Self Development - Getting Things Done (Contexts)

The fourth and final part of Selling, is Self Development.  The main selling bits are;

• Qualifying
• Conversation
• Networking

But outside of that there is this area of how you develop yourself, your motivation, and Getting Things Done.

So although this isn't the intro to Self Development, I had a big revelation today.

Getting Things Done has contexts/categories for where you do your actions.  In other words, you sort your actions into places where you can actually do them. At your PC.  At your desk.  At home.  At your phone.  When you sort your actions into these contexts, you don't need to worry about them when you can't do them, and you focus on the actions you can do in the context you are currently in.
So over time my contexts have  evolved to those things  I can do at work and those things  I can do at  home.  (Agendas in case you're wondering is for when you bump into people, you want to make sure you keep a list of all the things to cover, because sometimes you forget until after you've met with them, all the things you wanted to cover.)
However, over the last few months, I've been working from home, and I haven't changed my contexts.  Over the last week, I've been working from cafes, preferably with WiFi.  And it's not been working right for me.
So this afternoon, like a good GTD boy, I did my weekly review.  And Ah Ha!  I changed my contexts. Yes, that's what's not been working.  I can't make all the calls from my mobile, there are some I need to make from home.  Not all cafes have WiFi, but what can I usefully do without WiFi.  What work needs doing from home.  And finally, by changing from errands to bike, I can focus on what things I can do from my bike, and when do I need the car. It sounds so obvious, but let me assure you, get your contexts right, and it will become easier and much less stressful carrying lots of actions.  A cafe without WiFi.  No problem, and I get rid of all actions except those I want to do in that cafe.

Comments

[Robert Lu]

Thanks for very interesting blog