There were a few other things that really jumped out at me and have been a great help.
Everyone’s set of contexts will be a little different, but right now I have: Anywhere (doesn’t require any special resources or equipment), Home, Online, Computer (doesn’t require an internet connection), Calls (telephone), Errands (for when I’m out), $$$ (items to buy requires money, obviously), Michael (need to talk about/do with hubby), Ariel (need to talk about/do with Ariel), Sophia (need to do with Sophia). This allows for looking over only those tasks I am currently able to complete and avoiding being bogged down with others. Each “context” has its own list, and a “context” is defined by what resources I need to have available to complete the task.
Initially, this sounds more complicated, but it actually simplifies things. The change to the long-term to-do list was more radical (and it is much less “long-term,” due to both changes). (That is not an absolute truth, as in you could call this person back and reschedule an appointment, so you can’t write it down it refers to items you could potentially keep putting off, as opposed to tasks applicable specifically to that day.) The reasoning is that it “dilutes” this list, because you know you don’t really have to do everything on the list, so it’s easy to overlook things that really are pressing. In other words, nothing goes on the to-do list that can be rescheduled for a later date. Allen recommends against putting anything on a daily to-do list that does not have to be done that day.
Allen does not use the term “to-do” list in describing any part of his system, I will stick with that term simply because it’s familiar.) After reading the book I made two major changes to the way I use to-do lists, one in my daily lists and one in my long-term lists. Since it’s so closely related to the last post, I’m going to start with to-do lists. I thought I should finish describing the way I had been using my day planner so as to avoid leaving anyone hanging 🙂, but now that I’ve covered all the basics, I want to talk about this book and how it affected my thinking. It caused me to immediately revamp the way I was doing certain things. Right after I began my Day Planner series, I read David Allen’s Getting Things Done.
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