Newbie Q: Would anyone like to share your full list of Contexts? (or Tags if digital)

S

Ship69

0
I remain lightly confused about how best to use Contexts, particularly given that most of my time needs to be in front of a PC. The risk is that far too many of my activities get dumped into my "PC" list

Would you like to share your list of Contexts (i.e. Tags) filters?

To get the ball rolling Currently I have on my digital system I have the following Tags (for use to create "lists")
- Admin (book keeping, and any routine personal stuff)
- Errands (out of the house shopping etc)
- Fun (energy giving stuff to do)
- Home (around the house, but not in my home office)
- Low Energy (anything not requiring much brain)
- Office (actions that must be done within my home office)
- PC (anything needing me to be in front of my PC)
- Phone (phone call involved)
- Reflective_Mood (planning/deep thought required)
- Sofa (reading material - that could be read on sofa)
- Project X (a large family project I am involved with)
 
@Person - requiring some specific person
@Out - requiring me to be away from my base(s)
@Clear - requiring me to be calm, rested and energetic
@Base - requiring me to be at one of my base locations
@Info - almost anywhere - just requiring a regular computer/tablet/phone etc (+ wallet, clothes etc)

I am using an app that does not tolerate multiple contexts, so I use these contexts in the order listed above. If a task requires me to be Out with a Person, I put it down under Person only.
 
Inside by Myself
Inside with help
Inside by Myself Hobbies
Inside w/o Hubby (for gifts and surprises)
Outside by Myself
Outside with Help
Computer Mac top level
Misc Mac Work
Omnifocus
LibreOffice
LambTracker
Scrivener
DEVONThink
Quicken
Lightroom and Photoshop
Finder
Claendar
Scanners
Silhouette​
MacBook
iPad
iPhone
Internet
Internet Firefox
Grassroots
Kindle
Little House
Shop Building
Local Towns
Further Away Cities
Phone
Phone Business Hours
Agendas
Hubby
Vet
Stepdad
Ditch Rider​
Other friend
Waiting For

At times I have contexts for various fields and barns but right now those things are all in outside as I don't have too many of those actions.
 
Agendas
Creative Thinking
Business
Low Energy
Mac
Personal
Read/Review
Read/Review - Important
Listen to - Workout
Waiting for
 
GTD - Forum content
I primarily use outlook tasks to manage my lists. It syncs with tasktask on my iphone. I pretty much use the basic recommended context categories and keep a reference list of more specific contexts handy because they seem to come and go.

*Agendas
Meetings/Monthly Staff Agenda
Meetings/1:1 assistant #1
Meetings/1:1 assistant #2
Meetings/1:1 with boss
Meetings/Phone with East manager
Meetings/Phone with JV manager
Staff/assistant #1
Staff/assistant #2

Volunteers/AM
Volunteers/PM
Volunteers/EVENING
Customers
Donors

Wife
Daughter

*Calls
Weekday
Weekend
Day off

*Emails

*Errands
East
West
Janesville

*Home

*Laptop

*Project Planning mindset
NPM (natural planning model)
Off-site planning

*QuickBooks POS PCs

*Read/Review
No pressure
Very important

*Thrift - front
Quad 1
Quad 2
Quad 3
Quad 4

*Thrift - office

*Thrift - back

*Waiting for
Boss
Agrace staff
Donors
Customers
Volunteers
Volunteers in pipeline
Supply orders

Action support in outlook or iphone mail
@General action support
@Laptop
Next retail supply order
Quality zone
@Print (from stockroom)
@Read no pressure
@Read very important
@Waiting for
@Routine print

Durable action support folders for some of the above contexts because paper "stuff" consistently shows up.

Inbox (to process at work)
Inbox (to process at home)

Outboxes
Front
Middle
Back
To Agrace office

Agendas
Content for message book

Laptop

In progress...

Outcome crafting

Read/Review

Calls

To Scan

Am volunteer training template/tracker
Pm volunteer training template/tracker
Evening volunteer training template/tracker

Data entry

iPhone photo album
Basic context categories in iphone photo album
Cydia tweaks to try

It looks like a lot but it represents my actual workload. I've learned to be comfortable working off of a long list. The high volume workload can be demanding at times, but it's the actuality of my job. I don't know how I would even function without my gtd lists and models. Long answer to short question. :) Thanks for asking.
Best,
~Robert
 
- Agenda = for items to add to specific meeting agendas
- Person Name = For items to discuss with certain people, wife, co-workers, etc
- Errand =Errands
- Phone = Phone calls
- Home = Tasks done around the home
- Reflect = Items that need time to think (I borrowed this from Folke, but it appears he might not be using it now on his list above)
- Goal = Allows me to filter my overall project list to only show my goals. I find it useful to keep goals in with my projects and next actions
- checkout = Items I've save to look at later. Similar to "read" context used by many
- Eat the Frog = Experiment I'm trying to do the Most Important Task (MIT) first each day. Allows me to quickly find this task

I don't have an "online" or "computer" context.. I find that 80 to 90% of my tasks require a computer that is online and since I'm at my desk all day it's really just one added step I don't need to do. So I only add the context to tasks when it's _not_ a online/computer task.
 
