, polite message from what you wrote, which you can edit, share or copy, and records the date. The next chase then moves further out: a week, then two weeks, then four. That spacing is our rule of thumb for following up without nagging, not a researched number, and you can pick any date. The idea of keeping a waiting-for list comes from David Allen's Getting Things Done, where you review it every week; here the dates do the reviewing.
Everything stays in this browser on this device. Export a copy from Settings.
Questions people ask
- What is a waiting-for list?
- It's a list of things other people owe you: replies, refunds, documents, repairs. It comes from David Allen's Getting Things Done, whose weekly review says to "Review Waiting For List: Record appropriate actions for any needed follow-up. Check off received ones." This one adds a chase date to each item so you don't have to wait for the weekly review.
- How long should I wait before following up?
- There's no proven answer; this list suggests a week by default and lets you pick 3 days, 2 weeks or a date. After each chase it waits longer before the next (1 week, then 2, then 4), which is our rule of thumb for staying polite, and you can change any date.
- How long should a refund take?
- It depends on where you live, what you bought and how you paid. In the US, when a mail, internet or phone order is cancelled under the FTC's Mail Order Rule (for example because it didn't ship on time), the seller must refund within seven working days, or within one billing cycle if the seller gave you the credit. In the UK, after you cancel an online or other distance purchase, the trader must refund within 14 days of getting the goods back, or of your evidence that you sent them (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013).
- Does it send the follow-up for me?
- No. It drafts a polite message and hands it to your phone's share sheet or copies it, and you send it however you talk to that person. Nothing is sent from this page, and nothing leaves your device unless you share it.
- Where is my list kept?
- Only in this browser on this device; we never see it. Use Export in Settings to keep a copy or move it to another device.