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Contexts or Folders? Ah! The dilema! Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
OK. I had an epiphany last night. The ONE missing piece to work effectively is ...

--> RESOURCE

This additional dimension in the GTD database can handle the >people, *tools, ... that are needed to complete a given task.

My request to OmniGroup is then ... rather than tags, add RESOURCE as an additional dimension in the OF database. Allow RESOURCE to be a completely separate dimension for searches and perspective definitions. Then we can define views of tasks with such demands as

* (DUE DATE: today) + (RESOURCE: >colleague) + (CONTEXT: @work)
* (CONTEXT: @errands) + (RESOURCE: >spouse)
* (CONTEXT: !reading) + (RESOURCE: <none>)
* (CONTEXT: !reading) + (RESOURCE: <any>)
* (RESOURCE: *computer) + (DUE: soon)
* (RESOURCE: >(all people, no tools)) + (DUE: today)
* (RESOURCE: *(all tools, no people)) + (CONTEXT: @home)

--
JJW
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian View Post
Fundamentally, we view "showing things you can't actually do" as undesirable, so we don't want to introduce that tradeoff into the app. We do feel like we have a good understanding of people's desire for more flexibility in organizing their tasks, and we plan to service that underlying desire in the future.
You guys generally know what you're doing, so I'm eager to see what you come up with under the rubric of "more flexibility". But I can't help but wonder if you've been a little too hung up on the idea that tags are fundamentally the same as contexts. To me tags and contexts are orthogonal. (More precisely, contexts could be regarded as one particularly narrowly defined use for tagging, as in Things, along with all the other unlimited range of metadata one might want to capture.) I want ways of structuring and filtering my data that may never make sense to anyone but me, and tags are a way of achieving that. Right now I just dump any additional info I want to keep in the Notes field, but I really want something with more structure. Actually, adding extendable, user-definable columns a la OmniOutliner would probably be an even better solution than tagging as fas as I'm concerned — although OpenMeta support would be nice too.

Last edited by eurobubba; 2012-10-06 at 03:00 AM..
 
I realise there has been a quite a bit of discussion on how to get round the singular context situation, but I was wondering is this a feature that is a future implementation or simply not within the thinking of the development?

I think if even if there was a restriction on the number of contexts (2 or 3) or sub contexts would make things easier.
 
Matt, moved your post to a thread that contains the info you're looking for. Hope this helps!
 
Brian,

Your posts linked above really helped me understand the single context philosophy a lot more. Thanks for the insight.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by JustRed View Post
Still working on wrapping my head around OF as opposed to Things.

Contexts = tags, right?
Folders is just a means of organization, correct?

How do you keep it simple? It seems to me that too many folders and too many contexts just seems... busy for busy sake? At least to me and I'm looking for suggestions.

i believe in keeping it simple. I currently have two folders: Work, Home. I used to have a couple more: Finance, Tech, Personal. But then I found I rarely had many tasks/projects in Finance, so I moved those items into Home. Same with Personal. Then Tech.

I thought I'd just use Contexts, but that's getting out of control.

Again, what's your method of organization? Suggestions for keeping it simple?

Thanks so much in advance!
To address your comparison of context, folders, tags and organization.

Contexts are triggers for circumstances necessary to complete a task. e.g. phone to make calls, grocery store to buy groceries. This then requires one to adjust and update contexts for how their workflow needs to be to move forward on completing tasks. OF offers a way to view contexts so when you are at home you see home tasks by either selecting that context or making a custom perspective.

Folders are a type of organization. I relate them to the varying levels illustrated in David Allen's book. Simply put though similar projects are better handled in a common folder. An example of this is when focus is applied to lets say a work folder, even though there are tasks which share a common context with projects in another folder - such as, @phone. You will only see the ones related to work and not be overwhelmed or distracted by other similar context items not related to projects you organized into a work folder.

A hack for metadata tagging.

I hear many people enjoy tagging items. Personally, do not like it because it is another level of organization I would need to maintain. That being said, I read this somewhere and do not remember where (possibly within these forums), but to implement tags in OF add #tagname to the notes field of a task or project. You then can search by #tagname and all associated tasks/projects are viewable. Yes, it is a hack and no, I will not use tags if implemented by Omni Group. Still this is a current solution to your issue even if not official or elegant.

Good luck and I hope this answers some of your questions.
 
 


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