Fun with coloured paper!

I often read about the amazing gadgets that people are using to run their GTD system but I'm an old-fashioned type and have been using paper to run my system for at least 2 years now.  I find paper works brilliantly for me. A few years ago I had my lists in excel and they just weren't particularly attractive. I found myself being reticent in wishing to look at them and use them. Paper and pen is just more comfortable somehow.
 I have just reinvigorated my lists at work by printing lines onto A4 coloured paper and using different colours for different contexts.  It's made them really enjoyable to work with - a simply change that has made a bigger impact than I expected.  I have surprised myself at how much more engaged I feel with the contents of the coloured lists compared to the "boring" white paper lists.  The tasks haven't changed at all and yet I am convinced that I have been more interested and productive since the change.  The brain works in strange ways! 
Aside from just enjoying the look of the colours, the change has a practical purpose which allows me to find my different contexts more quickly, as each has a different colour.  I think this has definitely helped me to improve my processing speed.
I guess that sometimes the old saying "a change is as good as a rest" really can ring true.  So I would recommend that if your lists are feeling a little stale, then even a small change can help you reconnect and get back on track.

Changing up contexts

While completing my weekly review last week I made a fairly radical change (for me) to the way my lists are managed.  As I reviewed my @office list, which had extended to over four pages and was not pleasant to work from, I made the decision to change things up and split the contexts.  It's not something I would normally do.  The @office has been working well for me for a couple of years so this was a pretty big step, but it was worth it.  My workload has been steadily increasing over the past 6 months and one office list just isn't quite cutting it anymore.  So I now have 3:

- @office

- @websites

- @minutes

These are the contexts that make the most sense given what I have on my plate right now, but I am giving myself the freedom to change them up as things shift around, and return to just one list if things calm down.  I already feel much more comfortable and more engaged with my lists and managed to get an action done yesterday afternoon that had been on the list for rather too long!

 

It took my review to get me thinking at that higher level for long enough to realise that I needed to make the change. The review is such an important part of my GTD journey; it gives me the chance to hold back the world for an hour every week and check that everything is on track.  I often find I am my most productive in the hours after the review, secure in the knowledge that what I am doing is what I should be doing, and what I am not doing can wait.