Ep. 335: Context-Based Lists  ## Metadata - Author: [[Getting Things Done]] - Full Title: Ep. 335: Context-Based Lists - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/7e741b9e-75b8-4957-962d-8e0d197ed330 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Switching From Date-Driven To Context Lists** - Julianne switched from date-driven Google lists to context-based lists in Nirvana and found the change eye-opening. - She discovered her to-do list disappeared and she had to decide in the moment what to do. Transcript: Julianne Is Julianne. Hi, Julianne. John Forrester Thanks for joining. Julianne Well, for me, I just recently switched over to as my platform. And I was going through a partial job change and I had a little bit of free time, so I thought, well, this is the perfect time to do it. Previous job was using all of the Google platforms. New job was using all of the Microsoft Outlook. And it just seemed like it was a time that I needed to switch anyway. John Forrester I missed the name of the new one you're on now. Julianne Nirvana. Oh, okay. John Forrester Great. Okay. Julianne Yeah. I had time ago, but never researched it. And then I got back on the GTT Connect and found all the users, set up guides and set that all up um so i've been blown away how much well i should say how long i've been trying to follow gtt And not realizing i wasn't really following it until i truly switched to this context-based engagement. Ah. Up until now, I've been using things like Google. And everything always had a due date. Everything always kind of populated what I need to do today. And I always thought I was doing it right until I switched everything over to context. And I'm like, wait, there's nothing in my to-do list. I have to decide what to do. So that's been fascinating. ([Time 0:01:36](https://share.snipd.com/snip/426d6dad-181f-4c04-85dd-94045733b052)) - **Work From Contexts Not One To-Do List** - Use context-based lists instead of a single to-do list to make moment-by-moment decisions about what to do. - Refine wording on lists to attract you and create doable actions that you'll actually complete. Transcript: John Forrester Well, let's see I I'll just let anybody else jump in at any point here one thing I went one little bit of good news you said what else what else is there well we just scheduled another live Webinar for about two weeks from now on calling it something like super lists, like how to make your lists even better. Yes, working from contexts is a big, big improvement opportunity for most people versus having just what they call a to-do list. And then there are opportunities beyond that where you have your basic GTD lists, but there are improvements available for most people in how they word those lists, how they, what they, How they, it comes down to the wording of how you, how you put the words on the list in ways that will attract you to the list and have you look at the list and go, I can do that. And by the end of the day, I did seven things that I wanted to accomplish that I hadn't moved forward on before. And it can be just little changes in how they're worded that make quite a bit of difference. Well, good. Julianne I will sign up for that one. That's great. That's ([Time 0:05:35](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2598b516-f1d0-47e1-b6a2-cb036f51b4ef)) - **Create Contexts Based On Where You Are** - Build contexts around where you spend time and the support available (e.g., @commute, @calls, @computer). - Keep contexts flexible and rename or split them as devices and tasks change. Transcript: John Forrester And my question back to you is, since you've discovered contexts, what sorts of contexts did you come up with? Those are very flexible. They're very adaptable. So if you're willing to share, what kind of context did you come up with? Julianne I have my at agendas. I have my at anywhere. I have one that's called, I lump them all together, at calls, emails, texts, at church, at commutes, because I tend to be in the car a lot as I'm commuting back and forth to a few locations In the Houston area. I have at computer, at errands, at work, and then I have at my sister's house. I'm helping her a lot with her kids. Yeah. John Forrester Yeah. Those sound like great contexts, partly based on where you're spending a good amount of your time. Julianne And that's how they should be, right? It's not, there's no other, it's like where you physically ([Time 0:07:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e3f1f583-4ab0-4ad1-ab7a-03ce136979ec)) - **Contexts Evolve With Devices And Mindset** - Contexts evolved from place-based distinctions (office/home) to device- and mindset-based lists. - You may split @computer into device or program-specific contexts to match different mindsets. Transcript: John Forrester In the beginning, when David was first doing this, it was even pre-internet. And so a lot of people, gosh, I'm going to go back to before a lot of people even had their own. So David's been doing this since the 80s. And if you go back to those early seminars, some of the people he was presenting to didn't even have their own computer terminals at work. They were using paper files and sending paper memos. And they probably had typewriters and were starting to get word processors and things. So at computer was an early version of the list. Lots of the contacts were very place based, meaning I'm at the office. That's where my office files are. Or I'm at home. That's where my home files are. And there was more of a division there. And the contexts have changed for most people over the years. Let's see, do you work at home? Julianne On occasion. Okay. So I have my work. I have my home office set