@ Errands

[gator]

Hi,

I was just curious as to how @ errands context has been used. Yesterday I was at the Target store, for some meds, looked at my @Target list and had only that one item. I failed to glance at my @CVS, @Grocery lists and realized I had bottled water, tooth paste, trash bags on those lists and all could have been purchased at Target saving time & $.
This leads me to changing to just One @ errands lists and putting groceries, meds, misc. household items on that list. I will continue to havea @ Home Depot list and was just curious as to how others handle this.
I get so mad at myself when I miss items that I need nd they are staring me in the face!

 

[moises]

Hi,

I was just curious as to how @ errands context has been used. Yesterday I was at the Target store, for some meds, looked at my @Target list and had only that one item. I failed to glance at my @CVS, @Grocery lists and realized I had bottled water, tooth paste, trash bags on those lists and all could have been purchased at Target saving time & $.
This leads me to changing to just One @ errands lists and putting groceries, meds, misc. household items on that list. I will continue to havea @ Home Depot list and was just curious as to how others handle this.
I get so mad at myself when I miss items that I need nd they are staring me in the face!

I have one @Errands context. I create distinct NAs for Home Depot, drug store, supermarket, etc. If I am going out and about (which is what @Errands means in my language), I filter my system to see only my @Errands context. That way, if batteries were on my Costco list, I'll see them before I go to Home Depot, and get them at Home Depot.

I like to keep the number of contexts short: Home, Work, and Errands, along with Someday and Waiting For.

 

[dschaffner]

The software I use (lifebalance) allow contexts to have sub-contexts, so I have an overall context called "errands", which also includes store specific contexts. This way I can look at the entire list, or list the list for each store.

- Don

 

[Mark Jantzen]

Single @Errands list too

I keep a single @Errands next action list.
(Time/Design page)

My Next Actions look like:

Gas station - fill tank
Grocery store - see list (separate paper list)
Staples - buy paper pads
ATM - get cash

I'll create a separate paper list if there are more than one or two items.

 

[hagadol]

I have one @ Out list.

At times when this grows, I will add a sub @ project. When I do this, I will add a note in the @ Out that this new @ Project exists !

I have only just started to migrate to GTD though this is how I have been working anyway, with '@ Out' lists.

So in @ Out if there is loads to do @ Target I would make note in @ Out that there is a @ Target.

So sometimes I have one @ Out and at busy times I might add extra lists, with a ref to them in @ Out.

I am doing all the above on my Palm.

 

[Brent]

I keep my errands on one card in my Hipster PDA. It looks like this:

Office Depot: 3-ring binder
Home Depot: six 2x4x10s

eight 2x6x10s​

box of 3-inch deck screws​

That said, I carefully minimize the number of stores I visit per week. I get everything I can at one store, then go to another store only if needed.

 

[Rosenman]

Single @errands plus online shopping

I've found that by just using @errands, I have no problems. I tried using multiple, more specific errands contexts, but found them to be overkill.

I use Remember the Milk or Toodledo and access @errands on my mobile phone.

The caveat is that my wife and I use online grocery shopping, so we have fewer items to put on in @errands.

 

[Jay Levitt]

As always, there's a balance between "well-structured" and "limited". Is your @errands list paper, or digital? If digital, what software?

When I lived in the suburbs, owned a big house, and had a large number of errands and things to buy, I usually did all my shopping lists in HandyShopper (free, still available for both Palm and Pocket PC, though no longer actively developed).

That lets you do a bunch of things (which, in retrospect, are actually very GTD-like):

- Store lists of your usual items by category: food/cleaning supplies/paper goods/whatever (projects!)
- For each item, specify one or more stores it is available in (contexts!)
- For each store, specify which aisle it's in (more detailed contexts!)
- For each item in each store, keep track of its price, either overall or in units (unnecessary neuroses! If you have to save money that carefully, don't buy a PDA!)
- A really nice three-state list: don't need it, need it, bought it, with a "checkout" button to return everything to "don't need it"
- When you're adding items, lists them alphabetically; when you're shopping, lists them in order by aisle, one store at a time
- An IntelliSense/quick-fill/auto-suggest type feature that made it easy to say "I need" items you have bought before with a few pen strokes

That way I could go to Costco, buy anything they carried, then swing by the supermarket and pick up the rest. It also easily dealt with the fact that sometimes I could go to the small supermarket down the street, and sometimes I needed to go to the bigger supermarket which kept things in different places, and sometimes I happened to swing by CVS and might pick up some of the things there. My wandering, one-hour shopping trips turned into five minutes of zipping down aisles without even slowing the cart.

