Discussion Forum > Will DIT likely work for me?
Phil:
The system currently recommended by this site is the Final Version. Everything else on this site is just historical.
Having said that, DIT works as well now as it did when the book was written.
The system currently recommended by this site is the Final Version. Everything else on this site is just historical.
Having said that, DIT works as well now as it did when the book was written.
October 26, 2012 at 22:18 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Phil: My experience is that not only we may need different task management approaches for different life/work situations but also every personality type needs a little bit different approach. When I read discussions here, this is quite obvious for me. E.g. I never liked AF1 (one of Mark`s system), because it did not allow me to work on current tasks immediately. But many other users like the system and use it. Many other users start using one of Mark system and they adopt it to their needs slightly etc. So bottom line: nobody else can answer your question, only you. Try DIT for a while. Try FV for a while. Look what works and what is not working. Use more of what works and use less what does not... When you will gain some experience with the system, read the forum (incl. old threats) and if you will be inspired, try some of the suggestions.
I hope you will find YOUR system soon!
I hope you will find YOUR system soon!
October 27, 2012 at 11:00 |
Daneb
Daneb
Daneb's advice is good, but I would just add one thing. Don't keep changing from one system to another. Once you've found a system that suits you reasonably well, stick to it. And remember you are always going to have off-days on which nothing seems to work. Just get through these as best you can, and then get back to the system.
October 27, 2012 at 13:42 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Mark and Daneb,
Thanks so much for your info and recommendations. Mark, your second email is especially helpful because nothing is going to work perfectly all the time. No system is perfect and neither am I.
Thanks so much for your info and recommendations. Mark, your second email is especially helpful because nothing is going to work perfectly all the time. No system is perfect and neither am I.
October 27, 2012 at 14:13 |
Phil H
Phil H
I, and one of my non-internet friends, found DIT a good training exercise, but not good as a long-term method. It forced us to objectively look at how much we expected to get done during a day. We rapidly filled up tomorrow's list, and the next day's. It made clear that doing just a bit more during each day wouldn't do it. We had to drop things.
DIT also helped me stop doing what GTD calls :"latest and loudest".
For long-term use, the scale was too small. It was easy to write individual tasks for tomorrow, and the next day, and ... If a day was low, I'd load it up -- blissfully unaware that tasks from the previous (overloaded) day would fill it.
Also, I drifted away from DIT and started writing optimistic to do lists rather than "will do" lists.
I find something similar to DIT on a weekly rather than daily basis works very well much of the time. I spend enough time in each week that I can shuffle tasks within it easily. I don't see "Thursday's empty. Yay!" and load it up. Instead, I see "60 hour of work this week."
DIT also helped me stop doing what GTD calls :"latest and loudest".
For long-term use, the scale was too small. It was easy to write individual tasks for tomorrow, and the next day, and ... If a day was low, I'd load it up -- blissfully unaware that tasks from the previous (overloaded) day would fill it.
Also, I drifted away from DIT and started writing optimistic to do lists rather than "will do" lists.
I find something similar to DIT on a weekly rather than daily basis works very well much of the time. I spend enough time in each week that I can shuffle tasks within it easily. I don't see "Thursday's empty. Yay!" and load it up. Instead, I see "60 hour of work this week."
October 27, 2012 at 16:45 |
Cricket
Cricket
Phil, I'm semi retired and doing some odd jobs for money, managing my investments and I have quite a few time consuming leisure interests. I have used time management and lists for years, in fact my oldest list goes back to 2000, with lots of items and ideas still untouched! I actually came across this site last year when searching for a solution to Parkinson's Law and I then received the DIT book for Christmas. I started using the ideas and just as I was getting comfortable, FV appeared.
So I started using FV cautiously with a flavour of DIT, introducing old tasks slowly. I date and draw a line under each new day so that I have a sense of a day's work, and I then follow the FV rules and select as short a chain of tasks as possible from all the accumulated days. If I entered 10 new tasks to today's list then I try and work on 10 items from my chains. Again this uses a DIT sense of time and closed lists. I'm not obsessively strict about it - responding to your post was not on today's list but hey it's Sunday and I like breaking my own rules. The real result is that now everything on my list gets worked on.
