Comments on: A One Bucket System: The Ultimate Productivity Heresy

By: Janet B

Janet B — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:30:02 +0000

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By: Kim

Kim — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:09:38 +0000

I don’t have many contexts and keep them flexible based on what’s happening in my life. At the moment I’m on leave for a while and mostly hanging around home, so I have @home, @out (errands), @waiting for, and @work for the things to do when I get back.

@home gets pretty long but there’s no practical difference between, say, making a phone call or doing the dusting, so they don’t need to be in different lists.

I then mark high priority and short tasks for easy spotting.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:33:13 +0000

No offense, but your system wasn’t as “faithful” to GTD guidelines as you may have thought. Looking at the contexts that you mention (@waiting @weekend @agenda @vacation @errand), most are not contexts at all, but =buckets=.

That’s why you had to scan and “slowly work through” you contexts “… evaluating each and every task” every time you “finished even the smallest milestone”.

You’re right, that is crazy. In GTD, the whole idea of contexts are to make tasks =pre-filtered= so that you do not have to think on the fly.

If one bucket works for you, go for it. But it would seem to only compound the amount you need to scan after each milestone.

By: benster1961

benster1961 — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:54:58 +0000

I loved all the comments. I still don’t have a perfect system but I’m strongly considering checking out Neil Fiore’s books. I need to get beyond my procrastination.

Any comments on his materials?

By: K man

K man — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:00:03 +0000

Looks like a lot of people suffer from analysis-paralysis. Whatever happened to the simple to-do list on a scrap of paper tucked into your wallet.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:04:13 +0000

For implementing GTD you might try out this web-based application:

Gtdagenda.com

You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use checklists, schedules and a calendar. A mobile version is available too.

As with the last update, now Gtdagenda has full Someday/Maybe functionality, you can easily move your tasks and projects between “Active”, “Someday/Maybe” and “Archive”. This will clear your mind, and will boost your productivity.

Hope you like it.

By: Carissa Thorp

Carissa Thorp — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:45:01 +0000

Having one list with no context isn’t GTD heresy (see Chapter 2 p41 in the Australian edition). Allen says 20/30 up to 50 tasks is probably the limit for a single “Next Actions” list, but that’s a suggestion, not a rule.

Contexts are just one of the ways to “batch” tasks. In GTD, if you don’t use context, you move sideways to “Time Available”, “Energy Available”, &/or “Priority”. I also batch in other ways.

Personally, I use contexts, but only because I limit myself to 4, the number I can fit onto a 2 page spread in my notebook; so I essentially have one list, but divided up visually on the page/s. Contexts just didn’t work for me when I had to flip between separate pages. I think it was the lack of an in-one-glance overview of all current tasks that was the problem, rather than contexts themselves.

I will say, I probably don’t have as many tasks as most people, so my solution might not work for everyone. And each context I chose is a sort of combination of “the four criteria”, and not just a purely location and tool delimited category.

regards

By: Bod

Bod — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:24:49 +0000

As a recent adopter I too have been struggling with contexts. After a few short weeks my lists seem to have settled on @work, @home,@waiting and someday maybe. I can’t get past that I still need to set some sort of priority and then create the appropriate context.

By: MikeDidIt

MikeDidIt — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:54:52 +0000

My system is close to yours but a single bucket is not enough for me. Nevertheless, I definitely don’t use contexts the way the GTD crowd advocates. I was wasting a lot of time with contexts like @Phone, @Web, etc. Now I use @Home and @Work. This allows me to quickly hide my Work stuff when I’m home, etc., and vice versa. I have a lot of tasks in both worlds so I like being able to hide the noise, so to speak.

I use Priority to slot items for this week, someday, reference, etc.

I use Toodledo.com as it is very helpful. Vitalist.com works well, too.

Have a great one!

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:07:23 +0000

Add me to the list of those that never, ever was able to get into the Contexts framework. I spent the first 3 months after reading GTD in 2003, setting up my system, and I felt the same unease you describe, David. The unease came off in two distinct chunks: the first was getting rid of the 43 folders (31 day, 12 months). But the second, biggest aha of the whole system–”and it remains the biggest today even 5 years later–” was dumping contexts. I woke one morning, going, “wait… I have only one context… my life!” Hard to describe now what an insight that was, but it was huge, and I felt the weight lift off my brain. I dumped all the categories, and set up everything to flow into one Inbox, always.

I certainly get that a no-context method wouldn’t work for everyone. But if you’re feeling stressed about applying the excitement you got from reading GTD, try deleting the contexts idea. Personally, I’ve always loved tossing orthodoxy, and molding David Allen’s system has been no different. Make it work for you, I’m pretty sure that’s the object.