GTD context tags

[jwsamuel]

Not that I have any issue with the way you are using contexts, but your definitions of @home and @errands appear to me to be indicators of the place you need to be in, to be able to do those actions. So for now, you haven't totally given up on that idea, from what I can see.

My @home context contains things I have to do around the house. Example: replace the exhaust fan in the bathroom. I see it as home projects, rather than a location.

@errands is a list of things I have to get.

I guess you can look at those contexts either way. But, since I work from home, if I did it purely by location I could list everything @home.

 

[René Lie]

My @home context contains things I have to do around the house. Example: replace the exhaust fan in the bathroom. I see it as home projects, rather than a location.

@errands is a list of things I have to get.

I guess you can look at those contexts either way. But, since I work from home, if I did it purely by location I could list everything @home.

Another @DavidAllen quote comes to mind: GTD is not a system, it's a systematic approach! So each and ever one of us has to find out what works best. And when it comes to organizing: if where something is matches what it means to you, you're organized!

 

[OliverG]

I use the contexts "anywhere" for things that can be done anywhere. "Catchall" sounds to me more like "not clarified"...

I heard somewhere in an 'official' talk that 'anywhere' is not a good context. It is actually the same as 'unclarified' because if you have an anywhere context you'd have to look in 2 places agaoin. lioke @office and @anywhere. we don't want that, right?
Or does @anywhere mean "NOT in all other contexts"? But WHERE is that? Are yu there oftzen enough to move the tasks forward?

I also think @urgent also makes no sense. When are you in the context "urgent"? If in NEEDS to happen today, put it in the calendar.

I susually say there are three types of contexts
PPT
Person
Place
Tool

EITHER you want to do it when you are face 2 face with a person
OR you can ONLY do it at a certain place (mow your lawn, access certain high security data only from your workstation in the office, water the plants)
OR you need a tool (mobile to call, computer to write etc.)


"Anywhere" could mean: there is no face2face contact necessary, you need NO tool at all (really? not even pen & paper? OK, maybe a breathing exercise that I have as a routine to be checked off in my calendar.) and you can do it at 10000m under the ocean or on the south pole or wherever. The question is: of you are OUT of all your contexts is THIS really a good task to put your FOCUS to? DOES it male sense to say:
'I want to see this task ONLY when i am outside of any "PPT"'? Maybe, as I mentioned, only for routines where you ONLY need your body and mind. Maybe find a better way/place to place a trigger for those?

 

[René Lie]

I heard somewhere in an 'official' talk that 'anywhere' is not a good context. It is actually the same as 'unclarified' because if you have an anywhere context you'd have to look in 2 places agaoin. lioke @office and @anywhere. we don't want that, right?
Or does @anywhere mean "NOT in all other contexts"? But WHERE is that? Are yu there oftzen enough to move the tasks forward?

I also think @urgent also makes no sense. When are you in the context "urgent"? If in NEEDS to happen today, put it in the calendar.

I susually say there are three types of contexts
PPT
Person
Place
Tool

EITHER you want to do it when you are face 2 face with a person
OR you can ONLY do it at a certain place (mow your lawn, access certain high security data only from your workstation in the office, water the plants)
OR you need a tool (mobile to call, computer to write etc.)


"Anywhere" could mean: there is no face2face contact necessary, you need NO tool at all (really? not even pen & paper? OK, maybe a breathing exercise that I have as a routine to be checked off in my calendar.) and you can do it at 10000m under the ocean or on the south pole or wherever. The question is: of you are OUT of all your contexts is THIS really a good task to put your FOCUS to? DOES it male sense to say:
'I want to see this task ONLY when i am outside of any "PPT"'? Maybe, as I mentioned, only for routines where you ONLY need your body and mind. Maybe find a better way/place to place a trigger for those?

I totally agree - this probably explains why there are never any items on my "anywhere" list...

 

[mcogilvie]

I am in favor of pretty much any way to list next actions that is useful. And I’m not the only one: David Allen has mentioned that he has used a “Before Trip” list to collect next actions which must be done before a trip occurs (and not just things directly related to the trip). If @anywhere is helpful to someone, whatever it means to them, I am all for it. If the best way to convey urgency is an “urgent” tag or context, so be it.

I’ll go further: the separation of calendar and next action lists might make sense for a paper system, and perhaps for more primitive digital set-ups. However, I have a unified view of important (starred) and due next actions which also includes my daily calendar items. My tickler file is in the same app as my projects and next actions.

 

[Gardener]

The question is: of you are OUT of all your contexts is THIS really a good task to put your FOCUS to?

I think this is a question that depends on the tool. It sounds like you're assuming that you will be looking at one and only one context. But in OmniFocus I can look at multiple contexts at once, and I can define perspectives to reflect groups of contexts. So "anywhere" would be a part of multiple perspectives.

Edited to add: And "urgent" would likely be on ALL perspectives.

Edited again to add:

For example, you could have an I'm Home perspective that, in the summer, contains contexts:

- Home
- Garden
- Household Member 1
- Household Member 2
- Personal Calls
- Pet 1
- Pet 2
- Writing
- Anywhere
- Urgent

A few months later, it's winter, there's a foot of snow on the ground and likely to stay that way for a month, and Household Member 2 is off at grad school along with Pet 1. So you edit that perspective:

- Home
- Household Member 1
- Personal Calls
- Pet 1
- Writing
- Anywhere
- Urgent

(In both cases, you might have a bunch more contexts that you can do at home; I'm just choosing enough to build an example.)