up. And then I have my work office set up. Yeah. And then I even have, well, I'm in a graduate school program. So I even have my graduate studies desk set So I kind of have three different work locations. John Forrester Yeah. Yeah. Well, so you're kind of lazy and don't have much ambition, of course. Your life sounded busy enough before you added graduate school. And then I'm, oh my goodness, what good for you you'll you definitely need GTD to manage all of this yeah in your life it certainly has brought almost a sense of comfort in the last couple Days just almost calming down a bit yeah so yes to what you were saying about the context being kind of place-based say at commute you're in your car so what can you do when you're in your Car? Yeah. Julianne And usually it's the different audio books I'm trying to listen to or. Yeah. You know, make sure they're queued up and stuff like that. Right. John Forrester You may have a learning project where you're learning by listening to some course during a drive or something like that. Yeah. Excellent way to look at context. And the other one that lots of people have gotten to as home and office have blurred more and as devices have made, mobile devices have made it more possible to do more things, say on a phone, In addition to on a computer. So, at computer could also mean at phone or at tablet, depending on what you're doing. Personally, I don't like to be working on a spreadsheet on my phone. Just because I can do it doesn't mean I like to do it. And that's a quick way to put me in kind of a grumpy mood is make me work on something tiny and detail oriented. Yeah. Like a spreadsheet instead of on a big screen. So your contexts may evolve to where you divide at computer into more specific contexts there. ([Time 0:08:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f0050de6-cffb-4e54-8902-562b4742a14b)) - **Use Higher Horizons Only As Needed** - You don't need to populate higher horizons (areas of focus) unless they hold your attention. - Use Areas of Focus to guide decisions and reduce cognitive dissonance about where you spend time. Transcript: Julianne One thing I didn't do was I didn't set up the areas function in Nirvana. And I'd love to hear from Chuck if he's a big-time user, if he uses that or not. I don't subscribe to the work-life balance concept. I think of it as a work-life integration. So I think of like I don't want to separate into a polar, but that is of any benefit to others. John Forrester For those who are listening in a commute instead of reading, Chuck's comment was it's a real paradigm shift when you start seeing the world through clear, constantly shifting context-based Open eyes. It keeps your senses sharp as you stay ultra-aware of your surroundings in a contextual manner. Julianne Yeah, for sure. Because if anything, I was always having this fear of dread, thinking I was using GTD but still hooked or hooked on the to-do list. It's like well I haven't done my to-do list and you know or I don't want to do that you know how do I take it off my to-do list and I don't want to take it off my to-do you know so there was but now It was just completely mind-blowing to me to think, oh, actually making those decisions throughout the day of what I want to work on is more empowering than seeing the list already pre-generated For me. John Forrester Right, right. And not to put down having a list, most people in the world who don't even have a list, you're so far ahead of them because they're trying to hold their list in their head. At least you got it externalized and like that. And you're talking about refinements that are in the 99.9 percentile of productivity now. So good for you. So you're at computer list. You may at some point decide to refine that some and separate it out. And I've heard of people doing that based on what device they're working on, what kind of computer, what program they're working on. I've experimented with that at times where I've had my computer list divided by some of the major programs I use because those have different mindsets that go with them. If I'm doing something that's more coding or bookkeeping, kind of numbers and linear, then I may want that as a context. David Allen has a creative writing context. He puts himself in a comfortable chair in his living room with his laptop on his lap where he can write and it gets him out of the other office work context and he has different thoughts. Julianne Yeah. And he's not going to email at the same time. John Forrester Yeah, he could, but I suspect he just makes it more like I'm looking back and forth between the view out the window and the screen and letting my mind work on creative writing instead of Replying to seven new emails. Thank you. Let's see. While Chuck is looking at whether you can get a screenshot of areas of focus, I would say you don't need to populate those higher horizons unless you have your attention on them. ([Time 0:12:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ca876baf-1323-4716-a108-7d0caf27e187)) - **Higher Horizons Used As Reference** - Julianne used higher-horizon reviews to define goals and kept them as reference lists for weekly review. - She realized some responsibilities (like helping her sister) might belong on Areas of Focus to avoid dissonance. Transcript: Julianne I think I had used GTD for the main purpose of identifying all of those higher horizons, and I've always kept those as like a reference list and I would do the weekly reviews and reviews Different horizons at different months or quarters so that was actually pretty strong for me I guess where I'm not seeing the connection is how to have that or if there's any way to leverage That in Nirvana besides