Getting my job(s) organized. Halp!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Things they are a-changin’ at work, with lots to do and lots to not forget.

I’ve never needed organization tools, so don’t know what’s out there to help me with multiple projects, meetings, deadlines, and daily to-do’s.

Tell me what’s out there that works for you! I need to get on top of things asap!

2

Do you use anything now?

The Microsoft Office Enterprise suite is fairly comprehensive and works well for all but the largest projects.

The three big organizational tools within it are:

  1. Outlook - sure it does e-mail but it also handles meetings, tasks, contacts, archiving, priorities and is easy to sync with other applications. However, to get the most out of it, most of the people you work with need to be on an Exchange server. It will still work without that, just not as well.

  2. Microsoft Project - It is a full project management tool that you use to use to create teams, tasks, dependencies, deadlines and provide management reporting. It is fairly easy to use at a novice level but using it well requires time and training. It is mainly useful for people that serve as Project Managers and not individual team members except to view project plans that have already been created.

  3. OneNote - this is one of the newer entries in the Microsoft Office suite but it is very useful. It is basically a searchable, free-form scrapbook or notebook where you can add just about anything including meeting notes, e-mails, photos, web pages, files, contacts and whatever else you want. You can move everything around and organize it however you want with customized and searchable tabs and subsections. I have found it really useful to just dump every useful piece of information I come across into it and then organize it as I see fit. You can do the similar things in other types of tools like spreadsheets or just through a collection of files in folders but, trust me, OneNote is way better and you can share all your information across devices including smartphones. Evernote is a similar competing application and it has a free version if you don’t have access to OneNote.

3

There are many possible tools and methods for organising your work.

LifeHacker is not as relevant as it used to be, but still has useful lists of productivity tools and methods, and some interesting real-life examples.

Methods:

  • I use Getting Things Done (GTD) (or some personal variant thereof). It may not be exactly for you, but most organisation methods will require that kind of regular review and planning.

Tools:

  • Niches to fill for most people: task list; calendar; contact list; notes; reference. You may also need tools for project management and collaboration.
  • Suggestions: Google Calendar or Apple iCal, Evernote.com, RememberTheMilk.com, OneNote, Outlook, Google Keep, Trello.com, Sciral Consistency, XMind.
  • It’s useful to use tools that work in the technology context of your employer (to be on the same calendar system as your colleagues, for example). It may be useful to talk with your colleagues and/or IT people to see what others are using.
  • You will try many tools, and none will be perfect. Eventually you want to settle on a small enough set of tools that you know where to file items and find them later.
  • There are people doing just fine with paper notebooks and planners.
4

Thank you both! I’m off on Sunday and Monday, so will explore these then. Company email is Gmail based. I have the calendar and Gmail apps on my phone, so will see what else from that platform I can use. I forgot about the tasks offered in calendar, since I’ve never used that. Will look for tutorials and more info on productivity tools related to that I guess.

Up to now, I’ve just kept a running to do list in the Keep app, and Google calendar for meetings. But I have new duties with harder and more consequential deadlines, plus need to have a running list I can share with others - which just dawned on me I can probably do a Google Doc of some kind that can be put in the company’s Drive so everyone can see it and contribute. See how you’ve helped already? Now to find tutorials on how to do that.

Thanks again!

5

Despite having a pretty terrible memory, I do pretty well with Outlook and Basecamp. My boss tends to put our upcoming tasks in Basecamp and it’s nice to be able to look at things and see what’s due when.