0:01

All right, seems like most people

0:03

have streamed in. Welcome

0:11

everybody. I'm Kelly Forrester. Nice

0:14

to be back. I haven't done one of these in a

0:17

while. And what a true pleasure

0:19

to do it with David. So

0:22

want to give a shout out, David, to

0:24

everybody? Hey, everybody. Thanks. Thanks

0:26

for joining. Interesting topic. I

0:28

didn't know was a topic until Kelly and

0:30

John sort of informed

0:33

me that there's some

0:36

misperceptions, misinformation, or

0:41

something about something

0:43

that is part of the

0:46

GTD process. So

0:48

happy to engage. Yay.

0:52

Yeah, just a good nice

0:54

chat around context. It's one

0:56

of those pieces of GTD that a

0:59

lot of people say, oh, they associate

1:01

context. Our GTD and GTD is all

1:03

about context. So just want to talk

1:05

about that, talk about wide

1:07

ranging from what's changed over the

1:09

years to myths about context. And

1:11

you're also going to get a

1:13

peek at what my contexts are

1:15

as well as David's. So

1:18

I'll drive the bus here. John

1:20

Forrester, who I also know pretty

1:22

well, is on

1:24

the webinar as well. You'll see John pop

1:26

into that chat quite a bit. He also

1:28

will have some questions. Is that right, John?

1:30

You have some questions people have sent you.

1:32

Right. For those of you who are on here

1:35

and have questions along the way, feel

1:37

free to put those in the chat window.

1:39

I'll capture those. And depending

1:42

on where they show up during the

1:44

webinar, I'll either hand those to David and

1:46

Kelly along the way or save them for the

1:48

Q&A section at the end. Here's

1:50

what we're going to cover. And we

1:52

may cover more than this based

1:55

on questions or what occurs to us. But

1:59

here's kind of the first. framework of what we

2:01

were thinking of is what's

2:03

changed around context? So

2:06

when we first David

2:08

wrote the book, you know, there was

2:11

a certain idea and the landscape was

2:13

different for workflow and technology and places

2:15

where we work. How many of

2:17

you would say now just the fact

2:20

where you work is different pre-pandemic.

2:22

You work mostly at home now.

2:24

Is that, is that,

2:27

has that changed for you? So

2:30

seeing vastly different. A

2:34

couple of yeses. So how many of you

2:36

are just that sheer nature? You don't go

2:38

to an office anymore. You really are working

2:40

from home. So there's this blend of, okay,

2:43

I'm in home mode and now I'm in work mode.

2:46

So that's one in the, in the

2:48

just recent years, certainly.

2:50

So we'll talk about just

2:52

kind of what's changed around all of that kind

2:54

of stuff. Great input. So

2:56

yeah, it seems like a lot of you

2:58

are working from home. One

3:01

large context. How do you break that out?

3:05

Change jobs, went

3:08

from home, worked from home before the pandemic and

3:10

we'll never, we'll never go back.

3:12

Yeah. So we'll talk about that. We'll

3:15

talk about what's changed. We will also

3:17

talk about myths. Some of

3:19

the things that we've heard over the years

3:21

through forum discussions, through

3:24

classes, webinars, people writing

3:26

in, just kind of what are

3:28

some of the myths that, you know, context need to

3:30

be this or they need to be this or they

3:33

can't be this. We just thought it'd

3:35

be fun to talk about what some of those common myths

3:37

are. And I always love bringing these kinds

3:39

of things to David of, you know, David, here's

3:41

what people are thinking this is about. And, um,

3:45

we've had quite a few of these over the years. Well, let's say,

3:48

well here's how people are interpreting it. David's

3:50

like, he said to me the other day, when we

3:52

were talking about this, he said, did

3:54

I write that in the book? That context

3:56

have to be a certain list. I said,

3:58

no, but you know, people. want to

4:00

also do GTD well.

4:03

How many of you would say that you have

4:05

had a question at times like, well, what are

4:07

the right contexts? Has that ever occurred to you?