just having it as a reference list. Because I definitely got the whole context-based tag, and then like the, you know, who I'm waiting for concept in Nirvana that seems to be helping. None of my other or none of the Horizon you know content seem to seem to be realized in Nirvana. John Forrester I know they're available one way or another and again let's see if if Chuck has a comment or a screenshot or anything he's used it more recently than I have do you have your projects list Distinguished in Nirvana okay great okay so you've got the ground level and then the second level which is projects and then for areas of focus of it based on what you described it sounds Like you already know what those are and you may or may not need them listed out in any way. I mean, you've got your areas of focus are, you mentioned your family, your sister, work, church. Pretty much. Julianne I'm trying to pull it up right now. And that areas of focus is similar to accountability, right? John Forrester Yeah um the the name has changed a bit over the years but you could call it areas of focus responsibility accountability yeah so that's a church being a partner to my husband my job my children Julianne Actually I don't even list my sister in there, but that's interesting. Maybe it is an area of focus since I've been helping her out some, or spending a lot of time. John Forrester Yeah. Well, that would be one of the reasons to put it on there is because it would keep you from having any kind of internal cognitive dissonance where you go, oh, I'm spending significant Time on this, but it's not part of what I've given myself as a job description. Julianne Yeah, it's true. John Forrester At work and then ask what do you work on and start to find out the things they work on that are not in the job description or things that are big in the job description but ask them what they Julianne Work on and they no I never do anything like that yeah that's interesting yeah because I just list my job um know my profession but I hadn't thought of the parts of that because I do like To do those reviews just from a job standpoint of making sure I'm getting paid for what you know making sure that I'm focusing on what I need to focus on and I hadn't thought of expanding This you know horizon 2 list to include those sub parts Yeah. John Forrester That's an interesting way to look at it at work. Am I doing the work that I'm getting paid for? Yeah. Julianne Cause I, I end up having to pull all that out again. I have to pull out my job description. It's like a, but if I had it here, it would just already be listed there and wouldn't have to take that secondary step. Oh, okay. It looks like we got some. John Forrester There we go. Chuck's working on a new computer. That sounds like a project to me. Julianne Well, first of all, I love his color combo. Hadn't thought about changing. I could see when I set up Nirvana, you could change up the colors, but it's fun. John Forrester Oh, yeah. He's got list of areas of focus. It's a little more detailed than what you were saying. I'll read it for those who are listening. Financial, GTD and personal development, health and longevity, hobbies and leisure, house home, job career, love partnering, online sales, parenting, spiritual growth, sports And fitness, tools and systems, travel and tourism. Okay. Julianne That sounds like a fun life. It does. That's really well-rounded. And what's interesting is seeing how he's put some of those together. I focus some of those topics like in my goals. Often. Yeah. John Forrester Something in your areas of focus could generate a goal or a vision that may take you several years to accomplish, or it could generate a project. And an area of focus could skip over projects and go right down to something at the ground level where it's a calendar item or something on a to-do list, an action list, that isn't even Part of a larger project. There's no requirement that everything on every horizon link to something above and below it. ([Time 0:16:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/daca1dc8-405d-4260-9861-ff85fb1dc16b)) - **Don't Chase A Universal Perfect App** - Expect no universal 'perfect app' because needs vary by person, device, and security constraints. - Prioritize flexibility and personal fit over seeking an ultimate single solution. Transcript: Julianne I almost think there shouldn't be a perfect app, the ultimate GTT app, because I think everyone comes into this so differently and needs different things at different times. And like we've talked about already, it's a lifetime of mastery. If I had a perfect ultimate app, I don't feel like I, I probably would get turned off from it from the beginning. Cause if it didn't fit me exactly, I wouldn't know to grow with it. Even though at many times I've always said, Oh, I wish David would just tell me how to do this electronically. John Forrester You know, over the years, I've heard lots of people say they have the perfect app. Sometimes it's a developer and say, here's my product, please pay me, this is the perfect app. Or an end user saying, I found it, this is what works. And then almost, I can't remember a case where it didn't turn out to be the perfect app within a fairly narrow range of requirements. So it's the perfect app if you're on Windows, or if you're on a Mac, or if you don't need to sync it with your phone, etc. The perfect app for everything, that's a tall order. Chuck's saying, this theoretical ultimate app would be flexible enough to accommodate anyone's needs or desires yeah that's ideal and i hate to be the naysayer here it's just that I've watched people try this for a long time now and one of the things that often people