Think of the last deadline that died quietly: the proposal a client never answered, the numbers a colleague never sent, the approval that evaporated. In almost every post-mortem of a dropped ball, the ball was in someone else's court, and nobody was watching the court. Next actions get all the productivity attention, but the list of what other people owe you is where projects actually stall.
What the list holds
Three fields per entry, nothing fancier: who owes it, what it is, and since when. "Anna, comments on lease draft, since June 3." The date is the working part; it's what makes staleness visible at a glance instead of a feeling. Everything that depends on someone else qualifies: sent proposals, delegated tasks, asked questions, promised documents, pending approvals, the plumber.
Why memory fails at exactly this
Your own next actions have a natural reminder: the discomfort of the undone. Other people's obligations to you have no such signal; silence feels like nothing is wrong right up until the deadline reveals that everything was. Memory-based follow-up therefore chases late or never, and it fails silently, which is the worst way for anything to fail.
Working the list
Two touches keep it alive. When you send anything expecting a response, add the line (ten seconds). Weekly, inside the review, sweep it with one question per entry: quiet longer than reasonable? Then chase now, with a two-sentence nudge; timing and scripts here. Most entries never need a chase at all, and knowing that (rather than hoping it) is the entire product of the list.
The automation case
Waiting-fors are the most automatable object in GTD, because nearly all of them are born in sent email, which is machine-readable: what you asked, whom, when, and whether a reply came back. Pidgy builds the list automatically from your Gmail or Outlook sent mail, surfaces what's gone quiet, and drafts the polite chaser for one-click approval. The habit stops costing even the ten seconds, and the court is always watched.
