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gtd: why have contexts (e.g. @call) in smartlists and not regular lists?

jef says:
Hi,
I'm using the Getting Things Done methodology to try to organize my tasks/life.

Why is it that many GTD users on RTM have their contexts in smartlists (saved searches; blue-colored tabs) and not regular lists (grey-colored tabs)? I've searched the forums but I can't seem to come to an understanding.

Thank you.
Posted at 4:32pm on December 2, 2008
rmm5t says:
Lists are static. Smartlists are dynammic. For me, contexts are kept using tags (e.g. @home), not necessarily smartlists; however, I do create smartlists that represent those tags so that I have easier access to them. The nice thing about smartlists is that I can add arbitrary conditions to them, such as tasks with an @home tag, but also limit the smartlist to only those tasks that are due less than 30 days from now.

The reason you want to represent your contexts with tags is that it's common that a task might fall under two contexts. For example, you might tag a "sales call" task as @work and @phone. If this task was under a static list, it could only fall under one and not both.

With that said, everyone finds a GTD-solution in their own way. What matters is if you have a system that works for you. If static lists for contexts works well for you, don't let anyone tell you different.
Posted 15 years ago
This topic has now been closed automatically due to a lack of responses in the past 90 days.