4:10

What are the right ones to have? Is

4:14

it breaking a rule in some way? Just

4:17

want to dissect that one a little bit, just so

4:19

you don't feel like you're breaking a rule or

4:22

not doing GTD well. I think there's a

4:24

lot more flexibility with GTD than

4:26

people often realize. You'll get

4:28

a peek into our list, just what our contexts are.

4:31

You're going to see they're very different. And

4:34

also, ours have changed over the

4:36

years. Mine have changed significantly, certainly

4:39

the tools I've used. And sometimes the

4:41

tool dictates how I'm using a context,

4:43

interestingly. So I'll talk to you about

4:45

what that means. And

4:48

then Q&A at the end. But as

4:50

I mentioned, we'll sprinkle that throughout. Let's

4:52

just get on the same page in

4:54

common language here about what we mean

4:56

by context. So in

4:59

some really broad

5:01

definitions. And you can certainly have your

5:03

own as well here. Generally,

5:06

in the GTD speak,

5:08

they're the people, places, situations,

5:11

tools you need to

5:13

get work done. They're

5:15

what you're using to get things done. I need

5:18

to be in my home. I need to be

5:20

in my car. I need a laptop. I

5:22

need a

5:25

certain mindset, something like that. So just

5:28

want to make sure we all know what we mean by context.

