Schoolteacher-2 separate filing cabinets/inboxes?

B

BillyIdol

0
Hey all!

I'm a special education teacher here in California. As a teacher, I get a lot of papers everyday. I have a filing cabinet at school and one at home. I try, for the most part, not to take work home. I just get it done at work. My home stuff would not be accessible from school. My work stuff would not be accessible from home. Plus I have an inbox at school, and at home. Plus, I have an "Inbox-Home" folder, and an "Inbox-School" folder when I find something that needs to be filed at the opposite location. I keep these files in my backpack for transfer.

I guess lots of times, I'm at school during lunch, or right after school and I want to make calls/emails, and I don't have access to my home filing cabinet, I get frustrated.

Any suggestions?

John
 
Stop getting frustrated.

I'm serious. That's what context lists are for. You have a situation that many GTDers would dream of: absolutely clear-cut, cannot-cross-under-any-circumstances boundaries between your contexts. Get an @homedesk list and an @schooldesk list, and then get comfy with the idea that things that are on one list can't be accomplished at the other context. Its exactly what GTD is designed to help you with.

I'm a graduate student and the boundaries between my contexts bleed all over the place, forcing me to rethink what my contexts really are about once a week (still getting use to this life change I just made). I envy you.
 
This is a problem a lot of people have. You can travel with those support files that you think you will need that day. You can store some of your data on your phone or in some web accounts, such as gmail or google documents. You may also want to redefine your contexts, since they most often pertain to your physical situation.
 
Make or buy a set of travel folders. The standard set recommended are these six:
  1. In
  2. To Home
  3. To Office
  4. Read/Review
  5. Action Support
  6. Waiting For Support
I only use In, Read/Review and Action Support.

As sdann and jesig have pointed out, the root of the problem is probably how you organize your contexts. Next actions need to be dropped in the contexts that you actually use, not in theoretical categories. If you process something at home in the evening that needs a phone response that you can only make during daylight hours, then it's not really an @Home item.
 
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