[bas42]

Many good thoughts. Another one I had was to use the silver bullet, i.e., the flag. Maybe the flag, for me, is the @waiting tag. So any context that is a person with a flag would be the equivalent of an "@waiting" for that person.

I've always had a little trouble with contexts that are people, e.g, @spouse, vs. contexts that are physical, e.g., @office. What if I want to be sure to call my spouse when I'm at work?

Based on comments that David Allen makes in his books, I have concluded that his system (while the best I have ever seen in this domain) is a little reflective of the lifestyle of a consultant who lives his life on the road largely and doesn't have kids. Thus, some tweaking is required.

[davidC]

To bas42:
It seems to me you are talking about two distinct kinds of waiting.
The first kind is "waiting for yourself to delegate" some responsability to another.
The second kind is "waiting for the person to get back to you".
Seems to me that you need two categories:
@delegate and
@waiting (to hear back)
When you have delegated some task you need to then place a reminder in @waiting that the ball is in that person's hands. You might alternatively or additionally set a tickler if the person doesn't get back by a certain date.

[Jon]

Smart folders are not essential, though they would nice. I want to be able to see a project with tasks in it based on the context(s) of the task(s). If a task in a project has been moved to a "waiting" or "delegated" context that I have created then I do not want to see them in my daily to do list. On my weekly review, I want to check all the delegated or waiting tasks, not have them in my face every day. I have never so wanted a feature as this in any piece of software.

My guess is that this is not a trivial change since you need to make an interface that not computer scientists can use. If Microsoft can do it with email filters, I know you guys can :-)

I love Omni products, but this limitation is so significant, I may too look at iGTD2, or something else.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by Jon

I want to be able to see a project with tasks in it based on the context(s) of the task(s). If a task in a project has been moved to a "waiting" or "delegated" context that I have created then I do not want to see them in my daily to do list. On my weekly review, I want to check all the delegated or waiting tasks, not have them in my face every day.

Isn't this exactly what OF does today?

I want to be able to see a project with tasks in it based on the context(s) of the task(s).

If you select the Calls context, you only see projects and actions that have Calls (group by Project to show the relevant projects).

If a task in a project has been moved to a "waiting" or "delegated" context that I have created then I do not want to see them in my daily to do list.

If you set up your "waiting" or "delegated" contexts as "On Hold", and you're viewing only "Active" contexts, those "waiting" and "delegated" contexts (and thus the action assigned to them) won't show up in your projects in Context mode.

On my weekly review, I want to check all the delegated or waiting tasks, not have them in my face every day.

For use during your weekly review, you can set up a Perspective that shows only On Hold contexts, or more specifically, only the "waiting" and/or "delegated" contexts, and review those as necessary.

What's missing?

It's pretty easy to pull up a window of all Accountant-related tasks whilst still filing all waiting-for items under Waiting and non-waiting person-related items under People:

• Command-2 to your Context mode
• Command-click People/Accountant
• Command-click Waiting/Accountant
• Control-Command-P to open the Perspectives menu
• Moan about the lack of a "Save Perspective As..." option
• Click + to create a new Perspective
• Click the camera icon to snapshot the Perspective

From then on, you can visit the Accountant perspective and see all the items.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by bas42

I've always had a little trouble with contexts that are people, e.g, @spouse, vs. contexts that are physical, e.g., @office. What if I want to be sure to call my spouse when I'm at work?

One argument here would be that you should put it in "@calls", since that's the real context of what you need (i.e. a phone).

The other argument would be that we need multiple contexts. That one's been beaten into the ground, dug up, dusted off, and beaten again.

[bas42]

One argument here would be that you should put it in "@calls", since that's the real context of what you need (i.e. a phone).

What if I need something at my office (e.g, project calendar only available at my office) to have the discussion? Or maybe I know the only real time this will work is during the work day? I realize the multiple contexts thing has been beat up a bit and I can certainly find workarounds here. But I have really appreciated the many comments on this thread.

[rmathes]

agreed. This is how I have mine set up and it works fine. Not sure what OF isn’t doing that Jon is looking for.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by garthrk

• Control-Command-P to open the Perspectives menu
• Moan about the lack of a "Save Perspective As..." option
• Click + to create a new Perspective
• Click the camera icon to snapshot the Perspective

Moan no more! If instead you choose Perspectives > Save window as new perspective, the Perspectives window opens automatically, ready to edit the name.

[erima]

My general attitude toward contexts is that they need to be as specific as you need them to be. Therefore @work and @home and @phone are okay, or @work phone and @home phone are ok too. Or @work phone (specifically at work) and @phone (doesn't matter). Similarly @computer may suffice, or @work computer may be appropriate for many items... or like most people @work may be always in front of a computer, so that is sufficient.