Hey Ike, Areas are different than contexts. Tasks have Contexts, like "Home," "Errand." As I see it Contexts represent a limit placed on whether you can do a task or not. For example, tasks labeled with the "Home" context can only be done at home.
Here is a description of Areas from the Users Guide: "Areas in mGSD correspond to 'areas of responsibility' in the GTD book. In mGSD, Projects can belong to an Area. You can look at Areas to assist with higher altitude reviews (ie, one level higher than your weekly project review)." http://tiddlywiki.org/wiki/MGSD/Users_Guide#Creating_Contexts.2C_Areas_and_Contacts Basically, they are a way of grouping related projects together. For example: I have a "Music" realm that has all the projects related to my self-employment as a musician. I have a bout 15 active projects in that realm. That is a bit overwhleming for me, I prefer getting things into groups of 5-9 at most. So I break my projects down into 6 areas: 1. "Band Development and Rehearsals" which has projects like "Develop Set List," "Find New Songs," "Develop Folk Band," "Etc" 2. "Gear," which has projects like "Tune Up Guitar," "Buy New Effects Pedals," "Figure out how to Better mic Guitar Cabinet," etc 3. "Gigs" in which each upcoming Gig I have or want to book is it's own project. Etc. In my Household Realm I have about 19 Active projects divided into 8 Areas. Areas include things like: Home Repair and Maintenance, Parenting, Finances, Health, Family and Friends. What is nice about this is that, I am often in danger of work-a-holic and neglecting things like "Family and Friends" and "Health" but with this system I can see very easily when these areas have no projects. Hope this makes sense. On Jun 17, 4:44 am, ike9898 <[email protected]> wrote: > Jason C- > When you say 'areas' are you referring to what is called 'context' in > mGSD? Otherwise, I don't understand what an area is. > > On Jun 16, 4:20 pm, Jason C <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I have come up with a system that I find satisfying. > > > I want my system to: > > > 1. Highlight critical/time sensitive issues above all else. > > 2. If there are no critical tasks, allow me to work on whatever I am > > most inspired to work at that moment. If it is something I had not > > worked on for a while, I want to be able to pick up as quickly and > > efficiently as possible. > > > Miller's law is the underlying theory for how I organize my realms, > > areas and projects: " the number of objects an average human can hold > > in working memory is 7 ± 2." I shoot for groups of 5-7, which gives > > me room to grow to the max of 9. > > > Currently I have 3 realms. Each realm has from 5 to 8 areas. Each > > area has 2 to 5 Active projects. I have a total of 36 active projects > > currently. I also have about that many future and queued (see below) > > projects. > > > To help keep the active projects manageable I added another state to > > Project status called "Queued" using the tweak found on Tiddlywiki.com > > FAQ under customization. When I do monthly reviews or whenever I have > > too many projects in each area, the top 7-9 projects in each area > > remain active while the rest go into "Queued" or "Someday/Future" if I > > really have no intention of working on in the next 3-6 months. > > > I use mGSD for all my tasks except my day job tasks. I have 3 realms. > > Each is a different level of importance: Household is the most > > critical, followed "Music" (I am self-employed part time as a > > musician) and lastly, "Fun." > > > To keep next actions manageable I altered my "Do Work" lists to group > > and move starred tasks to the top. I try to have only 5 starred > > actions per Realm at any time. I also added a "pending" status to > > "Next" "Waiting" etc, again to help my prioritize my actions so I am > > only dealing with groups of 5-9. at a time. > > > So when I start up mGSD, I click only the Household realm and scan for > > starred items, which could financial, having a good marriage, being a > > great dad, etc. > > > When those are scanned I then click on the Music tab. In this way I > > can easily judge which starred items need my attention the most. > > > Hope this is remotely helpful. Makes more sense in my head I think. > > Works fabulously though. > > > On Jun 16, 2:18 am, Damian <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hello all, > > > > Are any of you using 'Realms' in interesting ways? I have a lot of > > > projects because I put everything for half baked never going to happen > > > ideas through to projects that need urgent attention into GTD (mGSD). > > > I find the line between 'area' and 'realm' blury, and almost prefer > > > the idea of using realms instead or areas. I also like the idea of > > > using realms to prioritise project. Something like 'Now - Currently > > > active - Long term active - Someday - Vague ideas'. But I struggle to > > > plan this all out in a structured way. > > > > Anyone else had similar problems and come up with workable solutions? > > > > D > > -- 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.
