[bigcloits]

New to everything here, but I’m entranced by this “context” concept.
Is a “mood” a legitimate, useful context? It feels like it.

I have all my resources all the time, as I work at home. So it’s MOOD that seems to determine what kind of actions I want to work on. I ask myself, “What MENTAL resources do I have available to me right now?” I’ve created contexts to suit. I’m in the mood for email, the mood for calling, the mood for writing, the mood for troubleshooting ...

Does that make sense, or is this some kind of n00b GTD boner? ;-)

[jpepper]

@pvonk -- Sometimes I feel the same way. I need a life away from work and GTD.

@joelande -- Thanks. I read thru the noted thread. I like the idea of just keeping things simple.

@nggalai -- I'm intrigued by the idea of @morning, @noon, @afternoon, @evening. I'm been thinking about it all day. May prove useful.

@sprugman -- Thanks for the link to Merlin's post. I think I read that back when it was published. Still helpful.

@ptone -- I tried State of Mind contexts a while back, but I just couldn't stick with it. I am tempted to try it again. I had contexts such at @no-brainer, @half-brainer, @focus, etc. based on the brain power I thought would be necessary to accomplish the task. But then, I started thinking about something that I read and that stated that all the tasks should be broken down to their most elemental level - they all are no-brainers - 'like processing widgets'.

@ids - Nice graphic! This could be used an example of my problem. You have @desk, @career, @admin and @sideprojects grouped within Work+Online. The challenge for me with this is how do you decide which to focus on? I usually end up giving something too much focus and as a result neglect another context.

**That is my biggest challenge. How do you make sure you do not neglect a context?**

[curt.clifton]

I find that using and focusing on folders or groups of folders in Planning Mode, then switching to Context Mode, is a great way to handle "area of life" issues. I do a "Select All" in the Planning sidebar, then Cmd-click my Work folder. After that a Focus hides my work folder and pushes the work-a-holic in me to spend some time on other life roles.

[ids]

Originally Posted by jpepper

@ids - Nice graphic! This could be used an example of my problem. You have @desk, @career, @admin and @sideprojects grouped within Work+Online. The challenge for me with this is how do you decide which to focus on? I usually end up giving something too much focus and as a result neglect another context.

**That is my biggest challenge. How do you make sure you do not neglect a context?**

I aspire to do this by partitioning my time.

The idea of this is that I schedule some regular time in my calendar for (particularly) @career. @career contains things that are important but not urgent, so it's vital to force it in somewhere or I end up spending a year where I do a lot for my employers, but don't move forward in ways which matter to me. The thing is that there are always urgent things in @desk that threaten to intrude into this time, but ultimately I have to recognise the importance of @career and defend this time slot.

Of course, this is hard in reality, and I'm not there yet. What I'm doing instead is spending quite a lot of time in a Perspective which essentially contains all flagged items from the whole Work+Online domain in my diagram. Then in reviews, when I am flagging critical items, I occasionally flag something from @career - and in this way I normally get around to doing it. However, I am painfully conscious that this approach only just about keeps the whole thing from flushing down the pan, and I absolutely need to devote more time to @career - hence the previous paragraph ;)