Multiple tags from the same context: frowned upon?

[hotdog 1]

Hi fellow EN users,

 

I have a very general question about handling multiple tags from a single context (i.e. .What, for example).

 

Some background:

Have used EN for several weeks; am making the transition to the GTD productivity system.

My EN + TSW tag system is your textbook TSW template:

 

.What

   .Active Projects

      Current Project A

      Current Project B

   .Inactive Projects

      On-hold Project A

   Email

   Gift Purchase

   Meeting

   Phone Call

   Read / Review

   Write-up

 

.When

   !Daily

   1-Now

   2-Next

   ... 

   etc

 

.Where

   @Work

   @Home

   @Restaurant

   ...

   etc

 

.Who

   Person A

   Person B

   ...

   Person X

 

 

I modified TSW slightly by adding a 'Reference' context for exclusively tagging Cabinet notes only:

 

-Reference

   #Fact

   #News

   #Outing

   #Receipt

   ...

   etc

 

 

However, herein appears a subtle flaw (or maybe not):

I find myself frequently tagging notes within multiple tags from a single context. For example: a single note may have 2, 3 different ".What" tags mapped to it. For instance: I have a note with .What tags "Current Project A" and "Email" mapped to it. 

Maybe I'm looking too-deep into TSW / GTD, but is this multiple-tagging from a single context frowned upon (from a convention perspective)? Or should I just "let it all go" and tag liberally (within reason, that is)?

 

 

Thank you in advance,

p.

[C6REW 416]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

Whilst I don't use TSW with Evernote, I cannot see any problems using multiple tags even from the same tag heading, where they describe what is contained in a Note.

Regards

Chris

[HeyMalc 29]

Hi hotdog

 

You are right, The Secret Weapon does not describe how to deal with your projects – the What tag - very well. I have talked in the past to Braintoniq (the "Secret Weapon person") about this and he said it was an omission from the original videos.

 

The short answer to your question is that you can have as many tags as you like for one note; but I find it most efficient to have as few as you can get away with. Or, it can become over-complex.

 

I think you are confusing the What tag with the context tag – the Where tag, or the Who tags - which are also used for meetings.

 

The Email, Phone call, etc are Where tags - they indicate tasks which you can only do if you are in a certain place. That is, at your computer, or next to a phone, etc. So they are in the wrong place.

 

The What tags are purely for your projects. Each project has one What tag.But an item which is relevant to 2 projects could have 2 project tags (What tags).

 

You would only ever have one When tag, and that only for an item which is a to do. (In my case, that would mean an item in my To-do notebook).

 

I suppose you could have two Where tags - if the task could be done in either of two places. The Who tags are where you want to click on the tag and be able to see all items related to that person or event. So, for example, this could be "Team meeting". You want everything together so that when you are ready to plan the team meeting you can just click on that tag and see everything you want to talk about at that team meeting. So it's just the same as having a meeting with a person.

 

As I work from home I can get away with very few tags. I am also very close to a major shopping street, so I don't find I need the Errands context. In fact, I hardly find the need to use Where tags at all. I recommend using as few tags as you can get away with - as I said above.

 

I hope that clarifies and you can get a bit more information by visiting the link in my sig – where I describe how I apply GTD using Evernote.

 

BTW, I now use the When tags !Daily, !1-Today, !2-Tomorrow, !3-This-week, !4-Later, !5-Sometime. I find these work much better for me. You might like to try that at some point.

 

Best, Malc