mind on tracks

I just started putting my mind on tracks but it will take me a couple of days to offload most of the crap that keeps me awake at night. There are three main components to Tracks: Next actions, Contexts and Projects.

“Contexts are very flexible, and can be places, states of mind or modes of working in which actions can be taken. Next actions can be assigned to and sorted by context so that you know when you are able to make progress with items. e.g. “Library”, “Shops” or “Tired”.” So far I added only 10 contexts : @inbox, @books, @email, @home, @neverending, @courses, @other, @papers, @computer and @personal. Probably I’ll have to add others such as @refereeing etc.

“Projects : any goal which requires more than one next action to take it to completion is a Project. In Tracks, you can view your next actions by Project.” So far I added the first few things that came to mind ranging from small-easy things such as Learn VoodooPad over Paper with Jan to neverending-things like Write nag@n !

“Next actions : These are the heart of GTD. They are the very next physical action that can be taken on something. It’s best to phrase these in an active way e.g. “Call Bob about the committee meeting” or “Search for a reputable garage”.” Up to now I merely added the next foreseeable action in each project together with a few urgent persoanl matters. It is a good idea to give each of these a deadline so they appear on the screen with a color-code giving the date and red (urgent), orange (coming up) to green (some day). I realize I’ve been rather relaxed about my projects so far!

More information on tracks can be found here. Try it out!