When following Getting Things Done, you will eventually have hundreds of actions and dozens of projects. It is often the case that these items can be split into groups in such a way that each group can be worked on separately. This approach can reduce the number of simultaneous projects and actions that you need to deal with. This in turn makes your GTD system better organized and easier to use.
Reading your article made me realize Iâm using too many area tags. Iâm using these as Areas of responsibility - but the truth is I keep âAll areasâ selected for majority of the time.
I have to say, I like these articles you have started to post lately, very insightful!
I had done the same thing (made them as areas of focus) and just always used âAll Areasâ - so thank you for the blog post
But⌠If I understand your reasoning here, why shouldnât âAreasâ in Everdo just be named âContextsâ which seems to be what they are in the GTD terminology?
I use areas as areas of focus⌠Itâs the best implementation for me. Just using to filter actions and projects during the weekly review to be sure that iâm aligned on my purposes for every area of my life.
Hi, long time toodledo user here 13Y, looking to switch to something else since that is all but dead
I can see areas equivalent to folders, having a bit of difficulty managing/switching on free account on android, but can on mac (besides the point).
If I had areas called home and acquire (things I buy or need to get somehow) and I have a project in area home.
That project is called ârange hood projectâ and it has a number of sub tasks. Can any of the sub tasks be in different areas? example I need to buy some tape, screws and a saw (3 discreet tasks) and they are of area (folder) = acquire.
If that is possible, will I also be able to view them (and all the sub tasks of range hood project), when filtered by area = home?
Iâm also aware of tags and contexts (places, home, car, office, doctor, internet , supermarket etc)
Thanks
Tasks inside a project inherit the areas you assign to the project itself.
You have different options:
1- Give âRange hood projectâ the area acquire.
All subtasks inside this project will automatically get the acquire area. If you want to use a âhomeâ area for one of the subtasks only, you can - but that subtask will then have both areas assigned to it and show up in both area views.
The project itself and rest of the tasks will only show under acquire.
2- Have no area assigned to the project
In this case you can assign the area you want to the subtasks and they wonât inherit one from the project. Subtasks will show under their area only. Project wonât show under any area.
3- Give the project both the acquire and home areas. All subtasks will inherit and show under both areas.
Hello, everyone.
I am not sure I understand why the Areas in Everdo shouldnât be the Areas of Responsibility / Focus in GTD.
Would it be possible to clarify? Is it because if they were the same concept, there is a risk that a user would end up having too many Area tags?
Areas must correspond to well-defined and independent environments, contexts
From what I read, some people are using the Everdo Areas to represent contexts, and this seems wrong to me, because itâs mixing up two different concepts.
Everdo provides a good way to filter down items based on the context on the left-side menu.
Therefore, one can set the context (âwhere am I?â) in the left hand-side bar and iterate through his multiple Areas of Responsibility through the global Area filter.
Like @Jordi, I have been using the Everdo Areas as Areas of Responsibility / Focus, covering all areas of my life, and it feels right.
They could be your areas of responsibility, if that makes sense in your particular system. Itâs just that the behavior of areas in Everdo makes them more useful for some things and less for the others.
For example, I most often would like to combine several Areas of Responsibility into a single Next Actions list. This doesnât work if each Everdo area corresponds to just one Area of Responsibility. This is only my particular approach, but I treat the list of Areas of Focus merely as a review tool and it has no bearing on the âtacticalâ part of my GTD workflow.
In David Allenâs more recent âMaking it All Workâ, Areas of Responsibility/Horizons of Focus are examined more deeply. There is an implication that they should not only be used strategically, but that strategy should flow through tactically ultimately to deciding the Next action.
There are some very powerful ways to implement this in Everdo-like applications and some ways that are clunky and not useful. This post is part of how Horizons are being shoehorned into Everdo as it stands, but integrating Horizons both strategically and tactically into Everdo might be a revolutionary feature. Other products Iâve evaluated are stuck releasing evolutionary features (different views, sorts, colours etc.)
Iâd certainly pay more for strategic and tactial Horizons integration rather than hacking it into the current Everdo, and given the poor implementation in competing products, it may drive a lot of sales (assuming a small amount of marketing).
Since Everdo does not provide an option for nesting sub-projects under projects are areas not the only means left to bring some order in a list of 100+ projects?
I just now reread the blog posting, and converted two label tags into areas which are related to work, and that definitely helps me concentrate on a single area at once. I already know right now that I need to create several more areas, but itâs yet clear to me which ones. Itâll happen with time, but I am curious, which areas do you each have?
My areas shift every few years. When I was studying at a university I had a Study area for the related projects so that I could set aside time to just focus on studying. These days I donât have it anymore, but one day hopefully itâll come back when I have more time.
Over the years I learned that areas only work well for me when used with time blocking, so unless I can commit to regularly scheduling work on a particular area, then I donât create it at all.
Switching between areas frequently is a sign that I need to either focus better or collapse some areas into one.
When you had a Study area, did you also have tags within that Study area that you also made areas? If not for the Study area, did you have it for any other areas? I ask so that I can see what experience you and others had, and what ultimately proved to work better in practice.
Creating one Area and using label tags for different areas within it.
Creating one Area and creating the different areas within it also as areas.
