Post your Contexts

I am curious what folks use for contexts, with the hope to get some ideas about updating/refreshing my approach. Please post your contexts if you don't mind sharing your wisdom!

Here are mine:

NEXT ACTIONS:
Agendas - Meetings
Agendas - People
Around the House
Call or Email
Clear Headed*
Errands
Google/Wikipedia
Office 1
Office 2
Online
On-the-go (a holding tank for reference info that I want easily accessible temporarily -- event tickets, confirmation numbers, travel itineraries, etc.)
Read and Review**
Ticklers
Waiting For

*I just adopted this to replace an "Offline" context -- this is for work that requires me unplugging/getting away from a screen, thinking strategically and using paper basically
**I just collapsed two contexts of "FYI Reading" and "Project Support Reading" back to a generic "Read and Review"

OTHER/ "Higher Level"
Projects
Horizons of Focus
Daily Habit Checklists
Someday Maybe
Reference
 
Inside by Myself
Inside with Help
Inside by Myself Hobbies
Inside w/o Hubby (for gifts and surprises)
Outside by Myself
Outside with Help
LambTracker
Misc Mac Work
Omnifocus
LibreOffice
Scrivener
DEVONThink
Quicken
Lightroom and Photoshop
Silhouette
MacBook
iPad
iPhone
Computer Firefox
Computer Internet
Computer Grassroots
Little House
Shop Building
Local Towns
Further Away Cities
Phone
Phone Business Hours
Agendas
Hubby
Vet
Stepdad
Ditch Rider​
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 in one specific field or barn.
 
Person (calls or IRL, particular person is required)
Out (leaving Base required)
Clearheaded (no stress, not too tired etc)
Base (Office or Home or other "regular" place)
Desk computer (proper computer with all the relevant info on it)
Info (any computer, smartphone or nothing at all will do)
 
Hi all,
theese are mine:

-OnTheGo (just like pod-boss for temporary things like tickets)
-anywhere (mostly decisions to take)
-calls/contacts (I include here also general message or emails to send)
-computer (offline)
-computer (online)
-errands
-home
-home alone (I've stolen this idea from oogie interview :) )
-wifi (things that I need to do when a wifi connection is available)
-agendas (sub divided by persons I have to talk to)

Inviato dal mio GT-N7000 utilizzando Tapatalk
 
I had pretty standard contexts when I used todoMatrix and Doit (home, computer, office, phone, errands) but expanded them significantly when I migrated to OmniFocus last year:

Home
-Arriving Home (location-based)
-Leaving Home (location-based)

Office

Errands
-Grocery Store (location-based)
-Hardware Store (location-based)
-Drug Store (location-based)
-Clothing Store (location-based)
-Commute Home (location-based)

Computer
-iPhone 6S Plus (things that must be done from phone such as podcasts, etc.)
-Mac (things that must be done from my MacBook Pro)
-Desktop (things that must be done from my production machine or on Windows)
-Work Laptop (specific to my company's laptop)
-OmniFocus (limited to organizational ideas or enhancements and therefore require an iOS or OS X device)
-Online (anything that just requires an internet connect (phone, MBP, iPad, desktop, work laptop)

Phone

Agenda
-Boss
-Colleague 1
-Colleague 2..
-Employee 1
-Employee 2..
-Client
-Leadership Team/Staff
-Operations

Waiting
-Boss
-Colleague 1
-Colleague 2..
-Employee 1
-Employee 2..
-Client
-Leadership Team/Staff
-Operations
-Wife

Deep Thought (tasks that are heavy thought/planning and require focus/concentration, I block a few hours for this at work each week)
 
Personal System:
Brain Dead - Home
Calls
Home - Chores
Home - Do @
Home - Personal Development (for my reading, classes, etc)
Home - Good Weather
Home - (with) Help
Home Computer (for my main machine)
Online @ Home
Online @ Home - Machine 1
Online @ Home - Machine 2
Online @ Home - Surf
iPad
Errands (with key stores + an online list)
Agenda (by person)
@ Focus Day / @ Buffer Day / @ Free Day (for selected tasks based on Jack Canfield's The Success Principles - helps me keep balance when I am really really busy)
Noodling (for heavy thought tasks)
On the Road (for stuff when I'm traveling outside my city)
Tickler
Tickler - Events
Waiting For
Defer Till Back (from Travel)

Work System: (it's still evolving, but has many less contexts):
Agenda (by person)
Agenda (by meeting)
Waiting For (by person)
Waiting For (for everything else)
@ Computer (I can work from anywhere undocked)
@ Online
@ Office
@ Job Site
Tickler
 
Currently my contexts are pretty simple:
Errands
Calls
Online/Email
Office
Home
Read
Waiting For

I also have lists for:
Agendas
Projects
Someday/Maybe
Incubate
Wins
Ideas

I have two separate lists for anything related to my Voiceover business and for the Arts Council. I block out time daily in my home studio/office but I'll add errands to my Errands list if needed. If I added next actions for these into my regular system, my lists would get too long and unmanageable.

