[OOO]

When I first started using GTD a few years ago I started with a long list of contexts. I just sat down and thought of all the different places I'd need to get things done. I thought the concept was pretty cool. I imagined sitting down or heading out the door, correct context in hand, and completely focusing with "mind like water"... it didn't really work out that way though. For one thing, a lot of contexts just blurred together "Computer Online", "Computer Research", "Computer Email", etc. I also realized I was treating my to-do list like my CD collection: making a neat little database rather than focusing on checking things off (that's why I'm very much not into multiple contexts, priorities, etc.).

I work as an IT consultant from home, so that made it even worst. It was basically one big context.

So I just whittled the list down to basically "Computer", "Home", "Not At Home". After a while a small number of subcategories naturally emerged, like "Computer: Aperture" for when I'm fiddling with photos, "Home: Kitchen" for kitchen projects. Added "Calls" and a couple others.

So, yeah, try the ultra-minimal context list and see if clear boundaries or "mental states" emerge after a while. Whichever context you spend the most time in (like office or computer) could be split up by "area of focus" or "role", I bet.

Here are my current contexts:

*Calls
*Home
**Kitchen
**Yard
*Not At Home
*Computer
**Aperture
**Zone
*Waiting
*People
**.....
**.....

Computer:Zone is anything that requires blocks of uninterrupted concentration, like programming or solving a problem.

It looks like I have roughly 60 projects (a lot of my IT projects are documented in my Basecamp site, actually).

[jasong]

I've also been in IT and now work in software development and marketing and spend 90% of my time in front of a computer. Like OOO and Curt, I have minimal numbers of contexts and don't have a significant need for multiple contexts.

My contexts, like OOO, have grown over time based on a need to separate an activity out into its own mind-space. When OF introduced "active" contexts (i.e. those which have items show up, the rest remain hidden) I found myself becoming more specific. Here are my current contexts:

home
email
- work
Girlfriend (don't worry, I actually use her name!)
* Girlfriend's place
Calls
Writing
Computer
* laptop
* home office
* office computer
* servers
* online
errands
* costco
blog
research
exercise
work
* bug reporting tool
* techsupport tracking tool
pay bills
discussions
downtime
San Francisco
Waiting On
Leopard (for when I was testing stuff)
Netflix (for movies to add to my download list)
Mom

[jasong]

(I wish the "all actions" in contexts was still available so I could see how many actions have been in a context.)

[kardan]

I am an Mac developer running my own business and I use the following context:
- mac
- business (at work time when not doing development)
- dev (at work time )
- offline (things I can still do when offline, like read an article what I have save to my @read folder )
- calls
- errands
- home
- notepad
...

Don't forget that on most computers, switching between applications is a "very fast" action and therefore I can't really se any value in having a context for an application. Contexts shall be added with care! Contexts is a mechanism that is meant to let you watch you stuff from the perspective you happened to be located at. For selecting what to do, context is the first thing that narrow down you choice. For more fine grained selection between tasks you will have to take things as the time available, your focus (are you tired?), what is urgent and what can wait?..

Don't have a @read context in OmniFocus. Create a folder in your computer and a "real life" counterpart. Use those as a folder is meant to be used, just throw things in and read them when you want. Don't have a @email context in OmniFocus. Just save a draft in you mail application.

I do have a context for mac-dev which 90% of the time means that I will use Xcode. But that is because I like to use somedays to be businessman and somedays to be a nerdy developer. For days when in developer mode I don't want to see tasks related to business.

[jasong]

Originally Posted by kardan

Don't have a @read context in OmniFocus. Create a folder in your computer and a "real life" counterpart. Use those as a folder is meant to be used, just throw things in and read them when you want. Don't have a @email context in OmniFocus. Just save a draft in you mail application.

Gotta disagree on both points. The Reading context (which I have, but seemed to skip in my list) is extremely valuable for organizing me. Sometimes I just need to buckle down and read a few pages of documentation and when I'm in that "mood", I can look in my Reading context and pick something. Seeing that context also acts as a reminder.

Similarly for email, except this is an actual activity, an creating a draft means breaking the flow of thoughts. If I'm planning something, and one of the actions is "email frank", I want to be sure it's captured as such.

[joelande]

Originally Posted by kardan

Don't forget that on most computers, switching between applications is a "very fast" action and therefore I can't really se any value in having a context for an application.

You must not use Adobe Photoshop (CS2) and Adobe GoLive (CS2).

They take forever to launch.

Because of the launch times and resources they use (I don't like to leave them running idle) I created contexts for them.

Some of the others apps I listed are kind of like your dev context, because I would be doing programming in them.

I have started re-reading the GTD book, and I have been collecting contexts in a runnig list.

Am doing some experimentation.

I am starting with as few contexts as possible, and will add as needed.

@Calls
@Office
...Zone
@Computer
...Zone
@Waiting
@Agenda
...Tom
...Jim
...Sue
@Home

Context:Zone is anything that requires blocks of uninterrupted concentration, like programming or solving a problem.