Mark Forster, creator of the popular AutoFocus time management system, has come up with a new version which he is currently calling the "Day/Week/Month" (or "DWM") time management system. (Until now, he had been calling it "DIT2/AF5," which stood for "Do It Tomorrow 2/AutoFocus 5.")

DWM is a deceptively simple yet extremely powerful method for managing your time. To get started, if you prefer a paper-based implementation, a one-page-per-day diary format seems to work best. If however you prefer an electronic implementation, at minimum a way to sort list items works best (for example, Microsoft Office Excel or Microsoft Office Outlook Tasks).

Here's how it works:

  1. For each new incoming task, set the task's due date to be one calendar month from today's date. For example, if today is February 11th, make the task due on March 11th.
  2. Work on undone tasks, in any order you wish. When you finish working on a task, draw a line through it. 
  3. If you start working on a task and don't finish it, change the task's due date to one calendar week from today. For example, if today is February 11th, make the task due on February 18th.
  4. All tasks which are due earlier than today's date are expired. Draw a line through these tasks. They are dead and gone.
  5. For a task with a firm due date, set the task's due date to that date.
  6. If you're on vacation or otherwise unable to work on tasks, when you return, push out the tasks' due dates the number of days that you were gone. For example, if you are unable to work on tasks during February 13th - 14th, push out all of your tasks' due dates by two days. 
  7. For paper-based implementations, write in the date at the top of each page. To move a task, just re-write it on the new page and cross off the old task. If you have to push out some tasks' due dates due to absences, just cross off the old due dates and write in the new due dates at the tops of the affected pages. 
  8. For electronic implementations, in Excel you could use a column for due dates and sort them that way, or for Outlook you could use the Due Date field and sort them that way.