Knowledge Base · Time
What is a DILO (Day in the Life Of) study, and how do I run one?
A DILO is an honest audit of where time actually goes. The book's glossary describes it as shadowing an employee or customer to see work as it is truly done, and the chapter applies it to your own week: document activities in 30-minute blocks for a week, colour code them, examine the pattern, redesign the calendar, then test the new pattern with PDCA.
Most people estimate their time badly. The book's examples are thinking email takes an hour when it takes three, and believing there is no time for strategic thinking while spending hours in meetings that could have been an email. A DILO replaces those guesses with a record. The author found his own first DILO staggering, mainly for the time lost to context switching between email, chat and phone calls.
- Document: for one full week, record how you spend your time in 30-minute increments, including unplanned conversations and phone scrolling.
- Colour code: sort activities into categories such as Meet Clients, Meetings, Team, Block, Project and Prep, and colour each one.
- Examine: ask whether the pattern matches your most important objectives, where the distractions sit, and how much time is in Block mode.
- Redo the calendar: redesign the next week around what you found, blocking priorities and prep time, and delegating or removing low-value activity.
- Run PDCA on it: work the new schedule for a week, check whether you were more effective, and adjust the following week.
In the book's case study, a manager named Sarah found nearly 60% of her time was spent in meetings, mostly status updates. Replacing daily status meetings with a shared digital task board reclaimed nearly ten hours of her week for planning and coaching.
“It’s a tool for insight.”
Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Ch. 11
See the DILO lesson in Module 8 of the free course
Related questions
- How do I stop being reactive and make my calendar strategic?
- How does time management connect to continuous improvement?
- What is the Eisenhower Matrix, and how do I use it?
Source: Continuous Improvement in the Workplace, Ch. 11 (Time Management) and the CI glossary in the book's Appendix.