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Originally Posted by Bob Nahasapeemapetilon
Perhaps I got completely lost, so please bear with me.
Are some of the requests (e.g. Tagging) based on experiences with Kinkless GTD?
The reason I ask this is because I have not used kGTD for a while, and after trying numerous GTD programs I’m able to face some of the scenarios that have been mentioned. At least I think I do.
While I’m looking forward to OmniFocus and initially loved kGTD, my choice for a GTD program has been ThinkingRock.
While I agree that multiple contexts may occur simultaneously (e.g., @Work + @Calls) I think users can be ‘creative’ with the software. I’m not sure how this would apply to OmniFocus, but with ThinkingRock, for example, here’s a scenario:
1. I have an Action Topic, which I use in the traditional sense of a Project. For example, I would define an Action Topic as “Research European Market” or “Purchase 10 laptops” or “Do valuation for company XYZ.” Those would be my BIG projects (made up for this example). In addition, I also define people I interact with as Action Topics. This would be similar to tagging and having multiple contexts (as we’ll see), but since the software does not offer that choice I found a way to make it work for me.
2. I have Action Context, which is the traditional context (e.g., @Home, @Work, @Phone, @Computer, etc.). I also define people I interact with as Action Contexts. If I’m understanding things correctly, in essence now I’m able to use multiple contexts, or more specifically 2 contexts. In this case, my multiple context relates to people. Let’s say that Joe is in charge of everything related to administrative issues. Let’s also say that I need to meet with him and the accountant, Pete. I can select Joe as my Action Topic and @Pete as my Action Context. In the same manner I could have an Action Topic “Home” and combine that with my Action Contexts @Phone, @Email, etc.
For now let’s say that I need to meet with the expert in European Markets, and he’s SpiralOcean. My Action Context would be “@SpiralOcean”, and my Action Topic would be “Research European Market.” The specific action I need to take is “Meet with expert.”
In ThinkingRock I can simply choose from a pull-down menu “Context” and from a pull-down menu “Topic”, and I will only see the specific items that meet the criteria (i.e., Action items that deal with SpiralOcean and Research European Market).
This filtering only works for Context and Topic, and the only choices are one item or all.
There is also additional filtering available (e.g., done, inactive, delegated, scheduled, etc.).
If I had to meet with both michelle and SpiralOcean this approach would not work, but there are still some options.
3. I can view notes for my specific actions. I could write a note saying “Include michelle in the meeting with SpiralOcean” for instance. Or if I delegated the task to someone else, I would see that information as well.
4. There’s also the use of color. I can easily identify some tasks based on the color I picked for the Project. If I deal with someone only for a particular project I could “color” them with the same color as the project.
One benefit has already been mentioned. I’m able to look at less information, with the advantage that I can select the relevant information for the task at hand. If I have a meeting with michelle I can print or view only the specific items that involve her. If the meeting is regarding a particular project, I can select those items related to the project and to michelle. If the meeting is not exclusively with michelle, I can select the whole project and it will include items I need to address with michelle, SpiralOcean, and so on.
And one of the great advantages, IMO, is that although I rambled on and on and should be sleeping instead, setting this up within the program is very easy and requires little work. After the initial setup of Contexts and Projects a lot of the work is minimized and accomplished by mere clicks of the mouse.
My guess is that with OmniFocus things could be even easier/faster. Ideally I want to minimize the time I spend with the GTD software, and maximize the time I spend actually getting things done :)
As a side note, I doubt I would use tagging in a serious manner, as it may involve spending more time setting up my tasks. Perhaps replicating -a la DevonThink- a task to a different context or contexts?
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