Keeping Track of All of Your Tasks?

An anonymous reader asks: "I work for a Fortune 500 Company as a Unix sysadmin and at any given time I may be working with 10 different project teams, each with their own milestones, tasks/to-dos, notes and reportable status. I'm constantly losing track of tasks that I need to do, notes I've taken and status reports that I've written. I've tried paper solutions, PDAs, Microsoft Project and groupware type stuff and nothing really seems designed to allow me to track mulitple project with mulitple tasks and to-dos as well as keep up with the status and notes that I generate from each of these tasks. How do you keep it all straight?"

Comments

Xoops + xHelp

[darthgnu]

We use a web CMS called Xoops for the IT departement intranet. We use a "bug tracker" called xHelp that is integrated with the CMS. Xoops also offers basic project management. It's a no brainer setup, real easy to get started with. For documentation, we use PukiWiki which does the job of organizing useful information. You may also want to look in "tracking" software (refered to as "trackers") which may be of use in your situation. Hope it helped.

E-mail

[Meest]

I just personaly use e-mail as my To-Do list/Project list/Notebook

I just made subfolders for each project and to-do list. then if someone wants me to do something and they're yelling it at me i just say "Send me and e-mail with it" that way i sit down, can organize it. or if i need to put something on a to-do list. i e-mail it to myself.

Might not work for you depending on your spam count but for me it works perfect. And if spams an issue how bout just making an internal e-mail account to handel just that.... call me lowtech but it works for what i need.

Time Management, not Document Management

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm in a similar situation, but perhaps the key difference is that my company requires me to maintain paper records of everything that I do. If I change the contents of a script, I have to print and file paperwork stating that I checked out the script from my configuration management tool, estimated how long it would make the change and what impact it will have, got management approval, made the change, tested the code, recorded actuals, and checked everything back in. Anal, yes, but...

Everyone in my company is aware that I need to do this paperwork and it gets factored into the time I can spend on doing a task. In other words, if the PHB pops into my cubicle and asks me to change the font on a web page, he knows it's going to take at least an hour.

I suspect your problem isn't so much that you can't find one solution, it's that you can't find enough time to fully utilize any of the solutions you do have. Even a plain old notebook works wonders if you have only one task to do each day and can devote several hours to managing your records for that task, each day.

My suggestion is... and I admit it's paradoxial; jot down on a piece of paper the "title" of each and every meeting minute, form, document, record, spreadsheet, calendar entry, whathaveyou that you create or access during the day, for a week.

Then go to your boss and say "I have to create, modify or review this many artifacts in a typical week, and it takes X hours of my time (where X is a rough number). Either reduce my workload so that I can complete all of the necessary paperwork, or consider dropping some of these artifacts."

The important thing is that you're describing the cost of doing business. It's up to your management to decide if the value of the paperwork you produce outweighs the cost. I would imagine there's considerable value in a change log, especially if you apply patches every day, but in contrast, a status report that no one reads is a waste of company resources.

TiddlyWiki

[jbarr]

First off, for me, I find it very, very easy to get caught up in the "how" and "why" of technology, often foresaking the actual use. In order to actually get things done, you need to USE the technology, not just be enamored with it.

OK, that said, I'm currently using a customized TiddlyWiki at work to track tasks, notes, and other useful information tidbits that I run into on a daily basis.

TiddlyWiki is a single, self-contained, self-updating, HTML file that contains HTML, JavaScript code, CSS data, and the content data all wrapped up in one file.

The content presentation is Wiki-like, but differs in that the linked content (called Tiddlers) opens right on the same page, in context with the calling text instead of one page at a time. This makes working with and navigating the content very useful and easy.

Its new Tag features let you organize the data, and it has a built-in Search feature that's quite quick. In addition, a new Macro feature has been developed to allow for feature extension by simply creating additional Tiddlers containing the appropriate extension code. Lots of new Plugins have been and are meing developed. Its community of users and developers is rapidly growing.

TiddlyWiki just has a real coolness and elegance about it that's hard to match. But most importantly, it's useful!

[self-serving plug]
I set up a TiddlyWiki Tips site with some Tips on using and customizing it.
[/self-serving plug]

big freaking whiteboard (admittedly low tech)

[Clover_Kicker]

There's something about seeing all your info at once instead of scrolling around all the damn time.

If you're really busy, get 2 big freaking whiteboards.

Getting Things Done

[chrisatslashdot]

Go read "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and make yourself a Hipster PDA. No joke, this system is magically effective. It keeps popping up on slashdot.