Portable Files and Focus

I've found the GTD idea of carrying a few files with me in my attache labeled "Evening" or "Discuss with Kris" (my wife) or "Need to File" allows me to place reminders inside of folders that I'll open when I'm in a given context. Before, when I had 25 tasks staring at me all day on the Daily Task List in my planner--many of which I couldn't do anything about until I got home or was out running errands--it seemed to create a little more stress and distraction (scanning all 25 tasks over and over throughout the day to find what's next) than what is necessary. Now, I only have on my desk the file that contains things I can work on at this moment in this context. Easy.

Parenthetically, this was one of the big attractions to PDA's for many people. One could categorize a given task and then filter a view to only show one category at a time. And that's still a valid benefit albeit in previous posts I've commented on my preference for paper.

Personal Productivity, Time Management, Effectiveness, GTD, Getting Things Done