I thought I'd share my own recent experience with the good old hipster pda.

Namely, my decision to keep all of my actions in a single running list (across multiple cards) rather than using the standard context method.

Here's my not-so-shocking discovery:

I'm much more inclined to process my inbox if there are fewer places where the inbox items go after processing. If I have to lay out all my context cards just to process my inbox, or if I have to shuffle through 8 different context cards just to find the right one, I'm much less inclined to process incoming stuff. A single place--so much easier!

Contexts seem to be designed for middle management and salespeople types who have a lot of phone calls to make, a lot of widgets to crank, etc. For most of us, I would surmise, the work of sorting everything into separate contexts is wasted effort. It's sufficient, in my view, to have some sort of code for easy scanning of one's action list.

So now I have a running actions list. The trick is to use codes on the list for the various contexts. (H for home, P for phone, C for computer, and so on). I draw a box around the code letter--which makes it easy to scan the list.

In my opinion, this also corrects a problem inherent to context cards (which has burned me a few times). Namely, I'll get going in one context, only to remember that there was a more urgent task that I really needed to get done in another context. And it is a complete pain to have to review 8 different contexts to find the task I really need to be doing NOW. Much easier if everything's on the same list--much easier to gain a view of all my work in a single "context."

The full-blown GTD method has a lot of built-in complexity. The key, it seems, is to select only so much complexity as your needs require. The simpler and more elegant the system, the easier it is to maintain.