Dena
 
My Contexts:
  • Anywhere
  • Computer
  • Home
  • Home-Yard
  • iPad
  • Online
  • Online-Home
  • Phone
  • Store
  • Work
I do have two Next Action lists: one for work and one for not-work. I also have a separate Agenda list.

Ron
 
Oh, this is a great topic. I've been trying to re-think my own contexts. They've become such a jumble over the past few years.

My biggest problem is that I essentially have three contexts:
* Online
* Home
* Errands
* Agenda (two, named for the people I work with most closely)

I HAVE other contexts, but they're meaningless, because those three are the only REAL context-of-place distinctions I have. But the problem is that if I use @online for all of the things that I can do online (this includes ALL of my day-job), then my actions list is totally overwhelming. I can literally do anything at any time and the effort needed to decide which one is relevant now can be paralyzing.

One experiment ran for a while was using types of actions as contexts, so that I could filter by the type of task I was trying to focus on:
* Reading
* Editing
* Email
* Research
* Brainstorming
* Processing (this includes thinking/evaluating tasks)

The problem I run into is that certain contexts still get ignored, and sometimes an action doesn't fit comfortably in any of the existing task types, so the system becomes unstable.

Recently, I've created context tags for my areas of focus, thinking that on some level they meet the spirit of the type-of-action screening, but with less resistance for certain types of tasks. My thinking here is that it can be easy to decide brainstorming is a lower-priority task when things feel crunched, but it's harder to mindfully dismiss a whole area of focus, and the brainstorming might look like more a priority when looking at the mix of tasks in that area.

For example:
* TOS management
* Feature development
* Household maintenance
* Personal development
* Community volunteering/activism
* Creativity
* Social engagement (for connecting with friends or family)

For those of you with long lists of contexts, how do they work for you in practice? Do you end up blind to them, or are these actually working relevant distinctions for you?

For those with short lists of contexts, do you ever feel overwhelmed by the variety of actions in each list? Do you end up blind to certain actions after a while?
 
onecanuck said:
For those of you with long lists of contexts, how do they work for you in practice? Do you end up blind to them, or are these actually working relevant distinctions for you?
I would think I'm one with a long list and they work very well for me.

Even though I CAN do most computer and on-line things most places on most devices it's not at all clear that I SHOULD. In fact, it's really clear the the effort to switch contexts (even from one app to another within the same machine or environment) is actually quite large. There is a time after the switch, ranging from 30 seconds to 5 minutes where I'm getting into the mode of dealing with that particular software package, user interface or device form factor. Multiply this over the course of a day, especially with hundreds of projects and it's a clear time waster.

The location based contexts of towns for errands, fields and barns is also critical. Our local town has a business section that is 2 blocks long. Once we've come down the hill in to town it only makes sense to stay and do everything we can at once. The fuel to go up and down the hill is very expensive, even with the low prices right now so we have to make the most of it. Similarly we only go into the city once a month because it's an all day trip with a 75 mile one way ride to get there plus all the time and fuel running around and stopping at the stores. When you are in one field or building you need to do everything there you can because you'll waste time walking back and forth if you don't. There are enough emergencies that will force you to change contexts (the sheep are out now I must go into the outside with help as it's all hands on deck to get them corralled again) or a phone call from the ditch rider with a potential flooding problem means drop everything and head out with the backhoe, shovels, pickaxes 4-wheeler etc. Coyotes chasing livestock means an immediate change of contexts to attempt to deal with them. Once the immediate problem is dealt with to save time and effort later it makes sense to take a quick look at what you can do while you are there. So after a sheep escape, I might take a picture or two of the gate that needs welding and add an action to pick up some metal stock next time we are in town to my system right then and there. Or while working on the ditch you might decide that as long as the backhoe is there, might as well pull a few of the rocks out too. If it's all a jumble of outside stuff you have no way to pull the things that you can add on to the task at hand before you need to switch contexts again.

