How do you keep track of what you have to do throughout the day? [closed]

Question

Throughout the day at work I have people coming to me asking me to do things, letting me know about problems, etc. Some of these come "in-person", some come via e-mail or phone. I can't always drop what I'm doing to resolve the item, so I typically will keep a list going on a notepad on my desk and cross them out as I get them done. If they come through e-mail then I flag them in Outlook (this is usually where they get forgotten).

• How do you handle tracking the 'to-dos' that come up throughout the day?
• How do you ensure that each task gets a resolution and not just ignored until its no longer relevant?

Answer 1

I recommend FogBugz (yea, cliche I know... But I was actually using it long before SO even started) There is a 2 user version for students / non-profits that is free.

Fogbugz will allow you to prioritize and track what you are doing. It is also good for tracking how many hours you worked on a particular project for billing or management purposes.

I recommend the e-mail feature, it allows people to send email directly to fogbugz that is then categorized automatically. This is really useful for client requests as it doesn't have to go through your normal email.

Answer 2

I have Remember the Milk open in it's own window all day for capturing all those 'crap I'm going to forget this' tasks. Stuff then gets converted to a Fogbugz case if it's relevant or just gets done. Eventually.

It's the keyboard shortcuts of RTK that have me hooked. Alt-tab to the window, press t to start a new task, type the task name, press enter, press d to enter the due date, type today (or tomorrow, wednesday, etc) and that's it.

Answer 3

I am a monster fan of EverNote. It allows you to keep multiple Notebooks, and I have five that I keep, which correspond to different lengths of time, They are OneDay, OneWeek, OneMonth, OneYear and Information

OneDay is everything that I need to keep track of, and get done today. If I get a phone call or jabber, I quickly add it to the OneDay notebook. Ideally, OneDay is clean every morning. I say ideally, because I typically fall short of the goal, but that doesn't stop me from trying.

OneWeek is everything that can't be done today, but needs to be worked on when I get a chance. Stuff like say, adding some new verbiage to our support emails or doing a hallway usability study of the new data app that we're going to roll out.

OneMonth are obviously longer term projects that I really like to do, but don't think I'll get the chance to any time soon. These tend to be the "Google" type projects that I'll work on for a little bit on a Friday.

OneYear are typically massive structural changes to the organization, or the technical architecture that I'd like to make, but need more planning then I have time for now, especially since they aren't priorities. These include projects like "Switching messaging middleware from ActiveMQ to RTI" or "Build automated stock trading service". Sometimes on the train I'll do some research pertaining to these and I'll jot down what I've found in the OneYear notebook.

Information just stores server IPs, local restaurants, websites I should check out, or in general its like the "junk drawer" of my thoughts.

EverNote syncs all your notes centrally, so the data is seamless between your office, home and mobile phone(Windows Mobile or the iPhone). Best of all, its free.

It can also store voice and video, but I don't make use of that, so I can't speak to its ease of use.

Answer 4

I use a text file called todo.txt

It's currently stored in a Live Mesh folder so it's always on all of my computers, and have it set up to be accessible via a hotkey so I can open it with a keystroke.

Answer 5

You can use google tasks.

Answer 6

emacs & org-mode are what I'm currently using.

For specific projects, I have an "action item list".

Answer 7

I use Microsoft OneNote at work. It allows me to mark each "task" as a link to another notebook page (which will contain more information about the task, if needed).

Answer 8

I use Things on my mac. Nicest task management app I've used (and I've tried a lot of them). Great key shortcuts made it quicker to use than the plain text document that I was using previously.

Answer 9

Activity Tracker for Windows Vista's Sidebar.

Track all your daily activity and find how you spend your time with this cool little punchclock gadget. Print cool graph and get a log or timesheet of all your activities. Punch-in when you start and punch-out when done. Let the gadget alert you when you forget to punchin or punchout. Use it - for improving productivity, as a recorder, as stopwatch, to jot down all tasks, for project management, for time management, as a counter, timer,simple tracker, to track todo list, to simply track your progress, to find time spent in meeting and appointments, as a graphing tool. Be productive and effective with this time tracking gadget. Perfect for anyone - student, consultant, employee, employer.

Answer 10

You might want to review PocketMod and Scott Hanselman's methods for daily organization, he had alot of great methods for keeping him self organized from an analog and digital perspective

Answer 11

How about Toodledo. Even have an iPhone client.

Answer 12

Try using a new (and free) time management methodology called AutoFocus.

You can continue to use any form of list you like - the method just ensures that you won't let anything important fall through the cracks, while still ensuring you work on important but non-urgent stuff.

Answer 13

My company uses Exact Synergy, but it doesn't have 100% adoption. E-mail requests are probably equally common, followed by telephone and in-person requests. If I'm asked for something that won't take long to accomplish, I'll do it right away. If it will take a bit of time, I'll ask them to send me an e-mail or a task on Exact Synergy. I have a wireframe document holder on my desk with 8 slots, with the contents sorted in order of priority. Most slots are occupied by long-term projects. I also have several notepads and post-it pads which I can write on; which I choose depends on how much I need to write. I also have a giant whiteboard which is used more for brainstorming. Last but not least, I have two Word documents on my desktop to keep track of current projects and ideas for future projects.

I'm not entirely happy with my system, but I'm not sure what I want to do about it. I feel both organized and disorganized at the same time.

Answer 14

I find Google's "Tasks" Web application to be very useful. It's simple and fluid. Most actions have an intuitive keyboard shortcut.

The thing I like most about it though is that tasks are hierarchical. Most tools just give you a flat list, or perhaps one level of subtasks.

You can access the app through Google calendar or through Gmail.

Another nice thing about it is that there's an iPhone-optimized version. (Not an iPhone app, but the Web app works well on the iPhone.)

Answer 15

We use CodeSmith Insight and Mingle to keep track of our tasks and collaboration within our organization and customer base.

Answer 16

My primary requirement is that I must be able to store my tasks in a hierarchy. I love trees.

Among the apps I like are:

• hnb
• leo
• VOoM vim plugin

Back in the days I also tried to google for a general-purpose TiddlyWiki tree template that would allow me to manage a tree by creating/editing/moving/deleting nodes but couldn't find one. If there's such a thing nowadays, I'd love a link in the comments.

Answer 17

• For ASAP tasks: Sticky Notes (it's a busy day today)
• For tasks just beyond ASAP: Whiteboard
• For further-out tasks: TaskCoach with reminders