The universe is telling us something in the numerous blog posts and other commentaries trying to get contexts to work. Contexts, for many if not most people, are *broken*. They are *not* the right approach. In most people's cases, the vast majority of their tasks can be done in a single context -- @WORK. It's true we now see people subdividing that work into @SHORT versus @LONG, or @HI-ENERGY vs @LO-ENERGY. But that's a desperate attempt to force their life into the faulty Context concept.
What is good about the idea of context is that it is an example -- albeit not a good one these days -- for a simple way of selecting from among the myriad of next actions, the subset to be done today (or in the next hour, etc). But what is bad is that it makes people focus on only one selection criteria and makes them nervous about trying others. There is *nothing* wrong with, for example, grouping tasks by their project. If I am in a "Project X mood" then seeing all next actions for Project X may be exactly what I need. And you know what; I am *often* in that kind of mood. So for me, projects *just are* contexts. And that's OK. Except, we already had a word for projects -- "projects". Adding the new idea of "contexs" especially when it was originally explained primarily in terms of physical environment, is confusing.
Maybe the whole context thing is broken
The universe is telling us something in the numerous blog posts and other commentaries trying to get contexts to work. Contexts, for many if not most people, are *broken*. They are *not* the right approach. In most people's cases, the vast majority of their tasks can be done in a single context -- @WORK. It's true we now see people subdividing that work into @SHORT versus @LONG, or @HI-ENERGY vs @LO-ENERGY. But that's a desperate attempt to force their life into the faulty Context concept.
What is good about the idea of context is that it is an example -- albeit not a good one these days -- for a simple way of selecting from among the myriad of next actions, the subset to be done today (or in the next hour, etc). But what is bad is that it makes people focus on only one selection criteria and makes them nervous about trying others. There is *nothing* wrong with, for example, grouping tasks by their project. If I am in a "Project X mood" then seeing all next actions for Project X may be exactly what I need. And you know what; I am *often* in that kind of mood. So for me, projects *just are* contexts. And that's OK. Except, we already had a word for projects -- "projects". Adding the new idea of "contexs" especially when it was originally explained primarily in terms of physical environment, is confusing.