5:30

And context, sometimes people will say, well,

5:33

that means a location. Because

5:35

naturally, it's like, oh, I need to be

5:37

in this place. Not necessarily. Place could also

5:39

be, I need to be in front of

5:41

this tool. Or I need to be in this

5:44

particular way of thinking. So just want to talk

5:46

to you about that as well. And

5:49

the purpose of context, straight from

5:52

the book, is context sorted lists

5:54

prevent unnecessary reassessment about what to

5:56

do. So instead

5:58

of one. one giant list

6:00

of choices that you have to sift through

6:03

and half of it you can't even do,

6:06

context helps simplify that for

6:08

you. So David, could

6:10

I get you to talk a

6:12

little bit here about context and why when you

6:14

were developing GTD, you felt like this was an

6:16

important piece? Well,

6:19

it actually emerged from the

6:22

early days where my

6:26

early seminars I was doing and

6:29

we were using a paper-based planner, we were using a

6:31

time design system in the US and

6:35

discovered that I

6:37

had all my next actions on

6:39

a separate list from my calendar, which was a

6:41

kind of a radical approach from time management even

6:44

to begin with, but then at a

6:46

certain point, I got a phone, of course

6:48

it weighed about four pounds and hung on my

6:50

belt and realized, wait a

6:52

minute, there are times when

6:54

I could just make calls where I can't

6:56

do anything else. Would it be

6:58

nice to sort of sort out the

7:00

calls I need to make because I could do that now

7:03

in a more mobile context. And

7:06

so I created a separate list called calls to

7:08

make from all my other actions

7:11

and that helped tremendously. So that's kind

7:13

of how it all started. I had a

7:15

good friend who had a sailboat, he was

7:17

in my retired, he had a sailboat in

7:19

Boston or up in Maine, lived

7:21

in Boston. And when I was

7:23

talking about this in the seminar, I said, oh wow, I

7:26

could create a list called at sailboat, not

7:29

about the sailboat, because some of the things he needed to

7:31

do, some next actions he needed to take, he needed to

7:33

buy at the boat store

7:36

in Boston. But there

7:38

were things he wanted to do when he was on his

7:40

catabaran in Maine

7:43

that only he wanted to do there. He

7:45

said, that'd be nice to put those things

7:47

that I want to do there on that

7:50

list. So those were some of the early

7:52

days as we

7:54

began to realize that people could use

7:56

context to simplify their life and

7:59

to make it. more efficient, effective, and feel

8:01

like they were more on top of the

8:03

game when they could sort the reminders of

8:05

the work they needed to do or the,

8:08

you know, the actions they wanted to take about

8:11

anything to have them sorted

8:13

in a way that worked. So

8:17

that was where the context idea started. Then

8:19

when the Palm pilot showed up, you know,

8:21

which was great. It was very easy to

8:23

then sort your actions into different kinds of

8:25

lists. And even move them from

8:27

one to the other. If you might want to do

8:30

that. And so, you know,

8:32

as the technology advanced as we sort of

8:34

advanced our thinking and there are experienced with

8:36

GTD We didn't

8:39

call it GTD back then, but you know, when

8:41

but it became that in terms of

8:44

methodology. So there was no hard rule

8:46

about any of this. It just emerged

8:48

as a sort of practical Conclusion

8:52

about what to do with all

8:54

this once you kind of got the basic

8:56

principles called empty your head to find your

8:59

work to find the actions and projects

9:01

and then see reminders of those in

9:03

some appropriate context. So

9:05

just became more aware of that as

9:08

our context began to be more discriminant.

9:10

You did. That's a great segue into

9:12

what's changed over the years. And

9:15

so, yeah, in the early days. I

9:17

remember time design paper system. I had

9:19

one next actions list. And

9:23

you didn't have that seamless move

9:25

things between lists. So certainly computer

9:28

technology and applications.

9:31

For those of you are doing like

9:33

using your list electron managing your list

9:35

electronically that's changed quite a bit. How

9:37

many of you are what, where are

9:39

you storing your list in a digital

9:42

system or a paper system. Where

9:44

are you storing your list. You can even

9:46

list the tool if you want. I know

9:48

that people love sharing their tool that on

9:50

the focus. Lots of you are using digital

9:52

impact everybody digital so far things

9:55

on the focus outlook. Digital

9:59

only Nirvana. of Sauna, Todoist,

10:02

digital and paper for Sebastian,

10:05

Microsoft Todo, some

10:08

of each. Yeah,

10:11

so. And let me put back on all

10:13

of you. Where do you keep your grocery list?

10:15

Paper for me. Welcome,

10:19

I posted on the free stuff we need.

10:22

So, you know, that's a context.

10:24

And that's a context separate organization.

10:28

Yeah, I think that is an interesting point, David, because

10:30

people say, well, it's all electronic, it's all digital. And

10:32

when I think of John's going to go over into

10:34

the store, one of us are going to go do

10:37

errands. It's a three by

10:39

five card, we have a stack of

10:41

them in the key drawer where we

10:43

keep keys, pens, right when we

10:45

walk in the door, it's our first flat

10:47

surface, but it's in a drawer. That's where

10:49

those are. And we almost always have a

10:52

list going. And because that's easier, it's not

10:54

it's just easier for us. Other people might

10:56

go now we have digital list that works

10:58

for me. So there's no right or wrong here.

11:00

It's really what what works for you and recognize

11:02

that there could be some fluidity

11:05

here and your own personal choice

11:07

based on what works for you and your lifestyle and

11:09

your family and those who who

11:11

else needs to see the information. Also,

11:16

you know, in the early days, David,

11:19

I know you had the big brick phone, but it didn't

11:21

do much. It for

11:23

its weight and size, it

11:25

was woefully woefully underpowered in terms

11:27

of, you know, power. And now we all

11:29

have these that are I

11:32

can do as much on my phone many days, as

11:34

I can do on opening my laptop.

11:37

So just the sheer nature of computers

11:39

and tablets, laptops, being

11:42

Wi Fi anywhere, it really has made

11:44

a huge, huge difference of what you can

11:47

do. I do

11:49

have a question for you, David, on that

11:51

because a few years ago, you commented you

11:53

didn't see doing much on your iPhone, your

11:56

smartphone, except for much surfing. Has

11:58

that changed? Is that still? pretty much

12:00

your experience. Yeah, it's got my experience.

