# Workflow action ordering

**URL:** <https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180>\
**Category:** Lists, Lead Scoring & Workflows\
**Tags:** professional\
**Created:** [December 15, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180 "2020-12-15T10:54:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dwightbailey](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/dwightbailey/32/29368_2.png) [@dwightbailey](https://community.hubspot.com/u/dwightbailey)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180/1 "2020-12-15T10:54:35Z")

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I have this workflow as per screenshot below:

 ![35368i2AAA88AC4F96DA19.JPG](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/1/d/1df3f3609950d9cb5a9c8c3cd97dde0a7510ea32.jpeg)

It has a “delay for a set amount of time” action - the rationale is that the contacts that trigger this workflow are sent an email **1 day after their enrollment** - with that in mind is this workflow set up correctly? Should the “delay for a set amount of time” be placed **before** the ‘send email’ action?

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**Author:** ![karstenkoehler](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/karstenkoehler/32/68554_2.png) [@karstenkoehler](https://community.hubspot.com/u/karstenkoehler)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 12:18pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180/2 "2020-12-15T12:18:36Z")

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Hi @dwightbailey,

If you want contacts to receive the email 24 hours after viewing the page, you would have move up the delay **between** “Contact enrollment trigger” and “Send email”.

With your current setup in the screenshot, contacts immediately receive an email after viewing the page. After the email is sent, they spend another 24 hours in the delay.

Hope this helps!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dwightbailey](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/dwightbailey/32/29368_2.png) [@dwightbailey](https://community.hubspot.com/u/dwightbailey)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180/3 "2020-12-15T14:01:29Z")

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Thanks @karstenkoehler

Excuse my ignorance (I didn’t set this workflow up) - what does this mean: After the email is sent, they spend another 24 hours in the delay? I noticed some contacts sitting in that action box.

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**Author:** ![karstenkoehler](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/karstenkoehler/32/68554_2.png) [@karstenkoehler](https://community.hubspot.com/u/karstenkoehler)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180/4 "2020-12-15T14:10:52Z")

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HI @dwightbailey,

They’re really just sitting there. Depending on your workflow settings this could prevent them from enrolling in other workflows – but currently this delay is probably not doing anything at all. (That’s why the delay needs to be moved before the email send.)

Most of the times, delays make sense if they’re followed by another action – making sure that this follow-up action isn’t happening immediately after the previous step.

Does that make sense?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dwightbailey](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/dwightbailey/32/29368_2.png) [@dwightbailey](https://community.hubspot.com/u/dwightbailey)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 2:47pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180/5 "2020-12-15T14:47:42Z")

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That makes sense thank you very much

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**Author:** ![Ben\_M](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/ben_m/32/2679_2.png) [@Ben\_M](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Ben_M)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/workflow-action-ordering/29180/6 "2020-12-15T12:56:40Z")

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If you want to send the email 1 day after they enroll then the delay should be before the email. Typically when I see a delay at the end of the workflow it is there to either report on leads as they are flowing out of the workflow, or to keep them in as a failsafe to prevent them from being pulled into other programs immediately after one is finished like a failsafe to prevent oversending.