I used to try and be very self-disciplined with my time, targeting a set number of many hours each week, but this invoked Parkinson's Law, inefficiency and I felt overwhelmed. I now schedule a number of set blocks of work each week and try not to work outside those blocks, even if that means jobs don't get done and weekly work hours end up less than they should be. When I use my leisure time in a similar fashion then I'm chomping at the bit to get started at work again. It grieves me to waste my work time: it's only available for a limited time. My efficiency and motivation has soared as my hours of work have decreased.
I hope this helps, use the FV with your own nuances.
So I started using FV cautiously with a flavour of DIT, introducing old tasks slowly. I date and draw a line under each new day so that I have a sense of a day's work, and I then follow the FV rules and select as short a chain of tasks as possible from all the accumulated days. If I entered 10 new tasks to today's list then I try and work on 10 items from my chains. Again this uses a DIT sense of time and closed lists. I'm not obsessively strict about it - responding to your post was not on today's list but hey it's Sunday and I like breaking my own rules. The real result is that now everything on my list gets worked on.
I used to try and be very self-disciplined with my time, targeting a set number of many hours each week, but this invoked Parkinson's Law, inefficiency and I felt overwhelmed. I now schedule a number of set blocks of work each week and try not to work outside those blocks, even if that means jobs don't get done and weekly work hours end up less than they should be. When I use my leisure time in a similar fashion then I'm chomping at the bit to get started at work again. It grieves me to waste my work time: it's only available for a limited time. My efficiency and motivation has soared as my hours of work have decreased.
I hope this helps, use the FV with your own nuances.
October 29, 2012 at 0:26 |
Dave B
Dave B
DaveB:
<< My efficiency and motivation has soared as my hours of work have decreased. >>
Good point. I covered this in detail in my first book "Get Everything Done".
<< My efficiency and motivation has soared as my hours of work have decreased. >>
Good point. I covered this in detail in my first book "Get Everything Done".
October 29, 2012 at 12:25 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
I've used just about every system introduced by Mark on this site starting with AutoFocus and ending with Final Version.
And now I'm using DIT, for about the last six months, and finding it meets my needs best of all of them.
And now I'm using DIT, for about the last six months, and finding it meets my needs best of all of them.
November 4, 2012 at 19:21 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Bottom line: I'm totally confused as to what system to even use. I really liked DIT as described in the book, but I was going to implement it as soon as I finished the book this weekend.
My question is this: Will DIT likely meet my needs? If not, what system do you recommend?
Since a number of you have experimented with DIT and other systems discussed here, I thought someone might help me with a recommendation if I lay out my basic situation.
- I'm in my 60s and I work part-time from my home in Costa Rica.
- I've had a HUGE problem with procrastination my entire life. I've tried GTD and found it so complicated (for me) that I couldn't make it work at all. I need something more simple.
- I only have about six client projects each year. My work consists of both short communications with clients by email to request and receive information... and larger chunks of work that range from about 1/2 day to 3 days.
- I have lots of items to catch up on (backlog) that are important but not urgent.
- The closed list concept sounds great to me because finishing stuff has been my huge bugaboo. (I'm so lost after reading about the newer systems on this site that I can't even tell if the ones other than DIT use closed lists.
- I'm an extreme example of Parkinson's Law. I have so much time and so (relatively) little work that I’m very frustrated that I’m not getting much done for work or for pleasure.
- I start something (business or personal ideas) or think about something and then either start and don't finish working on it or don’t even get started.
- Even though I could get all my business work done in less than two hours a day (average for the year), I almost always end up in crisis mode when I need to finish a client job.
Does DIT likely make sense for this type of situation? If not, what do you recommend?
If I need to supply other info to help you know what to suggest, I'd be happy to do so.
Thanks so much to anyone who chooses to help me!