Context

[Patty G]

i have tried to set up GTD tons of times in my paper planner. I can’t get past the brain dump. The contexts are tripping me up. I’m sure I’m making it more complicated than it needs to be.

I’m a full-time homemaker and my kids are grown. My three grandkids 8 and under are here a lot. Mostly everything I do is at home. But since I do everything at home, that’s a really big list. Plus I get frustrated when I try to choose a list because a lot of things can be done in multiple locations - I might send an email from my iPhone, at my desk or from my kindle. Some things might be handled by phone, text or email.

Also, a lot of my tasks are the same every day but I need a reminder/task list. I have adhd and get distracted easily.

Help! I want to do this - I think it’s the perfect solution to my extremely unpredictable schedule. Traditional to do lists definitely don’t work. But I can’t get past the brain dump.

 

[rtaylor913]

You might want to think of contexts other than "place." If home is where most of your work is done, there are other "contexts" to consider. Some include:

• Energy (high energy, out of gas, etc.) Those would be available only in when you have the appropriate energy level.
• Tool--you mention you can send mail from various devices. However, what is the best way to handle the task? I would definitely have a Phone context simply because you can batch calls when you have time available.
• Time Needed--sometimes the context might be "10 minutes." I keep a list of 10 minute tasks when I have just a sliver of time. I can move my life forward that way.

Hopes this helps.

 

[Oogiem]

I can’t get past the brain dump. The contexts are tripping me up. I’m sure I’m making it more complicated than it needs to be.

...Mostly everything I do is at home. But since I do everything at home, that’s a really big list. Plus I get frustrated when I try to choose a list because a lot of things can be done in multiple locations - I might send an email from my iPhone, at my desk or from my kindle. Some things might be handled by phone, text or email.

Also, a lot of my tasks are the same every day but I need a reminder/task list. I have adhd and get distracted easily.
.

I work from home as well yet for me multiple contexts are critical. I currently run with 34 separate contexts.

Just because you can do something anywhere doesn't mean it's efficient to flip between tasks.

Your example of e-mail can be done with several tools. I'd then create a context of Computer E-Mail and corral them in there. Personally for me I never use my phone or kindle or iPad or any tool but my main computer to do e-mail so I put all those things in my @Computer Mac context.

On the example of an item that can be done via phone, text or e-mail I'd just pick one and put it there. I try to avoid text for anything important, it's more of a chat for me so that is a good way for me to separate stuff. Anything important I do via e-mail because then I have a trail of what was said and done. Phone is hard to use mostly because most of the people I need to interact with are hard to get on the phone. Yet I do have 2 phone lists one for @phone and one for @phone business hours.

If you have a desk that you use to pay bills, do paper filing, sort mail etc. then I'd create an @Desk context.

A lot of my contexts are related to various software packages I use so I have ones for each of the major computer things I do. Another big set is that on the farm we have several buildings, the shop, the guest house, 2 barns. Some things can only be done in those locations. So even though I can walk to either one and choose to go into that context it still makes sense to separate it out. In a house you might have a context by room or floor if it's a multistory house. It might be over kill but you can't cook a meal in the bedroom so tasks related to cooking could have a context of @kitchen. Maybe it's too cold to do anything in the garage right now and you need better weather so an @garage is a way to hide those so they don't clutter up your lists.

I have lots of recurring projects that repeat. Once I've done all the thinking of how to do them I don't want to rethink that so I have created a bunch of checklists.I use an electronic system but in Paper I'd create the daily, weekly, monthly or yearly checklists once in a word processor with checkboxes (I personally really need the feedback of checking off a box when I've finished something to keep me motivated YMMV) and then make a copy of it for use each day, week etc.

 

[bcmyers2112]

Mostly everything I do is at home. But since I do everything at home, that’s a really big list.

That's a quandary that gets brought up often here. It's not just home-based workers (and being a homemaker is work, no doubt about it) -- people whose job involves spending all day, every day in the office have often also wondered how and why to use contexts.

