Get Everything Done

In this thread I want to document the main occurences while participating in the Lent challenge.

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{1} Compared to FVP and the no list systems, which I used exclusively for I can't remember for how long; I guess since the day FVP came out; DIT feels calm. The Task Diary gives you an overview how much is due today in it's entirety and that makes for a much calmer way of working. It is also nice to see how the closed list just get's shorter and shorter.

{2} Yesterday, when I "invented" the DIT-list for today, I couldn't decide on a CI. I rember that was somewhat difficult too, back then when I used DIT for the first time. Yes, in the book Mark tells one to just have the backlog as the starting CI, but I hadn't one of those available. Today however I encountered a box with some home office stuff and reading thigs I wanted to reply to and so on, so I declared that a backlog and it is now the CI starting tomorrow.

Christopher,
I always interpreted DIT that when you start, all your outstanding work is backlog to start with. You write it down (at least the projects/buckets) and close it. Then this is your first CI and your task diary develops organically as work comes in and you get on track with your backlog projects. I'd be curious to learn if there are other ways of starting DIT, and whether I've misunderstood the intent.

@Austin: I started with using my 5T list of the day and "re-entered for tommorow" everything except a few smal unimportant taska and of course everything I had driven to completion. I added to that a few inboxes I hadn't worked on that day, in order to complete my Will Do List.


{3} After finishing the work for the day I went for a walk. I couldn't help but be in happy anticipation for the fun of closing the list the next day. I felt relieved. The endlessness of the streams of tasks coming at me through the catch all and no list lists is a weight much heavier than I thought. Or at least it feels that way now, when the closed list is "again new" to me. We will see.

{4} While using no list FVP and 5T I developed a GTDish projects list. I never was quite happy with it, but this is part of my ongoing quest of having a good system for goals up and running. The DIT task diary is capable of absorbing the projects list, but then I still don't know how to have my goals organised. We will see.

{5} After completion of the TD and coming back from the walk I worked on some tidying up the bookshelf and writing some personal correspondence. These just came up in my mind naturally. Instead of entering them into the no list I just did them.

{6} I find that I work faster because I absolutely want to get the closed list done.

{7} The digital nature of the Task Diary let to me using action verbs at the beginning of the task description. Thus the list gets sorted automatically by type of action, which is nice for batching.

{8} I declared a backlog of all active tasks, because I got sick and fell behind in general terms. This backlog is my new CI and thus I started working again…

Today, in between working on the various tasks of the backlog, I also completed two non-backlog tasks. Two tasks that are regular tasks in the Task Diary alongside two other tasks in the Task Diary. So I interrupted working on the CI with clearing half of the Task Diary before returning to work on the CI.

This feels like a break of the system.

You are supposed to first clear the whole Task Diary after leaving work on the CI. Of course you can work some more on the CI in your "time to play" after having finished the day's worth of work. But that's not what I am doing today.

So I feel I have violated the rules.

{9} Many recurring tasks I did often with the no list systems, I just made them daily when swithcing to DIT. At first this was bettering the maintained areas because I did them more often. But then it got tiresome to administer them daily, without doing that much because everything was still perfect. It also was a distraction from the more substantial project work. So I ditched them all, except "dusting off" which done daiyl turned out to be a success story.

I remember when I came from GTD to DIT, recurring tasks where a headache to me, because I needed that "action reminder somewhere in the system", but just scheduling somewhere did not feel right, weekly lists did feel too artificial. Later on with UTMS and FVP I could find better ways and of course with the no list systems.

Now that the no list systems have cured me from the GTD-disease, I just add recurring tasks to the Task Diary whenever I think of them and feel they should be done again. Problem solved.

I was used to add them for "NOW" using the no list systems, but adding them to the Task DIary feels like procrastination in comparison, so I feel slower even inhibited more.

OTOH, DIT seems to be a good process to steer me to the important projects, away from all that "small" maintainance stuff; again, in comparison to the no lists systems.