David Allen's GTD system has many advantages. One of them, is that it groups actions into *contexts*. This provide many advantages, because the context system works WITH our brains, rather than against them.
You see, our brains, while remarkable, are really BAD at some things.
One of the areas they are weak at is reminding us of things at the appropriate time.
This is best shown with an example...
Imagine you need a new head for your electric toothbrush. Ideally, next time you're at the shops, and you walk past the toothbrushes, your brain should interrupt you, saying 'hey, don't forget that we need a new head for our toothbrush.' But in fact, what is more likely to happen is that next time you are at home and about to brush your teeth, you'll see the toothbrush, and THEN your brain will remind you 'that's right, I need a new toothbrush head!'
This kind of thing happens all the time. In the absence of any system, our brain remembers things:
- when it's prompted (by seeing the object right in front of you), and
- at other random times (like at three o'clock in the morning).
Neither is very helpful.
One of the key points of GTD is that you get reminders at the right time. When is the right time? When you can do something about it. Just like the best time to remember the toothbrush head is when you're out near a shop where you can buy toothbrush heads.
Grouping Actions by Context
In any productivity system, you'll maintain some sort of list of what I'll call "action items." This is a list of all the things you need to do.
For example, for a project such as "get car serviced", the next action might be "call the garage to book a time." When you compile a list of all the projects in your life, you get a pretty big list.
This results in a long list of action items.
In GTD, each action is given a context. By context, we mean: Where and when can you do this action? Where do you need to be? What equipment do you need? Do you need access to a phone? Do you need to be at work, or at home? Do you need to be on your computer? Do you need to be near your workshop? Or is it something you need to drive around town to do?
These are all examples of context.
GTD doesn't define these contexts for you. They are left to be defined by you, because they'll be different for different people.
For example, the system I use is:
- Call
- Home
- Work
- Computer
- Errand
- Wait
All my action items can be sorted into these contexts. For example:
"call the garage to book a time", is something you'd need a phone to do.
Therefore, in my system, I would make this action a "Call" item.
You might be wondering - what is the advantage of sorting items by context?
Well, there are three main advantages...
*** Advantage 1: You Are Efficient ***
Wherever you are, you can quickly pull up all the actions you can possibly do in your current context. This allows you to stay effective, whatever your circumstances.
*** Advantage 2: You Are Flexible ***
You can stay efficient when your plans change. So when your flight is delayed for half an hour, but you have your cell phone in your briefcase, you don't have to waste that time. You can bring up a list of all the calls you need to make, and start working through the list.
*** Advantage 3: You Are Relaxed ***
You can forget about items which you can't do under the circumstances. For example, if you're on a plane flying away for a business trip, you can forget about all the items you'd need to be at home to do.
Because you KNOW that there is nothing else to worry about, your head becomes very "quiet", which can be very liberating.
The disadvantage to breaking things into contexts?
Extra complexity. But this is manageable if you use the right tools.
I think you'll agree with me that the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.
But How Do You Start?
You can start breaking your action items into contexts without even doing GTD. Just try using separate lists to keep your list of things to do, rather than one big To-Do list.
But you'll find you can even more benefit by doing the whole Getting Things Done system...
