I've been looking for this idea without even knowing it! I hope you'll let us know in a month or so how this has worked for you. Thanks!
-Jason

Of course, I may try to live in @BrainToast all week, so I guess the old Spiderman mantra about power and responsibility still applies...

That is a great title - I have called mine @Mindless for a long time. My main problem is how few things end up here, and how many I wish I had. : - ) You have given me some more to add to my list.

Why wait around for the boss? If your brain is fried, why not leave for the day? Is not the results you produce what's important? Perhaps you will have the great insight your company has been waiting for at 3 am Saturday morning. Do you wait until 9 am next Monday to do something about it?

I don't think that appearances are what's important. I know I wouldn't hang around on a Friday afternoon doing low-value tasks for the sake of impressing my boss with my "dedication."

Mike W.--

It was a cheeky way of talking about those times when you still want to try to get some things done, but don't have the same resources as other times. Of course I (and the GTD methodology) value results, whenever that shows up. Sometimes my best work happens when I least expect it. And, I think we all have those times when the mundane stuff also needs to get done.

I think you took it to mean something beyond the light-hearted way I intended it.

Kelly

I like your idea. By the way, that screenshot you included...what list maker application are you using there?

What I'm wondering is how the "surf youtube" action can ever be done.

So is it more meant as an idea for when you're braintoasted, never to leave that list? Or do you have it as a recurring action, to respawn when it's been done?

Kelly, I'm sorry how my comment came across. What I want to point out is that, even in humor, there is truth to your post. There are a lot of people who sit in their cubicle on a Friday afternoon, watching the clock and waiting for the boss to leave. It's all about appearances. Yes, you have a good idea on how to fill that time. I challenge the notion that people have to fill that time. Work is about what you accomplish, not being seen by the boss putting in your time.

Mike

Kelly here answering latest questions...

Richard: The screenshot is from Palm Desktop on Windows. A great, simple, bullet-proof list manager, whether you use a Palm or not. You can download it for free from palm.com.

Wout: I probably wouldn't check stuff off this list, unless I changed my mind about considering it a choice. For that reason, it's really more like a checklist to scan as I can.

Mike: I hear you and echo your point of view. I know there are a lot of people slogging through their days to please someone else. I had a job once where I was on salary, but measured by how many hours I put in--whether I was doing something valuable in those hours or not. It was mind numbing. So believe me, I appreciate your approach and the way I worded my post probably gave the impression I'm a fan of wasting time to please the boss. Not so. It was really more about matching energy available to next action choices.

Thanks and be well--to all of you. I appreciate all of the comments you all add to this blog. I doubt I would keep doing this blog (which is actually something I volunteer to do because I enjoy it and not part of my job description) if it weren't for the way you all interact in a positive and inquisitive way. So please, keep it coming!

Cheers,
Kelly

Kelly, thank /you/ for keeping this blog. It's great to have something that reminds me of staying on the GTD wagon every once in a while :)

Also, I totally love the @BrainToast context name! Two reasons:

1. I have a LOT of pending actions in my "Project Work" context. Probably 80% is in there. I simply am in the same context a lot of the time. @BrainToast shows me that there's actually a place that you can mentally be even though you didn't move and your time was allotted to projects. I am still trying to find other such contexts in my work but I'm struggling. Any tips? Having everything I need to do in one context doesn't really help deciding what to do :( I suppose I should move a lot of them to Someday/Maybe.

2. Just the name @BrainToast helps me stay on track with my work. When I'm thinking I want to e.g. read blogs, I am reminded that they are on my @BrainToast context and that makes me decide that my brain isn't actually toast just yet and I do something more productive instead. Mind you this effect will probably wear down over time ;)

"BrainToast" :) *lol*

I'm using a small red dot on all of my context lists to highlight what I call "autopilot" next actions. It's not just that Friday-feeling where this comes in handy, but also a beginning flu, a broken-down air condition, a little hangover, some waiting time for a really important customer call, etc ...

Very nice idea. We certainly all experience those times when we get in the brain toast state for one reason or another. No reason to completely stop being productive altogether. In fact it can be a nice opportunity to clear some underbrush, which when we're feeling at our best, we might not want to expend our best energy on.

I like it.

I know implementations of the GTD system vary greatly among those that utilize it but this context (as immensely useful as it sounds to me in theory) sounds like it would be better placed on a general purpose list and not as a "Next Actions" context. Here's my thought. @BrainToast or @Mindless don't appear as clean to me as would, for instance, @Computer or any of the other suggested categories that seem to be so popular.

Of course contexts are highly subjective but my understanding of them has always been a physical location to start. I believe I would go numb to the context over time not wanting to admit to myself that my brain was, in fact, toast at any given moment.

Given that feeling, it would feel less like widget cranking to me and more like a Someday/Maybe type of situation. If an action is important enough to make it on a context list, I would imagine it makes sense to want to complete that as soon as time allows. As David (and Kelly in some of your previous posts) so elegantly discuss, making a commitment to doing something even if its a low energy task, is still a commitment and would linger if not done.

Just my two bytes. Love the blog, Kelly. Great perspectives on some of the things I needed personally to get unstuck.