The Upwardly Mobile

I travel every week, work an average of twelve hours per day, and don’t get nearly enough sleep. Chances are that I remember that I need to call a friend when I’m supposed to be working on a proposal, that I remember about the groceries I need when I’m on a business trip and away from my home and the store, and that I think of a great idea for work during my scarce “free” time. The concepts in David Allen’s Getting Things Done have helped me keep the commitments I make to myself and others without going too crazy in the process. Sometimes, however, I need to remind myself not to get caught up in the system itself and to remember the ideas that really make the system work.

Those of you familiar with GTD will know what I mean when I say that I use a “planning” context to hold significant projects and decisions I need to consider further before I can take any further action. For those of you who haven’t read GTD yet (and I suggest you do so now, it’s excellent), suffice it to say that GTD groups all tasks by context — for example, @Computer, @Phone, @Errands, @Work, @Home, etc. — and that this makes life easier because GTD users only look at a specific set of tasks when they’re actually in the location and have the tools they need to get complete those tasks. One of the contexts that many GTD users find helpful is the @Planning context, which groups significant projects and decisions that require a bit more thought before taking any action.

For the most part, the @Planning context works well for me, because it allows me to write down a thought or idea and forget about it until I have enough time to consider it thoroughly. Sometimes, however, a big decision grabs so much of my attention that I need to remind myself of one of one of Allen’s key insights: context isn’t just time, place, and tools… it’s also a state of mind.

Until today, I had been distracted for the last several weeks by a significant career decision, and the distraction was eating away at my productivity. I had faithfully put the decision in my @Planning context bucket as something to deal with when I had time, trusting that I would get around to it eventually. I couldn’t quite understand why having to make the decision was bothering me so much until I remembered Allen’s insight.

GTD, by design, allows you to focus on what you can most productively complete at any given moment. While we tend to define context in terms of place, time available, people, and tools (phone, computer, etc.) required, we need to remember that energy and focus are just as important in completing any task or moving any project forward. While some contexts, like @Computer and @Phone require specific tools to get the job done, the only real tools (besides, perhaps, a pen and paper) that the planning context requires are attention and energy. In other words, planning is all in your head.

Because planning is almost entirely mental, it should inherently take precedence over other contexts whenever you find it necessary. The very act of finding the need to make a decision distracting means the @Planning context is currently active for you. For the most part, you can safely add something to the @Planning context bucket and come back to it later. But if a choice is important enough that it keeps distracting you, let yourself spend some time mulling it over, choosing the criteria on which to base your decision, and thinking about any additional informationg you’ll need before you can reach a final verdict. This isn’t ignoring the system; in fact, it’s doing exactly what the system was designed to help you do.