Get Everything Done

Anyone else out there wish to desribe their implementation of DIT and how it has helped in their work? It would be great to hear from many people and different occupations on how they work with DIT. I would also like to hear from others that used to do only GTD and now have embraced, like I have, DIT. What are your experiences to date?

Come on people -- don't be shy!

-David

I first used GTD when I tried to “get organized”. I found it because it is basically all over the place in the US. I used a loose leaf binder and had pretty good success with it. After awhile I felt I was spending too much time on the system and noticed that I would sometimes finish the day and notice that I had missed something I wanted to get done.

I also felt it was a bit cumbersome and there were lots of lists to maintain, but all in all it did improve my life.

After searching around the net I came across DIT. I must admit at first the title and the thought that you do things tomorrow put me off, since I am in a very now environment.

But, I read the book and purchased a task diary and tried to implement DIT. I found in many ways it made my life easier. I liked the fact, I pretty much had one place where most of the things I needed to do resided. For me there is pretty much no concept of a days work. It is difficult to judge the time things take to do and being in a fast paced field things come up at a rapid pace, many of which can not in fact be actioned for tomorrow. That being said trying to plan my day and think about what I could accomplish in a day was helpful

I am now working a fairly simple paper based system I developed that includes elements of DIT and GTD and ideas I developed. In fact I am working on writing a small eBook that will detail the system. Yes, it will discuss both GTD and DIT and give full credit to the ideas of Mark and David where discussed.

Generally, I feel no system of time management, exercise, diet, business can be taken right off the shelf and that most things will need to be modified to suit the personalities and situations for each unique individual.

Hi David, there is a DIT Group on Yahoo that has lots and lots of DIT discussion. Not sure if you are aware of that or not. Anyone can join.

Whilst I have had a massive leap in productivity with DIT I am still tinkering with how to manage Projects.

I am currently trialing having an A4 (letter sized) Notebook that 'circulates' daily through my In tray. I have one for my work tray and one for my home tray. The front sheet lists 'Active Projects' and the immediate sheet behind it lists 'Potential Future Projects'. Basically I scan the list daily and decide what can be done within the context of 'today'.

I guess the above approach mixes elements of GTD and DIT to some extent.

I would be interested to hear how you and others are organizing their projects.

Hi Leon,

Thanks for your post. I have several ongoing projects that I manage. I try Mark's advice about focusing on one major project at a time, but for the most part, I cannot do this long as I have to address tasks on several projects simultaneously. I keep project files in OneNote 2007 and list tasks that need to be done as a result of planning. The next actions that can be done now witihin any project go on my will-do list as this represents my real work-load. I maintain my will-do list in Outlook 2007, which works great for this. I have the To-Do panel setup to sort tasks by start date. This way I can see what I have on my plate for today, and the tasks for tomorrow. So, if I have 20 major projects ongoing, then all tasks that can be done now go on my will-do list. This is critically important as I said as this is a good indicator of what my real work-load is -- and not hidden in project files.

I would be glad to continue discussion here on how you and others manage projects within DIT. Mark, as always, we would love to hear your comments!

Best regards,
-David

I have just completed reading the book today. However, it is my 4th successive day working off a will-do list. I've completed every item for four days in a row and there is an enormous sense of well-being that flows from that.

Day 1, I used a handwritten sheet of paper. From Day 2 onward, I worked off of an Excel template. The current format is landscape, with 4 columns: Predict Done, Immediate, Today, Tomorrow.

In the morning I enter under the first column my predictive to-do list. My Excel template has some of the routine items that I do every day. If I don't want to do one of them today, I delete that item.

The "Immediate" column is to write in unplanned actions that I do immediately when they show up. "Today" is where I write unplanned actions that I commit myself to completing today. "Tomorrow" is for everything else.

My current way of working is to complete this Excel form every morning. Sometimes, on my drive to work, I get ideas and I speak them into a small voice recorder. I have more energy at the beginning of the day to plan that day. I find it preferable to planning the day the night before.

