In this aricle:
How recipients are scheduled for workflow messages
When someone new enters a workflow after qualifying based on the workflow's trigger, they will immediately be scheduled for the first step in the series.
This first step could be an action, like an email, or it could be a logic assessment, like a conditional split.
If there is no time delay before this first step, you will see the recipient quickly move through the step and be scheduled for the next step.
If you have a time delay before this first step, the recipient will remain in a Waiting area of the time delay step until the scheduled time arrives.
A recipient is only scheduled for one step in a flow at a time.
Let's say your workflow is set up to send Email #1 in a workflow after 1 hour, and Email #2 after 1 day. Someone new entering the workflow will be in the Waiting bucket of the time delay step until an hour passes.
What happens when you update the steps in a started workflow
If you have started a workflow, you may add a step, delete a step, or reorder the steps. How will customers already in the workflow be affected?
Let's say you have a workflow where Email #1 is set to send after 1 hour, and Email #2 is set to send 1 day later.
Someone enters a workflow and is waiting to receive Email #1 the next hour. At this time, you update Email #1 to send 2 hours later (instead of 1 hour later). When you click on the button Save, you need to choose as follows.
Let them finish the automation. If you choose this one, the customer will wait for 1 hour(not 2 hours) to receive Email #1.
Exit them from the automation. If you choose this one, the customer will exit the workflow, and he will not receive Email #1.