DIT2? AF5? Who cares what it's called? This is what I'm working on at the moment...
Monday, February 1, 2010 at 11:17 Usually when I release a new time management system I have tested it quite thoroughly myself. This is important because often any drawbacks only become apparent quite a while down the line.
But in the case of the new DIT2/AF5 system, I think it might be more helpful to have other people working on it with me at the same time so that we can share our experiences of it together.
So what I am going to do now is to share the basic outline of what I’m doing now, so others can run with it and see what they can make of it. I’m not going to go into much detail because I think that would destroy the purpose of the exercise - the detail should appear from our experience of working the system.
This is what it consists of:
1. You need a page-a-day diary with plenty of lines. Also some form of bookmarking for today’s date and the two entry pages (see below) - though turned down page corners are probably quite sufficient.
2. All new tasks are entered on the page which is one calendar month from today’s date. Example: Today’s date is February 1st. New tasks are entered on the page for March 1st. Tomorrow I will enter new tasks on March 2nd and so on.
3. All re-entered tasks are entered on the page which is one week from today. So any task I re-enter today (Monday February 1st) goes on the page for for next Monday (February 8th). Tomorrow (Tuesday) they will go on the page for next Tuesday 9th and so on.
4. Nothing is ever entered on any page, other than the pages currently one month and one week from today’s date.
5. All active pages are treated as if they were one long list and you continue to circulate round them doing the tasks that stand out.
6. All tasks which are on pages earlier than today’s date have expired. They are dead, done for, dismissed, deceased.
The thinking behind this is that you can put anything you like into the system. If you do nothing about it, it will remain there for a month and then expire. If at any time you commit yourself to a task by taking some action on it, you are put under increased pressure to get it finished by being given only seven calendar days to do some more work on it. Of course many tasks are done in one go, so can be deleted without being re-entered.
That’s all you need to get started.
Reader Comments (158)
Sorry: I haven't been paying attention to blog comments since Andreas coloured in the forum so prettily.
For procrastination, Mark has contributed one huge idea: lie to your "inner lizard". Don't admit that you are going to sort out your finances: just decide to find a bank statement (or, if this is too much, open the file/ flick through the pile of papers). For a few years now I've been standing over my teenage boys while they put one foot on the floor, as the idea of getting up is just too, too scary for them.
I remember a successful Chartered Accountant in the UK telling a conference that this had made a big difference to him, and it certainly works for me.
Anything that expires expires and I have to accept that I don't have the motivation to do it. But sometimes and item will stay in my mind and a few days later if I feel an urge to not let it go and actually get around to doing it, then I do it, even though it's not on any active list for me anymore.
I'm impressed. This works better for me than the AF methods have done. Thank you for sharing and letting us test it for ourselves.
Each morning, I would cycle through all active pages to create a closed list for the day, consisting of a reasonable amount of tasks that stood out to me. I would commit to dismissing any task that was expiring today if it didn't make the cut to my closed list. The closed list would be small or large, depending on the level of other commitments I had that day (e.g. scheduled appointments and meetings). This process would essentially be my current initiative for the day. This new closed list would become my list for the day. Following the DIT method, I would proceed to check email, voicemail, and paper before proceeding to this closed list. Accordingly, a same-day task would be listed under a drawn line at the bottom of my closed list. Any task that wasn't immediate or same-day would be put down a month from today's date as per the new system. Tasks that were recurring or which I did not complete would be put down a week from today's date. Finally, I'd conclude with my daily tasks.
I think this would allow me to be able to maintain a sense of the end of my day, and keep myself from spending too much time "trolling" my 30-day-long list every time I finished a task, which I think is a danger with the new system.
Your comment above is very interesting to me. I saw it soon after posting "Where to start working the DWM list?" in the forum.
I've been using my calendar for everything that's time-sensitive, DIT for work, and a bloated DWM list for everything else. I've contemplated abandoning DWM in favour of using DIT for everything, but I'm not quite at that point yet.
Please let us know how you get on with your version of DWM.
Chris