Question about Contexts
 

Hello,

I'am just switching from Things to OF. My english is awful, but I hope you can see what I mean :)

Things use Tags and OF use Contexts, so I have some questions about the way to use Contexts.

I'am working with agencies and have to order things, control that the things are ready at the right time, give feedback to the agencies, wait for feedbacks within my company etc.

At this time my contexts are like:

Give Feedback : Agencies : Agency X
Give Feedback : Agencies : Agency Y

Give Feedback : Departments : Department X
Give Feedback : Departments : Department Y


Wait for Feedback : Agencies : Agency X
Wait for Feedback : Agencies : Agency Y

Wait for Feedback : Department : Department X
Wait for Feedback : Department : Department Y

Is this the right way or is this to detailed?

[QUOTE=Andreas67;82962]Hello,

I'am just switching from Things to OF. My english is awful, but I hope you can see what I mean :)

Things use Tags and OF use Contexts, so I have some questions about the way to use Contexts.

I'am working with agencies and have to order things, control that the things are ready at the right time, give feedback to the agencies, wait for feedbacks within my company etc.

At this time my contexts are like:

Give Feedback : Agencies : Agency X
Give Feedback : Agencies : Agency Y

Give Feedback : Departments : Department X
Give Feedback : Departments : Department Y


Wait for Feedback : Agencies : Agency X
Wait for Feedback : Agencies : Agency Y

Wait for Feedback : Department : Department X
Wait for Feedback : Department : Department Y

Is this the right way or is this to detailed?[/QUOTE]

Hi Andreas, and welcome on board!

So of course this should start with saying, have you taken a look at David Allen's books, at the White Paper on GTD and OmniFocus, etc., etc. (those are actually very helpful!).
Now since "YMMV", here's what works for me, but of course it may not apply to you at all:

I have "People" contexts for people I see/interact with very regularly. I use them to place reminders of things to ask them to do when I next communicate with them. If I've asked them to do something, it goes either in my Waiting For Reply context, or if I'm waiting for something else than a reply, in my general Waiting For context. I make ample use of start dates to block off things that I don't expect will be done in X time, but I don't use due dates.
I have an @Agendas context, with sub-contexts @one-on-one and @meetings, where I place stuff to be dealt with when I'm meeting with people that (sorry guys!) I do not interact with frequently enough to make my @People list.
I think you'll find the way that works for you is intimately related to the way you review your projects and contexts, and that the frequency of your reviews will likely affect how much detail you need to incorporate in contexts.

Hope this is (remotely) useful!

Cheers,

Andreas, welcome aboard!

I use a setup fairly similar to that in my OmniFocus database, and it works pretty well for me. One potential problem I see is that it may be hard at times to tell "Give Feedback : Agencies : Agency X" from "Wait for Feedback : Agencies : Agency X".

It might be simpler to instead use [I]actions[/I] (possibly repeating ones) to track whether you're in the "Give Feedback" or "Send Feedback" stage.
That would allow you to assign both types of actions to a single "Agencies : Agency X" context.

That gives you the advantage of looking in one context for all the tasks that are related to a given agency, instead of needing to cross-reference several contexts that all represent the same organization...

Thanks for your answers!

I will test your suggestions.