Forums

Discuss all things Remember The Milk.

Contexts by Tools available, not just location

kyle.faber says:
So using RTM to accomplish my personal GTD implementation (as is the way) leads me to find that my contexts are sometimes (always) defined by the tools I have at my disposal in certain situations vs where I am or what I am doing. Examples of this include websites that don't work in mobile, downloads I need to accomplish or phone calls I need to make when I'm in a noisy environment. So I add context indicators to my tasks that qualify them as tools necessary (or optional) to accomplish a task.

PC
Wifi (generic for all internet)
Ipad
Mobile
Desk
Alone
Etc

So I then create Smart Lists that look for Next Actions that can be accomplished using the tools i have at my disposal. Here's a generic example:

Work:
tag:na AND (tag:PC OR tag:Ipad OR tag:mobile OR tag:wifi OR tag:desk) AND (location:Work OR isLocated:false)

When I'm at work, I have access to a PC & my ipad & my desk & internet, so a lot of tasks show up. But when I'm commuting on the train, I have fewer tools at my disposal:

Train
tag:na AND (tag:Ipad OR tag:mobile) AND timeEstimate:"< 35" AND isLocated:false

I want to open my PC, I don't have wifi for my ipad and I don't have a desk. I also only ride the train for 35 minutes, so I don't want to see tasks that will take an hour, even if I can do them from my mobile phone (like watch a long netflix video). I also don't want to see any contexts that are location dependent because I don't have a location that matters.

This approach allows me to very quickly figure out how to be productive in new locations and situations because I just look at the tools around me and bang out a quick smart list with what I've got.

Work From Home (same as work, but the location is changed)
Airplane
Remote Desk (another company office, not my HQ)
Hotel

Hope it helps!
Posted at 7:23pm on August 14, 2013
emily (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi Kyle,

This is a great way to use tagging! You're this week's Tips & Tricks Tuesday winner, so we've added a free year of Pro to your Remember The Milk account. :)
Posted 10 years ago
mightyfrog says:
Huh, can't figure out why this isn't working for me. This is the search I'm using:
(tag:na OR list:ps-Daily) AND (tag:PC OR tag:wifi OR tag:desk) AND location:Work
and I keep getting no results. I have a task called Edit gamestore database. It's got the na tag and the Work location.
Posted 10 years ago
andrewski (Remember The Milk) says:
Hi mightyfrog,
According to your Smart List, your task would also need to have the PC, wifi, or desk tag in addition to na.

Hope this helps!
Posted 10 years ago
Log in to post a reply.