[…] It mightn’t surprise you to know I’d want to learn a bit more implementation and about how David sees contexts working best for people whose work mostly happens in one place (recently). […]

I’ve started using virtual desktops to help focus my contexts. For example, my “mail” desktop has all my inboxes: mail, RSS, news, etc. I find this helps to make me focus on processing my new mail and then getting away from it entirely (out of sight, out of mind) so I’m not hitting refresh all day. Right now my “code” desktop has my text editor and some documentation open. Firefox lives there too (web developer extensions), but Safari is on my “browsing” desktop. When I move between desktops, I can actually feel like I’m switching contexts.

I have 3 contexts. Work, Home and Errands. I suppose there’s a hidden 4th (Work/Home) where I can basically do it in either place. These are constrained, as Merlin mentioned, by physicality & rules (for example, I could physically file Magic: the Gathering cards at work, but it’s, uh, frowned upon).

For waiting, I tag a “Waiting for …” task with a date (the equivalent of putting it in a tickle folder) and it disappears until said day.

I find it’s simple and very useful. I mean, I know whether a task involves me searching the web or writing an email. Tagging it as such is redundant.

Peter

Another great post Merlin. Your ability to clearly communicate what we all know we should know is great. Keep it up!

I have too many contexts and have fallen off the wagon in a big way due to the ensuing where-the-hell-do-I-put-this-itis. Thanks to all for inspiring me to dust myself off an kick some ass again.

For those interested in a way to easily mix place, effort and time for any given task, check out MyLifeOrganized. They have a really nice way to do exactly this without maintaining separate contexts. You essentially move sliders and a score is computed, then you can view by time needed, place you’re in or effort available. It’s a Windows app, but I run it under Parallels. Lightweight enough to be self-contained on a USB key.

These have been working quite well for me:

Work contexts:

1) @PC 2) @Telephone [Although most calls are made from my desktop, I find value in a separate phone context, if only because of the momentum created by making that first call. It’s a different mindset for me, and I can blow through a list in short order… once I make that first call.] 3) @Office [This encourages me to live away from my computer upon occasion. For example, it’s refreshing to brainstorm ideas on paper instead of continually basking in the phosporescent glow of the one-eyed beast. My eyes thank me, too.] 4) @Waiting For 5) @Agendas [The specific people vary by project cycles. I typically have 3-6 at any given time.]

Home Contexts:

1) @Home 2) @PC - Home 3) @House/Auto [This is for home improvement and auto maintenance. Even though this stuff is technically at home, it typically requires a different context such as putting on grubby clothes and going outside.] 4) @Waiting For 5) @Agendas 6) @Errands

And I do it all using some Word-based 3x5 card templates I ginned up after being inspired by reading Emory’s compelling white paper a few months ago. (The HipsterPDA templates were a bit too cluttered for my taste.)

Emory’s paper: http://kvet.ch/pages/gtd-whitepaper-emory

I’m a writer working at home, so @computer, @phone, @home never really worked for me. Instead, I’ve matched my contexts to the way I structure my workday. The morning, from 8am - noon is for writing and editing. The afternoon, from 1 - 5 is for research, reading, email, website maintenance, etc. The evening is for entertainment and housework.

So on my @morning list, I have: - Stories I can start drafting - Drafts that need editing

My @afternoon list may contain: - Research that needs to get done - Phone calls to make - Email to send - Photos to take - Website maintenance issues - My “to read” file

My evenings are pretty unstructured, but my @evening list may contain: - Household chores - Adding movies to Netflix cue - Potentially long personal phone calls

My only other context is @errands, which is basically a shopping list, which I do either on my lunch break or in the evenings, as needed.

So far, this system has helped to keep my workday structured, which is never easy when your at home sitting in front of a computer with a high-speed connection all day.

For people who have very few physical contexts (work or home, computer or non-computer) but want to take advantage of the advantages that contexts offer, we can overlay time and energy constraints (contexts.) This is in line with the natural planning method’s “4 criteria.”

So now items would have multiple, but non-overlapping, contexts.

Location -work -computer -out

Time -short (greater than 2 min, less than 15) -med (15 min - 1 hr) -long (greater than an hour)

Energy -high (I can do anything) -med (I can do anything which isn’t too taxing) -low (I can barely stay awake)

So now an item might have a contexts:

Process today’s email: @computer med low Outline report: @desk (i.e. computer plus materials) long high

Obviously, generating and managing context lists of multiple, orthogonal contexts isn’t going to be very practical by hand. This type of system would best be served by some sort of computer automation (I’m trying to get it done using Mori notebook.) With the right tool, I think it could be pretty powerful. For example, you could be sitting at your computer having just finished preparing for a big meeting in 20 min: “Ok, I’ve got a lot of energy (latent anxiety for the upcoming presentation) but not a lot of time: computer high short.” It would most likely be suited by smart folders or dynamically generated lists, like the filtered lists of many media database programs.

My only contexts are:

@pc @work @home @phone @car

I’m a project manager for ICT “stuff” and I always, but always ask the question “what is the next physical action to be done?”. I know it’s ‘by the book’, but it works for me. Just 4 contexts provide me with the focus I need. I balance this with @agenda.

Hope this helps someone

I’m a graduate student in mechanical engineering. I have ADD and I’ve found that making contexts based on what kind of thinking I need to do really helps with that (ADD people are notoriously bad at changing gears). For example, I think differently when I’m doing math homework on paper versus doing a math programming assignment versus writing code for my research, so those would each be seperate contexts. I still keep my context list to around 10 contexts; any more than that, and it’s useless.

As a small-scale IT projects manager I think I have an overly complicated system. These are my current contexts, naturally subject to change:

@Write (PIDs, Reports etc, stuff that never gets done if I am honest) @Interanet (sic) (Some of my work applications are web-based) @Agenda (meetings at work as well as stuff to talk to my family or the builder) @Phone @Email @Errands This gives me 6 columns of contexts on my a4 book, wide enough for mini post-its which I use to handle my next actions.

Each post-it has three sections: