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Originally Posted by StephenN  Lucas: Regarding contexts
I've been using GTD for over a year and really, really like it. It's working far better than other approaches I'd tried in the past. I should probably go back and reread the book because I'm sure I've meandered a bit from a complete implementation.
My set of contexts is pretty small. For awhile, I tried @phone, @home, @laptop, @online, etc. It seemed overkill and cumbersome. I ended up with @work and @home. It was more of a logical context that made sense to me. There were things I would do during my work time and things I would do on my own time. The next action would start with a verb that would tell me what tool I needed: "Call Bill", "Look at www.somesite.com", "Pickup laundry". The way I worked the list was more by priority at the moment and it could be a call followed by a web site followed by sending an email. It was easier to see the list of actions for my work rather than scanning different location or tool contexts. That's just my experience and fits the way I work.
As for the Next Actions in contexts. I try to only have one Next Action for each project across all contexts. It's the thing that needs to be done to move the project forward and you stick in in the right context. That eliminates the possibility of doing actions out of order if you have multiple actions in different contexts.
Oh, I read a Merlin Mann idea on 43Folders that a Next Action always starts with a verb. That tip helped me create better actions: "Call", "Sketch", "List", "Find", ...
As for the Office Max errand, I'd put down "Go to Office Max (labels)" in my @Home context (yeah, I'm not really at home but it's a non-work task). My list might already have "Go to cleaners" or "Go to library (drop off CDs)". At some point, I'd head out the door and know I had three stops to make.
Again, this is just my way; your mileage may vary. |
Thanks for the insight!
I am not sure how your implementation is set up, but with
Nozbe (Which I have to give crazy props to for its simplicity and focus on keeping the essence of GTD) I have a list of next actions, and then I can filter them by context, so if I am feeling like stepping out to pick up some groceries, I can filter my next actions by "Errand" and see all the pending stuff to do while out and about. If I feel like making phone calls, I can see all the calls that will forward my projects.
What really has impressed me lately with GTD is how much stuff I really have to do! I remember trying to hack it at GTD last year because I thought if I had a moleskine I would be 00ber. However because I wasn't implementing at the base level I only had stuff that was on the top of my mind. So it felt like I didn't NEED GTD because I didn't have "that many" projects. Now that a good portion of my head is clear and there are 75 projects staring me in the face, I am impressed how scalable and helpful this can be.
I do think it will take more than a month to implement completely, but this 30 days will get me rolling off to a good start.
The best part, is once I am set up, even if I fall off the wagon, my projects are dumped into the system...so it shouldn't take much more than a mind sweep and a few weekly reviews to get back on track.
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Lucas, check out The David Allen Company , which are the official GTD forums. Probably some GTD gurus around there.
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Thanks for the link, I will check it out now!