I haven't been using Current Initiatives yet.

I am a GTDer. I'll write a separate post about the oft-asked question: How does DIT compare to GTD?

In closing, I am very excited about DIT. It has already made a significant improvement in my work experience. The test, of course, is not how I feel after 4 days, but 4 months and four years. Nonetheless, I have little doubt that it is a powerful method, and it has exceeded all expectations I had for it. Thank you Mark Forster!

Moises,

Thanks for sharing your DIT process. i understand from your posts in GTD forum that you are / were using an outliner sofware. Are still using it? How does that integrate with DIT?

Thanks in advance
Sri

To Mark and the contributors to this forum, I appreciate and value your inputs and thoughts. I have been pondering my response to the request for feedback since the initial posting, with the delay further demonstrating one of my many issues with delivery of ‘work’.
I do have a problem with time management or more appropriately, completing tasks. In seeking help I have consulted many books and attending some training, so I feel like a bit of a butterfly flitting from one system to another. I have tried ‘First things first’ and felt better for it but it did not last. I enjoyed reading GTD and attacked my office with a burst of enthusiasm but felt suffocated by the volume of actions, mainly backlog, so that too is now only in the background. Both though have changed me for the better. I have really enjoyed all three of Mark’s books and have received short term benefits from many of the ideas. What I struggle with is keeping them going. I believe the GED is a great philosophy and although I have fallen off the rails many times, I keep coming back to it, because it seems to make sense, especially the closed list idea.
But here is my problem.
Last week was brilliant, I completed(?) all my tasks every day, working through to the end of the day to ensure all the boxes were ticked. I felt good each day and had a sense of satisfaction at the end of the week. This does not happen often.
This week, so far, not even close. Out of control, little completed/looked at, fed up again. It is only Wednesday, where has it gone wrong?
There are several reasons, not preparing the closed list properly being one of them and the other popular one is responding immediately to requests both verbal and e-mailed.
However my biggest problem is that frequently, I cannot complete all aspects of the task so it is left undone. Once I have acknowledged in my mind a task will not be completed it is easier not to do any/all the others so suddenly I spiral out of control dealing with today’s problems today so yesterday’s problems get left.
Where I was better last week is I ticked off the tasks even if they were not fully completed, as long as I did something, but now there is the lingering doubt that I have not captured the outstanding work so my feeling of satisfaction from last week was based partly on a lie.
Some of this then gets back to capturing all the tasks I need to be involved with, but not necessarily do. This is where some of the ideas from GTD about structuring my e-mail folders would come in handy if I could stick at something long enough to make it a habit. Instead I fall back to relying on the inbox until is becomes too big, so I move it and start another inbox and so the circle continues.

p.s. writing this was not in my closed list for today, but it has been a form of therapy and has given me something things to think about, so thanks for listening.

Sri,

In response to your query, I use a Windows-based outliner application called Achieve Planner (AP). At some point I might write a complete explanation of how I have been integrating GTD with DIT. The short version is that I use AP as a project planning program. I still do a weekly review and update the status of my projects. I also put actions there with an indeterminate deadline. For example, every now and then I think of something I need at the hardware store and I add it to the list in AP. I don't need any of it urgently.

Day-in and day-out I work with my DIT list in front of me. But if one of today's actions is part of a larger project, once I complete the action I will cross it off my DIT list and go to AP and mark it completed there and add the next action. Quite often, the next action is what GTD calls a "waiting-for". That is, I am waiting for person X to do something. When I do my Weekly Review, I might change the waiting-for to an action like "call X about Y". I'll then put this in my DIT list.

Describing it makes it sound cumbersome and complex. But I don't find it so. AP is simply my project plan in digital form. DIT is consistent with, as far as I can tell, keeping written project plans. I am juggling a lot of projects. I need to keep documentation on where I stand with each of them. Sometimes, a project might remain dormant for 2 or 3 weeks. When it becomes active again it's nice to see exactly what its status is.

moises