I haven't found contexts to be that useful. I'm sure they are for others, but that's not just the way my next actions need to be sorted. However I did have the problem of too many "next actions". What helped me is making another state for actions and projects which need doing, but are not on my next actions list. I put items on this list until my next actions are down to a manageable number (like five or so) and then daily or weekly or when Next actions are empty, I can get that other list and review it.
See http://tiddlywiki.org/wiki/MonkeyGTD/Customization_Guide/Custom_Project_Classifications for details, if you are interested. On Dec 2, 1:03 am, Frederic Aguiard <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > > At some point in the past, I realized that 95% of my next actions were > attached to the context '@work'. I did try to split that in several > contexts like '@computer:online', '@computer:offline' and '@office' to > account for the fact that I sometimes work from office, from home > (both with internet access) and sometimes while commuting without > internet access. However this was not enough to reduce the amount of > next actions in '@computer:online' (still in the 85% range). > > Therefore I decided to experiment the multiple-context capabilities of > mGTD, and to throw in a few more contexts which are not location > based, in parallel of the ones listed above. > I tried using for example a '@criticalPath' for actions which will > delay other people's work if I do not respect my deadlines, a > '@today' (that I daily updated) to mark items I wanted to do during > the day (thus making a daily to-do list...), etc... In the end, what I > did was having two sets of contexts, one for 'priorities' and the > other one for 'physical location', and I used the intersection of the > two to reduce the number of actions I have to choose from each day. > > I also tried when applicable to reduce the number of next actions per > project to 1, only keeping as active the one with the highest > 'priority', and moving the others to 'future', even if it was possible > to do them immediately. > > I do not know if such ideas will be compatible with your environment, > but what is great is that both GTD and MonkeyGTD give you a very broad > capacity to experiment :) > > Best regards, > > Frederic > > On 28 nov, 03:21, John Holden <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > You can think about using/referring to the 'Completed Projects' and > > 'Done Actions' lists/ticklers to track what you have done for your > > boss. This will list things by date and you can review it as part of > > your Weekly Review. It is 'very GTD' to do a thorough weekly review > > and I think it makes a big difference. > > > With regard to daily ToDo lists, part of the GTD dogma is "do what > > works for you"! If you want to discipline yourself and commit to > > getting a discrete number of things done - come hell or high water - > > you can write them in your calendar/diary, allocating them a time as > > appointments. These tasks are going to take time, so there's nothing > > wrong in committing to 'an appointment with yourself' to complete next > > actions. > > > If you're getting lost with context-based next action lists, perhaps > > you should review your contexts and challenge whether they actually > > work for you? Are they relevant to how your work/life is structured? > > My "At Office" list gets very long and out-of-control, as does my "At > > Computer". This is because my computer is at the office (!) and the > > risk is that everything gets added to one of these lists. At the > > moment I am focusing on getting the lists done, rather than worrying > > about how they should be organised! > > > Maybe you need fewer contexts? Maybe more? Probably different. > > Worth a think about why you get lost quickly. > > > Good luck > > > John > > > On 28 Nov 2009, at 00:11, Jeff wrote: > > > > I'm back at mgtd after trying text files for a while. They're just not > > > as pretty or cool as a TW-based app. > > > > Now I'm trying to use mgtd to also track what I have done so that I > > > can easily produce status reports/tasklogs for my boss. > > > > Is it contrary to GTD dogma to use daily todo lists? When I use > > > context-based next action lists, I get lost very quickly. > > > > -- > > > Jeff > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > > Groups "GTD TiddlyWiki" group. > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > [email protected] > > > . > > > For more options, visit this group > > > athttp://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en > > > . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GTD TiddlyWiki" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en.
