GTD Contexts, Energy and Time Available: How to Pick the Next Action

The four criteria for choosing an action, in order

The model is a funnel. Each criterion removes actions you cannot or should not do right now, so that what remains is a short list you can choose from without agonising.

1. 1

   Context

   What can you do where you are, with what you have? At your desk with a laptop, on the phone in a queue, at home with tools, in a meeting with a specific person. If an action needs something you do not have, it is not a candidate, however important it is.

2. 2

   Time available

   How long until the next fixed commitment? Fifteen minutes before a call rules out the two-hour piece of writing, and rules in three quick replies.

3. 3

   Energy available

   How much focus do you have? Deep work at 9 am, routine admin at 4 pm. Matching energy to actions is the difference between a productive low-energy hour and a wasted one.

4. 4

   Priority

   Among what is left, what matters most? This is where importance and urgency come in — last, not first, because priority is only meaningful among actions you can actually do now.

Priority comes last on purpose. Sorting your whole list by priority every morning is what makes people feel behind: the top of the list is full of things that need a different place, more time or more energy than they have at that moment.

Which contexts still make sense (and which ones do not)

When GTD was written, contexts were mostly places and tools: @office, @home, @phone, @computer, @errands. With a laptop and a phone that go everywhere, some of those collapsed into one, and a debate started: are contexts dead? The practical answer is no, but they have changed shape. Useful contexts today come in three families.

• Tools and places you do not always have. @Mac or @computer (real keyboard, large screen), @phone (calls that need quiet), @home (tools, documents, the garage), @errands (out and about). These still work because they still constrain.
• People and meetings. @Boss, @Team, @Anna: things to raise when you are with that person. One of the most valuable contexts in a working week, and the least used.
• Modes. @deep-work, @admin, @reading, @creative. A mode context says what kind of attention an action needs. Some people replace modes with energy levels; The Over Achiever lets you keep both, so a mode can stay a context while energy stays a separate filter.

Aim for seven contexts, give or take two. Fewer, and the filter does nothing; more, and you spend the clarify step choosing labels instead of deciding actions. Every action in The Over Achiever can carry several contexts, so you do not need one context per combination.

Adding time and energy to actions without over-tagging

The objection to time and energy tags is fair: if every captured item needs four decisions, capture slows down and people stop. The fix is to separate capture from clarify, and to be deliberately rough.

• Capture with nothing. Inbox items carry no context, time or energy. Getting the thought out of your head is the whole job at that moment.
• Clarify with a context, always. When an inbox item becomes a next action, give it at least one context. That is the one tag that is not optional, and the Engage screen enforces it: a search needs at least one context.
• Add time when it is not obvious. The Over Achiever offers ten buckets, from 5 minutes to 5 hours. Use them as buckets, not estimates: the question is whether an action fits in a gap, not how long it will take to the minute. Leave the field empty for anything that is clearly a two-minute reply.
• Add energy for the extremes only. High for things that need your best hour of the day; low for things you can do tired. The middle is the default, so most actions need no energy tag at all.
• Mark important and urgent on purpose. Two switches on each action feed the Eisenhower quadrants that the Engage results are grouped by. Reserve them: if everything is important, the quadrants are useless.
• Revisit during the weekly review. Time and energy drift. The weekly review, when you go through next-action lists, is when you correct them, not the moment you capture.

The Engage screen: one search on context, time, energy and priority

The Over Achiever has a dedicated Engage screen, in the sidebar next to Capture and Clarify. It is a search over your actions with the four criteria as filters, and it works the same way on the phone, the tablet and the web app, on one synchronised account.

1. 1

   Pick your contexts

   Tap the context chips or add one from your list. At least one is required; several are fine (@Mac and @phone when you are at your desk with both).

2. 2

   Choose the status

   Next actions by default. You can add deferred actions, waiting-for items (to chase them in the same pass) or even inbox items.

3. 3

   Set time, energy and priority

   Under Properties, choose Time (All, or 5 Min up to 5 Hours), Energy (All, High, Medium, Low), Important (All, Important, Not Important) and Urgent (All, Urgent, Not Urgent). Anything left on All is simply ignored.

4. 4

   Search

   The result is the list of actions that match every filter at once, grouped into the four Eisenhower quadrants: important and urgent, important and not urgent, urgent and not important, neither.

5. 5

   Do one, then search again

   The filters stay set. When the gap closes or your energy changes, adjust one filter and search again. Nothing to re-sort by hand.

Example: you are on the phone context, with 15 minutes and low energy. The search returns only the @phone actions tagged 15 Min or less and Low energy, with the important ones on top. That is a list of three or four, not thirty.

Four moments in a week, four searches

The point of the filters is that the same list of actions answers different situations without being rewritten. Here is what a typical week looks like for someone who uses all four criteria.

Notice the third row: a person context with no other filter. That search is the reason to keep @people contexts; it turns a meeting into a batch of resolved items.

Common mistakes with contexts, energy and time

• Contexts that no longer constrain. If @computer matches 90 % of your actions, it is not a filter. Split it by what actually limits you (@Mac vs @phone), or by mode.
• Estimating time to the minute. "25 minutes" is a guess dressed as a fact. Use the buckets to answer "does it fit?", and move on.
• Confusing energy with mood. Energy is the focus an action needs, tagged once when you clarify. Mood is how you feel now, which you express by choosing the filter, not by re-tagging.
• Filtering before clarifying. An inbox full of unprocessed items has no contexts, so the Engage screen cannot see them. Clarify first; the weekly review exists to keep the inbox at zero.
• Marking everything important. The Eisenhower quadrants only help when the top-left one is short. Importance is a decision, not a feeling.
• Never searching waiting-for. Waiting-for items with a person context are the easiest wins of the week; include them when you search a @person context.

Frequently asked questions