12:02

Now, you know, and it's nice to

12:04

have all that available. And

12:07

I'm on the train and I have 10 minutes till I

12:09

get to my next stop to delete

12:11

junk email or, you

12:14

know, archive something or whatever, you know,

12:16

that's fine. I don't do

12:18

work on my phone, but again, that's not against people

12:20

who might want to do work on their phone. I

12:23

just like to do work where I have a bigger

12:25

screen and I have all the options of all the

12:28

different apps, you know, going on around me and accessible

12:30

to me. So I don't do work essentially

12:33

on the phone other than maybe a quick response

12:35

to something, but, and it's, come

12:37

on, it's a great time to be alive,

12:39

given all that tech that we have

12:41

right now. But again, that kind

12:44

of, that erased the context of computer

12:46

versus phone versus whatever, because you could

12:48

do that anywhere. So I

12:51

go, well, great. Well, have some sort

12:53

of generic context that says, you

12:56

know, at, at

12:59

online or at digital

13:02

or at, I don't know. But

13:04

again, how many things are you going to put on there

13:06

and are there different, you know, and if you

13:08

don't have more than, you know, two or three screen

13:11

fulls, you're probably fine. I want to

13:13

get by with that. Soon as you do, you

13:15

might want to find some sub context that might

13:17

make more sense in terms of what you actually might

13:19

do on a train where you got 10 minutes before you stop.

13:22

Mm-hmm. But most important

13:24

question, David, where do you do Wordle?

13:27

Is that on your iPad, your iPhone,

13:29

or your laptop screen? That's such

13:31

a critical question. You know, that's all I

13:33

had in the morning when I read the

13:35

New York Times and I just click on,

13:37

by the way, I got it. I got

13:39

a second level Wordle. Oh,

13:42

that's nice. Oh my

13:44

God. It's like, whoa. Well,

13:46

mostly I'm number three or number four.

13:48

So. Yeah. My

13:53

response on, you know, where, what

13:55

I use my smartphone to process,

13:58

I do quite a bit on my iPad. However,

14:02

I choose not to do, I do

14:04

not have work email on

14:07

my iPhone. I

14:09

do not feel like it's productive for me. There's

14:12

too much else I would need to

14:14

access typically in Cloud

14:17

Docs or something else. I

14:19

don't even open the door. I

14:21

don't have that as a, because I don't want to read it

14:23

and then leave it there. No, I'm going to press. I don't

14:26

want to get to work. I don't, I'd

14:28

rather just only do my work

14:30

email on my work laptop full

14:32

screen. Personal though, I, 98% of

14:37

what I process is going to be

14:39

on my iPhone rather than my personal

14:41

laptop. So that one is interesting. It's

14:44

kind of personal, professional, the nature of

14:46

it. What am I doing? But

14:49

we just wanted to mention this piece about

14:51

computers that has changed so that your, our

14:53

options have changed. We can do more on

14:56

our, our smartphone. There's also Wi-Fi access

14:58

is much different than it was even

15:01

10 years ago, certainly 20

15:03

years ago. It

15:05

was just unheard of. So it was dial

15:07

up as I recall in finding a

15:09

phone cord in a hotel room and

15:11

doing dial up and even at home

15:13

in that, that long

15:15

wait for it to connect. So

15:17

Wi-Fi access makes a difference. You

15:20

know, as David mentioned, if you're on a train

15:22

or you're traveling or in an airport, you can

15:24

do work now in a different way than you

15:27

could before. So that idea,

15:29

if you're in the right mindset, you know,

15:31

I don't know how many of you can get a lot of

15:33

great quality work done at a gate

15:35

at an airport waiting for your

15:38

flight with those announcements and all

15:41

the frenetic nature. But you could if you

15:43

wanted to. So the Wi-Fi access is a

15:46

much, much different experience these days as well.

15:50

Yes. And Sebastian, that's an

15:52

excellent sound effect

15:54

for the dial up. Next

15:59

one is working from home. So I asked many of

16:01

you, many of you are now working from home.