JamesT said:
- Reflect = Items that need time to think (I borrowed this from Folke, but it appears he might not be using it now on his list above)
Click to expand...

I still use a Reflect context, and find it very useful, but it is one of those I have tried to rename many times without still managing to get the name "right". In my list above this context it is called Clear (reflection requires a clear head, that's the thought), but my intuition tells me it will not be called Clear very long either. (And I found Clearheaded too long.)

Another context that has suffered many name changes is my last one, now called Info, that I have previously called Anywere, Computer and many other things. It boils down to the same thing, though. These are tasks that I can do anywhere with just a smartphone or almost anything that I always have access to. My "Nothing special" context.
 
My contexts have evolved over the years. They're not in their most elegant phase right now, so be gentle.

Here's what's in my paper-based system (my context lists):

Today (quick list of the top 5-6 things that have to get done "today")
Sacred Clubhouse (that's my voiceover studio)
Errands
Calls
Email/Online
Office
Home
Waiting For
Agendas (lists for individuals I need to interface with)
Projects List
Areas of Focus
Wins
Someday/Maybe
Incubate
Idea List
Read

I also have two lists for my volunteer work which I review separately, without dividing into contexts, per se. That might change as each becomes more or less involved and demanding of my time.

And now that I've written that out... yup... it's pretty clear there's work to do. Sigh.

Dena
 
Maybe contexts are just part of the problem?

"Dumping" too much onto the @computer list may be a sign for not dumping enough into Someday / Maybe?

Or creating projects too fast? I oftentimes put stuff directly from my inbox into the tickler for a while. A few days later, when it pos up again it appears clearly as something to be just ditched.

Here are my contexts:

@desk (the place with computer, paper, phone etc ect)
@not-at-desk
@computer maintenance (everything where I have to do programming or other technological work AND have to open documentation files to read them while work.)

Plus the reading pile which is also the videos and podcasts pile and is sorted roughly by topic.

The ~3-5 most important projects are much more planned out than just with a couple of NAs. Normaly deadlines and therefore weekly deadlines and such are involved. And other such techniques (though no "fake" deadlines, only stuff based in "reality") for example I put reminders in my tickler to work on such and such NAs as to kick my brain into the right gear in the morning.

What I am getting at is: my long @desk list is not optimized for readability and that works perfectly ok.
 
My context lists have changed a lot over the years, like many. Right now, I'm transitioning from being a full time grad student back to the work world, so I'm sure things will change again soon!

Home
Primary work
Consulting job
Any computer (this is for personal, nonwork things)
Campus (needed for a little while longer)
Errands
Calls
 
artsinaction said:
Projects List
Click to expand...

Dena - why do you have Projects List as a Context/tag? How do you use this?

BTW, please can someone fix the errors we are getting when we try to post something:

My last errors was:
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And it caused duplication of my message.
 
Ship69 said:
Dena - why do you have Projects List as a Context/tag? How do you use this?
Click to expand...

If you are using a paper-based system, you need a project list. It's really no more a context than a someday/maybe list or waiting for list is. Sometimes people think you absolutely need an explicit hierarchy, with projects sitting "above" next actions, but many people don't need this.
 
mcogilvie said:
If you are using a paper-based system, you need a project list. It's really no more a context than a someday/maybe list or waiting for list is. Sometimes people think you absolutely need an explicit hierarchy, with projects sitting "above" next actions, but many people don't need this.
Click to expand...

Thanks for asking, Ship69...

Mike's got it right. I have a paper-based system and each of those "contexts" are tabs in the binder. My projects list is more like a time capsule that I can refer to in my weekly review to make sure nothing's fallen through the cracks.

I've changed quite a few things in my system over the years. What works today - I guarantee - will not be entirely useful a year from now. The system allows me to be flexible and to change things up as I see fit. The basics of Collect, Process, Organize, Review and Do apply regardless of how I set up my system. How we actualize those five steps is where our customization and creativity come in.

Hope that answered your question!

Dena
 
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