run into is hey this is the perfect app for me and then they work at a company that's got security concerns And the the department says, that may be a perfect app for you, but it has these security holes that open the rest of our network up to issues. So we can't let you use that for your work, those kinds of things. And the other thing that's shown up a lot lately is people want a perfect app that brings in artificial intelligence. They want it to already know everything about them in a way. Perfect app needs to already know what my schedule is for the rest of the day so it can advise me what to work on in this free hour I have after this or something like that. ([Time 0:24:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e0f99259-b66a-459a-b6da-2b6366dfb3ba)) - **Moving From Paper To Todoist For Scale** - Mariko moved from paper to Todoist because she needed scalability and visual layout. - She still feels friction with weekly reviews and wonders if a more visual app would suit her better. Transcript: Mariko Sure. At this time I am using Todoist. I did do coaching, Mary O'Malley. I had coached with her for foundation, GTD, and I think for about a year or so. And initially, I was paper because I like the tactile approach. Um, and I do, uh, comprehend better when I write. However, I just couldn't keep up with the pace, uh, professionally and personally. And as Julianne shared, I like the word integration because sometimes I'm working more than personal life and personal life more than working. And so, and I'm a visual person, so I need to see it all at one time. So I transitioned to Todoist. I am a Mac user. So I did the free of Todoist and also free OmniFocus because at work also it's more of a Microsoft PC platform. And so I ended up with Todoist. And now that I have been involved in it, my disclaimer is I do need to keep practicing the weekly review. I just listened to Meg's webinar, keeping it clean. But as I'm doing that, it's still I still feel a little friction. And so that's why I was really curious and joining. And it's great to learn about different platforms because I'm realizing I'm also a visual person. And perhaps Todoist is not as visually appealing as I need to have. That's a long-winded answer. ([Time 0:27:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a4bfb7d6-81df-4a4b-b1e5-601bd8ec0f35)) - **GTD Mastery Comes In Cycles** - GTD mastery cycles: revisit resources as needs and sophistication change. - GTD Connect acts like a library you return to for new ideas and refinements over time. Transcript: Speaker 4 I'd like to give a short message to those of you who've been participating and playing with GTD Connect for a while. And sort of remind you that all of us with this GTD methodology and this set of practices go through cycles. You know, I still go through cycles myself. Initially, there's kind of the inspiration and there's a lot of material to ingest and to get familiar with. And so people oftentimes, when they first come on to Connect, are just potentially overwhelmed by how much information there is. In a way, it's just a huge library where we've been able to archive so much different information from so many different perspectives and people and points of view. And so understood that it's like walking into a library, go, gee, where do I start? So that's oftentimes the initial phase of this. And many people, after a year or two, probably get on some level or some plateau where they go, well, I kind of got it now. I've got my system set up and everything's fine. And I'm fine tuning. And you may find yourself at that point also finding yourself saying, gee, I'm now becoming a resource of this methodology for people around me, you know, people asking me for assistance And help in this. And we've seen in the forums a number of people now sharing ideas about how to get your teams more involved or families more involved with this information. So some of that information is in there as well. But I think you'll find yourself going through cycles of this. And you may find that much like if you've ever read a software manual, I remember when I read when I learned Microsoft Word to begin with for instance I read the manual like wow this is really Cool and I started to use the tool and didn't need the manual anymore as a matter of fact a good example of that right here the manual for this camera that's taking this picture right now Initially I read this got it all set up that's really cool and that's really fine. And so pretty much everything was under cruise control. I didn't need to go back to my library to make this really work. And then of course as I started to get more sophisticated in terms of the stuff I wanted to do, got more inspired about some things I saw other people are doing, I go, ah, how do I do that? Went back to the manual, I go, oh god, I didn't realize I could do that. I didn't realize I could do that. I remember at least two or three iterations of going back to Microsoft Word back in the days when there actually was a manual for that, as opposed to just all online and realizing, oh my God, I didn't realize that. Oh, I could do that now. I could do that now. And I think that's what you might find with Connect too, is that it's a gold mine of stuff. Well, many people have read Getting Things Done, you know, more than three or four times, and every time they read it, they get something new out of it. So I think you may find Connect the same way, and probably even easier, because, hey, it doesn't take much to just click on, surf around, see what might be new or what might be of interest To you. ([Time 0:31:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/574e97ee-4ad2-46db-b3c9-010190eda19d))