Contexts and Next Actions
 

I love being able to see only the Next Action, but remember, with GTD I only "See" the NAs for the context I'm in.

I'm looking to see the one [I]Next Action in my current context[/I].

After torturing myself with the "Task Relationships" thread, I want you to know, I am NOT looking for task dependencies. I will use linkage or import/export to omniplan to meet that need (as I do today).

I [I]am[/I] looking for a way to have a project that is set to show each next action for each context.

[B]This would make me more productive because[/B] it allows me to move a project forward in multiple contexts, whereas the the 1 NA per project only default allows me to move one action forward across all contexts. When this restriction is in place, I find myself unable to "trust" my lists of Next Actions because I find that I often have a particular important Project on my mind, and I'm in a particularly limited context, for example, in a car with cell phone, on a plane), and I know I have a phone call I need to make, a document to review, yet the only NA for that project is @Wired. So my mind tries to plan on the fly, build its own lists, and get stressed about what it cannot do and does not know.

An option for 1.0?

Thanks,

Mike

Isn't this taken care of by having parallel projects? When I'm in Context view, showing 'available' actions, I can see all of the actions I can perform in the present context. Some of these are purple coloured next actions, while others are black regular actions from parallel projects. A veritable [I]mer à boire[/I] of tasks.

I am, however, prevented from seeing actions [I]from sequential projects[/I] that are not next actions, which is exactly how it should be, because I can't do action B until I've done action A, even if I'm very much in the right context for doing B, with nothing to do.

Not at all... I need to filter by Next Action (3rd filter block set to "Next") in order to not have many 100s of actions. When I do that, I only get the next action for one context, I want to see a Next Action for each Context.

I think that there might be some confusion of terminology here.

In canonical GTD, a "next action" is the single next thing that can be done on a project to move it forward. What I hear you saying, Mike, is that you have projects where there are multiple things that could move the project forward. This is a parallel project in the current OF implementation. But what is missing for you is the ability to filter the parallel actions in a different way. Suppose I have a project like:

[CODE]
Migrated to OmniFocus
Share OO to OF script Context: Web
Write script to check for missing next-actions Context: Coding
Migrate work items to OmniFocus Context: Planning
Migrate templates to OmniFocus Context: Planning
[/CODE]

Currently, the Available filter would show all four actions and the Next filter would just show "Share OO to OF script". As I understand it, Mike, you're looking for a "Next by Context" filter that would show just the first three actions. It would omit the fourth, because "Migrate templates to OmniFocus" is not the next action in the Planning context.

Do I understand what you're looking for?

That is what I'm looking for.

(I followed you, Curt)

If you've organized the project, the project's next action shouldn't change with where you are at the moment.

Canonical: if you have multiple next actions for a project, you either have a catch-all "do these onesy-twosy tasks" project (as discussed in another topic here), or you need to decompose the project into multiple projects.

[QUOTE=mikesale@yahoo.com]Not at all... I need to filter by Next Action (3rd filter block set to "Next") in order to not have many 100s of actions. When I do that, I only get the next action for one context, I want to see a Next Action for each Context.[/QUOTE]

In Context view you can Command (Apple) + Click multiple contexts and it will show you the Next Action for all projects in each context.

[QUOTE=Wild Rye]In Context view you can Command (Apple) + Click multiple contexts and it will show you the Next Action for all projects in each context.[/QUOTE]

You can also click the yellow area below the context list to unselect, effectively showing all contexts. Then, select "Context" in the group filter (second from left) and "Next" in the action filter (second from right).

This will show all your next actions, grouped by context.

Klaus