Contexts are all about being efficient about what I have to do so I can do the things I want to do.

Also keep in mind that contexts are not fixed. They can and should be very fluid. I make, use and delete contexts almost on a whim. If I look at a list that is getting long, say over 50 items on it, I don't like to pick out a task to work on and I will procrastinate. The solution for me is to split into multiple contexts on some logical basis, maybe time required to do the task (which I am notoriously bad at estimating :-) ) or all things that I need to be with full coffee on board to do or ones that I can do late at night vs daytime or something. Maybe I've stacked up 50 items in misc mac work but when I look at them 20 might be renaming files in folders and 15 might be scanning. Well I'll probably create a scanning context or a Finder context or even a File_Renaming context just so I can get the number of items i see in any given context to 30 or less. That is about what I can handle before I get overwhelmed.
 
onecanuck said:
For those with short lists of contexts, do you ever feel overwhelmed by the variety of actions in each list? Do you end up blind to certain actions after a while?

No, not really. I try to define my contexts such that I do not normally get too many in each. And if I do get too many in one for a long time, I usually split the context into two, and vice versa. Also, I use a colored "review frequency flag" for each task, which in effect suggests a prioritization that I can use for guidance, and which allows me to conveniently disregard some of the tasks if I feel a need to look at fewer options.

onecanuck said:
The problem I run into is that certain contexts still get ignored, and sometimes an action doesn't fit comfortably in any of the existing task types, so the system becomes unstable.

Recently, I've created context tags for my areas of focus, thinking that on some level they meet the spirit of the type-of-action screening, but with less resistance for certain types of tasks.

We are all different, but in my personal experience I have noticed that whenever I slip into "type of action" grouping it goes very wrong after a while. So instead, I want my contexts to strictly reflect a "necessary situational prerequisite" and my areas as to strictly reflect an "overall job responsibility" (role). The difference between these and "type of action" might appear subtle, but I have found it to be crucial for me.

In addition to these two fundamental and necessary aspects (contexts and areas), I think it is also very practical to be able to cluster similar or related types of actions that I might want to do at the same time (or consecutively). But even in good apps that have both contexts and areas, you seldom find any third such variable that you can use for "batching" or "type of action". But some apps have at least something. For example, some apps (e.g. Wrike) allow you to put any given task task in more than just one project - then you can use the project feature both for projects and for types-of-action/batches. Other apps have tags in addition to contexts, then you can use the tags (or the contexts) for batching or "type-of-task"-ing and vice versa. But if there are no such extra feature available I can also (reluctantly) live without pre-preparation - instead I just pick and flag (star) a number of related tasks one day and group them together on my Today list.
 
Thank you, Oogiem and Folke!

I'm maintaining my lists in TheBrain right now, and using tags for contexts and tagging areas-of-responsibility/focus right now. (I use thought types for distinguishing next actions from projects from reference, etc.)

Both of your feedback has been very helpful, and support one another, even though you come from opposite ends of the short/long lists of contexts. Basically, I should get comfortable with the idea of splitting and merging contexts as needed. Ideally, keeping the contexts as focused on place as possible, but when the lists get long enough to introduce resistance, then split them in a way that lets me stay focused.

Thank you for your valuable insights!
 
My main ones are
1. Manual - indoor = manual jobs/activities i do indoor
2. Manual - outdoor = manual jobs/activities i do out door but not outside home.
3. Manual outside = activities out do beyond the two above like visit people and place (< 1 day)
4. Laptop - local = juts computer work , WP etc
5. laptop - network = e-mail, surfing etc
6. desktop - local = see laptop local
7. desktop - network = see laptop network
8. Work - when I'm aloud to do my own stuff at work.(usually items 1,2,4,5,6,7 above)
 
Thank you all. Lots of great stuff here.

I have stolen "noodling" and it's starting to feel like a relative break through at the runway level. It's almost like "5000 ft." incubating horizon -- finally a place to put stuff where I am committed to a project about something but I am not yet ready to define the desired outcome because I am waiting for someone, something, or a number of someones and somethings to happen first.

Cheers!
 
This thread is gold. I'm an attorney I the go a lot.

Mine is desk, on the go, counseling, delegate (fiverr, elance) clerk (things I give town law clerk)

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