Revisiting contexts
One of the great strengths of David Allen’s Getting Things Done is the idea of putting ‘next actions’ into firm contexts. Things like at computer errands call — groupings of things to do that you can flick to when that context makes most sense.
For instance, if I have free time at home, I can look up my home context and see all the tasks I have listed for doing at home. Much, much easier than sitting down and trying to remember what it was I said I’d do back when …
People have all sorts of ways of managing their contexts and next actions. PalmPilot and PocketPC users have an advantage of sorts in that they’re not limited by space.
On the other hand, though, too many contexts can be a problem. Do you really need a context for ‘mobile phone’ and one for ‘landline’? (Maybe, if you make lots of international phone calls that would require a second mortgage if made on a mobile.) If not, then it’s needless detail in a system that’s supposed to be simple.
At the moment, my contexts are:
- Call
- Office
- Home
- Errands
- Agendas
- Waiting for
I also have tabs for:
- Projects
- Someday/maybe
- Reference
...although these aren’t really contexts.
I probably have a couple too many contexts, to be honest. For instance, it might be possible to combine ‘home’ and ‘errands’ into some other ‘super-context’. And although I thought that ‘reference’ tab was a super idea when I put it in, I haven’t used it for anything yet, and it’s really just taking up space.
I’m using the blank cream index tabs from Filofax, along with their ‘to do’ pages (available from that same link).
Here’s how half of them look in my Filofax:
A few notes might be helpful in seeing how they fit together:
- Call and e-mail are non-specific. That is, they contain items for both work and home.
- Office is work-specific, but doesn’t include calls/e-mail. Instead, it’s for specific tasks that fit into my work projects and can be anything from writing to scheduling meetings.
I’m going to write some more shortly on the concept of the ‘agenda’ which, in the GTD context, has a slightly different meaning to what you might initially think of. Also, I want to talk some more about how I’ve taken David Allen’s idea of ‘Someday/Maybe’ and adapted it to my own system.
Making contexts work for you
The biggest stumbling block for me is remembering to check the list! I often find myself at the end of a day when I’ve been making calls or writing e-mail realising that I haven’t looked at the lists even once.
This is bad! It gets me back to a situation where I’m trying to hold things in my head, which is precisely what we’re trying to avoid by building a good, reliable, trustworthy system.
Resolution for 2007: check context lists regularly.
How are you using contexts?
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Older: Getting a model together
Newer: Back on track for 2007
As a consultant working for different customers I have additional contexts that relate to my customers locations so I know what I should be doing when I am on site.
Each customer has one or more projects. However a customers projects may have Next Actions that are in different contexts e.g. some project research I need to do at my home office.
Pretty obvious really
— Alec Clews · Jan 3, 12:25 · #