Dependant tasks

[PureMoxie]

I also use a GTD-inspired setup. I use a Context string attribute to set all next actions (on any type of item), so this normally has values like 'Computer', 'Office', 'Home', etc.

To support cases where something is dependent on something else, I created a context value 'Pending Subtask.'

Each of my contexts has a search to show all items assigned to the context, and Pending Subtask is no exception. So I can review these periodically and check to see if the context needs to be changed if all subs have been completed.

Also, if I'm working heavily on a project, I often view actions within the context of the project's portion of the tree instead of just the context search, so as I complete things, I can immediately update any parent tasks if needed. Note that I actually create sub-tasks as literal children of whatever item is dependent on the sub-task, as this helps visualize the dependency within the tree.

This is very close to the flag approach mentioned above, I just use a different attribute.

True, it still requires manual review, but I've never found any way to avoid doing some thinking/review anyway when doing actual work. Of course, I'm not against some future feature that would make dependency easier to accomplish.