DIT integration tips

M

mephisto

0
To those who have integrated DIT with GTD, i'd be interested to hear how you've done it. I've just read the book and think the idea of a closed list as outlined in DIT seems to have a number of advantages. Please share how to make the best of both worlds.
 
I have read the book and attempted to integrate the concept of the closed list into what I am doing. I am a paper user. I purchased a diary that has a page per day on it. Basically my set up is my calendar and contacts is on my blackberrry.

My projects lists and work notes are in basic spiral notebooks one for work, one for persona and from these lists and notes each day I put my next actions into the daily diary (I use one of these). Most days I work off of the closed list as I do not have lots of changes in my projects each day. I do not really need contexts because most of my work is either returning phone calls, emailing, or reading, so I can pretty much do work anywhere if I have it with me.

What I like about this approach is that I can see what I am accomplishing or not in a day in one place. The downside is that when you have a day or days that go awry you then end up with next actions in several pages. It has been an eye opener to see what happens when you plan a day and review the closed list at the end of the day.

For me I have always resisted adding other "things" to my system, but I will try it this way to see if it adds value.

The one concept this approach provides is the concept of time. Seeing the pages turn and time pass is a real motivator to test your actual productivity.

Good luck.
 
Just over a year ago I developed my own system incorporating ideas from Getting things done, Do it tomorrow and Mark Forster's first book Get everything done. You can read how I went about developing the system and about some sections of my organiser, particularly how I plan my day, on my blog. http://www.darktea.co.uk/blog/category/series/my-organiser/

The system has made a big difference for me, but it does not seem to work for the quantity of incoming work I have so I am now looking for new ideas to develop a second version of it.
 
I use the "Current Initiative" with good results. One of my projects is the Most Important Project aka Current Initiative and I work on it first thing.

Theoretically these are two distinct things: the commitment to work on my most important life-goal every day and Forster's CI. But in practice they happend to come down to the same project every I time I decide my CI. Maybe I am misunderstanding something here. Or over-analyzing, which is one of my preferred sports.
 
Cpu_Modern;57330 said:
I use the "Current Initiative" with good results. One of my projects is the Most Important Project aka Current Initiative and I work on it first thing.

Theoretically these are two distinct things: the commitment to work on my most important life-goal every day and Forster's CI. But in practice they happend to come down to the same project every I time I decide my CI. Maybe I am misunderstanding something here. Or over-analyzing, which is one of my preferred sports.
Click to expand...

Kates site has a quote about the CI.

The idea behind the current initiative is that you start work every day by concentrating on one selected initiative. By focussing on one thing in this way you can move much faster than you could if you incorporated the actions relating to it into the task list.

My definition of the current initiative is ‘what you do first every day’. It is what you do every day before you start on your email, voicemail, paper, tasks and daily tasks. This is a priority spot that is designed to be given only to those things that are important for the future.
Click to expand...

So it seems that you are well within the definition.

Somehow I have the feeling there's a bit of a contradiction in the CI though. Mark Forster is against prioritising your actions but the CI seems like the one NA that is the most important (eg see quote).
 
Dit

I think you need to distinguish between Forsters "Ongoing" or "Continuous" Projects and "One-off" Projects.

That being said, I think manners would encourage further explanation to be pursued at Mr. Forster's website.

Cheers,
Gordon
 
Thanks for pointing to the forum on Mark Forsters site. It will be of use of the discussions of DIT concepts indeed. I'd like to discuss the integration here however. GTD will keep te be the biggest part of my system.

As I see it, they both fill a gap the other one fails to fill in satisfactory.
-GTD is awesome for capturing everything, closing every open loops within a system that we can trust on to keep things in there and are actionable.
-DIT is, in my opinion, better at addressing the needs of scheduling and working from the lists of captured material (but is awfully bad at capturing).

The problem of how to work from NA lists and the overwhelm it seems to creates pops up far too much here to be insignificant.
 
mephisto;57419 said:
The problem of how to work from NA lists and the overwhelm it seems to creates pops up far too much here to be insignificant.
Click to expand...

Yes, but shuffling NAs from list to list is not the solution to that. The solution is to renegotiate your commitments. Taking fewer on or postpone some of the work.

Both, DA and MF have this build into their systems:

GTD: put some projects on the SdMb-list, schedule on future date (Tickler/Calendar)
DIT: declare a backlog, create a future CI (== SdMb), schedule on future date (future TaskDiary pages)

That aside, IMHO much of the overwhelm of the long NA lists stems from uncleared "higher level"-thinking. The stuff in the project plans and >10k lists. DIT is refreshingly fast here: just make one huge list (ie future CIs) and just work off one after another. Very fast. GTD is better on the strategic realm with it's natural planning model and 20k-list.
 
Combining DIT to my GTD arsenal opened the dam and released a backlog at work. One project had been neglected for so long it irked me to no end. Placing on my Someday/Maybe list didn't help. As i read DIT, this project came forefront in my mind and my mind started reeling with ideas how to accomplish it.

Utilizing the GTD Weekly Review discussion (DA, Meg, Marion) and their suggestion of checklists, I was able to map out my gameplan and create the strategy to tackle the project, over time. I made this project my Current Initiative and work on it first thing each day. Sometimes 30 minutes sometimes 5 minutes. I know, and rest assured, that this thing is being closed in on, and moving toward completion.

DIT gave me the confidence to strategize and initiate a plan and GTD gives me the tools to execute it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top