16:03

That's the difference as well. So

16:06

some people have gotten rid of the ad office.

16:08

It's just not even an option

16:10

anymore. It's not even something to think about anymore.

16:13

So working from home certainly has changed

16:15

things for us as well. The

16:18

fourth one I want to mention is a

16:20

technology piece really kind of relates to number

16:22

one, but it's really around the apps. So

16:26

as you can see from my list,

16:28

I actually have one next actions list,

16:31

but I use tags to

16:34

delineate what the

16:36

context is. So

16:39

you don't necessarily, what has changed, the

16:41

bottom line of this one is you

16:43

don't necessarily have to have separate lists

16:45

you look at anymore. So

16:48

tags and labels and many of the

16:50

better apps I'll say, allow you

16:52

to sort that with one

16:55

click, show me all my errands quickly because I

16:57

don't want to be if I'm out and about

16:59

sort through 40 different things to

17:01

find my errands. I

17:03

personally these days love having one

17:05

next actions list. And then

17:07

I can see for personal and I want to

17:09

work, but I love being able to see it

17:12

all in one list but then I can quickly

17:14

sort it, I just like the simplicity so I'm

17:16

at a place right now with my list and

17:18

I have gone, you know, up

17:21

and down and an accordion with the number of

17:23

lists I've had. David,

17:25

let me flip it over to you on this one. How

17:28

much do you think of your list

17:30

changed since you first started

17:32

using context to now, how much have

17:35

they changed over the years. How

17:38

much? Not much. I mean,

17:40

I think that's pretty much what they were to begin

17:42

with, you know, because I, you

17:44

know, I got rid of that computer and

17:46

at home I mean in that office. They're

17:49

all at at home. And

17:54

then traveling on the because the

17:56

pandemic, I don't have a distinction between

17:58

online and not online. computer stuff

18:00

to do, because

18:02

I'm just doing all of it kind of from

18:04

at home in my one context. So I find

18:07

there are not a whole lot of changes. I still

18:09

have errands, stuff to do at home. My

18:11

at home stuff includes the stuff I need to

18:14

do in my office that's more work

18:16

related. I've

18:21

navigated different kinds of context, little

18:23

bits here and there that just

18:25

made things a little simpler. Like

18:28

I think you're going to show my list or whatever I have

18:30

a this trip context. So

18:32

if I'm going on a trip, especially a long one where

18:34

I'm going to do stuff just when I'm on that trip,

18:36

here are things I want to be doing. Or

18:39

now I used to have a before

18:41

trip. Now I just put before as

18:43

a on that trip.

18:46

You know, before the

18:48

trip, here's the things I need to do. You

18:50

know, I'm leaving on a trip to the US

18:52

tomorrow or Saturday.

18:55

And so, you know, I've

18:57

been making a list of things I need to do before I

18:59

take off. And anything that

19:01

I might need to do while I'm there. So, you

19:04

know, that's a different context. And

19:06

also, you know, I used to have a

19:08

lot of the writing stuff

19:10

I wanted to do, you know, somebody asked me

19:12

if I was if I agreed to do a

19:14

forward to somebody's book or, or do

19:17

some sort of a, you know,

19:19

some sort of input for that

19:21

was creative. That was

19:23

a very different context to be than just business stuff

19:25

that I did at my desk, you know, on my

19:28

computer, the financial stuff and,

19:30

you know, responding to emails and

19:32

business related kinds of things. And

19:35

so I created a creative writing list, a

19:37

very different context, more psychological

19:39

context than a physical one. Because

19:42

to do that kind of thinking, I actually probably

19:45

need to be in a different place than sitting

19:47

in my where I'm sitting now. So that's

19:50

so, you

19:53

know, but not too much else has changed. I mean,

19:56

these are basic simple stuff. I mean, errands to run

19:58

stuff to do at home stuff to talk. talk to

20:00

my wife about, you know, agendas,

20:04

errands. Not

20:08

much has changed, again, given

20:11

the technology and our lifestyles changed, kind

20:13

of a re-shrunk some things and expanded

20:15

some things. You know, yeah, I

20:17

sort of morphed those as we've done that, but basically

20:20

they were what I, the

20:22

basic framework was what I started with. David,

20:25

let me hop in here for a moment.

