This is mosly cathartic. But because this was a big "aha" for me I thought I'd take a couple minutes to contribute what I've learned.
The subject is routine. I listened to David Allen a time or two, and I may be wrong, but I don't remember him mentioning much about the topic of routine. The only thing I remember is the routine of having a weekly review. Which is great. Imperative. Paramount!
The topic of routine needs to be extended further, though. I've been trying to apply GTD, and it wasn't working for the longest time, until I figured out this missing piece. It's probably an elemental part of time management—but it wasn't so obvious to me!
The problem I was facing, and not realizing it, is that even though I was organizing all my tasks into contexts, I wasn't placing myself in my various contexts on a regular, routine basis. Hence, many tasks weren't getting done. And even if I was in a certain context, I didn't necessarily have my contexts defined in a way that was practical. Hence, each context had an overwhelmingly long list of things to do that should have been placed into narrower contexts.
Divying up contexts. Let me show you an example of practicality in divying up contexts: I had a context called Home. Who doesn't? But the thing is, I have kids. There is a context at home where I can get things done (that's usually without my little angels running around) and a context where I can get some good old family time in and craft projects with my kids done (that's with the kids). Both types of tasks need to be done at home, but I must assign them to the correct home contexts. Mine are Home : Kids Time, Home : Saturday, Home : Sunday, and Home : After Work. Phew! a little more sanity in my contexts! Instead of looking at an overwhelmingly long list of things to do at home (any number of which are not practical because either I have kids around or they take too long (saturday, anyone?)) I can zero in—focus, if you will—on things I can actually do at that moment.
Okay, so now I have tasks in more descriptive contexts. The other aspect of routine is placing myself in those contexts on a regular basis. If I don't place myself in all contexts on a routine basis, those tasks will not ever get done.
Placing myself in contexts. Like most people, I work during the day. The boss pretty much mandates that I'll be there on a regular basis, and it makes only obvious sense to do work tasks while I'm in the work context. No problem there. Oky doky.
But home, again, gets a little trickier (My work life is not that tricky context-wise; perhaps your "tricky" area is work and not home). I need to designate daily and weekly times to place myself in certain contexts. For example, every night from 6-7:30pm is purely Home : Kids Time. That's my routine. And Omnifocus is not going to place me in that context. I have to do that for myself. Saturday is Home : Saturday time, where I'll do various longer projects, some of which are landscaping and house fix-its, as well as more family time. Other things are done on Home : Sunday because I want to focus on certain things that day. And then there are various other things I can do after the kids are in bed, hence the Home : After Work context every day from 7:45-9pm.
I also have various subcontexts for weekly review. They are Weekly Review : Financial, Weekly Review : Business, and Weekly Review : Personal They need to be chunked up (I don't often have enough time or energy to do it all at once). I need to place myself in those contexts on certain days of the week regularly. I've also chunked up several other contexts to make things easier for me.
So how do I remember which context I'm supposed to be in at what time? This is where the magic piece is for me. I took several hours to hammer out a weekly schedule: when I'd do errands (that's a context with several subcontexts), when I'd do each of the reviews, when I'd work on business projects, when I'd work on house projects, etc. And I wrote out the hours of each in a draconian and detailed manner.
I then placed the schedule into Freemind (a free open source app) and I plan on placing it onto Headspace (iPhone app. These are mindmapping apps that allow me to see my routine visually.
So there you have it. I'm pretty excited about this! Do you have any other ideas I can incorporate?
The subject is routine. I listened to David Allen a time or two, and I may be wrong, but I don't remember him mentioning much about the topic of routine. The only thing I remember is the routine of having a weekly review. Which is great. Imperative. Paramount!
The topic of routine needs to be extended further, though. I've been trying to apply GTD, and it wasn't working for the longest time, until I figured out this missing piece. It's probably an elemental part of time management—but it wasn't so obvious to me!
The problem I was facing, and not realizing it, is that even though I was organizing all my tasks into contexts, I wasn't placing myself in my various contexts on a regular, routine basis. Hence, many tasks weren't getting done. And even if I was in a certain context, I didn't necessarily have my contexts defined in a way that was practical. Hence, each context had an overwhelmingly long list of things to do that should have been placed into narrower contexts.
Divying up contexts. Let me show you an example of practicality in divying up contexts: I had a context called Home. Who doesn't? But the thing is, I have kids. There is a context at home where I can get things done (that's usually without my little angels running around) and a context where I can get some good old family time in and craft projects with my kids done (that's with the kids). Both types of tasks need to be done at home, but I must assign them to the correct home contexts. Mine are Home : Kids Time, Home : Saturday, Home : Sunday, and Home : After Work. Phew! a little more sanity in my contexts! Instead of looking at an overwhelmingly long list of things to do at home (any number of which are not practical because either I have kids around or they take too long (saturday, anyone?)) I can zero in—focus, if you will—on things I can actually do at that moment.
Okay, so now I have tasks in more descriptive contexts. The other aspect of routine is placing myself in those contexts on a regular basis. If I don't place myself in all contexts on a routine basis, those tasks will not ever get done.
Placing myself in contexts. Like most people, I work during the day. The boss pretty much mandates that I'll be there on a regular basis, and it makes only obvious sense to do work tasks while I'm in the work context. No problem there. Oky doky.
But home, again, gets a little trickier (My work life is not that tricky context-wise; perhaps your "tricky" area is work and not home). I need to designate daily and weekly times to place myself in certain contexts. For example, every night from 6-7:30pm is purely Home : Kids Time. That's my routine. And Omnifocus is not going to place me in that context. I have to do that for myself. Saturday is Home : Saturday time, where I'll do various longer projects, some of which are landscaping and house fix-its, as well as more family time. Other things are done on Home : Sunday because I want to focus on certain things that day. And then there are various other things I can do after the kids are in bed, hence the Home : After Work context every day from 7:45-9pm.
I also have various subcontexts for weekly review. They are Weekly Review : Financial, Weekly Review : Business, and Weekly Review : Personal They need to be chunked up (I don't often have enough time or energy to do it all at once). I need to place myself in those contexts on certain days of the week regularly. I've also chunked up several other contexts to make things easier for me.
So how do I remember which context I'm supposed to be in at what time? This is where the magic piece is for me. I took several hours to hammer out a weekly schedule: when I'd do errands (that's a context with several subcontexts), when I'd do each of the reviews, when I'd work on business projects, when I'd work on house projects, etc. And I wrote out the hours of each in a draconian and detailed manner.
I then placed the schedule into Freemind (a free open source app) and I plan on placing it onto Headspace (iPhone app. These are mindmapping apps that allow me to see my routine visually.
So there you have it. I'm pretty excited about this! Do you have any other ideas I can incorporate?