C
clairenyc
Guest
I'd like some help with whether to organize next actions by context. I'm fighting this suggestion and I'm not sure whether I'm resisting something that would help me or whether it's a part of the GTD system that just doesn't work for me. On the pro side of organizing by context, I understand the idea that grouping similar NAs (e.g., phone calls) makes it easier to scan them when one is in that context (e.g, by a phone).
On the con side I'm worried about mixing actions that are in discrete categories. Before I explain this, let me give some background. I'm a part-time psychologist in private practice and a part-time stay-at-home mom. My work as a therapist is done in many contexts. Although the meat of it is seeing clients in my office, I also complete a lot of paperwork and notes at home, make phone calls at home or at the office, and attend a variety of meetings to improve my work or build my practice (e.g, peer supervision, my own therapy, a reading group, workshops, conferences, and meetings with potential referral sources). Currently, my NAs are organized mostly by content as opposed to location completed. They are personal (self/family, other relationships, finances, home, and errands) and work-related (client-related, professional development, practice-building).
If I switch to a context organization, aren't tasks more likely to get lost? What if I miss making an important phone call to a client or to my daughter's daycare because it's lost in a long list of less pressing calls? That seems especially likely because so much of my work and personal life takes place at home when my daughter is sleeping. During that precious work time, wouldn't I have too many contexts (on the phone, on the computer, at home, at anywhere) from which to choose? That's more than half of my NA list! Currently, any task that's associated with clients or with my daughter naturally takes precedence for me.
And what about identifying projects? When I considered self/family this week, I recorded the following next actions: email a friend to borrow yoga dvd, email a neighbor and parent of older children for feedback on local preschools, take my daughter to the butterfly exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, call doctor's office to schedule her next pediatric check-up, and discuss Christmas travel plans with my husband. I don't believe I would have captured all these if I was just looking at a list of contexts like phone, computer, home, office, errands, and anywhere.
Have any of you adopted GTD without organizing by context? Does anyone feel strongly that this step is important? Have you organized by context and found that it helped you in a way you didn't anticipate? I was very impressed with the previous thread on procrastination, and I wonder whether my reluctance to take this step in GTD is related to my fear that I won't review my list frequently enough or that I'll fail to complete important tasks.
Thanks for any feedback or advice.
Claire
On the con side I'm worried about mixing actions that are in discrete categories. Before I explain this, let me give some background. I'm a part-time psychologist in private practice and a part-time stay-at-home mom. My work as a therapist is done in many contexts. Although the meat of it is seeing clients in my office, I also complete a lot of paperwork and notes at home, make phone calls at home or at the office, and attend a variety of meetings to improve my work or build my practice (e.g, peer supervision, my own therapy, a reading group, workshops, conferences, and meetings with potential referral sources). Currently, my NAs are organized mostly by content as opposed to location completed. They are personal (self/family, other relationships, finances, home, and errands) and work-related (client-related, professional development, practice-building).
If I switch to a context organization, aren't tasks more likely to get lost? What if I miss making an important phone call to a client or to my daughter's daycare because it's lost in a long list of less pressing calls? That seems especially likely because so much of my work and personal life takes place at home when my daughter is sleeping. During that precious work time, wouldn't I have too many contexts (on the phone, on the computer, at home, at anywhere) from which to choose? That's more than half of my NA list! Currently, any task that's associated with clients or with my daughter naturally takes precedence for me.
And what about identifying projects? When I considered self/family this week, I recorded the following next actions: email a friend to borrow yoga dvd, email a neighbor and parent of older children for feedback on local preschools, take my daughter to the butterfly exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, call doctor's office to schedule her next pediatric check-up, and discuss Christmas travel plans with my husband. I don't believe I would have captured all these if I was just looking at a list of contexts like phone, computer, home, office, errands, and anywhere.
Have any of you adopted GTD without organizing by context? Does anyone feel strongly that this step is important? Have you organized by context and found that it helped you in a way you didn't anticipate? I was very impressed with the previous thread on procrastination, and I wonder whether my reluctance to take this step in GTD is related to my fear that I won't review my list frequently enough or that I'll fail to complete important tasks.
Thanks for any feedback or advice.
Claire