Get Everything Done

I just wanted to drop a note to thank you for this system. It was counterintuitive at first, but the more I worked with it, the more it really became true that I can realistically expect to address each day's work (on average) the following day, and to use this as a measure and a warning system of when to keep working, when to stop, and when to readjust the workload. After many, many years of following GTD pretty religiously, I didn't think there was much I needed to learn about time management techniques, but this insight has made an enormous difference both in keeping projects moving and in helping me relax (or not, as appropriate) about what I'm doing. Thanks very much.

Anne,

Did you drop GTD altogether to do DIT or use a hybrid system.

Thanks

Gerry.

Hi Gerry -- I don't think my actual system has changed much at all. Project list is more important than ever; weekly review to be sure projects are on track is much easier now; ubiquitous capture is the same as ever; waiting-for and someday/maybe lists continue; and the combination of the task diary plus yesterday's paper and E-mail requiring action essentially amounts to a next actions list. The difference is at the "do" stage -- I find that Mark's approach really clarifies what to do, how hard I need to work today, and how I know when I'm done.

The change that really turned the corner for me was grouping all the no-deadline projects and allowing only one to be active at any given time. (Actually I identified one for work and another for personal tasks.) My project and next-actions lists were full of things I thought of as commitments, and so didn't want to move to someday/maybe, but there were too many of them and listing a next action on each one took forever at the review stage and was debilitating at the "do" stage. When only one of those projects is current at a time, my next action list becomes doable and I really can do the day's work -- and lo and behold, the projects get done.