Getting things Done: Contexts for WebWorkers

I use task lists every day, in fact lists are my glue but when you sit in front of a computer with a list of stuff to do each day that continually gets added to it is so easy to not be as efficient in processing that list as we would like to be. We all have, or at least a lot of us have, our own methods on how to deal with it from simple avoidance to elaborate strategies.

I use a Getting things Done philosophy primarily because it helps me keep my email inbox under control, email comes in and I either respond, delete or schedule it to do later. Either way it gets the email out of the inbox on each session, that’s right I said each email session. Unlike many I refuse to leave my email open buzzing away all day, opting instead to check it four times a day. I set aside about 15 minutes to simply process the inbox and then close it and move on to the next context based workflow.

Contexts are one of the core principles of the GTD philosophy and is unshakably also the foundation of how we generally do stuff on a day to day basis whether we know it or not. Simply put contexts are the areas where we can undertake a specific task set aside by ourselves for later action. For example phone calls would be best done in a group when sitting in the office in front of a phone with 1/2 an hour of uninterrupted time available or we would get batteries for the remote when we are out at the shops running Errands.

Traditionally contexts used to be based around very tangible phone, office, home and errand concepts but for many of us that holds very little relevance to how we spend larger percentages of our working life online where things are broken down into micro areas which need differentiating. Contexts for those who spend a lot of time working in an online world take on a whole new meaning, after all the context Computer is just way to broad for today’s tasks, it would be like having an Awake context 5 years ago.

With the majority of my work being done in the cloud (Cloud Computing – using applications online through a web browser) the contexts I use are simply the name of the cloud app being used to complete the tasks at hand. After all they are essentially a virtual area in which I spend a period of time each day. I use contexts like Zendesk (Handling customer tasks), Xero (Accounting) Email, InThePipe (Sales forecasting), Blogging, Google Docs (Word & Spreadsheets) and Social (listening, searching and monitoring).

These have become my standard contexts in my task list so when I have tasks around invoicing or writing quotes it goes under the Xero context and likewise if I have potential leads to mange that goes under the context InThePipe. I also have some more traditional ones as well including Phone, Review and Later (a special context for stuff that can be done in the future and is not time important).

Whether you subscribe to a GTD work method or some other way of getting through your day with a sense of accomplishment chunking tasks into a context based workflow can help increase your efficiency and even give you back some time. I know it does with me every day.

5 tips that have helped me work efficiently in an online world

1. Break down your online tasks into areas or applications on the computer that you frequently use to achieve results.
2. Set up a calendar which chunks out time each day for working in those contexts.
3. Get rid of computer based distractions, otherwise known as reminders and notifcations.
4. Take micro breaks at the end of each set of tasks within a context.
5. Arrange your day when you are doing the most productive stuff when are at your best.