Re: [MLO] Grouping tasks with multiple contexts //reply to Lisa & Dwight

[Mazey]

Hello :) Thank you very much Lisa, once again you have the relevant info right away :) I am still trying to figure out the sorting process, so these infos are very useful to me. Dwight, I envy your temperature a lot lol! I am located in Europe and we currently have a heatwave with temperatures of 86F and up even at nights!! Needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep this weekend ;) I have not yet read any GTD book; I looked a couple of definitions up on Wikipedia as soon as I heard a new term relating to this or another time managing system. I must admit I have a very, very hard time reading due to my ADD (attention deficit). Whenever possible, I try to find videos, video tutorials or even entire courses on DVD - that works very well for me. Right at the moment I work my way through MLO's manual and the info on the website, but I have also seen (and bookmarked) some videos on GTD that seem interesting. I just started using MLO about a month ago and I am not settled with "my" way of organizing things. In the beginning I over-used contexts a lot; right now I try to assign and create them in the light of the sorting logic in the to-do view. I have I guess a hierarchical setup, with the basic two branches of @computer and @home. Since I work a lot at the computer I have several contexts concerning some programs (I usually have projects, some are simply revolving around learning a software or adjusting it). There for I think it makes sense to have an entire context for one software, plus I see all my tasks that are computer related grouped together and alsotogether in the sub-field were they belong (all tasks that belong to or can be done in Photoshop, for instance). That reflects a bit the way I work; it is more important for me to organize, group my thoughts & ideas together  so I can use my time a little more effective instead of starting here, and there, and then over there (typical ADD problem that I have :( 'Driven to distraction' is the name of a book on ADD and it fits to a T if you ask me! ;) ) Since I liked the idea that you can write contexts also in a different way, I currently try this out. I only have two people on my context list, but it is very important for me that I have all things I need to ask or tell that person together. And the #contexts stand nicely out :-) My biggest problem is trusting the structure through contexts and getting away from my old another-folder-for-each-thing strategy. That was very confusing after a while. But of course, I need to build a logic and useful structure first :-D It is hard, but I hope I am getting there :) Thanks for your detailed reply Dwight, very much appreciated :) Have a great day, Brienne On 20.08.2012 01:52, m...@grantsmiths.org wrote: Hi, Brienne. What part of the world are you in? Here in the suburbs of New York it’s 62F today, which feels positively chilly after the long stretch of days over 90.   Have you read the GTD book yet? It’s “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, available in many libraries and relatively easy to read. It explains a lot.   The idea of contexts would be that they define an environment in which certain tasks can get done. For example, most of us have tasks that have to be done on the computer, so there’s no point in wasting time thinking about those tasks when you are, for example, out driving around. So you assign the context “computer” to those tasks, and maybe the context “errands” to other tasks that you do while driving. Then you can use a view like “active by context” to quickly check for stuff to do in whatever environment you find yourself. MLO goes further with concepts like the hours a context is open. I try to spend as little time on the computer as possible on Saturday, so my Computer context is closed then – if I look for things that need to be done, the Computer tasks will not show. Also, on my Android, contexts like my home and my mother-in-law’s apartment are associated with a location, so those contexts don’t show up (in the Nearby view) unless that’s where I am.   I think that the at sign (@) at the beginning represents the traditional GTD idea that contexts are generally places. Other leading characters such as # or ! are used mainly to cause the sort to work a certain way. There’s no need for a leading character, you can just say “Home” or whatever, if you like.   All that said, you are free to imagine other uses for contexts that reflect the way you want to organize your work. Kitus is using contact names, at least in his example. That’s an interesting idea but not one I will be using myself. Richard is using contexts as list names, in order to create headings. If you think of something new, please share it with the forum. -Dwight   From: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com [mailto:mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mazey Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 10:40 AM To: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [MLO] Grouping tasks with multiple contexts   Out of sheer curiousity, does that #person'sname denote people in MLO? I am a complete newcomer to both MLO and GTD and this caught my eye. I find it very intriguing since I like the concept of contexts and being able to sort by something like a person's name. Have a great (hopefully not so hot) sunday, Brienne On 19.08.2012 13:36, m...@grantsmiths.org wrote: Hi again Kitus, Try this: In the context filter select (all) Click the checkbox for “Add Advanced” and click the “setup” button Click “add rule” if necessary In the first dropdown select “ContextsText” In the second dropdown select “contains” In the third box type “@wait” (without the quotes. MLO will add its own quotes) Click OK Use the GroupBy button to group by context.   You will see listings for @wait, #john and #james. Each task will appear twice, once in @wait and once in #somebody. Note that if you have other contexts like @waiting that contain “@wait” they will be picked up as well.   Suggestion, if the every entry in @wait also has a #somebody context, you could make life simpler by getting rid of the @wait context and assigning a character like “]” to mean “wait” – then you would have contexts like “]John” and “]James” and your to-do listing would filter on ContextText that starts with ]. One advantage would be that each task would appear only once. -Dwight   From: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com [mailto:mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of kitus Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2012 6:09 AM To: mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com Subject: [MLO] Grouping tasks with multiple contexts   Hello again,   I would be glad if anybody could give me a hand with this.   Say I have one "wainting for" task which I want to track.   TASK: Waiting for John to set up a meeting | Contexts: @wait, #John   If I only display tasks with contexts @wait (filtering @wait on the left column), and now I want to group by John, James, etc., how do I do it?    Thanks a lot in advance everyone,      -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mylifeorganized/-/7LPTiL95MfEJ. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. 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