[TxMt] GTD Upgraded

[Jonathan Ragan-Kelley]

As a very long-time Outliner GTDer (I was actually using my own very
similar system for well over a year before Ethan launched kGTD, and
tried Life Balance for 6 months before that, and so on), I like the
direction this bundle could go, so I'm excited to see so much early
activity.

One thing this latest conversation brings up:

Why should the user have to explicitly specify a list of contexts in a
separate file -- why couldn't contexts just be inferred from those the
user is already using, like in FMP?  They could of course be cached in
a .context_cache file for faster access, but it seems to me that
having an explicit, separate configuration file is entirely
unnecessary.

(As an aside, I really like the @.* tab trigger idea for user-defined
contexts, btw -- and that's where I see the cache file helping, vs.
having to parse contexts out of each and every project file every
time.)


The other complexity I don't yet fully grok is why there is this
notion of task-type that's orthogonal to both context and project.
>From my own experience, at least, this sort of added layer of
complexity over and above basic GTD (traditionally you just have
@email, @work and @home, not tasks vs. email vs. ? | @home vs. @work
leading to email at home vs. task at work) always winds up getting trimmed
away in the end, and, where the distinction is genuinely useful, it's
usually because you actually have a new context distinction
(@work-email and @home-email), not because these sorts of things need
to be fundamentally orthogonal throughout, complexifying the system
even in cases where the location is irrelevant.

In short, I think using the traditional GTD sense of a single, flat
notion of context (rather than both location and task-type) is just as
powerful for those users who want to have location-specific bins, but
it's no more complex for those who don't, or, more generally, most of
us who don't *for most contexts*.


Anyway, just my 2c after watching from a distance for a while.  I'm
quite interested to see where this goes.
-jrk


On 6/14/06, Ron Rosson <oneinsanedotnet at gmail.com> wrote:
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> On Jun 14, 2006, at 10:37 PM, Mike Mellor wrote:
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> >
> > On Jun 14, 2006, at 7:18 PM, Ron Rosson wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> On Jun 14, 2006, at 6:10 PM, Richard Sandilands wrote:
> >>
> >>> Having a text file of customisable contexts that was then scanned
> >>> by your bundle woudl be the ultimate for me - watch out Kinkless
> >>> GTD!
> >>>
> >>> I suppose the user would then have to set up their own tab-
> >>> activated snippets for each context if they wanted them but that
> >>> is a small price to pay.
> >>
> >>
> >> Now you got me drooling.   ;-). What if it took the first
> >> character of the context and combined it with the action required
> >> for that item. ie....
> >>
> >> tw == work task
> >> tm == mac task
> >> th == home task
> >> etc etc.
> >>
> >> Just throwing out ideas
> >>
> >> -Ron
> >
> > Great start!  Here's kind of the format I envision:
> >
> > #Base Contexts, with built in tab commands
> > TASK | t | 00ff00 # context | tab key | color for list view
> > HOME_TASK | th | 000f00
> > ...
> > #User Defined Contexts that use a generic tab command (say, "@") +
> > a key combination
> > SCHOOL | s | ff0000 #The user would type "@ s" and then tab to make
> > this work
> > ...
> >
> > How does that sound?
>
> Like what the doctor ordered.  ;-) to me. Since right now I am
> working full time, going to school four nights a week and still
> maintaining normal household maintenance and then throw in calls I
> need to make errands I need to run etc. This is is going to give
> kinkless a run for its money. While you are refining would it be
> possible to drop the extension of the filenames when displaying the
> list and active list. (Kinda beautify it a bit).
>
> - -Ron
>
> P.S. Would it be possible to have a task like "go Shopping" and then
> link another list to the go shopping list with the list of things you
> needed to buy.
>
> Just came to me.. Thought I would bring it up.
>
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