Quote:
Originally Posted by omniinmo
To simplify your contexts are:
- Garage
- Fred
- Waiting
Which context do you pick?
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I certainly get your point and it's something that troubled me at first as well. I had a strong urge to taxonomically organize all my data. It made me feel good and gave me a sense of control. But you know, once I started focusing more on
doing rather than
organizing, I realized that maybe I didn't really need, or even want, to exhaustively assign contexts or tags to everything that came through my to do list.
Hearing Merlin Mann speak at WWDC in 2008 really drove this point home for me. His suggestions made me realize that simplicity and ease of use was more important; it trumped my desire to bring order to a chaotic world (a.k.a. OCD :-).
So now when I'm faced with this kind of decision, I narrow in on the
single, most important context required to achieve the task. David Allen writes about using your intuition; the same skill can be applied here.
In your example, I would immediately skip the @Waiting context; I rarely use a waiting list anyway. This really isn't something I'm waiting for someone else to do. This is an action I
personally have control over.
I would also bypass the @Fred context. Fred's not the only one who can help, right? Couldn't John, Bill, or Mary lend a hand instead? Maybe I could even lift the safe on my own if I had proper equipment (some kind of jack?).
But this action can
only be done in the garage. There's no way out of this one. Without access to the garage, absolutely no progress can be made, the action is entirely blocked. So I would use the @Garage context. It's the single, most important context available.
I know this might not be perfect or what you're looking for, but this frame of mind keeps things simple and easy to use. And, perhaps more importantly, it's an approach you can use with the software as it is right now.
I think the Omni folks are well aware of the desire for multiple contexts or tags. I'm sure it's something they're taking into consideration for OmniFocus 2.0. They've been planning the addition of some kind of metadata columns for a long time as well. Maybe that feature will lead to some kind of multiple contexts for those who feel they need them.
To be clear, I don't mean to discourage you from discussing your ideas. You certainly bring up some good points. I'm just trying to offer a differing point of view. :-)
-Dennis