Here at the suggested contexts for "Next Actions"

• Agendas

Maintain an "Agenda" list for every important person I interact with.  You can maintain an "Agendas Folder" giving each person a seperate page sorted in alphabetical order.  Each agenda page has a running list of items I need to discuss or stay on top of in that relationship.   You can also use your favorite calendaring software package.  To do this you can create a category called "Agenda" and then create a nondated to do or note for each person - using the category "Agenda" for those to dos or notes.  If you then set up a way to look at different categories - you can easily have a high level view of your agendas with various people.  Whether you do this with a physcial file or in your software - this allows you to have ready access to those agenda items when you have a meeting or phone call with them.  It allows you to review the list and deal with the important issues that need to be addressed with them. 

• Anywhere

Are next actions you can do anywhere you are. An example might be to “brainstorm meeting agenda” or “reading my RSS Newsfeeds" (if you can do it on your mobile), certain calls, etc.

• At Computer

Are next actions you can only do when you are in front of my computer

• At Home

Are next Actions you can only do at home.

• At Office 

Are things you can only get done at the office

• Calls 

Are phone calls you need to make. Sometimes these can be done on my cell phone, at the office, or at home

• Waiting For (You may need a couple folders): 

1. E-mails (usually a lot of delegation happens here)

E-mail items that you have delegated or are waiting for some response from a request. You can have two folders for "Waiting For." One that is in your e-mail system (in Apple Mail I set up a "Waiting For" Smart Folder and when an e-mail comes in that I need to follow up on I place a tag on it "@waiting for" and it is automatically moved to that folder.  Depending on your system you will find a way to make it work.

2. Physical Folder Entitled "Waiting For":

Here I place things like FedEx shipping receipts, rebate forms, snail mail items requiring me to wait, repair requests, etc.

You can then scan both folders once a week during your review  (or more frequently if you need to) to ensure you are staying on top of things.

• Someday Maybe List  - We try to hold many things in our head - including all those things we want to do "some day."  In addition, we might have to look at certain projects that showed up on our Mind Sweep that are not critical to focus on now but are things we would like to focus on later.  The key is not to keep these in our minds!  The key with this system is to capture everything - even thoughts of things you may want to some day do or accomplish.  Below are some examples of someday maybe lists you may want to create:
  • Re-engineer key processes (e.g. accounting, sales, etc.)
  • Community Involvement (e.g. Do service work at my church)
  • Networking Ideas (e.g. join the chamber of commerce)
  • Health and Vitality (e.g. take a aerobics class)
  • Books to read
  • Movies to see
  • Date Ideas
  • Travel Destinations

You get the idea. Again, try to break things down into categories for easy processing and organizing.  Again, you can have a paper based system or use your calendaring software to generate and keep the lists.