Any system that people actually use is better than a system they do not. Writing the sequences of steps on sheets of paper (one paper per project, one line per task) and sticking them to your wall would probably do 80% of the job...
When I think about “Getting Things Done”, another useful functionality would be to add context. For example, if the next step is “buy food”, the context is “in the shop”. (As in: it is important to remember this task when you are in the shop. But if you remember it anywhere else, it only makes sense as a reminder to go to the shop.) You should be able to assign contexts to steps, and when a node is collapsed, you should still see the context of its next step. Even better, you should see the nodes grouped by context of their next steps, somehow. Even better, you should get a notification (when you enter the shop, when you turn on your PC, when you call person X) if there is a project that has a next step in that context.
Great observation, that most tasks are context depended in terms of a specific location. Immediately more of these contexts or pre-conditions pop up in my mind: social circle, mindset, internet connection, … Thinking about this more, there seem to be 2 different types of conditions: some that have to be met once sometime before doing something and some that have to be met continuously to be able to do something. Maybe one could connect a system that creates location/time based reminders for steps with pre-conditions. What do you think?
The contexts will probably be highly individual. For example, for me it would make sense to have (a shorter name for) a context “I am at home, my kids are not at home, I am not tired yet, and I have at least an hour of uninterrupted free time”.
If things are so individual, probably tags are the way to go. You could then have a auto-generated step containing all steps with a particular tag. Logseq and Tana actually have such query items. In OmniFocus I’ve seen a hierarchical tag structure which looked pretty useful.
When it comes to the 80%, I’d agree with you if “the job” is defined as “getting relief from the complexity in the moment”. I’d rather define “the job” as having a system that you can trust and rely on for a prolonged time. Then a piece of paper is not cutting it, based on my experience—its too expensive to make changes.
Any system that people actually use is better than a system they do not. Writing the sequences of steps on sheets of paper (one paper per project, one line per task) and sticking them to your wall would probably do 80% of the job...
When I think about “Getting Things Done”, another useful functionality would be to add context. For example, if the next step is “buy food”, the context is “in the shop”. (As in: it is important to remember this task when you are in the shop. But if you remember it anywhere else, it only makes sense as a reminder to go to the shop.) You should be able to assign contexts to steps, and when a node is collapsed, you should still see the context of its next step. Even better, you should see the nodes grouped by context of their next steps, somehow. Even better, you should get a notification (when you enter the shop, when you turn on your PC, when you call person X) if there is a project that has a next step in that context.
Great observation, that most tasks are context depended in terms of a specific location. Immediately more of these contexts or pre-conditions pop up in my mind: social circle, mindset, internet connection, … Thinking about this more, there seem to be 2 different types of conditions: some that have to be met once sometime before doing something and some that have to be met continuously to be able to do something. Maybe one could connect a system that creates location/time based reminders for steps with pre-conditions. What do you think?
The contexts will probably be highly individual. For example, for me it would make sense to have (a shorter name for) a context “I am at home, my kids are not at home, I am not tired yet, and I have at least an hour of uninterrupted free time”.
If things are so individual, probably tags are the way to go. You could then have a auto-generated step containing all steps with a particular tag. Logseq and Tana actually have such query items. In OmniFocus I’ve seen a hierarchical tag structure which looked pretty useful.
When it comes to the 80%, I’d agree with you if “the job” is defined as “getting relief from the complexity in the moment”. I’d rather define “the job” as having a system that you can trust and rely on for a prolonged time. Then a piece of paper is not cutting it, based on my experience—its too expensive to make changes.
I do agree with your attitude of better writing things on paper with the simplest imaginable structure than not structuring things at all.