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I have been playing with the iphone version. Every since my days as a PalmPilot programmer I've been waiting for the ability to do location-based reminders for to-do items, so I am excited!

I am trying to figure out best-practices for this, though.

It seems that you can only attach locations to contexts, though, which is a little odd. For instance, in my errands I might have a number of items, each from different stores. I'd like to attach locations to individual items without having to create a new context for a single item.

I guess I can kinda see the desire to keep things "clean" and use contexts as sets of resources (including locations). But it feels weird to create a context for a single item. Should I just get over that?

Here's a few of the items I have that would be nice for location-awareness, I'd appreciate some best-practices on how to make it work:

1. A set of items to get at the grocery store (would like to do it if near any publix)
2. Get back something I borrowed from a friend (set location to his house)
3. Pick up an item that was repaired at a shop (it's in my errands context).

Thanks!
This is very excited.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by apinstein View Post
It seems that you can only attach locations to contexts, though, which is a little odd. For instance, in my errands I might have a number of items, each from different stores. I'd like to attach locations to individual items without having to create a new context for a single item.

I guess I can kinda see the desire to keep things "clean" and use contexts as sets of resources (including locations). But it feels weird to create a context for a single item. Should I just get over that?
I would say get over it, you can have one project called home but many contexts: Errands-hardware store, Errands-groceries, Errands-dry cleaning. Then set contexts for: Business search "hardware store", business search "grocery store", address "123 main, anytown IL". With this setup the iPhone location tasks will locate the stores for you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by apinstein View Post
1. A set of items to get at the grocery store (would like to do it if near any publix)
2. Get back something I borrowed from a friend (set location to his house)
3. Pick up an item that was repaired at a shop (it's in my errands context).
for this I would use:
1. business search
2. address, the context would be "Bob Jones" as something you need to talk to Bob about
3. address, since the this is where you left the item.

hope that helps.
 
I totally agree with the original poster and started a thread about it a couple days ago. It seems incredibly silly to have to create a context for every individual action that needs a location. That is just an unnecessary level added to the hierarchy and it goes against good outlining practice: you shouldn't create a single subitem as it could just as easily be one level up. Not to mention that it adds a lot of extra effort for a just making a To Do so that I can remember to get my haircut. There is absolutely no reason that I should have to make an action and a context to find the nearest barber.
 
Honestly, for a one-off action, I'd probably just put the action in a 'Errands' context, and then use the Maps application on the phone to find the barber once I got to that task on my list.

Omnifocus is one way to do a business search, but it's not the only way.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kman42 View Post
I totally agree with the original poster and started a thread about it a couple days ago. It seems incredibly silly to have to create a context for every individual action that needs a location. That is just an unnecessary level added to the hierarchy and it goes against good outlining practice: you shouldn't create a single subitem as it could just as easily be one level up. Not to mention that it adds a lot of extra effort for a just making a To Do so that I can remember to get my haircut. There is absolutely no reason that I should have to make an action and a context to find the nearest barber.
I'm the original poster, and the more I think about using this feature, the more I agree with this viewpoint ;)

Seems like we need to be able to attach items to contexts AND items. The idea of having contexts with locations is great and fits very well into the Contexts model. However, I also agree that making up contexts for a single item is a pain.

I will try it out and see how I feel about it once I use it a bit, though. Maybe I'll change my mind.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mporter42 View Post
I would say get over it, you can have one project called home but many contexts: Errands-hardware store, Errands-groceries, Errands-dry cleaning.
I'll try this and see how it goes. I think it might be annoying to do extra entering for items just to get their locations to work, but we'll see.

In fact, I've just tried to do this, on the Desktop, and you can't add locations on the desktop! That's going to be annoying.

Also, because on the iPhone you see only actions in THAT context, not nested, it's much harder to see what all you have in a "parent" context. Although I suppose since it shows you sub-contexts if you've set them up right it might not mater... I'll seee.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mporter42 View Post
Then set contexts for: Business search "hardware store", business search "grocery store", address "123 main, anytown IL". With this setup the iPhone location tasks will locate the stores for you.
for this I would use:
1. business search
2. address, the context would be "Bob Jones" as something you need to talk to Bob about
3. address, since the this is where you left the item.
Ok, that's cool, I didn't understand how this location feature worked at first. That's really nice.
 
I have a generalized "Downtown" context with an address of "1st and Pine, Seattle, WA" and then any one-of-a-kind errands downtown get tossed in there. Whether it's fresh roasted nuts from Pike Place, or buying a book at B&N, they all show up as "nearby" when I get anywhere near downtown.

Obviously this works best for places I've been to enough not to need directions.

If I need directions to a new place downtown, I still set the context to 'downtown' but put a google maps link in the task notes. That can be pasted in on the desktop and retrieved on the phone.
 
So if I have 12 or 15 things to do each at different places, I'm going to need to create a different context for each item? The GTD "context" I'm in when doing these is errands, not that specific place. I don't see a reason to use the location-based stuff until I can assign it to an item. Having that many contexts is just waaaay too much, especially when many of them will have only one item and maybe only one time.

-Chris
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ee99ee View Post
So if I have 12 or 15 things to do each at different places, I'm going to need to create a different context for each item? The GTD "context" I'm in when doing these is errands, not that specific place. I don't see a reason to use the location-based stuff until I can assign it to an item. Having that many contexts is just waaaay too much, especially when many of them will have only one item and maybe only one time.

-Chris
I agree. I think that being able to fine-tune locations would be very helpful. I would imagine the context location would be default - however, if an item gets assigned a location, it would override the context location. Is this feasible? Or would there be challenges in implementing this?

Quote:
I would say get over it, you can have one project called home but many contexts: Errands-hardware store, Errands-groceries, Errands-dry cleaning.
I don't think this would be an ideal solution for me - especially when looking at your actionable items by context on the iPhone. It seems that the iPhone app doesn't hide contexts with zero active items so all contexts you create would be listed there and it would be difficult to sift through so many contexts to find the next actionable item.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ee99ee View Post
So if I have 12 or 15 things to do each at different places, I'm going to need to create a different context for each item? The GTD "context" I'm in when doing these is errands, not that specific place. I don't see a reason to use the location-based stuff until I can assign it to an item. Having that many contexts is just waaaay too much, especially when many of them will have only one item and maybe only one time.
I have a general errands context with no location, but subcontexts for useful things like 'grocery store' or 'drug store'. Places I'm likely to return to more than once.

Again, for one-offs, you can switch to the map application and do a business search there. One approach is not going to work for every errand.
 
 


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