(The downside: HandyShopper has no good way to enter data on the PC, so you really always have to do it on your PDA.)

In my actual GTD to-do list, I just had "go shopping" as an action. There's no reason your supporting materials can't be organizers themselves.

Or, if your lists aren't very big, you can replicate most of this by assigning multiple contexts to things that are sold in multiple stores.

 

[jknecht]

I separate my to-buy list from my @errands list. For me, "@errands" is a list of places I need to go; "to-buy" is the list of stuff I should buy while I'm out. This helps me manage the difference between "I should buy this the next time I happen to be shopping" versus "I really need to make a special trip ASAP". It also ensures that something important, like "Pick up dry cleaning", is not hidden amidst all the things I might want to buy someday.

Within the to-buy list, things are separate by categories -- not stores. My current categories are:
- CDs & DVDs
- Books & Magazines
- Electronics
- Hardware
- Groceries
- Home
- Clothing

This approach allows me to filter by the kind of stuff I need to buy instead of the specific store I'm in. That way, if I'm in Target, I can look at just about everything, whereas a trip Home Depot would pretty-well limit me to Hardware (and maybe Home).

 

[ellobogrande]

I separate my to-buy list from my @errands list. For me, "@errands" is a list of places I need to go; "to-buy" is the list of stuff I should buy while I'm out. This helps me manage the difference between "I should buy this the next time I happen to be shopping" versus "I really need to make a special trip ASAP". It also ensures that something important, like "Pick up dry cleaning", is not hidden amidst all the things I might want to buy someday.

Within the to-buy list, things are separate by categories -- not stores. My current categories are:
- CDs & DVDs
- Books & Magazines
- Electronics
- Hardware
- Groceries
- Home
- Clothing

This approach allows me to filter by the kind of stuff I need to buy instead of the specific store I'm in. That way, if I'm in Target, I can look at just about everything, whereas a trip Home Depot would pretty-well limit me to Hardware (and maybe Home).

There's a Palm application called HandyShopper that's perfect for this kind of list management. If you've ever wanted a shopping list that tracks per-store aisle locations and prices of each and every item, you'll like this one. To download it, just Google it. It's free.

 

[Agg97]

Hi,

I was just curious as to how @ errands context has been used. Yesterday I was at the Target store, for some meds, looked at my @Target list and had only that one item. I failed to glance at my @CVS, @Grocery lists and realized I had bottled water, tooth paste, trash bags on those lists and all could have been purchased at Target saving time & $.
This leads me to changing to just One @ errands lists and putting groceries, meds, misc. household items on that list. I will continue to havea @ Home Depot list and was just curious as to how others handle this.
I get so mad at myself when I miss items that I need nd they are staring me in the face!

I use a paper-based system. I've found the easiest way for me is to use post-it notes - one note for each type of store. I only use store-specific names when I want to buy at that store. Otherwise, I use generic names such as "Grocery Store", "Drug Store", etc.

So, if I were to go into Target, I'd look for a Target checklist, but would also review the drug store and grocery store lists. If there's something on those lists, I just bring the post-it notes with me into the store. Small, convenient, and easy. Works for me!

Steve

 

[dannybader]

I use just the @errands list and then put the store name as the first word of my subject followed by the individual items needed at the store.

eg.

Wal-mart - copy paper, candles, AAA battereies, razors, Scott's turfbuilder, golf balls

 

[Oogiem]

There's a Palm application called HandyShopper that's perfect for this kind of list management.

Splashshopper is another similar program. Has the advantage of being available in Palm, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Blackberry, pocket PC and a bunch of smartphone versions. Much more flexible than Handyshopper, has more lists and categories.

 

[Pablo]

I use @Shopping for spending $, @Errands for delivering, picking things up, and other non $ actions to do when I'm out and about.

Outlook on the desktop & Beyond Contacts (Closest thing to Outlook for palm devices) on my Palm TX. I also have a grocery database in Smartlist by Dataviz. I have items at my favorite grocery store listed by aisle. After I check all items that I need I sort by needed by aisle. start at one end of the store & go to the other without having to backtrack.

Ultrasoft Brainforest 4.0.4 is a better app for notes than Outlook. It allows you to bullet items to check off, great for items that are of a repetitive nature and it syncs with the desktop version.

Pablo