Time and Place and Equipment Context

[Suelin23]

Context and tag is just a different name for the same thing.

Depends on the software or application you are using to implement GTD. In my system they are quite separate.

GTD aims to focus on principles, but the practical application means you can use any tool/software/application available.

Tag is just a generic option that many software applications offer, so it's really up to the user as to how they use it in GTD, so I've been playing around with using it different ways.

 

[furashgf]

I may have misunderstood David Allen. The impression I got is that (1) in general, he wanted to keep lists categories simple and short (not 500 of them) and (2) not label everything (e.g., this is a 2 minute action, this is high priority, etc.). If I've misunderstood that, I apologize.

I'd like to hear more about what some people are using as cross-category tags. Where categories imply place, person, or tool, tags could be anything. I thought of a few myself:

T-PRN (task to be done as needed)
T-QUICK (I'm not prioritizing everything, but this is an obvious quick, low-energy task)
T-HARD (again, not prioritizing anything, but this task requires lots of energy and will be hard)

If I were to combine tags with my categories, I'd end up with Tags x Categories lists, which would be unwieldly. I can probably just put "t-Hard" or whatever in the task description.

 

[TesTeq]

Focus on doing Next Actions - not tagging them.

I'd like to hear more about what some people are using as cross-category tags. Where categories imply place, person, or tool, tags could be anything.

I am not such person. I focus on doing Next Actions - not tagging them. And on saying NO more often - it allows me to shorten my lists.

 

[furashgf]

I hadn't thought about Tags before this thread. I hadn't thought about them before it. I was not aware that some software supported it, however you could just make something in the subject line of the task to simulate it (e.g, t+easy = this is a quick and easy task, requiring low energy).

I would guess the advantage of making it NOT a separate category or PART of a category is that it's likely to be cross category. In the above example, any place/time/equipment context could have an "easy" task in it, while it would seem silly to have just a list of easy tasks, 3/4 of which you couldn't do in any particular situation. You could add it to the task (e.g., @CompWrkEasy), but then you end up with #Categories (Time/Place/Equiptment) X #Tags lists.