My first GTD setup was fairly barebones, and I didn’t need to push things much more because I wasn’t applying the system to anywhere near its fullest extent. I learned a valuable lesson in that YOUR GTD SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE WITH YOU OR EASILY ACCESIBLE AT ALL TIMES. Carrying a handheld on top of a cell phone was cumbersome, so I tended to leave the handheld at home, and relied on emailing important reminders from my cell phone to be processed later. I was essentially not carrying my GTD system with me “at all times.” This meant that most of my access to my GTD system was only while I was at my desk through Outlook. I eventually learned that I did not fully trust this system, therefore subconsciously I was not willing to invest the time in applying it.

The basic contexts I was using were:

@ Anywhere - for tasks that could be complete anywhere
@ Contacts - for tasks that involved contacting someone through calls, emails, etc
@ Computer - for tasks that needed to be done while at my computer
@ Errands - for tasks that consisted of running certain errands
@ Home - for tasks that needed to be done at my House
@ Office - for tasks that needed to be done at my office
@ Someday Maybe - for tasks that I wanted to do eventually, but stashed away here to be forgotten

Overall it was a fairly simple system, and did not really allow me to handle much bandwidth. I could handle a couple of tasks at a time in each context, but I didn’t have my system with me in each of those places, so it really took discipline on my part to review the tasks regularly.

Modifications where made, but that’s another post!