An embodiment of the invention includes a method of managing data items based on context, where markers are associated with the data items, where the markers indicate states of authors of the data items when the data items were created. The markers can be associated with the data items by a processor. A query for a data item can be received from a user via an interface, where the query can include one or more markers indicative of the state of an author of the data item when the data item was created. The results of the query can be displayed, where the results of the query can include data items that are associated with the marker(s).