20:28

You mentioned your creative writing context. I

20:30

think at one point I heard you say that

20:32

not only is that a context, but it's actually

20:35

a different physical location for you. Is that, can

20:37

you say more about that? Yeah, yeah.

20:41

If I'm trying to write something creative, best

20:44

place to do is go into my living room, you

20:47

know, sit in an easy chair, tilt

20:50

back, have a glass of wine or whatever, and

20:52

do that kind of thinking in a

20:55

very different physical context, helps me. Help

20:58

me do that. Then

21:01

I'll unplug my laptop and

21:03

do all the unplug things I need to do

21:05

to unplug my laptop from

21:08

the disk, et cetera, that it's hooked into, and

21:11

just go into the living room. And

21:13

that's where I tend to sit. So

21:16

to do that, not required, you know, I

21:18

may do some of that on the plane,

21:21

Saturday, you know, flying to the US, but

21:25

at least it requires

21:27

a different kind of psychological space than

21:30

just the work stuff that I need to do,

21:32

or personal admin stuff that I need to do.

21:38

Sherry mentioned a while back in the chat,

21:40

the tags and labels can get out

21:43

of control. They can become too many. Absolutely

21:46

agree on that. I

21:48

see that even more so than LIS.

21:50

LIS seems like a bigger deal to

21:52

people to make. Tags and

21:54

labels are so easy to create in

21:57

some of these apps that

21:59

people lose control. So I have some

22:01

just very pointed specific ones

22:03

that I use. So with

22:06

all of it, lists or tags, labels,

22:08

however you want to divide things. Uh,

22:11

I'll say what David said for years is have

22:14

as many as you need, but as few as you can get by

22:16

with. So I, I've never,

22:18

I've never used tags. I've tried

22:20

tags over the years time again. And then I gave

22:22

it up. Oh,

22:25

how did I tag that? And what was the word that

22:27

I used for that? And it was just too much work

22:29

for me. So Kelly, I applaud you if you've got it

22:31

simplified enough so that those are

22:34

simple for you and you can manage it that way and why, you know,

22:36

why not? But

22:38

otherwise it's way too much, uh,

22:41

cognitive, uh, rethinking and, and

22:43

reverse engineering to try to figure out what to do

22:45

and not only that, you got too many clicks. So

22:50

if you're, if you had to be, if you, if you're, if you need your

22:52

attention focused, you

22:54

know, how much time does it take for

22:56

you to organize something? And that's

22:58

a credit that's the critical, uh,

23:01

success factor for GPD. Yeah.

23:04

And that click number of clicks is key. I

23:06

know from diving into all the setup guys, it's,

23:08

it's very, some of them do it well and

23:11

some of them it's click, click,

23:13

click, click, click, or just to

23:15

get to it, something like to do is you can do it

23:17

in the line I'm writing. I can say, um,

23:20

you know, dentist about next cleaning at calls

23:23

and automatically adds the label. So it's in

23:25

my stream of typing. It's not something that

23:27

extra I need to click. So if

23:30

your tool, if it seems tedious to use

23:32

something like tags and labels, it's too many

23:34

clicks either. Don't use them. Um,

23:37

for years, I didn't either except in Evernote

23:39

in my reference, but I didn't use them

23:41

in my list, but now that I'm at

23:43

one lit one next actions, it really helps.

23:46

But I only use, I think it's six

23:48

total six, uh, tags.

23:51

That's it. I don't, our labels and

23:53

to do a swipper used

23:55

for, um, Kelly,

23:57

come up. Remember.

24:00

something called action here. One

24:02

of our first products was, we post it,

24:04

you could do a speed key, hit

24:07

it on your screen and write call bill and it

24:09

would show up on your calls list instantly.

