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March 29, 2024

Cathedral of Praise

Maximizing Your Business Potential

A Better Productivity System – GTD Vs DIT

There are many ways we can get organised, but if we decide to use a productivity system to help us do it, perhaps the two most prominent ones available today are David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) and Mark Forster’s Do It Tomorrow (DIT). Before implementing one of them, it is important to examine the two systems and determine which one makes more sense for the amount of control required by our work and home life.

David Allen’s GTD is wildly popular and has many fans, but the system itself is arguably not easy to implement. Its five steps, collect, process, organise, review and do, are designed to trap all incoming information and is best used by people who requires a high level of control in their work environment, or chronic procrastinators who need to keep tabs on actions step by step.

Mark Forster’s DIT revolves not so much around organisation but on task management and completion. His concept of the “closed list,” prepared each day for the following day, is designed to give users immediate feedback on their productivity and avoid continuous responses to “emergencies” (which are often simply badly planned tasks that have exploded in our face.) This system is effective for someone who requires less control over organisation or for people who would like to see how effective they are at planning their daily tasks.

Many users may find themselves preferring neither system exclusively, but wishing to blend the most useful traits of each to come up with their own unique combination. This is perhaps the best idea, as a tailored system does not require its user to bend to it, but works with and for the user to maximise productivity and effectiveness.

A more detailed review and discussion can be found at www.whakate.com