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Originally Posted by mind full of water View Post
I mean, it seems to me that very few things that we do in life (“actions”) are restricted to just ONE “context” or ONE “project”.
I disagree. In fact, I think the opposite is true. That is, most everything we do DOES involve only one context per action, and only one project. It all depends on how you set-up your contexts and projects.

For example, your "buying milk" example does not involve all the contexts you've listed, but just one. Which one? Well, to begin with, I have the following contexts in my system: Errands, Errands: Lowes, Errands: Staples, and so on. I don't have a grocery store as a context, but in your case perhaps you would if that is a frequent context for you. I also have People contexts with specific names of those I talk to frequently. For example, one of my contexts is PEOPLE: (wife's name).

So, BUY MILK would be in my single actions list. Also, I would need to decide if I am going to pick up the milk, call my wife and have her pick it up, or discuss it with her at home.

Here's how the actions for each of these choices would look on my single actions list:

Action: Buy milk. Context: Errands: Safeway
OR
Action: Ask my wife to pick up some milk. Context: Phone
OR
Action: Discuss who will pick up the milk tomorrow. Context: People: Wife

Then, when you switch to Context View, your To-Do list would look something like this

ERRANDS: SAFEWAY - Buy milk
OR
PHONE - Ask my wife to pick up some milk
OR
PEOPLE: WIFE'S NAME - Discuss who will pick up the milk tomorrow

Perhaps in your ERRANDS: SAFEWAY context list you may also see "Buy eggs." So, when you are in that context (at Safeway) you would do both errands. The same would apply when you look at your phone list. You would have your "call my wife" action listed with other phone calls you have to make.

Now, as for your "clearing out the spare room" project, I see that as one project organized utilizing folders, actions, sub-actions, and contexts. For example, here is how I would set it up (Note, there is no need to label the action steps with numbers, 1, 1-a, etc. as I've done below. It's just for clarity.):

FOLDER: HOME
SUB-FOLDER: SPRING CLEANING (Me, I wouldn't use a sub-folder, but instead would just put in start and due dates sometime in spring such as START: April 16, 2008. DUE: May 15, 2008.)
PROJECT: Clear out the spare room
ACTION GROUP 1 (Sequential): Repaint spare room
SUB-ACTION 1-a: Get paint cards from Lowe's. CONTEXT: Errands
SUB-ACTION 1-b: Decide with wife on color. CONTEXT: People: Wife
SUB-ACTION 1-c: Determine how much paint will be needed. CONTEXT: Home
SUB-ACTION 1-d: Purchase paint & brushes from Lowe's. CONTEXT: Errands
SUB-ACTION 1-e: Paint the spare room. CONTEXT: Home

And you would continue to create action groups and action steps as needed (sequential or parallel). If there is any rewiring involved, what steps would be needed to accomplish that? Do I need to purchase certain tools? Do I need to decide on new light fixtures?

You would then select your SPRING CLEANING SUB-FOLDER within your HOME FOLDER, click on the FOCUS icon in the toolbar to view just that particular folder. Then switch to Context View, and only those contexts related to that sub-folder would be displayed.

In my opinion, the use of folders, sub-folders and most of all, the Focus option, are some of the most powerful features of OF, unfortunately too often under-utilized by many users.