I think the answer is twofold. First, contexts are useful because even if you can do most things most of the time at your home, you can't do everything all of the time there. For instance, I would bet you're unlikely to call a lot of people or businesses before 8 am or late into the evening/night. So it makes sense to have a list of calls to make, if only so you can ignore those actions when you can't do them.

The other reason contexts can still be useful in your situation is that it takes a lot of mental energy to switch between different types of activities. If you have a bunch of calls to make or things to do on your computer, it's useful to batch them so you can crank them out efficiently.

Plus I get frustrated when I try to choose a list because a lot of things can be done in multiple locations - I might send an email from my iPhone, at my desk or from my kindle.

I fully agree with @Oogiem's suggestion: if email is available to you on multiple devices, make email a context.

Some things might be handled by phone, text or email.

This isn't a question about the usefulness of contexts so much as it is about the best way to communicate with someone. I would bet you know the people/businesses you deal with on a regular basis well enough to know who will respond best to certain types of communications. Pick the one most likely to achieve the objective. For example, I have a relative who for whatever reason responds to texts far more promptly and consistently than calls or emails -- so if I need a response from her, I text her.

If you don't know for sure, make a choice even if it feels arbitrary. You're going to have to make the decision anyway, whether you do it on the front end when the input shows up in your life, or at the moment you actually do the task. It's easier to do on the front end. If you make a call and it doesn't get returned, no big deal. You can try an email or text when you follow up later. As long as you're tracking things you need from others in a "waiting for" list they won't fall through the cracks.

 

[Gardener]

i have tried to set up GTD tons of times in my paper planner. I can’t get past the brain dump. The contexts are tripping me up. I’m sure I’m making it more complicated than it needs to be.

I’m a full-time homemaker and my kids are grown. My three grandkids 8 and under are here a lot. Mostly everything I do is at home. But since I do everything at home, that’s a really big list. Plus I get frustrated when I try to choose a list because a lot of things can be done in multiple locations - I might send an email from my iPhone, at my desk or from my kindle. Some things might be handled by phone, text or email.

Also, a lot of my tasks are the same every day but I need a reminder/task list. I have adhd and get distracted easily.

Help! I want to do this - I think it’s the perfect solution to my extremely unpredictable schedule. Traditional to do lists definitely don’t work. But I can’t get past the brain dump.

You say that you're doing this on paper. Are you hand-writing the brain dump? Maybe even if your day-to-day use of GTD will be a paper planner, it would make sense to enter and organize the brain dump on the computer, then print out the organized results.

You mention all the places where you can send an email--maybe it makes sense to create a context "email" rather than a context that refers to a physical place in the world. Or, given the phone/text/email option, maybe a context called "Communication" or "Quick Communication".

Another possible way to shorten lists, depending on the contents of those lists, can be to move items to project support material. So if you have items "Read book X", "Read book Y", Read book Z", you could create a "Books to read" list as project support material outside your main day-to-day lists, and a "Keep up with reading goals" project. In fact, if you have a bunch of straightforward calls or emails, you could do the same with those Quick Communications.

Then, of course, there's Someday/Maybe. Is it possible that you have too many active projects and should move a whole lot of them to Someday/Maybe?

 

[Logan]

Hi,

for your daily tasks the right thing to use would be a checklist.

 

[Logan]

„Plus I get frustrated when I try to choose a list because a lot of things can be done in multiple locations - I might send an email from my iPhone, at my desk or from my kindle. Some things might be handled by phone, text or email.“

I understand you are physically often at the same location. Still, „at phone“, „e-Mail“, „desktop computer“ or else could be lists supporting breaking up the large list.

I personally could write an e-mail on my iPad or on my iPhone. Still, I ususally have a better feeling on the iPad because I can write quicker with the keyboard. Thus I put it on the „iPad online“ list.

From Lean and agile methodologies comes the concept keeping Work In Progress low. In your case with the long list you should get a feeling how many open loops / projects you want to work on at the same time.

Contexts do not necessarily just mean physical context. Sometimes you have a mood to be creative. Sometimes you are overwhelmed or tired and can just tackle simple tasks. Think about that or are you always ready for anything?