24:12

So what's one big thing, if I can ask you all

24:14

in the chat, what's one big thing that you think has

24:16

changed for you or a couple of, you know, what are

24:18

some kind of the big things that have changed for you

24:21

over the years with your

24:23

tools, with your contacts, with

24:25

how you've approached, how

24:28

you've decided to organize and sort your

24:30

list. Sort your

24:32

list. What would you say has changed for you

24:34

that truly stands out? You go, yeah, now that

24:36

I think about it, I started this

24:38

way and now I'm using this. Context

24:42

or more fluid says Joshua. And

24:46

come and go as I need them exactly. Yeah,

24:48

so I'll get rid of lists too. I've gotten

24:50

together and broken up with the end at anywhere

24:52

less, more times than I can count. Let's

24:56

see, challenges streamlining my context. Still have,

24:59

I had way too many initially. Yeah,

25:01

I think that's a lot of people's.

25:04

They start with the, maybe

25:06

the recommended set or ones they think they need

25:08

and it becomes unwieldy to look at them all.

25:11

I think about creating an operational

25:13

versus creative divide. Oh, that's interesting,

25:15

David. Yeah, and we'll talk about that

25:17

a little more too. And we show our list

25:19

and different ways to do that. And we

25:22

got some interesting feedback too. I was just having

25:24

a conversation with someone last night who shared

25:26

one with me about an interesting context. They

25:29

used, John, what was that he was sharing with

25:31

us about, oh,

25:34

we changed the name of waiting for to

25:38

being patient or something like that.

25:40

Yeah, at being patient. At

25:42

being patient. That was

25:45

interesting. It's fun to hear

25:47

what people do with their system. John,

25:50

are there any other questions we've missed that would be good

25:52

for us to pause here and answer? About

25:55

a hundred or so. Okay, good one. They

25:57

can wait until later on if you'd like, or we

25:59

can start. looking at those in the middle

26:01

here, whatever you prefer. Why don't you pick one

26:03

of them? We'll pack one of them

26:05

now and then we'll go

26:08

after the rest in the Q and A. Randy

26:10

has an at knitting content text.

26:13

Here's one, how to choose the right context when

26:15

you have access to all or most of them

26:17

24 seven, how

26:20

do you have clear edges when there's

26:22

really not any limitation on what you

26:24

could do at any time? And

26:27

that also could lead into another question

26:30

which was about do you have context

26:32

that relate to your energy level? David,

26:35

do you wanna start? Well, I wonder you want me to dive in first

26:37

on that. Sure, if you have

26:39

no distinction in terms of all

26:41

your actions to do that you could do at any

26:43

time, anywhere, no matter what your energy or context or

26:45

physical thing is but I'm all on one list, why

26:48

not? You

26:52

know, come on, if you're gonna cook

26:54

Christmas dinner for your family or for

26:58

14 people that are coming over why

27:00

would you even wanna sort your grocery list? You

27:03

just want everything you wanna do when you go to the grocery

27:05

store, no reason to sort it.

