diff --git a/.github/workflows/testing.yaml b/.github/workflows/testing.yaml
index a90b939a..eb4e37c1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/testing.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/testing.yaml
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ jobs:
       matrix:
         python-version: [ 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 ]
         os: [ ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest ]
+        has_plugins: [true, false]
 
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v2
@@ -48,6 +49,12 @@ jobs:
         poetry config --local virtualenvs.in-project true
         poetry install --remove-untracked
 
+      # this is temporary until we implement a 'given' step
+      # to conditionally install plugins during bdd tests
+    - name: Install plugins
+      if: ${{ matrix.has_plugins }}
+      run: poetry run pip install tests/external_plugins_src
+
     - name: Code formatting (Black)
       if: success() || failure()
       run: |
diff --git a/.github/workflows/testing_external_plugins.yaml b/.github/workflows/testing_external_plugins.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 51da56b6..00000000
--- a/.github/workflows/testing_external_plugins.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,57 +0,0 @@
-name: Testing
-
-on:
-  push:
-    branches: [ develop, release ]
-    paths:
-    - 'jrnl/**'
-    - 'features/**'
-    - 'tests/**'
-    - 'poetry.lock'
-    - 'pyproject.toml'
-  pull_request:
-    branches: [ develop ]
-    paths:
-    - 'jrnl/**'
-    - 'features/**'
-    - 'tests/**'
-    - 'poetry.lock'
-    - 'pyproject.toml'
-
-jobs:
-  test-namespace-plugins:
-    if: >
-      ! contains(github.event.head_commit.message, '[ci skip]')
-    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
-    strategy:
-      matrix:
-        python-version: [ 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 ]
-        os: [ ubuntu-latest, macos-latest, windows-latest ]
-        exclude: # Added for GitHub Actions PR problem 2020-12-19 -- remove later!
-          - os: windows-latest
-            python-version: 3.9
-
-    steps:
-    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
-
-    - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
-      uses: actions/setup-python@v2
-      with:
-        python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
-
-    - name: Install dependencies
-      run: |
-        python -m pip install pip setuptools wheel --upgrade
-        python -m pip install .
-        python -m pip install ./tests/external_plugins_src/
-        python -m pip install pytest behave
-    # installed test plugins aren't recognized by "behave" if run from the
-    # project's root folder
-
-    - name: Test with pytest
-      if: success() || failure()
-      run: pytest --junitxml=reports/pytest/results.xml
-
-    - name: Test with behave
-      if: success() || failure()
-      run: cd features && behave --no-skipped --format progress2 --junit --junit-directory ../reports/behave