[tacartwright]

Originally Posted by michelle

What if you had a flat list of contexts, could select more than one context and any task assigned ANY of the contexts gets listed? Example: Select contexts "Home" and "Hobbies" and see all tasks assigned to either context. Would this eliminate the need to assign multiple contexts to the same task?

Ah, this is good — I think my questions from yesterday elicited exactly the conflicting responses I was hoping for! Let me see if I can spell out the proposals.

1. There is a flat list of contexts. In the “Projects” view, each task is assigned no context or exactly one context. In the “Next Action” view, the user can select 1 context. A task is displayed iff (a) it is the project’s next action, and (b) it is assigned the selected context.
2. There is a flat list of contexts. In the “Projects” view, each task is assigned no context or exactly one context. In the “Next Action” view, the user can select 1 or more contexts. A task is displayed iff (a) it is the project’s next action, and (b) it is assigned ANY of the selected contexts. (I think that this option corresponds to kGTD now, because you can expand/collapse contexts in the Next Action view to show any number of contexts.)
3. There is a flat list of contexts. In the “Projects” view, each task is assigned 0 or more contexts. In the “Next Action” view, the user can select 1 or more contexts. A task is displayed iff (a) it is the project’s next action, and (b) it is assigned ALL of the selected contexts. (I think that this corresponds to SpiralOcean’s basic request, yes?)
4. There is a flat list of contexts. In the “Projects” view, each task is assigned 0 or more contexts. In the “Next Action” view, the user can enter a Boolean expression of contexts. A task is displayed iff (a) it is the project’s next action, and (b) it matches the Boolean context expression. (Is this SpiralOcean’s more complicated example?)
5. There is a hierarchical tree of contexts. However, I simply don’t understand what the rest of this option would look like, so I’ll stop here.

I don’t know that I see anyone asking for Option 1, perhaps in part because it is a trivial subcase of Option 2. I was asking for Option 2. I think SpiralOcean is asking for Option 3 or 4. Option 5 seems to have died a quiet death in this thread.

While I understand SpiralOcean’s need to limit the number of next actions visible, I do not care for Options 3 and 4 myself. In general, my context list is such that I am in more than one context at a time. Right now, I am in my Office, Computer, Phone, and Agendas contexts. To limit my view to a single one of those would give me a completely false view of what I can do now.

Further, I think Option 4 is simply too complicated for a typical consumer application.

So, here’s a proposal for a hybrid option: There is a flat list of contexts. In the “Projects” view, each task is assigned 0 or more contexts. In the “Next Action” view, the user can select 1 or more contexts AND select whether the contexts are inclusive or exclusive. A task is displayed iff (a) it is the project’s next action, and either (b1) the inclusive option is set and the task is assigned ANY of the selected contexts or (b2) the exclusive option is set and the task is assigned ALL of the selected contexts.

Now, Option 1 is the same as assigning only 1 context per task, picking either inclusive or exclusive, and selecting 1 context. Option 2 is assigning only 1 context per task, picking inclusive, and selecting 1 or more contexts. Option 3 is assigning 1 or more contexts per task, pick exclusive, and selecting 1 or more contexts. Option 4 and 5 are not supported.

Comments?

— Tim