27:08

Oh, here's the frozen stuff or here's the, no, no,

27:10

no, no, come on, just put the whole list because

27:13

that's all appropriate for that context. So, hey,

27:16

as many as you have, you

27:18

know, it might be a good idea to say, should

27:20

all those be on your active lists if

27:23

you have a whole lot, if you've got more

27:25

than, you know, most people

27:27

have 100 to 200 next actions and

27:30

if you actually have tracked all of those and

27:32

identified all of those and

27:35

how, as you can do 60 of those anytime,

27:38

anywhere, like we'll find, stick them on that list,

27:40

at some point, some part of you is gonna

27:42

go, you know, might be good

27:44

to think those are more important than others

27:46

or some of those, you know, have

27:49

a different kind of a context for me to

27:51

think about them and some of those require thinking,

27:53

some of those require just, you

27:56

know, business stuff at my business desk, you

27:58

know, to get done. And you might find

28:00

that useful. So there's no right or wrong

28:02

about it. Hey, what's

28:05

practical? I think

28:07

that question too is the reason I went

28:09

to one next actions list because except within

28:11

that next actions I do separate out. Work

28:14

in personal, in to do is you can create

28:16

different sections, which is super simple

28:18

and easy for me. So I can collapse work

28:20

personal if I'm in really in work mode. I don't

28:22

want to be seeing I need to do something

28:24

personal. But

28:27

again, I have I've designed

28:29

it that way to be as simple

28:32

and fast as possible. If any

28:34

time I find that something is

28:37

effort or I pause and go, oh, feels like it's

28:39

going to be a pain to put that in. I

28:42

don't have the right system. So I've tweaked my

28:44

system quite a bit to get

28:46

it really dialed in over the years. I always

28:48

have done that. But right now it's at a

28:50

place. So my solution isn't necessarily going to work

28:53

for you. My solution would not work for David

28:55

Allen. You would not want one next actions list

28:57

with tags. That wouldn't be a solution. So you

28:59

want to find where's your where do you have

29:01

the least amount of friction when you're creating it?

29:04

But that is why because I'm

29:06

in my home office in my home 90

29:10

percent of the time, except if I'm doing

29:12

errands. So for me, it just made sense

29:14

to move to one next actions list, but

29:16

then further divide that list. It just helped me.

29:18

I don't go to an office. Most

29:21

of what I do is on the computer

29:23

and requires me to be online. So it

29:25

didn't even work for me to divide offline

29:27

online. That's not even an issue or a

29:29

consideration anymore. All

29:32

right. So let's go into some of the myths

29:34

about context, which you may or may not have

29:36

had over the years, but we wanted to touch

29:39

on them because some of them are kind of

29:41

funny and curious. And if

29:44

this ever occurred to you, we just want

29:46

to dispel any

29:48

myths around this. So one

29:51

of them, maybe this is me just descending

29:53

my sister. One

29:56

next act is cheating or you don't have

29:58

a lot to do. I

30:00

have heard this from people over the years

30:02

in coaching and classes where they go,

30:04

is it okay to have one list? So

30:07

like I know you can

30:09

have home and errands and computer and all

30:11

these other ones, but they just like one

30:13

next actions list, not even using tags and

30:15

labels, just the next actions

30:17

list. Yes, of course

30:20

this can work. Contexts

30:23

are just versions of next

30:25

actions. They're just divide, their

30:27

next actions divided into people,

30:30

places, tools, situations. So if

30:32

any part of you thinks that you're somehow

30:34

cheating or you're disappointing letting David Allen down,

30:36

you're good, you're good in our book. One

30:39

next actions list is fine until

30:41

you get to the point where you go, wow,

30:43

it's taking a lot for me to get

30:46

information in and out of that system when

30:48

I'm ready to make a choice. So

30:50

you wanna take a look at

30:52

the effort it's taking you to

30:55

manage it in one list. Is it working for

30:57

you? And even if you have

30:59

volume, I have seen people,

31:03

especially in coaching, but I can really dive

31:05

in. When I was doing coaching, I would

31:07

see people's systems and incredibly

31:09

busy executives who

31:12

go, to me it

31:14

was, there was more value that they would

31:16

say to looking at one list in one

31:18

location rather than dividing it out and

31:20

having to think about where it went. So

31:23

your choice, you're good on this one. If you

31:26

decide to have one list, so. Any

31:29

other comment on that one David? Yeah,

31:33

anybody who thinks that one list works probably

31:35

doesn't have real specific next actions on that

31:37

list. They're used to a big to do

31:39

list and they don't wanna

31:41

change that habit. So

31:44

once you get discreet, but the real

31:46

next actions on those things, those

31:49

then start to make a lot more sense, whether

31:51

there's another context that might be useful, You

31:54

know, can see them.