"I'm waiting on someone else"

Some items really are stuck. You've asked the school and they haven't replied. The insurer needs a document from the garage. You can't do the form until your partner finds the reference number. It's not your delay.

Some of the time that's true, and those items need a dated line and not a guilty tab, and chapter 21 is about them. Go back to Masicampo and Baumeister. The unfinished goal intrudes until a specific plan exists, and "waiting for the school" isn't a plan. "Chase the school on Thursday if nothing by then" is. The item is still blocked, but the carry stands down, because the mind has a when and a how and no longer needs to keep raising the matter.

But be honest about how many of the waiting items are really waiting. In my observation, most "I'm waiting on them" is a chase not sent. You asked once, three weeks ago. They didn't reply. You didn't follow up, because following up feels like nagging, and the item has sat in the heap wearing a label that says it's their fault, and it's been comfortable there. The chase is two sentences. "Just checking you got my message about the trip form. Let me know if you need anything from me." That's not nagging. That's the item being done, and the person on the other end has a heap of their own and will be relieved to be reminded.

There's a variant where the person you're waiting on is in your house. The partner who has the reference number. The child who needs to tell you which day. These items are the easiest to unblock and the most often left, because asking feels like a conversation and the conversation feels like effort. It's a sentence. "Can you find the policy number tonight so I can do this?" The item then has a when, and the when is tonight, and tonight it's done.

So the test for a waiting item is a question. What's the date I'll chase if nothing's happened? If there isn't one, it isn't waiting. It's the heap, with a better excuse. Give it the date, write the line, and let the carry put it down.