As I have said earlier, for the weekly GTD review (reviewing my lists as a part of planning ahead) I think it is best to go goal by goal, AoR by AoR, project by project etc.The built-in task hierarchies in the left menu (Goals, Projects) are the best way, IMO, to go about doing this.

But for the daily GTD review (the daily "scan", checking whether anything needs my attention today or would seem particularly appropriate to consider today), which I used to do by looking at the Next list, the Waiting list etc, I have come to the conclusion that it is generally better, IMO, to almost completely ignore those lists and instead use the Context lists from the left menu.

Obviously, there are pros and cons with both approaches, and it is also possible to do it in different ways on different days, or to use both methods. (I still use the other lists, too, sometimes.) But here are the main advantages to using the Contexts in the left menu as the primary approach, reviewing one context at a time:

  • I can see my next actions, whether they are starred or not, all in the same list
  • I can also see, in the same list, my waiting for actions, some of which may be imminent and may cause me to change my plans suddenly if they occur today
  • and of course I can see my calendar actions etc for today
  • going through all this context by context in the daily scan feels very natural and mentally not so taxing. The purpose of the daily scan is not really to review my whole plans, but mainly to get prepared for what I will or may need to do on this particular day. Since all of that will definitely take place in different contexts, e.g. several errands all in one go, several calls in one go, etc, it somehow feels easier and more manageable and down-to-earth o select tasks context by context.

The main disadvantages to this method are:

  • I do not get a single "global" view of high priority next actions across all contexts. (The high priority actions I will consider, in combination with calendar actions, to determine which contexts I will even plan to get myself into today.)
  • the context for waiting for actions is sometimes highly irrelevant and arbitrary - I may not always know in advance whether a given "result" will be delivered to me in person or by email or by phone etc