DIT2 Progress Report

I’ve had to make some major changes to my ideas for DIT2, which is going to mean that it will take longer than expected to publish it. The earliest is likely to be sometime in the first half of March.

It’s still based on a page-a-day diary, so if anyone has already invested in one in anticipation the money won’t be wasted!

There are some interesting new concepts which I have now included:

a. You can put tasks into the list without actually committing yourself to doing them. Once you have committed yourself to doing a task, it is then treated in a different way.

b. The little and often approach is encouraged, and the system is so constructed as to encourage you to keep going.

c. There is automatic purging of tasks which you haven’t committed yourself to doing.

d. The system can cope easily when you have days you can’t work on it. You don’t have to forecast these - you respond after the event.

e. You can do any task in the system next without breaking the rules.

Comments

[Roger]

Darn it, Mark, Now you are just teasing us, like Steve Jobs did with the iPad. Will you beat him to the release, I wonder.

Seriously though, it will be worth the wait.

[Mark Forster]

Maybe I will, maybe I won't. But one thing I can promise you is that it'll be a darn sight cheaper than the iPad!

[Alan Baljeu]

"without commiting yourself"? That may be a good thing, depends how it all works. But instead of DIT, it sounds like "Maybe I'll do it tomorrow" and "Get Everything Done if I Feel Like It". I imagine that's not your intention. Am I right?

[J. Philip Stephens]

I especially like characteristic "d" of the new system.

[Mark Forster]

Alan:

It's like it says. You can put stuff into the system without committing yourself to it, but once you have committed yourself to it it keeps you working on it for as long as necessary.

[Claudia]

So hard to wait!!!! But I'm reading DIT and continuing to use AF4, so I'll be ready!

[Klaus]

How about a beta test to determine, that you are not looking up the wrong alleys...

;-)

Klaus

[David Drake]

I second the notion of a Beta release. I suspect it is more as an Alpha version right now, but when you get to what you think is pretty close Mark....why not employ the help of so many of the great people here on this site?

-David

[Mark Forster]

David:

I'm thinking of writing a very basic summary of the system so that people can experiment with the concept without being tied down by too many rules. Then hopefully it can be refined through the questions and comments that will arise.

[David Drake]

This sounds great, Mark! I am sure the people here would be able to contribute some very good ideas.

-David

[learning as I go]

Hi Mark and David
ounds like a grand idea! I have an excellent sample of a long, complicated and lousy project (as in tedious yet exacting: very bad combination) to test your system! LOL! Count me in if want me to test it. This sounds like grand fun!
learning as I go

[Mark Forster]

Learning:

Well, bear in mind that I'm only on Day 3 of the new system (current version) myself, so I can give no guarantees that it will work.

[learning as I go]

Hi Mark
I totally understand. If the truth were to be told, I generally stick to my usual system until I have a crappy job that I'm highly resistant to starting. Of course, the timer works but if I can fool my mind into thinking that I'm using the lousy work to test a variation, then it goes a bit better for me! lol! I find it quite curious that I fully know that I'm using a cheap trick on my attitude yet it seems to work! Avrum would probably know the psychological basis for this mental quirk!
Please don't feel rushed with your experiment. Half the fun is formulating a hypothesis, testing it, evaluating the results: lather, rinse and repeat as necessary. For me, I usually stop once I'm over the hump and go back to "tried and true" for the work I don't mind doing.
learning as I go